My Thoughts "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie"

Note: 

 

 

I started writing this review on Saturday April 11, 2026, and finished writing it on Thursday April 16, 2026. I wrote it before I finished my 199th post and 200th post. It was also the last post I wrote in advance before posting either of those reviews.  

 

 

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(This is the poster to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.) 

 

Well, I just got out of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. I saw it either today or yesterday, whenever I actually finish this. It won’t be going up yet though because again I still need to finish my 199th post and 200th post. Don’t worry, I have made progress on those, or at least, I made progress on my 199th. I actually watched the movie yesterday (Friday April 10, 2026), and I did resume writing parts of it. I haven’t finished it yet, far from it. But I have at the very least watched the movie, or rewatched the movie rather since I’ve actually seen that movie before, and I did resume writing it. Hopefully it doesn’t take me longer than two days to finish. Then after I finish with that, it’s onto my 200th post, which is of course The Simpsons Movie review. I’ll need my aunt’s help with that so I can get access to Disney+ since Disney+ has restricted password sharing just like Netflix did, and now they’ve made it so that you cannot access the platform unless you have your own account. 

 

Or if you able to work the system in a way where you can add a device to your household even if it’s not actually in your house. That’s what my aunt will have to do, she already agreed to help me with that before our Internet 🛜 got shut down. Hopefully she can do it before Friday April 17, 2026 because that’s when she’s heading off to Baltimore for another art show to sell her potteries. Unless we can do it remotely, even from Baltimore. I don’t know what the distance has to be for it to work or if the distance doesn’t actually matter. That’s why I want to finish my Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus 🦈🐙 review as soon as possible so I can do all this stuff with Disney+ and watch The Simpsons Movie, just in case my aunt isn’t able to help me while she’s in Baltimore. But for now, work Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus 🦈🐙 review will have to be temporarily paused so that I can review this movie. 

 

I mean, there’s no way I was going to watch this movie, and not write a review of it. It’s an unthinkable, plus I wrote a review of the first Mario movie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It would be kind of wrong for me to review that movie, and not review the sequel that we’ve been waiting for 3 years. But for now, work Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus 🦈🐙 review will have to be temporarily paused so that I can review this movie. I mean, there’s no way I was going to watch this movie, and not write a review of it. It’s an unthinkable, plus I wrote a review of the first Mario movie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It would be kind of wrong for me to review that movie, and not review the sequel that we’ve been waiting for 3 years. Hopefully work on this review won’t take too long because usually when I write a review of a new release, I usually don’t have as much to say about it as I would a movie I watched at home and was able to fully digested and remember all the details of. It shouldn’t take any longer than a day or two, which is I’m hoping my Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus 🦈🐙 review will take to finish. But rest assured I have rewatched Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus 🦈🐙 and I did resume work on the review. I promise this will be the last post I write in advance before either my 199th post or 200th post get finished and posted on the blog.

 

 

(This is yet another poster for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. I guess you could say that it's like the main theatrical poster since it has all the characters from the movie huddled together in a group, side-by-side or stacked on top of each other. You know, the Marvel type posters. I tend to not like these kinds of posters, I usually prefer posters that have a unique design, or if you do have a poster that has all the characters on it, I prefer the so-called "floating head" posters, where you just see the characters' heads or you see them up to their shoulders or the top part of their chest, and they're floating above the title and whatever image they decide to put on the bottom. That's why they're called "floating head" posters. These Marvel type posters are sort of like "floating head" posters, only they show the whole character's body, and they're just not as visually appealing, at least to me. And the Marvel type posters are so common now. They're pretty much used for every major blockbuster movie that comes out, including these movies. So, I prefer the other posters for the movie over this one, and I'm only including it here because it's largest poster I have of this movie. The file size, the dimensions is 2000 x 3000. All of the posters I found of this movie from IMP Awards are all small. I don't know why, but they are. But I found this one in a pretty big size, so that's why I'm including it here and using it as a transition to talk about the movie itself and what I thought of it.)

 

 

 

 

 

This was actually my most anticipated movie of 2026. If you read my 2025 New Year's Message, and if you haven't you totally should I wrote a lot great stuff in there, you'll know that I included it as one of the movies I was the most interested in 2026. And despite what you may hear some people say now after the film's release, a lot of other people were excited too. In fact, I would say the excitement for this film among the fans, among moviegoers, and even among some critics was greater than that of the first movie. The reason why I think that is that people didn't know what to expect from the first one. They got the look down, it looked more like the games than the 1993 live action movie did, but people still didn't know if the movie itself would actually be good or not. Just because you get the look right doesn't mean that you'll get the story or the characters right. We've seen this with the Silent Hill movies, most recently to be a bit topical. They got the look right, all the creatures and the monsters look like how they do in the games, even the town, the Silent Hill town, looks like how it does in the games. They even got the music right, like they used actual music from the games, or they got the composer of the games, Akira Yamaoka to make new music for the movies that was in the spirit of the games. But, they didn't get the story right, they didn't get the characters right. Only one of the three Silent Hill movies that have been made, including the recent Return to Silent Hill that came out in January of this year, has actually been decent and that's the 2006 one with Radha Mitchell. 

 

What makes Return to Silent Hill and its low quality in every department (except may art direction, production design, and creature design) so baffling is the fact that it was directed by the same guy ♂︎ as the 2006 movie, Christophe Gans. He's supposedly a huge fan of Silent Hill, and yet he made a movie that so fundamentally misunderstands what makes Silent Hill so great in the first place, particularly Silent Hill 2, which is the most beloved game in the series and the game that Return to Silent Hill is directly based on and is adapting. Except not really since I heard that Return to Silent Hill is sort of a sequel to the 2006 movie, like it takes place in that continuity while ignoring the second film, Silent Hill: Revelation since Christophe Gans didn't direct that one and a lot of people didn't like. Not just didn't like, hated, people hated Silent Hill: Revelation. It's pretty terrible from what I've heard, and it only serves to make the 2006 movie look that much better, even if the 2006 movie is a flawed movie and has problems that hardcore Silent Hill fans will no doubt tell you all about. But some people do enjoy Revelation in an ironic "so bad it's good" kind of way, which is why I'm surprised that Double Toasted 🍞 haven't done a roast of that movie yet, especially around the time Return to Silent Hill came out. 

 

But, Return to Silent Hill didn't have any of those fun bad qualities that make Revelation fun for some people to watch. It was just bad. Not just for non-fans, but for fans as well. It failed at the box office and was hated by pretty much everyone. If you look up Return to Silent Hill on YouTube, you'll see several rant videos about that movie. Take your pick. Hollywood had three chances to get Silent Hill right, and they blew two of them. Blew all three depending on what you think of Silent Hill (2006). Three strikes and you're out buddy. If I were Konami, I probably wouldn't trust Hollywood to make a good Silent Hill movie ever again after this fiasco. I certainly wouldn't trust Christophe Gans to direct a good Silent Hill movie, even though he's a French director 🇫🇷 not an American one 🇺🇸. I know the fans won't ever trust Christophe Gans to direct a good Silent Hill movie after this. People actually had faith that Return to Silent Hill would actually be good because of his attachment, and he just let them all down. He did not deliver. Silent Hill (2006) was a fluke, and every Silent Hill fan who did sort of like that movie has kind of accepted that. 

 

But I guess, if Konami is still willing to let Hollywood make more Silent Hill movies, then just get better talent. Don't bring back Christophe Gans again, he blew his second chance, and the fans don't trust him to handle this property with any sort of care beyond the aesthetics of it. That's what I think the deal is with Christophe Gans. He likes Silent Hill, I don't think he's faking his love for Silent Hill, I do think he is a genuine fan. I just think he's more a fan of the aesthetics of it, he likes the look of it, and he likes the creatures, especially the ones in Silent Hill 2, which is where the majority of the creatures featured in both Silent Hill (2006) and Return to Silent Hill are from. He just doesn't like the stories or the characters, they just don't appeal to him and aren't what clicks with him about Silent Hill. Or maybe he does like the stories and the characters, but he doesn't want to tread on them or ruin them if he tries to directly adapt them. So, he takes certain aspects of those stories, and just puts his own spin on it. Inserting his own ideas, his own conception of Silent Hill lore and what he thinks it should be. In other words, he inserted his own headcanons about Silent Hill into his movies. 

 

That's why the explanation for why Silent Hill ended up the way that it did was because of a coal seam fire 🔥, which is basically an underground fire 🔥 inside of a coal seam or coal mine. There was one underneath the town, and it had to be abandoned because of it. From what I understand, that's not accurate to the games, Silent Hill wasn't abandoned due to a coal seam fire 🔥. It was abandoned because of something else. That was one deviation from the source material that fans of the games didn't appreciate and complained about, and still complain about. And he kept this explanation for Silent Hill in Return to Silent Hill. That's how people knew that it was connected to the 2006 movie because it still kept that coal seam fire 🔥 explanation. Which as I just said is not something that's accurate to the games. And while the 2006 movie focuses on new characters that he created specifically for that film, they did have aspects of the characters from the games within them, particularly the ones from the first game, and the story does share similarities to the one from the first game. Although he changed it around a lot to try to make it his own.  

 

Return to Silent Hill sought to be more of a direct adaptation of Silent Hill 2, but again, Christophe Gans changed a lot of the details around, and he changed the characters a lot, changed aspects of their personalities that fans didn't like that he changed, to try to fit his personal vision for the story. It is that weakness that is the reason why Christophe Gans should not be selected to direct the next Silent Hill movie if there ever is one. It really doesn't matter which one you pick, as long as they're good, and they have resume to prove it. Pick someone who's made consistently good work, rather than someone who's either made consistently bad movie or has inconsistently made good and bad work. Christophe was more of the latter, as he's made some good movies like the 1995 live action Crying Freeman 😢 movie (which Brandon Tenold reviewed on his channel), or Brotherhood of the Wolf 🐺,  or the 2006 live action Silent Hill movie, but he's also made some bad movies as well, namely Return to Silent Hill. 

 

So, looking the part isn't enough, you gotta get the story, or at least the characters right. If you can't get the story right, you can at least get the characters right. Good characters can make up for a bad or mediocre story or plot. If you can't get the story or the characters right, then you basically have nothing, and you have a movie that either only appeals to fans or only appeals to non-fans, or worse of all, appeals to no one. Which was the case with Return to Silent Hill. People were also skeptical of the casting of Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario. They just didn't think he fit the role at all because of the roles that he mostly known for at that point were Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord or Owen Grady, and variations of either of those two. But also it was due to people having Chris Pratt fatigue and getting tired of seeing him in seemingly everything. 

