The Super Mario Bros. Movie

[spacepup | 2,435]

5 minutes ago, Khromak said:

I liked the movie, I thought all the characters were fun, the writing was good, loved the animations and it was an interesting enough take on the story without being too outlandish but still a bit quirky.

As for references, there were an unbelievable amount of them, including retro and more modern. This video my SIL sent me covers a lot of things I didn't notice and many that I did.

The standout character for me was the star in the dungeon, he was absolutely hilarious. I also enjoyed Toad, thought Peach had a really strong showing as "not damsel in distress" and stole the show for a lot of the movie. Luigi and Mario had their characteristic personalities and they shined, I didn't even notice it was Pratt once.

Jack Black did a great job as Bowser and as others have said here, it was obviously a joke that this big tough monster was secretly a romantic sap, which makes sense because he keeps stealing the princess and has tried to marry her in the games multiple times. It's literally canon, and they just hammed it up a little bit for a children's cartoon movie...it's not out of place at all. I assumed he was calling her "Peaches" as a pet name and not a mistake on the part of the writing team, it's laughable to think they didn't realize the only song in the movie which repeated the name 50 times was a typo by someone, it's obviously a pet name or dramatization for the song.

This is pretty much exactly how I feel about the movie as well.  You nailed it (imo).

[RH | 5,058]

1 hour ago, cartman said:

I don't mean him i mean Bowser. I understood it as you saying that song was out of character for him. I don't see it as out of character because it never was too serious anyway.

I don't really know much about Jack Black but i do like Tribute and think Fuck her Gently is funny especially with the music video. I don't love Jack Black. I barely know what he does and didn't even recognize him in this, and if it was someone else someone else would've been unhappy instead so yeah there's really not much to it.

IMHO, the best of Jack Black in film is Orange County and High Fidelity.  If you want to see his best work in a kids film then watch School of Rock. 

I can enjoy Jack Black.  I find him more amusing as person in real life than his movies but in general I find the movies he tends to be in to be "good" but not great.  Shallow Hal wasn't bad either.  It falls in that category of "worth watching if you're bored and happen to catch it while flipping through the channels" category.

[cartman | 195]

40 minutes ago, RH said:

IMHO, the best of Jack Black in film is Orange County and High Fidelity.  If you want to see his best work in a kids film then watch School of Rock. 

I can enjoy Jack Black.  I find him more amusing as person in real life than his movies but in general I find the movies he tends to be in to be "good" but not great.  Shallow Hal wasn't bad either.  It falls in that category of "worth watching if you're bored and happen to catch it while flipping through the channels" category.

Yeah i might get around to it one day. I've heard about him being known for School of Rock too, never saw it though. He's basically this guy where i'll know the name and face without actually knowing why. Fuck her Gently was one those early flash clips back in the day when that was a thing i found it through that - not through music as such.

 

[OptOut | 8,899]

Mario Bros only dropped off 37% in the second weekend, already grossed over 700 mil worldwide! Seems like word-of-mouth buzz is huge on this one, it's obviously got the staying power it needs to hit the Billion! 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/super-mario-bros-box-office-crazy-great-1235375839/

[Tanooki | 4,972]

This has no shot of going under 1B.  I mean wtf with Japan?!  It's not out until the 28th there in the motherland of Mario.  They'll likely line up around the block for it.  South Korea doesn't have it either but seems basically everywhere else does.

[RH | 5,058]

9 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

This has no shot of going under 1B.  I mean wtf with Japan?!  It's not out until the 28th there in the motherland of Mario.  They'll likely line up around the block for it.  South Korea doesn't have it either but seems basically everywhere else does.

That is an important factor in adjusting my numbers and estimations.

[Link | 2,815]

It's already .7B after two weekends, not even two whole weeks. 

[Tulpa | 3,581]

Yeah, I don't anyone seriously thought this juggernaut wasn't going to break 1B. That's fast becoming the standard of a tentpole movie property, especially one with a beloved icon.

