THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE

US, 2023, 92 minutes, Colour.

Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Seth Rogan, Keegan Michael Key, Kevin Michael Richardson, Sebastien Maniscalco, Julia Jelenic.

Directed by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic.

The Super Mario Bros are a major face of the Japanese company (founded in 1889), Nintendo.

Using a quotation from Collider, making a rash assumption about who has played Super Mario Bros: “The face of Nintendo Entertainment and arguably the face of video gaming as a whole, Mario has become one of the most recognized figures in pop culture history since he debuted all the way back in 1981 with the first Donkey Kong game. Since 1981, Mario has appeared in a whopping 200 games, making him one of the most prolific fictional characters of all time. Even those who have never touched a gaming console know exactly who Mario is and exactly what he looks like, which is a claim that not many popular characters can make.”

There have been many people over the decades who really do not know the Super Mario Bros. Reviews in the 1990s saw the live-action version with Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper. It was a box office failure at the time, still condemned by many, rehabilitated by others.

Now, we have an animated version, highly animated, huge scenes of cosmic menace, domestic scenes of the family in Brooklyn, Princes Peach in the Mushroom Kingdom, the menacing Browser who wants to marry her, the humour of Donkey Kong, battles galore…

So, a film for those millions of fans, not a film for those who are not fans, but high hopes for creating new, definitely younger, fans.

For film buffs on the lookout for what favourite stars appear in, or voice characters for, they are here in plenty, Chris Pratt and Charlie Day, entertaining as the Bros, Anya Taylor Joy is a tough Princess Peach, a feminist Jack Black, a comic Seth Rogan…

Nintendo won’t be sorry that they produced this entertainment.