 

Because don't forget, he was also initially cast in the fifth Indiana Jones movie when it was originally set to be a reboot to the series, he was going to play a younger Indiana Jones, until Spielberg put a stop to that, and told them to make it a sequel instead with Harrison Ford still in the role as Indy even though he was in his late 70s/early 80s at that point. and put James Mangold in charge. There was no way Spielberg was going to direct another Indiana Jones movie after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and the backlash and ridicule that movie faced...mostly from the same people who hated and ridiculed the Star Wars prequels, and by that I mean bitter Gen Xers who didn't get exactly what they wanted and weren't willing accept those movies for they were and weren't willing to enjoy those movies for what they were or let others enjoy them for what they were. That's the best way to describe the folks at RedLetterMedia I believe. 

 

It was just that Chris Pratt was overexposed, and there was this sense that he was just going to be in everything, and be everyone. I remember Honest Trailers made a joke in their video on No Time to Die that Chris Pratt was going to be the next Bond because he was just getting cast as everybody it felt like. He was just a safe and bland option for Hollywood when it came to casting. An actor who seemed exciting and fresh at version, was now seen as bland and stale, and kind of irritating 😒. It's sort of the way people feel about actors like Glen Powell or Sydney Sweeney, who coincidentally starred in a movie together, Anyone But You. Which is how a lot of people felt about these actors, anyone but them. That's certainly how I feel about Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney. Now you hardly see Chris Pratt in anything anymore besides a crappy pro-AI propaganda piece, Mercy (2026), from the same people who gave us War of the Worlds (2025) starring Hollywood thespian, Ice Cube, giving the performance of a lifetime. I'm being sarcastic if you couldn't tell. So, people didn't like that he was cast as Mario, and already started out not having any faith in the movie whatsoever because of his involvement. 

 

And also the involvement of the animation studio, Illumination who a lot of people grew to dislike because of the overexposure and overuse of the Minions characters from the Despicable Me franchise. People hate Illumination because of the Minions, and the Minions movies that they started making around this time. People felt as if the Minions had completely hijacked the Despicable Me franchise and the entire company, as they focusing less and less on Gru and his adopted daughters, and the whole supervillain aspect that the first Despicable Me movie was centered around, and just made them about the Minions. Despicable Me 4 pretty much was a Minions movie, might as well have been. The Minions were what the marketing mostly focused on, pushing Gru and his daughters as well as the other characters within the Despicable Me franchise to sidelines, and they were even the protagonists. Gru wasn't the protagonist in Despicable Me 4, not really, the Minions were. 

 

I even saw a trailer for a new Minions movie when I saw The Super Mario Galaxy Movie called Minions & Monsters, which is about the Minions trying to find a bunch of monsters so that they can feature them in this movie they’re trying to make. I don’t know where this upcoming movie fits within the timeline because remember, all of the Minions movies up until this point have all been prequels, set decades before the events of the first Despicable Me movie. Showing what the Minions were up to before they met Gru and started working for him. This new one seems like it’ll be another prequel. That film camera 🎞️ they were using looked like an old timey film camera 🎥, and it looked very Old Hollywood. Not a single smartphone 📱 in sight. Gru, the kids, and Gru’s wife (I guess?) are also no where to be seen. So, I’m guessing that it still takes place in the past. 

 

It's a lot like what happened with the Rayman franchise and the introduction of the Rabbids. Once the Rabbids were introduced in the fourth Rayman game, Rayman Raving Rabbids, they kind of took over the franchise, launching their own spinoff series, Raving Rabbids. All of a sudden, the Rabbids were the only things that Ubisoft wanted to focus on as far as their child-friendly games were concerned. They didn't care about Rayman and his universe, his collection of characters, they just cared about these overcaffinated, hyperactive rabbit looking things 🐇. There's a reason why the Rabbids got a TV series and Rayman didn't, why they crossed over with Mario and Rayman didn't. Rayman did technically get an animated series, Rayman: The Animated Series, but it only had 4 episodes and was canceled soon after, and Rayman did appear in the second Mario + Rabbids game, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, but only as a DLC character, as part of a DLC expansion called Rayman in the Phantom Show.

 

He wasn't in the full game, and he didn't even get to meet Mario. Just the Rabbid version of him that was created in the first game after the Rabbids accidentally teleported to the Mario universe, and merged with certain aspects of the Mario franchise thanks to this device that was invited by a human girl ♀︎ and looked like a VR headset. The most attention Rayman has gotten outside of the games is the Netflix adult animated series, Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix, which features a lot of Ubisoft characters, including the ones for kids, in adult situations. And it's dark and it's edgy. It's based on the idea that seeing these cute video game mascot characters kill people, or cuss, or drink 🥃, or have sex, or whatever adult situation the writer can think is funny. It takes place in a dystopian future world where all these characters just happen to coexist with each other, and the plot has to do with taking down this authoritarian regime that has taken over, and made everything miserable for everybody. 

 

I don't know how big his role in that series, but his appearance in that show was cathartic for a lot of people, especially since part of his plotline in that series is him loosing him and going on a rampage, killing the powers that be that are holding him down. At least, that's what I got from the few clips of that series that I saw. Hopefully one day, Rayman will get his due, but not under the current leadership at Ubisoft. They just laid off a bunch of workers and canceled a bunch of project, as part of their company-wide adoption of AI. So yeah, Ubisoft isn't exactly led by the smartest or nicest people around. In fact, it's led by a bunch of idiots and assholes. No one likes Ubisoft anymore at this point, they're one of the most hated companies in gaming. The only companies more hated than them are EA and Activision-Blizzard. 

 

Speaking of the Rabbids though, I'm surprised that they weren't featured at all in this movie. Even the ones that look like Mario characters. When this movie went out of its way to feature all kinds of characters and Easter eggs outside of the Mario franchise. Pretty much everything that Nintendo currently owns. I mean, the Rabbids are owned by Ubisoft, and they probably didn't have the rights to feature them from Ubisoft, despite the Mario + Rabbids games being a thing, so that's probably why. Maybe they'll get the rights, and the third movie will be a Mario + Rabbids movie. If that happens, I kind of hope they replace the Minions with Rabbids in the Illumination logo, or they have the Minions fight the Rabbids. That would be pretty funny. Which annoying sidekick characters will come out on top? They both can't exist at the same time, they have to cancel each other out. Meaning that Rabbids and Minions would inevitably be in conflict with each other. Though if Universal and Illumination do get the rights to feature Ubisoft characters in the third Mario movie and it ends up being a Mario + Rabbids movie, I do hope that they do a Rayman movie before that, or that Rayman is actually featured in that movie, and gets to interact with Mario. Do what Sparks of Hope failed to deliver on. And I do think that there will be a third one because despite the negative reviews, this one still managed to be a financial success. It already broke multiple box office records. I'll get more into that shortly. 

 

They also didn't like some of Illumination's other film projects outside of the Despicable Me and Minions franchises, like the Sing franchise and the Secret Life of Pets franchise. They were always seen as the third string animation studio, not being as respected or admired as either Pixar or DreamWorks, who were both still the top dogs in the cinematic animation world at this time. But, they were still more respected than Sony Animation, until Sony made a name for itself with the Spiderverse films, and later, KPop Demon Hunters, which was one of the biggest movies of 2025. Certainly the biggest animated movie of 2025 that's for sure. Which is an excellent feat considering that it was a Netflix movie. KPop Demon Hunters was never released in theaters, it was a straight-to-streaming movie, a Netflix exclusive, and yet it became one of the greatest successes of the year. The biggest sleeper hit of 2025. I may not have any interest in the movie, but I can still admit that, and admire and respect that success. I mean, it bet out Red Notice was being the most watched movie on Netflix, that's a win in my book 👍, you earned my respect for that 🫡. KPop Demon Hunters is still so popular, that McDonald's recently did a meal for it, multiple meals for it in fact, two lunch/dinner meals and one breakfast meal as far as I can tell, a whole year after the movie released. That's the kind of longevity that most other movies nowadays (theatrical or streaming) can only dream of. 

But when they actually saw the movie, they actually liked. Really liked it in fact. The Super Mario Bros. Movie ended up becoming the second highest grossing movie of 2023. It would've been #1 if a certain other movie hadn't come out around the same year. I think you know which I'm talking about...Barbie (2023), the first half of Barbenheimer. It grossed $1.448 billion 💵, which is pretty impressive, I did not expect that movie to make as much money 💵 as it did, far from it in fact. The Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed an equally as impressive $1.360 billion 💵. The first movie of 2023 to do so. It was the first movie in 2023 (the first American movie 🇺🇸 in 2023 anyway) to gross over a billion dollars 💵. When Transformers, Marvel, and DC failed, these movies succeeded. The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Barbie (2023). As well as Oppenheimer (2023), which was the third highest grossing movie of 2023. And even though I said Marvel failed that year, that isn't entirely true. Marvel did release one successful movie that year, one ☝️: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Which is a movie I actually did see in theaters, and did actually like, until I rewatched it on Blu-Ray 💿, and the cracks started to show 😕. You can read my review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 if you want to know more about that. 

 

So, the movie was guaranteed a sequel, and people were actually excited for that sequel. Even the critics who initially hated the movie and gave it negative reviews when it came out were excited for this second one, especially when more details about it came out, and Nintendo, Universal, and Illumination released the first trailer and revealed that it was going to be a Super Mario Galaxy movie. Super Mario Galaxy is one of the most beloved games in the entire series. It's probably second or third only to Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario 64 in terms of how popular it was. It was a launch title for the Wii, and it sold well over 12.80 million copies. For haters of the previous mainline entry, Super Mario Sunshine ☀️, this game more than made up for it. It was popular enough to get its own dedicated sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2, in 2010, also for the Wii. Which no other Super Mario before or since has ever gotten. Still waiting on Super Mario Sunshine 2 ☀️, or at least, Super Mario Odyssey 2. It was even ported to the Switch along with Super Mario Galaxy 2 as part of the collection, Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2, which is still going for $62.00 💵 even a year after its release (or re-release rather since this is a re-release) since Nintendo games, first party titles, don't drop in price. The price they were at launch will be the same price they're sold at for the duration of its lifespan. That's why Princess Peach: Showtime! is still being sold at $59.00 💵, which of course rounds up to $60 💵 when taxes are factored in, even though that game's been out for more than two years at this point. But, I can afford it because I have money 💵 now thanks to my dad's lawsuit 😊. 