[a3quit4s | 4,157]

I saw it and liked it. Lots of stuff in there for the old farts and newcomers alike. I actually didn’t even know what everyone’s favorite prisoner was from, I had to look it up. Charlie Day definitely killed it and for some reason I can’t help but feeling Keegan was doing his best Kevin hart impression while playing toad, and it was still good. I dunno Chris Pratt as Mario kind of seemed like a waste of money as you don’t really know it’s him. I really like the way they portrayed peach and she was voiced well. Jack Black is always fun and I agree the songs were kind of cringy but it’s a movie for kids. As for a sequel - meh, I’d rather see our boy link or our girl samus. Or maybe even starfox 

Edited April 18, 2023 by a3quit4s

[CodysGameRoom | 2,009]

28 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

as you don’t really know it’s him.

This is the point. You aren't supposed to be thinking about Chris Pratt while you're watching it. I thought he did great. The only person's voice I really thought about was Seth Rogan as DK because it was quite on the nose and obvious. I mean they even did the closeup with the Seth Rogan laugh on purpose. 

[a3quit4s | 4,157]

4 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

This is the point. You aren't supposed to be thinking about Chris Pratt while you're watching it. I thought he did great. The only person's voice I really thought about was Seth Rogan as DK because it was quite on the nose and obvious. I mean they even did the closeup with the Seth Rogan laugh on purpose. 

Right but you could have picked me up off the street to do some generic as voice for 1/1000 of what they probably paid Chris Pratt. Or Charles martinet hahah

[Khromak | 792]

35 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

Or Charles martinet hahah

Actually interestingly enough, I heard a lot of people complaining about how Marinet should've been given the Mario role and I didn't realize (at the time of reading those complaints) that he actually is in the movie. I think he voiced Jump Man and Mario/Luigi's father? Don't quote me on that, but I believe that's right. So I mean, I'm sure he wasn't paid the said as Pratt, but they didn't totally stiff him.

[AirVillain | 502]

On 4/16/2023 at 10:21 AM, fcgamer said:

Well that f'ing sucked. Said she wasn't interested in going, as she just didn't have the interest in Mario. Okay that's fair enough, can't fault a person for that, but at the same time the interaction just felt juvenile like something from high school - I mean, I even watched the whole Twilight series back in the day. I guess what I am saying is that by my age (almost 40), I'd think just wanting to spend some gd time with someone you considered a good friend might count for something. Luckily the nights still young, gonna head down to the convenience store and buy some whiskey, then just play guitar until I pass out for the night.

fcgamer out!

Fuck. Too bad. Maybe she wasn't feeling well. Hope it turned out for you!
 

On 4/16/2023 at 5:02 PM, fox said:

What’s to spoil?  This has to be one of the most basic plots In a major movie in awhile.  I guess you can spoil the jokes, but trailers and all the clips coming out have done that for you.

Just use a spoiler tag

EVERYTHING!

 

On 4/17/2023 at 4:15 AM, cartman said:

Oh man that was the highlight of the movie. The idea that he's not just an evil overlord but really this emotional guy and sucker for love that has gone unanswered lol. In the context of being the last boss and kidnapper that's just a brilliant touch.

The Super Mario universe never was very dark anyway it was always a "kid's tale villain" type of atmosphere so i think it's on point.

Yeah, this is true.... I realized this when there was a shit ton of kids and families in the theatre. It's 100% a family movie for "this" generation of kids who know the Catsuit powerup, etc. 

 

On 4/17/2023 at 11:09 AM, Tanooki said:

Because they are jack black drones with no good taste in music.  That piece of horrible, very out of place, not just horrible but quite largely just cringy.  Why that guy feels the need to do his lame rock shtick in anything he does is beyond played out into just annoying now.  He did the role well otherwise, but I'm of a mind that when the movie comes to disc, I'll hit the skip button over that minute of ear f'ing abuse (and if I get the CD, that's the ONE track I will NOT MP3 for my phone.)

Since those clowns said they only will reserve the Mario Rap for vinyl which is just warped logic, I'll throw that into the gap.

I think you have it backwards. Jack Black wouldn't have gotten the role and then "do his lame rock schtick". 

