Not only is this hands down my favorite movie from Illumination studios, it's squarely above average for a video game adaptation. A lot of this has to do with the creative team's reverence for the source material; it's the type of movie that hardcore Nintendo fans could rewatch over and over again and still notice new details they might not have noticed before. The references can range from familiar sound effects and location names to voice acting cameos. Even the soundtrack is filled with beautiful rearrangements and familiar leitmotifs recognizable across the whole franchise.

I was admittedly worried at first that would be the most this film would amount to. But thankfully The Super Mario Bros. Movie does have a decent (albeit predictable) story that keeps everything together. Yeah, it's an isekai story, and because of that, the film pretty much falls into the typical trappings that you would expect. We have the Mario brothers being down on their luck in the real world, but in this new world they start to find new confidence and purpose which helps them be heroes at the end of the day. But what the film lacks in originality it makes up for in charm, occasional humor, and the genuine character interactions.

That last part shook me, given that most of these characters don't really have any personality in the original games. Here, Mario is straightforward and keeps trying his best, Donkey Kong is a bit of a showboating dick, Toad is earnest to almost a complete fault, and Bowser is egotistical to the point of delusion. Not only did these personalities work within the context of the film, I also didn't feel like they were betraying the image of the characters in the minds of Mario fans. That might be because the creative team pulled from as many different places as possible to fill in the blanks. Princess Peach's personality feels inspired from her appearances in the comics found in the Nintendo Power magazine (remember those?), which does portray her as a no-nonsense leader type.

When you pair up these personalities, you get some fun interactions that don't feel overplayed. The brotherly relationship between Mario and Luigi was genuine, the rivalry between Mario and Donkey Kong was entertaining, and I even bought the chemistry between Mario and Peach (which is hilarious considering that I don't think the film tried too hard to even sell any romance between them). Even Bowser's reason for targeting Mario specifically was as hilarious as it was simple yet 100% in line with what you would expect from him as a character.

A lot of this was carried by the impressive animation and voice acting. Illumination's animation makes good use of subtle squash and stretch for the sake of emphasizing facial expressions without the characters going off model. The character designs are definitely updated from what we are used to, but everyone retains plenty of key features and body proportions that are in line with how they are typically portrayed in other media. On the topic of voice acting, previous annoyance about celebrity casting aside, I actually enjoyed most of what I heard. Yes, even Chris Pratt sounded like he was genuinely trying, both in his accent as well as in his ability to play off of others. The standouts were definitely Charlie Day as Luigi and Jack Black as Bowser, who practically sounded like they were blowing their voices out with how loudly they were yelling or growling at times. I have no complaints about this film from a production standpoint.

I do have two noticeable gripes, though. Despite the fact that the brotherly relationship between Mario and Luigi is a very strong heart of the movie, that relationship hook gets undermined by the fact that the two are separated for a majority of the movie. In fact, Luigi doesn't actually contribute much to the film as a whole and is sidelined for a solid two-thirds of it. You could argue that this is primarily Mario's movie, but with the title Super Mario Bros. and the sibling relationship bookending the film, there should have been a better way to integrate the relationship throughout, even if the two weren't joined at the hip.

My second gripe is actually something of a common complaint that I have with most Illumination movies: they don't know when to stop and be quiet. This film's pacing is lightning fast; at first this kept things engaging, but I can only count one or two moments in the entire movie where two characters actually sat down and reflected on what was happening. There were times where it felt like the film was setting up introspective moments, only to cut them short for the sake of moving onto the next plot point. This film clocks in at roughly 92 minutes, and I can't help but feel like this is one of the rare instances where 10 to 20 more minutes would have helped us appreciate everything a lot more. I don't think kids will necessarily have a problem with this at the end of the day (and it is a film primarily marketed towards kids), but for me personally, everything just sounds like noise.

Is this movie perfect or the second coming of Christ? No. Is it a solid movie that I think does the Super Mario Bros. brand justice? Yeah, I think so. Joking aside, it does suck that it took this long for us to get an actually decent Mario film, but considering how much history and reverence this film has for the material, maybe it's a good thing that this film took so long to come out. Would we have gotten a potentially better movie otherwise is hard to say, but strictly judging what we have, The Super Mario Bros. Movie continues the tradition of progressively strong and faithful adaptations of popular video game franchises. Even if I have my gripes, I do hope that this film is a success and that we get to see more displays of passion like this on the big screen moving forward. Please, Nintendo, just don't make me wait 30 years for the Zelda TV series or a Metroid Prime movie!