 

Admittedly, I was a bit disappointed that the second Mario movie wasn't based on Super Mario Sunshine ☀️ because I love that game, I think it's underrated and I think it's far too much hate than it truly deserves from the fanbase and seemingly Nintendo the company itself. I mean, it doe still feature story elements and characters from Super Mario Sunshine ☀️, including the Piantas from Isle Delfino. But it still doesn't take place there, and F.L.U.D.D. (Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device) isn't featured at all, even though I totally expected them to include it. I mean, you're telling me that they included R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy), a console accessory, but not F.L.U.D.D., an actual character from the Mario franchise? But, it does make sense that the second movie would be based around Super Mario Galaxy. Not just because it's a really popular game in the series, but they even tease it in the first movie, since Princess Peach mentions there being a whole universe of galaxies out there. You don't throw in a line like that unless going to base the next movie around Super Mario Galaxy if it's successful enough, which it was. The first movie was very successful, that's pretty much the only reason it got a sequel. With a really popular and beloved game as its basis, people were excited for this movie. They had high hopes. When I say that the hype for this movie was real, I mean it, and don't let any of the haters of this movie tell you any different in retrospect. 

 

Speaking of which, when the movie released, on Wednesday April 1, 2026 of all days, it was received pretty negatively. I wasn't entirely surprised that this movie received mostly negative reviews because critics didn't like the first one. I know there's a bit of revisionist history going on with some critics claiming that they always liked the first one, when the hype for this movie was going, but that's not true. Most critics hated the first one, and only changed their tune after it became popular, and fans for the most part embraced it, and of course when the hype for this movie began. They wanted to be apart of it. But, when the movie actually did come out, they hated it and gave it bad reviews just like they did the first one. The more honest ones will say that they hated the first one, but they changed their mind about it and started liking after rewatching it, which is the case with the guys ♂︎ at Double Toasted 🍞. And most of the negativity towards this movie is coming from critics as opposed to fans and moviegoers. If you look at the critic score on Rotten Tomatoes 🍅 and the audience score, you'll see that the audience score is much more favorable than the critic score. The critic score is currently at 43%, which is a rotten score, while the audience score is 89%, which is pretty much a fresh rating. The audience has a "Popcornmeter 🍿" instead of a "Tomatometer 🍅" like the critic score, but 89% is pretty good. It would be considered a fresh rating if it were a critic score. So, this is yet another movie with critics and audiences don't at all see eye-to-eye on a movie, and the audiences like the movie than the critics do. 

 

You just get this sense of "you shouldn't enjoy this," "you shouldn't enjoy a fun movie," and that's what this is, it's a fun movie that's fun for all ages. I say "all ages" instead "for the whole family" because plenty of adults who don't have families of their own, who don't have kids, who like these movies, both of them, who are fans of Mario and Nintendo. Is it mostly due to nostalgia, yes, but nostalgia and being nostalgic often gets a bad wrap, and because TwoDream's video on Frutiger Aero from a couple of years ago (back in 2024), I've gained a greater appreciation for nostalgia and I no longer feel shame about being nostalgic for certain things, and I try not shame other people for being nostalgic for certain things. The only time I think nostalgia becomes a negative thing is when companies, or especially politicians, try to weaponize nostalgia to achieve their own ends, whether it's for money 💵 or power, and in the case of companies in particular, they try to cash-in on nostalgia in the most lazy way possible. If you're going to appeal to nostalgia actually put some effort into it. Don't just do the bare minimum, give it your all, show you actually care even if you as a company actually don't. Make it seem like you care. So, if adults went to see this movie because they like Mario and they like Mario primarily due to nostalgia, that's fine in my book 👍. Don't be ashamed of feeling nostalgic for something that you like or liked as a kid. After all, nostalgia is just a reminder that life is worth living. 

 

I didn't watch or read any of the reviews before I saw the movie, because I didn't want all that negativity to ruin the experience for me, or cloud how I view the movie, but from what little that I've heard, the most common complaints about this movie seem to be that it's too fast paced, it's confusing, the plot doesn't make sense, and there are too Easter eggs and references to other Mario games and other Nintendo games. I know for sure that it's the latter one for Double Toasted 🍞, and specifically Martin. He's always complaining about video game movies that have too many Easter eggs and references that only fans of the games being adapted would get, but non-fans wouldn't get. And he's an older guy ♂︎, likely either his 50s or 60s, and he clearly doesn't play video games at all, so he often feels lost whenever he watches a video game movie, and he doesn't get any of the Easter eggs or the references. And sometimes Korey (who's a bit younger than Martin) is in agreement with him, and sometimes he's not. Korey tends to be a lot more lenient about this kind of stuff than Martin does. Martin will base his whole opinion on a movie, on whether or not it had Easter eggs or references and whether he personally understood them or not, and whether or not he found them to be intrusive or not. But oddly, this complaint only extends to video game movies. 

 

Whenever they review a comic book movie, whether it be a Marvel movie or a DC movie, they don't drive this point as harshly as they do when they talk about video game movies. Like, they're not constantly harping about Easter eggs or references whenever they review a comic book movie, specifically a superhero movie, and more specifically a Marvel or DC superhero movie. Probably because they themselves are comic book fans, they've read comic books before, they've read Marvel and DC when they were kids. So, even though comic book movies have as many Easter eggs, references, and fan service (not sexual stuff, but nods to fans, that's what I mean by "fan service," not the anime understanding of "fan service") as video game movies do, they understand a lot more of the references, Easter eggs, and they appreciate those nods, so they're okay with it. 

 

So, this is a case of someone watching a movie based on a medium they personally understand and liking it and getting something out of it, and then watching another movie based on a medium they don't understand and hypocritically calling it bad for having Easter eggs and references they don't get, even though they just praised that other movie for having the exact same thing. They just understood them, so it was okay. This is kind of the same reason why I didn't like JJ McCullough's Frutiger Aero video because it was so hypocritical in this way. It was him telling Gen Zers that their nostalgic aesthetic wasn't valid while his nostalgic aesthetic was. Frutiger Aero isn't real while Vaporwave is real, that was pretty much his video in a nutshell. It was the most intellectually dishonest I had ever seen. It reeked of the kind of superiority complex that some people of older generations have, where they think they're better and smarter than younger generations just they experienced a certain thing, or watched a certain thing, or played a certain thing. It made me swear off his content entirely because if he could get Frutiger Aero this fundamentally wrong, and generalize an entire generation that's younger than him and call them stupid for liking it, what else is he getting wrong? 

 

Plus he's pro-Israel 🇮🇱, there's that. When the war in Gaza was still going on, and was the talk of the Internet 🛜, he made a video about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 🇮🇱🇵🇸 where he really tried to seem as neutral, not taking a strong stance one way or the other. But if you watch older videos of him, you will find that he is pro-Israel 🇮🇱. He just won't admit it. Like he appeared on this news show, he was on a panel with multiple people, and the topic was on Israel 🇮🇱 and this recent attack that Hamas made against them, and he was saying all the things pro-Israel people 🇮🇱 say whenever the topic of Israel 🇮🇱 and Palestine 🇵🇸 comes up, basically that Israel 🇮🇱 has the right to defend itself and Hamas are a bunch of terrorists and they should be eradicated, and Israel 🇮🇱 is 100% justified in anything and everything they do. That was sentiment that you got from him when you watch that news segment. So yeah, don't let him fool you, he's pro-Israel 🇮🇱. If you're pro-Palestine 🇵🇸, you probably shouldn't watch his videos or financially support him in any way. I wrote a piece about him, where I talked about his Frutiger Aero video and why it made stop watching videos from on out if you're interested in reading that. 

 

Which I suppose is another generational difference that JJ unintentionally highlighted. Older generations tend to be more pro-Israel 🇮🇱 while younger generations tend to be more pro-Palestine 🇵🇸. Older generation still see Israel 🇮🇱 as an underdog or as a victim, and they've fallen for the Israelis' 🇮🇱 use of the Holocaust and the long historical persecution of Jews ✡️ to justify their actions towards the Palestinians 🇵🇸. Jews ✡️ were an oppressed and persecuted group for centuries, maybe even a millennia, a crazy Austrian guy 🇦🇹♂︎ tried to wipe them off the face of the Earth 🌍 during the largest war in human history...so far 🤨. Maybe they should have their own state 🤔. And most people of these older generations (Baby Boomers, Gen X, even older Millennials too some of them), just accepted it and didn't question it beyond, and they interpreted any attack on Israel 🇮🇱 as an attack on Jewish people ✡️, and they rooted for Israel 🇮🇱 in most cases as a result. Part of that was also due to the excellent propaganda that Israeli government 🇮🇱 produced and promulgated. 

 

No other state has been as good at using propaganda to achieve its political aims as Israel 🇮🇱, besides maybe Russia 🇷🇺 (the Soviet Union ☭ back then), China 🇨🇳, and of course the United States 🇺🇸. But, Israel 🇮🇱 became a master at it throughout the 20th century. They have one of the strongest lobbies in Washington DC that's been influencing US policy 🇺🇸 towards Israel 🇮🇱 for decades. Younger generations on the other hand, see Israel 🇮🇱 for what it is, an oppressive regime no different from Apartheid South Africa that is trying to steal land from an entire group of people who have just as much of a right to be there as they do, and are actively committing a genocide against them. Younger generations are not as easily swayed by Israel 🇮🇱's propaganda as older generations were, they see through it. 

 

That's why younger Millennials and Gen Z overwhelmingly turned against Israel 🇮🇱 once they started bombing Gaza following the October 7 attack, and launched a ground invasion of the territory. As well as blockading the territory, and preventing any humanitarian aid from getting in, pretty much starving the entire Palestinian population 🇵🇸 that was still living there. The ones who hadn't left, or hadn't died during Israel 🇮🇱's bombing campaign. Those propaganda tricks that Israel 🇮🇱 used to sway the older generations to their side, even when they were doing bad things, just didn't work on the younger generations because we have the Internet 🛜, and people were able to see the videos and what see what was really going on the ground in Gaza, and how Israel 🇮🇱 was conducting itself in this war. And what they saw was ugly, they didn't like it. They hated Israel 🇮🇱 😡, and wanted Israel 🇮🇱 to be held accountable for their actions, and for the US 🇺🇸 and other western countries to stop supporting them and giving them money 💵💷💶 and weapons. They didn't want their taxpayers' dollars 💵 to be used to fund a genocidal war, meant to eradicate an entire group of people and steal their land. 