After seeing the movie it was obvious why Jack Black was cast as Bowser. Film required Bowser to be funny, sad, angry, and sing.... all things Jack Black can do. 

 

On 4/17/2023 at 11:56 AM, Khromak said:

I liked the movie, I thought all the characters were fun, the writing was good, loved the animations and it was an interesting enough take on the story without being too outlandish but still a bit quirky.

As for references, there were an unbelievable amount of them, including retro and more modern. This video my SIL sent me covers a lot of things I didn't notice and many that I did.

The standout character for me was the star in the dungeon, he was absolutely hilarious. I also enjoyed Toad, thought Peach had a really strong showing as "not damsel in distress" and stole the show for a lot of the movie. Luigi and Mario had their characteristic personalities and they shined, I didn't even notice it was Pratt once.

Jack Black did a great job as Bowser and as others have said here, it was obviously a joke that this big tough monster was secretly a romantic sap, which makes sense because he keeps stealing the princess and has tried to marry her in the games multiple times. It's literally canon, and they just hammed it up a little bit for a children's cartoon movie...it's not out of place at all. I assumed he was calling her "Peaches" as a pet name and not a mistake on the part of the writing team, it's laughable to think they didn't realize the only song in the movie which repeated the name 50 times was a typo by someone, it's obviously a pet name or dramatization for the song.

Can you reference which games Bowser tries to marry Peach?
 

2 hours ago, Khromak said:

Actually interestingly enough, I heard a lot of people complaining about how Marinet should've been given the Mario role and I didn't realize (at the time of reading those complaints) that he actually is in the movie. I think he voiced Jump Man and Mario/Luigi's father? Don't quote me on that, but I believe that's right. So I mean, I'm sure he wasn't paid the said as Pratt, but they didn't totally stiff him.

I was one of the people who first "complained". Moreso complained because I thought they should have given it to the guy who's voiced him so long. 

After seeing the movie, and leading up to it as discussed, I can happily admit to being wrong.

I ALSO didn't realize that Martinet was going to be in the movie, and that was one of my favourite parts. 

Hahahaha..... FUCK.... I can't stop thinking of Mario's interaction with the random Italian guy. 

And yeah... I was kind of thinking he could be the Dad too. I didn't want to check online but after seeing it again I think the Dad could have been Charles Martinet. He got a credit in the animated credits.

So I think that's really cool that they set Martinet up and he probably got paid more for that than any of the video games. 

[Brickman | 4,104]

I saw it last night and it was ok, nothing that will blow you away but good for some mindless fun and nostalgic Easter eggs to pick out. The 7 rating seems about fair to me, the critics calling it a 4 or 5/10 are overblowing it and the audience saying it's a 9 or 10 are going a bit overboard with that rating. The story definitely needed to be fleshed out better, a little less action and a bit more story telling would have been good.

I think they wasted a lot of money on getting Hollywood actors over VA's to do the voices but that seems to be the way with US movie cartoons most of the time. I did love Jack Black's Bowser though and the song he sang was fantastic.

Animation was absolutely top notch too.

 

 

[OptOut | 8,899]

6 hours ago, AirVillain said:

Can you reference which games Bowser tries to marry Peach?

Bowser marrying Princess Peach is basically the entire plot of Super Mario Odyssey. They even released Amiibo of the characters in their wedding outfits:

 

Also, I think one of the Paper Mario or Mario RPG games also had some sort of plot for Bowser to marry Peach, but I am not so sure on that, perhaps someone else here knows!

[Sumez | 3,040]

Booster tries to marry the princess in Mario RPG, but Bowser joins forces with Mario to crash the wedding chapel because he wanted to marry her. 

Depending on your actions, Bowser will end up accidentally kissing either Mario or Booster (with his eyes closed, thinking it's Peach/Toadstool) in a glorious close-up scene, after which you're of course fighting a gigantic wedding cake.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Sumez

[RH | 5,058]

15 hours ago, Khromak said:

Actually interestingly enough, I heard a lot of people complaining about how Marinet should've been given the Mario role and I didn't realize (at the time of reading those complaints) that he actually is in the movie. I think he voiced Jump Man and Mario/Luigi's father? Don't quote me on that, but I believe that's right. So I mean, I'm sure he wasn't paid the said as Pratt, but they didn't totally stiff him.

