Amph Super Mario Bros. Movie (Starring Chris Pratt? Yes, Starring Chris Pratt)

Caught it a couple times over the weekend. It's definitely structured as a kids film, with the Easter eggs (which are plentiful), smaller touches (which are quite clever) and occasional joke aimed at older audiences (which are fewer than I would have expected). While it won't break your heart like a Pixar film, or have the double-meaning humor that Dreamworks or Sonic involve, it's still an enjoyable time as long as you have the target audience in mind (and kids will absolutely love the film).

That said, it's really not that far removed from being something with more depth. The movie is really short (under 90 min if you don't include credits) and could have easily supported even another 5 min of additional character moments to flesh them out just a little more (there's a solid foundation there with the handful of moments we are given). It probably could have even supported an additional "job" sequence in Brooklyn during the pre-Mushroom Kingdom portion of the film. The film just needs a little more space to breathe- it's moving from scene to scene really quickly (and a couple scenes/gags in the trailers are cut out/cut down in the final film, like the World 1-3 Cheep-Cheep bridge). But, even at that rushed pacing, it still includes a few pretty clever moments

The voice cast comes across solid- even Pratt, while not the stand-out, is serviceable and nowhere near the disaster people were worried about initially. Peach, Luigi, and Toad are exactly what they should be, while Jack Black and Seth Rogen are basically themselves- but that's ok, because they themselves fit those characters perfectly. Armisen as Cranky Kong is the only one that really misses the mark, IMO. Not Fred's fault, but it the choice of direction to take the character's voice in doesn't really work the way I think they hoped it would.

Music-wise, it's a little odd hearing the non-Nintendo music tracks (especially when the first track is from Kill Bill), but they match their sequences pretty well and are good choices overall (though it starts to imply that the film is set in the 80's or 90's, if not for the smart phone Luigi has). The real audio highlight, of course, is Brian Tyler's work with Koji Kondo's themes which runs the vast body of work the Mario games have accumulated over the decades and is full of life and energy with its blue-grassy, jazzy themes funneled through a full orchestral sound. There's even some lovely, subtle moments in there I truly adored.

Easter eggs are jam-packed into visually fleshing out the world of the Mushroom Kingdom, as well as Mario's Brooklyn. Gonna have to rewatch the film at half speed in the future just to catch 'em all.

Spoiler

But some of the less-obvious ones i did catch include "Punch-Out Pizzeria" with its Jump-Man arcade game (and Jump-Man voiced by Charles), the block and pixel texture patterns turned into modern art canvases in the apartment they have their job at, the multiple NES-based posters in Mario's room (Kung-Fu, Rad Racer, etc) as well as an SNES nod with F-Zero. The TV news, besides interviewing Mayor Pauline, has on its scroll a warning about crabs being discovered in the sewers, as a nod to the original Mario Bros. arcade game [which they effectively go through before they get to the warp pipe, and is where Yoshi's egg is left[, the "No Sleep til Brooklyn" sequence effectively being the World 1-1 layout converted to NYC streets, Toad constantly messing with the Biddybuds- who are one of the enemies in the Captain Toad game, DK jumping between foreground and background layers ala recent DKC games, and Bowser getting captured in a jar like he does to the Sprixies in Mario 3D World).

There's definitely others I'm forgetting OTOMH, but it'll be fun to dig through them all.

 

So, they definitely cut out this piece of score and replaced it with Take On Me. The bastards!



Which makes me assume that almost every instance of a pop song represents an instance where other score tracks were replaced.

And this was likely replaced by either Holding Out For a Hero (though you can never go wrong with HOFAH, it doesn't make it the best option) during the training course, or the semi-recreation of World 1-1 during the No Sleep Til Brooklyn sequence:



EDIT- Unrelated Perfection!



EDIT 2- A fan has done a rough edit putting the music back into the scene. It is sooo much better!

 

Caught it a third time this morning- wanted to catch a showtime with a mostly kid audience. Some fun comments and insights I hadn't heard elsewhere or even thought of myself ("Donkey Kong is a prince!").

Couple thoughts this time around:
-Warping the Dark World onto Brooklyn had to have killed a lot of people. Like, I haven't gone to Brooklyn often, but lining up the POV of the bridge tower in Google Maps makes it look like anything around, or north of, Anchorage Plaza was crushed. A good chunk would have ended up in river (but, ho boy, flooding in Manhattan!).
-DK is Cranky's son in the movie, so farewell DK Jr, I guess (and DK is no longer DK the Third).

 

Bowser trying to marry Peach references the plot of Super Mario Odyssey (and, indirectly, Mario Sunshine- where Bowser Jr believes Peach is his mother).

 

He has, at various times, been described as a demon, turtle & dragon. but, presumably, they want to streamline the whole "King of the Koopas" and "Koopa Kids" elements by making it clear that he is just a more powerful version of a base-standard Koopa turtle.

 

In Japan, he was originally called "Great Demon King Koopa" (though that is sometimes translated as "Great Sorcerer King Koopa").

He was definitely intended to be a turtle in the same family as the Koopas. His original design had taken inspiration from an Ox Demon King in an anime, but Nintendo designers suggested the character be a turtle and based it on the Koopas.

It has less plot, but more of a script than that troubled production . Also greater scale (no pun intended). But there are a surprising number of broad similarities between them, as you would find in many other Mario adaptations.

 

He's been vehemently against watching the new movie due a perceived regression on an inclusivity level for having a less diverse cast than the original film (which isn't really true, but probably just him reacting to the surface level casting of Pratt, Day, Black & Rogen and not being aware of Joy's background).

So I doubt he would be interested in participating in it now- and, after his comments, is unlikely to be invited in the future.