 

I never had a problem with any of the Easter eggs or references in that movie, I never felt that they were intruding on the story, or were too in your face, or felt like they were just trying to show off their IP, to flex about all the properties they own, or trying to set up other movies, and this is coming from someone who didn't even understand all the reference. I'm a newer Mario fan, I'm a newer Nintendo fan, the only Mario game or Mario adjacent game I had played prior to getting my Switch 1 and playing Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker 🍄⛏️ for the first time was Super Mario Sunshine ☀️, even then, I didn't so much play it as I just watched my cousin play it. But, I still have a lot of fond memories surrounding that game. I reviewed Captain Toad 🍄⛏️ if you're interested in reading that and seeing what I had to say about that game. So there were certainly Easter eggs and references that I didn't understand or didn't understand fully, but I did have a passing knowledge of some of the stuff that this movie was showing, and it never once affected my enjoyment of the movie in a negative way. Most of the Easter eggs and references are in the background, and if they are in the foreground, if they are the focus of a shot, they're only on screen for a few seconds. 

 

Like, the Pikmin for example. The Pikmin are in this movie in a very brief scene, they're only really on screen for a few seconds, and then the movie just moves onto the story. They're in the spaceport scene where Mario and the gang are trying to find a way to the Space Junk Galaxy where Rosalina is being held prisoner by Bowser Jr., they're walking out of a tiny ship that looks to be Olimar's ship on a little ramp, they just landed there and they're disembarking. It's just a short few second scene, it doesn't interrupt the story or feel like it's trying to set something up later on, and the people who do get it will love it and the people who don't get it, won't care and they'll just keep watching the movie for the story. It would be like if in a Star Wars movie, they cut to shot of a random alien 👽 disembarking from their spaceship, and then they refocus on the main characters, it's that sort of thing. I don't know how you could be bothered by any of the references or Easter eggs in this movie. This movie did it in as little of an intrusive way as possible. 

 

It reminds me a lot of how the MonsterVerse handles a lot of the Easter eggs and references to past Godzilla movies, Mothra movies, or even King Kong movies since Kong is part of the universe too. Only these movies are a lot more direct with it, and that's due to them having the full keys to the kingdom and being able to work with any character they wanted, and Nintendo themselves were very heavily involved in the creative process. The movie literally says "Universal and Nintendo Present," so they're credited as if they're a movie studio or were the main creative forces behind this project, which they weren't, but they were one of the main ones. Whereas Legendary is limited by whatever characters Toho is willing to give them the rights to, which is not many, and Toho themselves really aren't involved in the creative process beyond that. I'm still not fully convinced that SpaceGodzilla will be the next villain in the next MonsterVerse movie, Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, which come out next year, in 2027, until I see a full trailer, and we actually see him. Then I'll believe. Again, I think it was more of a case of the critics not being fans of Mario, or Nintendo, or even video games in general, and not getting it, and passing judgment on the film because they didn't get it. It's a flaw that they didn't understand the Easter egg or reference in the film. 

 

Although, since I did mention the Pikmin here, the fact that they are here does raise some questions. Because remember, the Pikmin games take place on Earth 🌎, a future, possibly post-apocalyptic Earth 🌎 with no humans on it anymore, they all just disappeared. They either went extinct or they left. Either way, humans just aren't on the planet anymore, but they left all the shit behind for Olimar and the Pikmin to stumble upon and collect, as well as anyone else who lands or crash lands on this planet. Sure, they don't actually say that it's Earth 🌎 in any of the games (at least the ones that I've played), they refer to the planet as PNF-404, and they refer to it as an "Earth-like planet," but come on, it's clearly Earth 🌎. Those animated Pikmin shorts that they uploaded on almost all the official Nintendo YouTube channels including Nintendo of America 🇺🇸, make this more apparent since we see the Pikmin near cars and other construction equipment, and trying to open bottles that look very man-made. It's clearly not some alien planet. Sure, it's an alien planet to Olimar, but any planet that you land on that's not your own would be an alien planet to you. Like if we landed any of the exoplanets, they would be alien planets to us, but not to whatever species lived on there if any lived there at all. To them, we would be the aliens, we would be the invaders. That's what that movie, Battle for Terra was all about. 

 

It was always this cool bit of lore that the Pikmin games had, where the planet that they all take place, the planet where all of these characters land on and meet the Pikmin is actually our planet. It just so happens that life took a turn for the weird in humanity's absence, as we not only have the Pikmin which are unlike any organism that current exists today or existed in prehistoric times (as far as we know), but we all these other strange creatures that act as obstacles and hazards whenever the main character is on the planet trying to do their thing, with the Pikmin acting as their personal army and labor force. You get the sense from playing these games that evolution just went in a crazy direction after humanity disappeared and wasn't actively stunting the growth and development of other organisms. The only problem is that Mario and Luigi are from Earth 🌎. They're not from some alternate made up version of Earth 🌎, the city they're from isn't New Donk City. 

 

It's supposed to be our world that they're from, and it's supposed to be New York City, the real legit New York City (that Pauline is also the mayor of, at least in the first movie). And it looks present day, it looks like how the world looks today. So, how can the Pikmin be there if Mario and Luigi are from Earth 🌎 and humanity is still around? The only explanation that I can think is either the Pikmin are from a different universe since all the Nintendo characters exist within a multiverse as this movie establishes, that was the explanation for Fox McCloud 🦊 being there, or they're time travelers ⏱️ that traveled to the past for some reason when humanity was still around. Not that the Pikmin nor Olimar or any of the other alien characters 👽 from the Pikmin would even be able to recognize a human if they saw one, unless they actually went to Earth 🌎 when it was fully populated by humans, then they'd be like "what are these giants walking around?" Oh, and Olimar's name is derived from Mario's name, so is Louie's name derived from Luigi's name. They just took Mario's name, rearranged the letters a little bit and added an "L" to it. And Louie's not that complicated to know where it came out, they took Luigi and shortened it to Louie. Like, if you didn't want to call him Luigi, you could just call him Louie. And of course, their designs directly mirror that of Mario and Luigi, when Olimar being the short and stubby one just like Mario, and Louie being the tall and lanky one just like Luigu. Anytime you bring up Pikmin, you're pretty much obligated to say that. 

 

I also didn't really have a problem with the pacing. I never felt like the pacing was too fast, or the movie was moving around too quickly. I thought it moved it a steady pace, it was quick, but not too quick that you feel like the movie's rushing around, not giving anything any time to breathe or sync in with the audience. The movie did have slower quieter moments, it did have parts where the characters stopped to take a breather and have a conversation. It wasn't just them traveling to another galaxy constantly or fighting bad guys, they did have calmer talkier bits too. I never understood that complaint. I also don't understand the complaint that the movie is hard to follow, that some people apparently found it difficult to keep track of how the characters get from place-to-place, and the plot was hard for them to understand and is too complicated. I found the movie to be pretty easy to follow, and I never had any trouble keeping track of how the characters got from each galaxy to the next. And what's this about the plot being too complicated? The plot is actually pretty simple. 

 

Bowser Jr. kidnaps Rosalina, the Lumas ask Princess Peach for help, her and Toad 🍄 answer the call and go out into the cosmos to try to find Rosalina and rescue her, while Mario and Luigi stay in the Mushroom Kingdom 🍄 to look after the castle, guard Bowser Sr. to make sure he doesn't get out, and take care of the Toads 🍄 because they're pretty much incapable of taking care of themselves and they're always asking for help for even the most mild things imaginable. But then Bowser Jr. shows up, in an attempt to free his father from prison, Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi manage to thwart his attempt, but they and Bowser Sr. all end up in space and are inadvertently pulled into the adventure, and join Princess Peach and Toad 🍄 in their attempt to save Rosalina. Meanwhile, the two Bowsers reunite, and Bowser Jr. manages to corrupt his dad and his dad very quickly reverts back to his evil ways. 

 

So now there are two villains, Bowser Jr. and Bowser Sr., but really Bowser Jr. is really more of the main villain than Bowser Sr. is. Bowser Sr. is kind of just a secondary villains, since he starts being kind of reformed thanks to the rehabilitation he's been placed under while in prison, and then when he reunites with his son, his son corrupts him and he pretty much reverts back to his old ways. Undoing any rehabilitation he may have experienced while in prison. And really, the meat of the story is just them trying to rescue Rosalina from the Bowsers and preventing them using her as a power source to power their new planet, Planet Bowser, which Bowser Jr. created using the junk that was lying around the Space Junk Galaxy. He basically turned the Space Junk Galaxy into a planet, he took all the junk that was in the Space Junk Galaxy and built a planet out of it. And of course the movie does acknowledge the romance ❤️ between Mario and Princess Peach and fully leans into it, whereas the first movie just kind of alluded to it but mostly kept them platonic for the entirety of the movie that they were together. I wonder if the third movie will introduce Princess Daisy so that Luigi won't feel left out in terms of having a love interest ❤️. I mean if Mario can date a princess, why can't Luigi? 

 

Needless to say, if you had trouble understanding that kind of plot, then that says a lot more about you and your media literacy than it does about the film itself. But those are the critic complaints, but critics weren't the only ones who didn't like this movie and had things to complain about. Even some fans didn't like this movie. I don't know what their gripes were, but I know some of them didn't like it. I bet the fans that did complain complained about the same things the critics complained, which as I've explained don't really make sense to me and I don't agree with. But you know what? There were fans who didn’t like the first one. So, again it’s not surprising to me at all that this movie got the reaction that it did from both critics and some fans (not all, just some) since the first movie pretty much got the same reaction. Majority of critics hated, some fans didn’t like it, but general audiences enjoyed it and turned in droves to see it. The first one made a billion dollars 💵 worldwide, and this one too is financial success. It’s already the second highest grossing movie of 2026, the highest grossing animated film of the year so far, and it’s broken a bunch of other box office records. So it’s pretty assured that there will be a third movie, whether the haters like it or not. Clearly there is an audience for these movies that’s turning out to see these movies each time one of them comes out, and they clearly enjoy it, and I’m part of that audience because I like this movie. I like it as much as I liked the first one. That’s why I think a third film is inevitable. 

 

If a movie’s a success, it’ll get a sequel, and if that sequel is also successful, and there will usually be another one. That’s why Transformers: The Last Knight got made because Transformers: Age of Extinction was a success, Age of Extinction only got made Transformers: Dark of the Moon 🌑 was a success, Dark of the Moon 🌑 only got made because Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was a success, and Revenge of the Fallen only got made because Transformers (2007) was a success. Each film within the Michael Bay Transformers series (referred to some people as Bayformers) only got made because of the previous film’s success, and it’s mostly the same story with these animated Mario movies by Illumination. I didn’t just make that comparison because the Michael Bay Transformers movies are currently on my mind, I also made it because like those movies, the Illumination Mario movies are also hated by critics (including wannabe critics) but loved by audiences. Majority of audiences anyway. You know, until a couple of years later, when the hype cycle for the next Illumination Mario movie begins, and then all those critics who hated on the last one will all of a sudden change their tune about the previous movie so that they can join the hype train for the next one. Wanna bet that critics and other naysayers will do the same thing with this movie when the third one comes out, or is about to come out? 