This eased the pain for me if not having a Martinet Mario.  At least he’s got a credit and, probably, some small royalty payments from this film.

12 hours ago, AirVillain said:

Yeah, this is true.... I realized this when there was a shit ton of kids and families in the theatre. It's 100% a family movie for "this" generation of kids who know the Catsuit powerup, etc. 

It was a proud moment for me when my 9yo son leaned over to me and confused asked me “Why is he wearing a catsuit, Dad?!”

[Link | 2,815]

 

18 hours ago, Tulpa said:

Yeah, I don't anyone seriously thought this juggernaut wasn't going to break 1B. That's fast becoming the standard of a tentpole movie property, especially one with a beloved icon.

 

On 4/10/2023 at 7:44 AM, RH said:

I use to follow movie numbers because I’m a numbers nerd but I’ve not done that for years.  However, there is a pretty reliable curve to how much sales drop off over time.  It’s not a perfect predictor because if another big kids movie were coming out, say, next weekend, it’d potentially steal a lot of the potential profit, but based off of former attention to this stuff, I don’t think it will breach $1B, but it might get close.  Say, $850-900m. That doesn’t include Blu-Ray and streaming sales and, of course, this is going to boost periphery sales for toys and other merch so this should be a real boost for Nintendo as we wait for the Switch 2.

On 4/10/2023 at 10:57 AM, RH said:

Numbers drop sharply after opening week. Well, they use too.  The one big caveat to that use to be that if a movie came out in China a week or two later, China could give it a big boost.

This is spring break season, so there is a reasonable chance that some parents were waiting for this coming week, and possibly the following, to align with the spring break of their children.  In that case, it could push it over $1B, but my gut is that it might not break $1B. Don’t get me wrong, I hope it does and I stopped paying attention to these numbers over 5 years ago and a lot has changed since then. But no, regarding Box Office numbers, I doubt it will, but who really know.

 

[RH | 5,058]

1 hour ago, Link said:

 

 

 

A BIG caveat to my assumptions is that it was an international release and I assumed that included Japan.  It was news to me early when someone posted it’s not coming out in Japan until the end of the month.  I have no clue how rabbid Japanese fans are about supporting movies (nor the size of their target demographic) but considering that Mario is all but the mascot of Japan, I can’t imagine that Japan alone couldn't generate at least 100-200m. 

Factoring that in, I’ll adjust my number to about 1.1-1.2B. 

In related details, anyone check out the sales in China? Those were legit minuscule.  I know that in the 80s and 90s, maybe, video games and Mario might not have been a big deal, but certainly within the last 20 years a franchise like Mario would have entered the zeitgeist of the country? I mean, I didn’t necessarily think the sales would be massive, but they were really, really small the last time I checked.

Edited April 19, 2023 by RH

[Khromak | 792]

14 hours ago, AirVillain said:

Can you reference which games Bowser tries to marry Peach?

I was thinking of Mario Odyssey and actually thinking of Mario RPG, but as @Sumez said it was actually Booster, though to be fair to my memory, Bowser is still trying to kiss Peach, and has interest in marrying her

[AirVillain | 502]

7 hours ago, OptOut said:

Bowser marrying Princess Peach is basically the entire plot of Super Mario Odyssey. They even released Amiibo of the characters in their wedding outfits:

 

Also, I think one of the Paper Mario or Mario RPG games also had some sort of plot for Bowser to marry Peach, but I am not so sure on that, perhaps someone else here knows!

 

7 hours ago, Sumez said:

Booster tries to marry the princess in Mario RPG, but Bowser joins forces with Mario to crash the wedding chapel because he wanted to marry her. 

Depending on your actions, Bowser will end up accidentally kissing either Mario or Booster (with his eyes closed, thinking it's Peach/Toadstool) in a glorious close-up scene, after which you're of course fighting a gigantic wedding cake.

