“The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” created by Buena Vista Pictures, captures the essence of the Super Mario franchise perfectly.

In the film, Mario and Luigi are two brothers, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York and decided to start a plumbing business together; starting their business was rough, but they slowly got customers. 

Mario and Luigi get sucked into a mysterious portal and are transported to a different universe. 

Bowser, the evil force of this universe, is trying to take over the universe. He wanted to marry Princess Peach so that they could take over together. 

Princess Peach and Mario end up heading into battle to stop Bowser from destroying the universe. 

I won’t spoil the rest, but I will just say that the movie was very entertaining. 

Throughout the movie, the filmmakers were able to take Mario and Luigi’s different personalities into account. Mario was the stronger and more confident brother, and Luigi was always the sidekick helping along the way. 

Luigi’s character develops significantly throughout the movie. As the battle approaches, Luigi’s confidence and strength grows. 

The filmmakers also poked fun at the brothers’ Italian accents, which was a creative joke. The two brothers reveal that their accents were fake in the movie after they used fake Italian accents in their advertisement; the two believed that the accents could better their advertisement. 

Bowser also has multiple singing pieces that were immaculately placed throughout. His raspy voice along with his ridiculous lyrics make the song hilarious.

Small aspects of the game “Super Smash Bros.” were sprinkled throughout the movie. I can appreciate the filmmakers’ attention to detail in the movie and their efforts to emulate the game. For example, there were scenes where Mario and Luigi jumped onto bricks and got power ups from the yellow mystery boxes. 

Some of the characters in the game—such as Bowser, Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach—were taken straight from the game and brought to life exactly the way I pictured. 

Princess Peach plays a strong and fearless female character that leads Mario in the battle against Bowser. Considering that this is a children’s movie, this can be very inspiring to young girls to see strong female characters. 

I believe that the best character in the movie was Toad. His tenacity and enthusiasm while going into battle against Bowser was awe-inspiring. 

Also, I would make a note to keep watch until after the credits play. At the end of the movie, the credits cut to an egg: hinting at a sequel of the Super Mario Movie and the appearance of Yoshi in the next movie. 

I would give this movie 4.5/5 stars because of the filmmakers’ success in bringing aspects of the game to life.