 

But, since I mentioned Revenge of the Fallen, even though the movie was a success despite all the negativity and criticisms it has received, and I generally don't agree with any of the criticisms levied towards this movie, I do sort of think we're going to see something similar to what we saw after the release of Revenge of the Fallen, where the filmmakers and the studio will acknowledge the criticism toward the movie and will begrudgingly voice agreement towards it and will apologize for the second movie being so bad and promise to make the inevitable third movie better. Even if they don't fundamentally change anything about the movie when they make the third. Although, Dark of the Moon 🌑 is actually pretty different from Revenge of the Fallen, it looks different, has a different tone and temperament from Revenge of the Fallen, and even the humor is slightly different. The humor in Dark of the Moon 🌑 in general is less juvenile compared to Revenge of the Fallen, which relied heavily on sex jokes and toilet humor 🚽.  

 

Revenge of the Fallen is actually a pretty horny film, it's probably the horniest film in the Michael Bay Transformers series, there's a lot of humping. There's dogs 🐕 humping and there's a Transformer humping. Wheelie humps Mikaela's leg when he switches sides to the Autobots. Even Sam says that Wheelie's a bit perverted for doing that. One could make the argument that the horniness works in Revenge of the Fallen's favor because it's the awkward college middle child, you know, it's about Sam going to college, and college students are horny and like to fuck. Especially the ones fresh out of high school, their hormones are still out of wack, and their horniness is off the charts. So, it makes sense for Revenge of the Fallen to have this more juvenile frat boy humor ♂︎. Though, a counterargument would be that it was too much, and they probably should've dialed it back since this was still movie based on a toyline for kids, and a lot of kids were watching it. This is why I think Michael Bay is more at home directing R rated movies than he is PG-13 movies, which these Transformers movies had to be because you know, Hasbro still wanted kids to watch them and buy the toys. 

 

But, Michael Bay and the screenwriters (all of them, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Ehren Kruger, who wrote Dark of the Moon 🌑 and Age of Extinction solo) really pushed that PG-13 rating as far as it would go, both in terms of humor and violence. These are hard PG-13 movies. I mean, Dark of the Moon 🌑 did have some gay jokes ⚣ and literal toilet humor 🚽 here and there, especially during the scenes involving Jerry Wang AKA Deep Wang played by Ken Jeong, but those are much fewer and farther between than the sex jokes and toilet humor 🚽 in Revenge of the Fallen. I would say the comedy in Dark of the Moon 🌑 is much more slapsticky compared to Revenge of the Fallen, it's probably the most slapsticky of all the Michael Bay Transformers movies. 

 

You got Sam kicking his car in frustration 😡 after the engine won't start, you got Sam doing prat falls, rolling around, contorting his body in weird ways when he has that Decepticon watch on his wrist, controlling and forcing him to go along with Dylan's plan, and he loses all coordination of his body as he tries to fight the influence of the watch, you got Sam wrestling a NEST soldier after he refuses to let him into the NEST base to warn about the Decepticons and he triggers an Energon detector because Wheelie and Brains are both in the car with him and Carly, you got Bruce Brazos (John Malkovich's character) messing around with Bumblebee 🐝 after he learns Sam's secret following Laserbeak's attack on the Accuretta office, and comes to his house wanting to see one of the Transformers, the Cybertronians (which is the actual species name of the Transformers, they're called Cybertronians since they hail from Cybertron, and their language is called Cybertronian). Even the Jerry Wang scenes have plenty of slapstick, like when Jerry steals Sam's jacket as a way of getting him to follow him into the bathroom, and then he wrestles Sam and shoves him into the stall and then jumps on his lap. Even when he dies, when Laserbeak kills him, it's played up for laughs 🤣, like when Laserbeak is pushing him towards the window and he screams 😱 and then he's falling and he's screaming 😱 as he zooms right past the window, startling Brazos while he's in a meetings. 

 

But, besides those differences, there isn't that much fundamentally different between Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon 🌑. They are still Michael Bay Transformers movies. Sure, Dark of the Moon 🌑 is a bit darker and has different humor than Revenge of the Fallen, but it's not that much darker and the humor isn't that much different. It's not as if they got a different director or writer, they still had the same director and one of the same writers. There wasn't a radically stylistic change like when they got Travis Knight to direct Bumblebee 🐝 or Steven Caple Jr. to direct Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Stylistically, they are very much the same, or they're similar. You can tell that they were made by largely the same people, and there was a lot of carryover, whereas there wasn't much carryover between Transformers: The Last Knight and Bumblebee 🐝, or even Bumblebee 🐝 and Rise of the Beasts. I would say that the difference stylistically between Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon 🌑 is that Dark of the Moon 🌑 is more refined. 

 

It's a more refined version of what Revenge of the Fallen was. While Revenge of the Fallen is a lot more chaotic and wild, and aggressive, perhaps even vicious in some ways, Dark of the Moon 🌑, while still being chaotic, is much more measured and controlled. Most of the chaos is restricted to just the action scenes and the comedic bits, but everything else is a lot more calmer and reserved. While, in Revenge of the Fallen, everything is chaotic, even what are supposed to be calmer talkie scenes. I'm not making an argument about which one is better, some people (a lot of people actually) would argue that the Dark of the Moon 🌑 approach, but I do like both and I think you can make a case for both. You could say the Revenge of the Fallen felt like it was made by Decepticons, while Dark of the Moon 🌑 felt like it was made by Autobots. The first one, Transformers (2007) felt like it was made by humans, which is fitting since that movie is an introduction to the Transformers. Not just for the human characters in the story, but also us the audience. 

 

Each film in the trilogy (prior to either Age of Extinction or The Last Knight), is reflective of each factor. Transformers (2007) is the human factor, Revenge of the Fallen is the Decepticon factor, and Dark of the Moon 🌑 is the Autobot factor. These are all things that I will talk about more in-depth when I eventually re-review all the Michael Bay Transformers movies on this blog. Well, technically I haven't actually reviewed the first movie from 2007, the one that even the most strident naysayers will say they like, they'll give you that one, it'll be my first time reviewing anywhere, but I have written reviews of the other ones. Even if I haven't seen The Last Knight, I still wrote a review of it, which is why I want to redo. I want to watch it first before I actually form an opinion, which is something I didn't do in my original review. Maybe I'll do it next year since that'll be the 20th anniversary of the first movie, which is just crazy to me. I saw that movie as a kid, and I can't it's already going to be 20 years old next year 🤯. 

 

So, what I think you'll likely see with this movie is the filmmakers, the studio, and even Nintendo saying something along the lines of, "Hey, look, we know people didn't like The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and we're deeply sorry. We’re sorry that we disappointed our fans. It wasn't our best work, we know could've done better, and we owe it you, the fans, to make it up to you. We promise the next one will be even better. It'll be the best film of the entire trilogy." Except unlike Revenge of the Fallen, they don't have a writer's strike 🪧 that they can blame the movie's perceived mistakes on. I actually don't know for sure if the movie was written during the writer's strike 🪧 or any of the other strikes 🪧 that took place in 2023, when the first movie came out. It could've been, I just don't know, since we know so little about this movie's production at this time other than what Universal, Illumination, and Nintendo were willing to divulge. If I end up being wrong on that, I'll be more than willing to admit it, but I have a pretty good chance that will be the response from the filmmakers, the studio, and Nintendo, saying they went too far in a few places, and that the third movie will be better because they want people to watch the third movie when it comes out, as well as the Donkey Kong spinoff movie that they've already announced, and the Star Fox 🦊 movie that they've no doubt put into development or are about to. 

 

That's the next thing I would like to address about this movie, and is probably one of the main complaints people have made about this movie: the inclusion of Fox McCloud 🦊 from the Star Fox 🦊 franchise. It plays into the complaint that people made that I talked about earlier about the movie having too many references and Easter eggs to other Nintendo properties outside of the Mario franchise, and them feeling that Nintendo was just flexing, using this movie to show off all the properties that they own, and treating this movie like a commercial to advertise these other properties. They felt that this was no longer a movie, it was a commercial for Nintendo. Kind of like what Warner Bros. did with Space Jam: A New Legacy, the long awaited sequel to the 1996 animation/live action hybrid classic, Space Jam. They basically turned it into a commercial for Warner Bros., and used it as a way to promote all of the other properties that Warner Bros. currently owns outside of Looney Tunes, which is what Space Jam is supposed to be. They're supposed to be Looney Tunes movies. 

 

But, Warner Bros. lost sight of that, and just decided to flex and show all the properties they own or owned since that movie came out in 2021. That's why A New Legacy mostly takes place in the so-called "Warner Bros. Serververse," so that LeBron James and the Looney Tunes can travel to these other severer worlds that are just other properties that Warner Bros. owns like Harry Potter, DC, Mad Max, Austin Powers, even The Matrix. Then they could have other Warner Bros. characters show up at the end, and watch the basketball match 🏀 between LeBron and the Looney Tunes' team and the villain, Al-G Rhythm's team. That's why A New Legacy was hated so much, and was not as well received as the first Space Jam, even though the first Space Jam wasn't received that well by critics at the time it came out. 

 

That movie has the reception that it does, and is remembered as fondly as it is primarily due to nostalgia. Because the kids who grew up with Space Jam are adults now and have spending money 💵 (most of them anyway), and Warner Bros. thought that they could exploit that nostalgia and churn out a product that not only catered to their nostalgia for that first movie while also promoting their other properties and hopefully convince people to subscribe to HBO Max, which changed its name to Max, and then changed its name back to HBO Max because no body liked the name change and just kept calling it HBO Max anyway; kind of like what happened when Elon Musk bought Twitter 🐦 and changed the name to X, no body actually calls it X unironically, they just call it Twitter 🐦. But, it didn't work, people saw through facet, they could clearly see what Warner Bros. was doing, and rightfully saw it as corporate greed 🤑. 

 

That's what a lot of people, particularly critics but also some fans as well, felt that Nintendo was doing with this movie, they felt that it was just corporate greed 🤑 and not creating a product for creative artistic reasons for marketing purposes, to promote their properties. They felt that it was just IP (intellectual property) being regurgitated back at them. They also felt that Nintendo was exploiting people's nostalgia because over the decades, they've managed to cultivate an adult fanbase that is loyal to them, and will buy whatever Nintendo sells them, regardless of whatever it costs, and whether or not it's actually good. Kind of like what you see with adult fans of Disney, the so-called "Disney adults," only these people would be called "Nintendo adults." These kinds of people came under criticism and ridicule after the release of the Switch 2, which gamers felt was way overpriced for what it was and what games were available on the console, and even the games themselves were way overpriced. Still are since Nintendo first party games don't drop in price like other games by other studios and publishers. 