Awesome, thanks!! I haven't played EITHER of those games, hahaha. I'm not into RPG's, and I still haven't gotten a Switch. 

Thanks for the education.
 

2 hours ago, RH said:

This eased the pain for me if not having a Martinet Mario.  At least he’s got a credit and, probably, some small royalty payments from this film.

It was a proud moment for me when my 9yo son leaned over to me and confused asked me “Why is he wearing a catsuit, Dad?!”

Same here. And having them IMMEDIATELY deal with the voice "issue" was perfect. I mean, they CLEARLY realized that there was a large audience who were upset Charles was not voicing Mario, so I'm happy they "leaned" into that and referenced it right away. 

It was very smart, and it's one of my favourite parts of the movie. 

That line was fucking HILARIOUS. Not exactly sure.... but... "No, it's not too much! Wahoo!" with the jump, oh man!!! I'm STILL losing it!!!  

There's a "Wahoo!" from him at the end too... Fuckin' hilarious. 

I'm not sure why (Because I haven't studied Charles' Martinet's voice) but at some point while watching I was like "WHOA.... wait.... THE DAD IS CHARLES WITH HIS "REGULAR" VOICE!" like a fucking lightbulb went off in my head. 

I'm not 100% sure because I haven't looked it up online (avoiding spoilers) but I think it.... is?  I mean... I guess it's safe to look it up now, haha. 

[RH | 5,058]

I know it was already mentioned that this is coming out on April 28th in Japan.  According to Box Office Mojo, not only is it coming out on the 28th, but for all other countries that are getting it on the latest day possible, they are getting it the 26th?!

So Japan is literally the last country to get an official release of this.  Has anyone read an article as to why this is the case?

My speculation/hope is that they are probably doing their absolutely best to do a top-notch localisation for Japan.  This might even mean re-rendering some of the animations to better-sync voice acting and as others have mentioned, Mario might be shown playing a Famicom.  I guess there could be other references smattered throughout the game that we US/Western gamers wouldn't get, but if there were any first party hits we never got, maybe they referenced some of those.

Anyway, if the game doesn't have a significant number of minor differences, I'll be really baffled that it's taking them this long to release this movie in Japan.  That's the homeland of Mario.  I feel like Japan was done wrong, and it will only be worth it if they've taken the proper time to adjust the movie to really respect that audience and appeal to their own form of nostalgia.

[fcgamer | 4,804]

22 hours ago, RH said:

Mario might be shown playing a Famicom. 

I've discussed this with @Tanooki . Does anyone know if he is playing a Famicom in the Chinese version? 

A lot of my (elementary) students went to see the English version, said they hated how the voices sounded in the Chinese version previews.

I'll likely go see this tomorrow after band rehearsal.

I listened to the Peaches song independently, btw. Here's my thoughts: it sucks, lyrics are corny, but it's like Baby Shark, where the damned thing is stuck in my head. Really wish they wouldn't ruin movies like this just to appeal more to kids, who already want to see the film anyways.

Edit: For the record, my brother and I used to hate such stupid kiddie songs in cartoons and movies, even as children; then again though, I got my first proper cassette when I was what, four maybe? It was the Beatles.

Edited April 22, 2023 by fcgamer

[Makar | 2,020]

A couple of my friends wanted to see this movie so I agreed to see it with them. I went into it with zero expectations.
 

When I left the theater, there was only one thing wrong with the movie - it wasn’t long enough. Really enjoyed it. It had a lot of cool references, good comedy, plot was decent, and it was well done. I’m pretty confident they’ll make a sequel. 
 

and now to try to get that damn song out of my head lol

peaches peaches peaches peaches peaches

[Reed Rothchild | 9,679]

Super Mario continues to shatter records. At $58 million, the pic would supplant Jurassic World ($46.4 million) to rank as Universal’s biggest third weekend in history. It would be the seventh-biggest third weekend among any film at the domestic box office after surpassing Spider-Man: No Way Home ($56 million) and the biggest for an animated title, not adjusted for inflation.