One of the most anticipated movies this year hit the big screen on April 5th. Grossing at $1.045 billion dollars opening weekend, The Super Mario Bros movie quickly became 2023’s highest grossing film, and the eighth highest grossing animated film of all time. However, this begs the question, did it make a lot of money because it was actually good, or because it was a movie about classic characters we all know and love?

A thing that I have always done to avoid spoilers is never watching the trailers for movies I am interested in seeing. Because the Mario movie seemed to be a huge deal, with a crazy plot, I didn’t watch the trailer. So, I went into the movie, completely blind, expecting a film that seemed like God himself had made it. Sadly, I was a bit disappointed. 

The animation was amazing, and the best part of all of it was waiting for your favorite character to show up so you can see the way they were animated. One thing I will say about the animation however is, why did they make their skin texture so realistic? Yes, its the style, but it was genuinely unsettling how real they looked, as animated characters. 

The plot was so fast. Every problem that arose in the film had the quickest resolution. There really wasn’t that much of a rising action, climax, or falling action. The whole point of the movie is that ‘Bowser is coming’ but as soon as he came, Mario just snagged that superstar, and kicked Bowsers’ huge koupa behind. 

The biggest mystery of this movie was how Luigi miraculously was a crazy fighter at the end of the movie. It makes sense that Mario could fight because the whole movie leading up to that point, he was training, battling DK, and crushing turts. He learned how to fight, and how to use the powerups, and actually had a character arc. On the other hand, Luigi was quickly captured and sat in a cage for the majority of the movie. But as soon as they grabbed that star, somehow Luigi was performing like he had been trained by Rocky Balboa himself. 

Where the plot didn’t pull like I thought it would, the Kongs did. Can I just say, Seth Rogen was so perfect as Donkey Kong. I absolutely loved any part of the movie involving him. In my humble opinion, the opening scene to Kong Island was magnificent, and was quite possibly the best part of the whole movie. Followed closely by Jack Blacks peak performance of, “Peaches.” The soul, the emotion, the pipes, it was everything we needed and more. 

“Personally, I didn’t like the movie that much. I was expecting a lot more, and when it didn’t deliver the way I wanted, I was sorely disappointed,” Viewmont senior, Lincoln Santini, said.

“Great movie, great animation, great characters, just not a whole lot going on. I did like that it was kind of just a fun movie to watch because nothing that bad ever really happened. I’ve always loved Mario though and I thought Chris Pratt was great,” senior, Aidan McKay, said.

Chris Pratt was great, and the classic characters were fun, but overall the girth for this movie was just not there.