 

And I spent the majority of this review talking about how I don't agree with a lot of those criticisms, and I never felt that the references or Easter eggs were too in your face or interfered with the story in any way. Only Fox 🦊, it is very much in your face. He's not just a character who's kept to the background and can be easily be forgotten or missed, he's an actual main character. They gave him a character poster and everything, which I don't think they should've done, I think they should've kept that one a little bit closer to the chest, and waited until the movie came out to reveal that Fox 🦊 was in the movie, that way people would actually be surprised when they saw him 🤯. I knew going in that Fox McCloud 🦊 was going to be in the movie because I saw the character poster for him that I just mentioned while I was on IMP Awards looking for posters to download for this review. I just didn't know to what extent that he would be in the movie, I didn't know he was going to be an actual main character that was actually going to join the adventure to save Rosalina. I didn't know that he'd be a participant in the story. I also didn't know that his name was Fox McCloud 🦊, I thought his name was actually Star Fox 🦊 because I'm not a Star Fox 🦊 fan. I've never played any of the games, and I really don't know anything about these characters. The only thing I knew about Star Fox 🦊 was the whole "barrel roll" thing, which this movie references at least twice, and is something that pretty much everyone knows even if they've never played a Star Fox 🦊 game in their entire lives like I haven't. 

 

I felt like, while I was watching, that Fox 🦊 was only here so that they could possibly set up a potential Star Fox 🦊 movie. They do kind of set up that possibility in the movie, by not only making him a main character and helping him help Mario and the others save Rosalina from the Bowsers, but also explaining where he came from and why he's here. They basically explain that he's from a different universe than the one that Mario and the gang exist in, and while he was flying out in space with his other comrades, he somehow got pulled into a wormhole, and ended up in Mario's universe. And he's been trying to get back ever since. But, he stops his journey to get back home just for a little to help Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad 🍄, and Yoshi find Rosalina and free her from her captors before its too late. 

 

But, it didn't bother me at all that he was here like it clearly did for some people. For me, Fox 🦊 being in this movie, and being a main character was like Donkey Kong being in the first movie and being in that. No body really seemed to have a problem with that, but all of a sudden have a problem with Fox 🦊 being here. I already know what the rebuttal to that will be, people say, "Well we didn't have a problem with Donkey Kong because he is so intrinsically tied to the Mario franchise, Mario has his origins in Donkey Kong, the very first Donkey Kong game. Pauline was Mario's first love interest ❤️ before Princess Peach. Fox McCloud 🦊 has no prior connection to the Mario series, and is just here because Nintendo wanted to flex and promote all of the other properties that they own." To that I say, yes, Donkey Kong does have prior connections to Mario, but he still has his own series separate from Mario, and he really didn't need to be in the first movie. There's no rule that says that Donkey Kong must be in every Mario movie, there just isn't. 

 

So really, how is that any different from putting Fox McCloud 🦊 in this movie? Plus I like crossovers, I like it when characters from one franchise meet characters from another. So, I had no problem with his presence whatsoever. If they ever do make a Star Fox 🦊 movie, if the negative reaction to this movie doesn't kill any plans they have for one, it's either going to be a prequel showing what Fox 🦊 was doing before he got transported to Mario's universe and met Mario and the gang, and helped them out on their adventure, or it's going to be a sequel, taking place after the events of this movie, and show him returning to his universe and reuniting with his friends and comrades, and helping them deal with whatever threat the Lylat System (which is the main setting that the Star Fox 🦊 games take place in) is facing at that time. 

 

Either way, I would watch it if they made one. Star Fox 🦊 looks to be sci-fi space adventure with lots of spaceships and space combat, and I like that kind of stuff. I would honestly like to see this in a movie rather than having to play it as a game, even though I would be open to playing a Star Fox 🦊 game if any of the older ones were available for the Switch (or the Switch 2), or if a new Star Fox 🦊 game was made. And what they show of him in this movie, I like Fox 🦊 as a character. He kind of reminded of Rocket Raccoon 🦝 from Guardians of the Galaxy, he's the original Rocket Raccoon 🦝 because remember, Fox 🦊 and the other characters in Star Fox 🦊 predate the current Guardians of the Galaxy team. The ones people usually think of whenever they think of Guardians of the Galaxy. 

 

Rocket Raccoon 🦝, Groot, Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Gamora, and Drax, none of those character existed until 2008 when Guardians of the Galaxy was rebooted in the comics. And of course, when it came time to make a Guardians of the Galaxy movie for the MCU, they based it around this newer team rather than the older team that was from the original Guardians of the Galaxy comics in the 1970s, which featured Yondu, which was featured as a supporting character in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie and a main character in the second. Fox 🦊 is pretty much the fun rogue type that became common in sci-fi space movies after Star Wars and the introduction of Han Solo in the very first film, which was just called Star Wars back in day, but was renamed Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope in 1981 for its first theatrical re-release, and that includes Rocket Raccoon 🦝. His and Groot’s relationship and dynamic is very similar to than of Han and Chewbacca’s (you know, Chewie), and that was 100% intentional, I guarantee it. Even this movie couldn't resist having one by introducing him here. And much like Han, Fox 🦊 might get his own movie someday, if Universal, Illumination, and Nintendo don't change their plans in response to the negative reaction to this movie. 

 

It's probably my favorite thing that Glen Powell has ever done, this is probably favorite role from him, and even though I really don't like Glen Powell (especially as a person) and I'm tired of seeing him in everything, I do have to give him this one. He did do a good job voicing Fox 🦊. And you know what? Brie Larson did a good job voicing Rosalina too. I wasn't sure how she was going to voice Rosalina, if she would voice her in that same kind of monotone voice that she's associated with because of her role as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel in the MCU, would you even be able to tell that it was her? Would she be the weakest link in the voice cast? I was really hope she wouldn't be and she did a good job as Rosalina because Rosalina is my favorite character in the Mario franchise. She's certain my favorite Mario princess besides Princess Peach obviously. But luckily, she did a good job. She knocked it out of the park, did that character in my opinion. Even if she really isn't in that movie that much, and spends most of it in imprisoned. 

 

But you know, what? Rosalina spent most of Sparks of Hope being possessed by Cursa, a leftover of the Megabug anomaly from Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (the first Mario + Rabbids game) that mutated and evolved into its own entity, so I didn't have a problem with that. It is much in line with the classic Mario formula, where you have a princess who's a damsel-in-distress, and one of the Mario brothers, usually Mario himself, has to go save her. Only this time, you have another princess joining the fray to save her, though some of the newer games have started doing that as well. Although here in this movie, she's the one that initiates it, not Mario or Luigi. Mario and Luigi are kind of just along for the ride in a lot of ways in this movie, Princess Peach is the real hero here, she's the real leader. She really took charge. And this is arguably her story. 

 

If the first movie was more of Mario and Luigi's story, then this movie is more of Princess Peach's story. I really do like the movie version of Princess Peach. That was one of upgrade or change to the source material that I liked and thought worked out perfectly. Peach is just so much more of a dynamic and interesting character now. It almost makes you wish that they made a Princess Peach movie just so that we can see more of this version of this character, going on a completely solo adventure without either of the two plumbers 🪠, Mario or Luigi. And I surprised at what they decided to do with her and Rosalina's relationship. I wasn't sure if they were going to have a relationship at all going in or if this was going to be their first time meeting. But no, they do actually have a prior relationship with each other, and they made Rosalina a key part of Princess Peach's backstory. Because, in these movies at least, Rosalina is Princess Peach's older sister 😱. They were both created in the stars, and then got separated when evil forces tried to take Rosalina's power and use it for themselves. You might say that's a bit cliché, and it is, it's the oldest trick in the book, but I didn't have a problem with it here. I don't mind that the movie versions of Princess Peach and Rosalina at least are sisters. In fact, I actually think it worked. It gave both characters more depth, and it gave Princess Peach more of a reason to rescue her, and it explains why Rosalina specifically sought her out, why she wanted her help specifically instead of, Princess Daisy or something. 

I couldn’t even tell that was her voicing it. Like you could easily watch this movie without even knowing that Brie Larson voiced Rosalina. Some of you reading this are probably surprised that it was her 🤯. But, I still think she did a good job. She brought an energy, a joy, a happiness, and a passion that you really don’t see in a lot of her recent roles post-Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel really changed the way she performed roles, and it changed the way she’s perceived. Largely thanks to the anti-SJW/anti-woke backlash towards that movie 😒. But, whatever those people were trying to achieve by making such a fuss about that movie failed since it ended up making $1.131 billion 💵 anyway, which many people (who are not anti-SJWs or anti-woke) attribute to the movie being released in between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. But so was Ant-Man and the Wasp 🐜, and that movie didn’t make a billion. So it had to have been something more than to explain why Captain Marvel made so much money 💵. 

 

But, me not being able to recognize her was actually a good thing because it meant I was able to get into the character and see her as the character and not as Brie Larson. Far too many times when you have celebrity voice actors in an animated movie, you just hear the celebrity, you don’t hear the character. But here, you just heard the character. It was the same thing for me about Jack Black as Bowser Sr., I liked him because you couldn't really tell it was him, and he disappeared into the role, at least I thought so. I know me not being able to recognize Glen Powell in the role as Fox McCloud 🦊 played a key role in me liking him. I didn't even know Glen Powell voiced Fox 🦊 until I started writing this section of the review. 

 

I think if I had known it was him going into it, it would've negatively painted my perception of that character. I wouldn't have liked him nearly as much if I knew Glen Powell doing the voice, because of my bias against Glen Powell. I do not like Glen Powell, therefore I'm inclined to not like any character he plays. That's why I'm hesitant to see J. J. Abram's next movie because he's in it. BTW J. J. Abram's next movie is called The Great Beyond. It's not called Ghostwriter anymore, that was just the working title, just like how Apex was the working title for Godzilla vs. Kong and Cheese 🧀 was the working title for Cloverfield, which J. J. Abrams produced. Glen Powell is going to be in that movie alongside Jenna Ortega, Samuel L. Jackson, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, and Merritt Weaver. I actually wouldn't mind seeing Brie Larson did play Samus Aran in a live action Metroid movie if one was ever made now after seeing her voice Rosalina in this movie. She's been wanting to play this role for a long time, she's actively campaigned for it. Well now she's voiced Rosalina in a Mario movie, she has her foot in the door now in terms of Nintendo movies, so she could probably do it. 

 

But, for as big of a deal they made out of Fox McCloud 🦊 and put him at the forefront of this movie, I was surprised that this movie, or even the first movie, didn't feature any references to The Legend of Zelda, which is Nintendo's second flagship franchise besides Mario. It's way more popular than Star Fox 🦊 or Pikmin, which are both smaller cult franchises, meaning they're franchises that aren't as popular as Mario, but do have a strong dedicated cult following. Though Star Fox 🦊 is certain more popular than Pikmin, or it was until a couple of years ago, when Pikmin 4 came out and brought Pikmin much more into the mainstream. Pikmin became more popular because of that game. While Star Fox 🦊 just faded into obscurity due to a lack of big new titles, new entries that excite older fans and most importantly, bring in new people. 

 

There hasn't been a new Star Fox 🦊 game since 2017, and even then that wasn't technically a new game. It was an old game that developed in the early 1990s, but didn't get an official release until the late 2010s on the Super NES Classic Edition. It just has that same small dedicated fanbase that carried it over from the 1990s up until now. This movie was probably Fox McCloud 🦊's most mainstream appearance in anything since Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. This movie was probably a lot of people's introduction to him, whether people want to admit that or not. Pikmin also has the edge over Star Fox 🦊 because of the cuteness factor. People find the Pikmin cute, they find the alien visitors 👽 (the protagonists and sometimes antagonists of these game), and they even find the creatures that Pikmin face to be cute. 

 

The Pikmin games put a lot more emphasis on cuteness than the Star Fox 🦊 games do, though not as much as the Animal Crossing 🐶 games, which are pretty much just cuteness. That reminds me 🤔, that's another franchise that was also not referenced or had any Easter eggs lying around in this movie. You'd think there would be since Animal Crossing 🐶 is a Nintendo property, it's one of Nintendo's most popular franchises (especially among girls ♀︎ and women ♀︎ who are just there for the cuteness and apparently cozy atmosphere), it's kid friendly, and Animal Crossing 🐶 characters have appeared in Mario games, namely the Mario Kart 🏎️ games, which are, as far as I can tell, non-canon entries that really don't affect the mainline entries in the wider Mario series, which are usually labeled as Super Mario games. But for whatever reason, no Animal Crossing 🐶 characters were featured in this movie, not even sort brief cameo roles or background extras, and Easter eggs to the Animal Crossing 🐶 games were featured either. Maybe they're saving them for the inevitable third movie. 

 

But The Legend of Zelda is a popular franchise. It's the only franchise that Nintendo has that can actually stand toe-to-toe with Mario in terms of popularity. Whenever a new Nintendo console comes out, those are always the two are waiting for: a new Mario game and a new Zelda game. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was one of the best selling games of the Switch 1, and is easily the best-selling Zelda game of all time. It truly is a juggernaut on par with Mario, sometimes even surpassing Mario, which Breath of the Wild kind of did. Super Mario Odyssey kicked ass, but Breath of the Wild arguably kicked more ass. It got people who normally don't play Zelda games and aren't Zelda fans to actually play it, that's a feat in and of itself. Not even every game that's apart of a long running franchise can do that, but Breath of the Wild did it almost effortlessly. 

 

And yet, for some reason, these Mario haven't referenced Zelda at all, or left any Zelda Easter eggs along the way for Zelda fans and Nintendo fans to go out and find, even though like with Animal Crossing 🐶, Zelda characters have been featured in Mario games, namely the Mario Kart 🏎️ games. Mostly, Link but still, he was featured. No Pikmin character or Star Fox 🦊 have been featured in Mario Kart 🏎️ games, and yet they still got to be in this movie. That's something. Again, maybe they're waiting until the third movie to do any Zelda references or Easter eggs, or feature any Zelda characters. Or maybe they're holding back on references, Easter eggs, and cameos because they want do their own Zelda film series that's completely separate from these animated Mario movies. Perhaps in live action, and they don't want it to be so kiddie. Mario is the kiddie stuff, whereas Zelda will be its own thing and will be more for teens and adults, even though plenty of teens and adults play Mario games and watch these Mario movies. 

 

It's largely the same story with Metroid I think. There have been attempts at making a Metroid movie, particularly one in live action. Probably most high profile and well known is John Woo's attempt at making one. He had just broken into Hollywood after making such films as Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face/Off, and Mission: Impossible 2, and this was to be his biggest project yet. His second franchise movie after Mission: Impossible 2 and his first video game movie. But that project fell through for whatever reason, Nintendo kind of backed away from the idea of making any film based on one of their properties, not just Metroid. But now, after the newfound success with these two Mario movies, I think Nintendo will probably want to take another crack at making a Metroid movie. 

 

Probably one in live action because there haven't been any references to Metroid in either of these two Mario movies, and they probably want to keep these two franchises separate because Metroid is generally not as kid-friendly as the Mario games, they're more for teens and adults, and the Metroid characters really haven't crossed paths with the Mario characters outside of the Super Smash Bros. series. They probably wouldn't have any trouble with casting since Brie Larson has been campaigning to play Samus in a Metroid movie, she's a huge Metroid fan, and a huge Nintendo fan in general, and she now has a relationship with Nintendo because of this movie. So I think there's a pretty good chance that she'd get the part. I don't know who you would choose to direct it though. It would've been interesting to see that John Woo version just to see his take on it given he has such a unique style that some would probably say doesn't fit a Metroid movie. But I would've been willing to give him a chance. 

 

And if not him, I would've said Alex Proyas (the director of such movies as The Crow 🐦‍⬛ (1994), Dark City, I, Robot, Knowing, and Gods of Egypt 🇪🇬) because of that live action commercial for Metroid Prime (the original on GameCube) he directed, and nailed the atmosphere for a more horror-based Metroid movie. But nowadays, I really don't know. Probably not Chris Stuckmann, even though he said in an interview with Collider for his debut feature, Shelby Oaks that he wanted to direct one. I'm sure a suitable director will pop up somewhere, I just don't know who, when, or where. But, given how successful these Mario movies have been, I'm sure Nintendo will want to capitalize on their success and adapt more of their properties into movies as soon as possible. Regardless of who directs it however, it'll still probably be PG-13. Even if it would be catered more to adults, there's no way Nintendo would allow a Metroid movie to be rated R. And that's fine, it's not like any of the Metroid games have been M rated, they've all been T rated. At least, all of the Metroid Prime games have been. So, PG-13 would be a perfect rating for a live action Metroid movie. 

 

The only thing resembling a complaint that I have about this movie is that it ends too abruptly. Like, after they defeat the Bowsers, Mario and the gang (Rosalina included) return to the Mushroom Kingdom 🍄 because they want to show Rosalina and the other Lumas Princess Peach's castle 🏰 only to find Princess Peach's castle 🏰 missing because of what happened earlier in the movie with Bowser Jr. trying to free his dad. He used his ship's tractor bream to lift the castle 🏰 up from its foundation, and then carried it into space, only Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi to dislodge it from the ship's tractor beam, and it crashes into some other galaxy that's controlled by these bee-looking things 🐝 and is covered flowers 🌺 and vegetation. Princess Peach gives Mario and Luigi this disapproving look, they give her a nervous look, knowing that they messed up, and Mario promises that they'll fix the castle 🏰. Then it shows them starting construction (or reconstruction rather) on Princess Peach's castle 🏰, and then it just ends. We don't even find out what happens with the two Bowsers after they were defeated, or what happens to Fox 🦊. Fox 🦊 just disappears once they leave Bowser's Planet and go back to the Mushroom Kingdom 🍄. 

 

There's no epilogue, there's no time given for the audience to decompress and process what just happened for the past hour or so. I like movies that have epilogues, or at least show us what happens after the main events of the film are done. I'm not saying we need to see the character return home or do mundane stuff, just something that shows that the story is over, and the characters are decompressed and resting after what just happened. Especially if it's a very action heavy movie, which this movie is. That way the audience too can have a breather and start decompressing before the credits start roll, and they leave the theater. It's kind of letting your stomach settle for a bit after a large meal. I felt like the first movie did a better job at doing that. We know, we not only see Mario and Luigi settle into their new life in the Mushroom Kingdom 🍄, we see that they've embraced their roles as heroes and protectors of the kingdom and of the Toads 🍄 themselves as they prepare to go on a new adventure, and we see what happens to Bowser after he was defeated and got shrunk. 

 

He basically got thrown in prison. A tiny prison, but still a prison. He ended up getting thrown in a dollhouse shaped like a castle 🏰 as we saw in this film, that birdcage or whatever he was in it in the last movie was just a temporary holding cell until they got him this dollhouse to stay in, and at least try to rehabilitate him. None of which works BTW since he goes back to being evil anyway after he's set free, but that was mostly due to his son corrupting him, temping him, and luring him back to the bad side. And then you get to this movie, and we don't what happens to Bowser Jr. and Bowser Sr. after their defeat. Sure, we see Bowser Jr. trying to collect his dad's bones 🦴 because Bowser Sr.'s been turned into a skeleton version of himself after he falls into a pool of lava. I guess that's what happens to Koopas when they're exposed to lava, they just turn into skeletons, but they're still alive. We see this earlier on in the movie when we see these Koopas riding a roller coaster 🎢 on Bowser's Planet, and then they go through a shower or waterfall of lava, and it burns all their flesh off, and they just turn into living skeletons. They pretty much foreshadowed what happened to Bowser Sr. later on. But, we don't know if the Bowsers got arrested and imprisoned again (well, it would be the first time for Bowser Jr. but not Bowser Sr.) or they got away, and are at large. The movie doesn't show us. Even Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus 🦈🐙 did sort of thing better. 

 

It felt like they ran out of time. It felt like one of those things where the studio (and possibly Nintendo themselves because they had a lot of creative control over this movie) wanted the movie to be a certain length, they wanted it to be 98 minutes (1 hour and 38 minutes), which is also the same length as WALL•E, and they didn't want it to be any longer, and the filmmakers just didn't have the time to resolve everything. So, they chose not to resolve anything, and just have an ending where the characters are rebuilding Princess Peach's castle 🏰 and just leave it at that. I won't be surprised if when the Blu-Ray 💿 and 4K 💿 comes out, there's a whole bunch of deleted scenes, and if those deleted scenes are uploaded to YouTube, and people in the comments say things like "Why was these scenes cut?" or "They should've never cut this, it would've made the movie a whole lot better." I may end up being one of those people depending on what those scenes are, and I like the movie.

 

 I don't know if there were an after credits scene, I doubt it, but even if there was, I didn't want to wait around to see. I kind of just wanted to get out of there and leave, so we can head back home because it was getting kind of late. We don't live in Albuquerque, we live in Acoma, and it's like an hour drive to get back, so the sooner we can leave before it gets dark the better. We got drinks for on the way back, we both Frappés at McDonald's. And it was once we got back that I started writing this review, that has taken me almost an entire week to finish. Keeping me away from my Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus 🦈🐙 review, which will be up by the time I post this. But, if there is a delay, this is why. I deeply apologize, I didn't mean for this review to take so long, and keep me away from what I was supposed to be doing which is finishing my Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus 🦈🐙 so I can finally post something after three months and get my blog back on track. 

 

I'm also wondering if Bowser Sr. is stuck like this, is he stuck as a skeleton man ♂︎ (or skeleton Koopa)? Will the third movie continue on with him being a skeleton, and it will resolve it? Because this movie continued on with him being shrunken down at the end of the first movie, so I'm guessing if there's a third one (which I'm sure there will be), that he'll still be a skeleton, at least at the beginning. Will the third movie be about him trying to regain his flesh? It's kind of disturbing when you think about it like that. I mean, he got his skin burned off 🔥 by lava, all of his flesh is gone and he's been reduced to a skeleton, and now he has to try regrow his flesh. I wonder how they'll make that work if that's indeed the direction they'll go with on the third movie. Like if he does regain his flesh, how are they going to visualize that without making it gory or bloody 🩸?

 

I also wonder which Mario game will they base it around? The logical next option would be Super Mario Odyssey since that's next big game in the series after the two Super Mario Galaxy games on the Wii, even though this movie did take elements from that game like the Sand Kingdom and the T. rex. But, will the next movie use that game as more of a direct basis just like this movie used Super Mario Galaxy as a direct basis? Will Cappy be in it? Will he pair up with Mario, will Mario wear him and use him to control other people? All I know is that F.L.U.D.D. better be in the next one. Maybe Mario can use F.L.U.D.D. in one scene, in addition to having Cappy, or maybe through the entire movie. It would be a nice little nod to us Super Mario Sunshine ☀️ fans since they're not going to base the next movie on Super Mario Sunshine ☀️ that's for sure, even if it is the 25th anniversary of that game next year. 

 

Speaking of which, since the YouTuber, kylie boggly mentioned both Super Mario Sunshine ☀️ and the two Super Mario Galaxy games as examples of Frutiger Aero games, games that perfectly capture or exemplify the aesthetic in her video on Frutiger Aero, I really wanted to see if this movie would capture any of the Frutiger Aero-ness of those games, since it's directly based off of those games, particularly the first Super Mario Galaxy game, but alas, it did not. Although we do see Princess Peach and Toad 🍄 enter this Blade Runner looking city where all the villains or other shady characters hang out that's hidden behind a secret wall inside of the ventilation shaft of the spaceport. That was kind of cool. You could tell this made by people who are not Gen Z, and who are not at all nostalgic or sentimental about Frutiger Aero, or the Frutiger Aero look present in Super Mario Galaxy, and are more nostalgic for that dark cyberpunk aesthetic that we see in Blade Runner, Akira, Johnny Mnemonic, certain iterations of Ghost in the Shell, Bubblegum Crisis, Altered Carbon, Cyberpunk 2077, and that canceled indie cyberpunk game, The Last Night. Not The Last Knight, as in Transformers: The Last Knight, The Last Night as in nighttime. 

 

It was that cyberpunk game from the 2010s that was developed by a right-winger, and then got canceled after it faced backlash over having a blatantly right-wing message. Why do you think all the right-wing commentators and anti-SJW/anti-woke YouTubers lamented that game's cancellation and came to the creator's defense, even though it's clear that creator had some indefensible beliefs and was going to use this game to express those beliefs, and hopefully try to indoctrinate people into those same beliefs? Even Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones has a little of cyberpunk in it too, Coruscant at night looks very cyberpunk and that whole speeder chase where Obi-Wan and Anakin chase after Zam Wesell in speeders across the entire city, and they manage to corner her in that nightclub has a lot of cyberpunk imagery that looks very much ripped straight from Blade Runner. That whole sequence is the most cyberpunk-y scene in the entire movie and perhaps all of Star Wars. 

 

And the lower levels of Coruscant are definitely cyberpunk, even if we don't see them in Attack of the Clones, we see more of them in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the animated series that was meant to show the Clone Wars and fill in gap between Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, as well as the game, Star Wars: 1313, which got canceled after Disney acquired Lucasfilm and all the properties that it owned including Star Wars. Damn you, Disney 😤✊! I wrote a review of Attack of the Clones if you're interested, though I must warn you, the foreword for that review turns into a review of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. I spent the majority of that foreword talking about that game because I had just finished watching the longplay of that game before I started writing it. I also plan on writing an actual dedicated post to that game, after I finish rewatching the longplay, and I get done with my 199th post and 200th post, and actually post all the other posts I wrote in advance of those, including this one. 

 

I was also surprised how action packed this movie was. I mean the first movie had action too, but I feel like this movie has even more action. There are just straight up fight scenes in this movie, like choreographed martial arts fights. The final fight between Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi and the two Bowsers is straight up a martial arts fight scene, so is the casino fight 🎰 earlier on in the movie where Princess Peach and Toad 🍄 enter this casino 🎰 inside of that hidden city to ask for information about Rosalina's whereabouts, and Princess Peach ends up having to fight all these ninja guys 🥷♂︎ all by herself. It's kind of the Neo and Smith fight in The Matrix Reloaded, where Neo fights a whole swarm of Smiths in that housing project where he previously met back up with the Oracle. I wonder if that scene was inspiration for this casino fight 🎰 with Princess Peach in this movie. 

 

And there are these elaborate set pieces, like the part where Bowser Jr. lifts up Princess Peach's castle 🏰 carries it into space in an attempt to free his father, and he ends up fighting Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi while the castle is floating up in space, and then the castle 🏰 drops down onto that galaxy with all the flowers 🌺 and Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi have try to find a way to survive the impact. Or the T. rex chase where Mario and Luigi get turned into babies by Bowser Jr.'s Super Scope, and Yoshi has to protect them from a T. rex that he accidentally wakes up. Or the space battle where Fox 🦊 is controlling the Comet Observatory and goes up against Bowser Jr.'s forces which are piloting these spaceships that look like sailboats ⛵️ (kind of like the ones in Treasure Planet), and he does his iconic barrel roll. None of this is a problem of course, I love action, and the action scenes are some of my favorite parts about this movie. I was just commenting on how action packed it was, for an animated kid's movie. Most animated kid's movies are not this action packed, a lot of them are musicals like the ones that Disney produces, or they're are a lot of talkie scenes, and no crazy action. No martial arts fights, no space battles, no explosions 💥, none of that. But this movie does, and I love it for that. 

 

 

(These are more posters for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. For some reason, I couldn't find larger versions of most of these posters. The only ones I can find that were 1,845 x 3,000 were the poster showing Mario and Luigi wearing ponchos in Tostarena Town surrounded by Tostarenans, and the character poster for Fox McCloud 🦊, which I don't think they should've made. They should've never given that away in the advertising until the movie actually came out, so that it would be a surprise when he actually showed up. But, it still looks cool, so I'm featuring it here. But, besides those, all the other posters are either 1,085 x 1,350 or 604 x 755.)  

 

 

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Update (Wednesday May 6, 2026): 

 

🦊 

 

(These are screenshots of the 2D animated flashbacks during Fox McCloud 🦊's introduction in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.) 

 

These are screenshots that I took from the Star Fox 🦊 Direct earlier today. I thought I would show them here since I didn't add any screenshots to the review because I didn't have access to any screenshots from the movie, other than what I had already taken from the first full trailer. And I didn't feel like reusing any of those. So, when I started watching the Star Fox 🦊 Direct, and they showed clips from Fox McCloud 🦊's introduction scene in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, I immediately took the chance to get a couple of screenshots to show you what those 2D animated segments looked like because it's going to be awhile until the movie comes out on streaming and home media, and people start uploading full clips from the movie on YouTube. Including the official Universal YouTube channel. Fox 🦊's inclusion in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was one of the most controversial aspects of that film, but I enjoyed his presence and it was fun to see and hear Shigeru Miyamoto talk so confidently about his inclusion in the film in the face of all the criticism the movie got for all the references to other Nintendo properties and cameos from other Nintendo characters. I mean, Fox 🦊 was more than just a cameo, he had a major role in the film. He was pretty much one of the main characters, until he disappeared until the very end. I still don't know what happened to him. We never got any resolution to that, and I don't think we ever will. 

Unless they make Star Fox 🦊 movie that continues from the events of this movie, or they include a short film on the Blu-Ray/4K 💿 that explains where he went when all the other characters went back to the Mushroom Kingdom 🍄. And there's a new Star Fox 🦊 game coming out, so I'll get the chance to really get to know Fox 🦊 and the other characters in the Star Fox 🦊 universe. Even if it just a remake of Star Fox 64 🦊, even if it won't be available on the Switch 1, it's at least something. I can always watch longplays on the game on YouTube. Apparently this is not the first time that they've remade Star Fox 64 🦊. Most of the comments on the Star Fox 🦊 Direct (the ones that aren't just nitpicking the new designs for the characters) are either complaining that it's yet another remake of Star Fox 64 🦊 or clowning on Nintendo 🤡 for repeatedly remaking this game instead of trying something new. One person even compared it to Skyrim, like how Bethesda treats Skyrim and just keeps re-releasing it instead of making a new Skyrim game. 

They said Star Fox 64 🦊 is pretty much Nintendo's Skyrim, a game that they just get remaking or re-releasing, and regurgitating back to the fans and the gaming community instead of creating a new Star Fox 🦊 that actually moves the story forward and evolves the characters beyond what they were in Star Fox 64 🦊 and other past games. That can be pretty frustrating. I hate it when a franchise that I like stays stagnant and doesn’t progress or change in any meaningful way. They’re just stuck in past, replaying the greatest hits. It seems Star Fox 🦊 reached that point a long time ago, they’re just remaking Star Fox 64 🦊. Maybe they’re not confident that they’ll be able to create anything that’s as good as Star Fox 64 🦊, or they’re afraid of taking a huge risk and trying something new, and upsetting the fans 😡. They don’t want to gamble on something that might not pay off. So, they’re not trying at all, and just repeating what they know already works, or worked three decades ago. But if that’s really the reason why there hasn’t been a truly new Star Fox 🦊 game, I hate to tell you, but at this point, fans are more upset 😡 that you’re not trying anything new and you just keep remaking the same game over and over again. But even if it’s not good for creativity or moving the series forward, it give someone like me, who is new to the series a chance to experience this game for the first time, and see what all the fuse is about. Even if I myself probably won’t get the chance to play it since I don’t own a Switch 2. But again, I could always watch longplays of the game on YouTube.