Super Marios Bros. The film (in theaters) will never win an Oscar for its screenplay. That doesn’t stop it from being a delightful guilty pleasure for anyone familiar with the adventures of the mustachioed little plumber.
Born in Japan in 1983, Mario was instrumental in the instant success of the Nintendo video game console in North America and around the world.
In the original version of the game (which has sold over 58 million copies!), Mario hops around the Mushroom Kingdom, trying to avoid holes and turtles, in order to free a princess from the clutches of the evil King Koopa ( later renamed Bowser).
Forty years later, the Mario Bros. includes around twenty titles, including at least one on each of the Japanese giant’s platforms. The franchise is among the best sellers in history, alongside Pokemon, Tetris and Call of Duty.
All has not always been rosy, however, in the history of the saga. In 1993, Hollywood Pictures studios released a live-action film. The failure was monumental and the work is considered one of the worst in the history of cinema.
Scarred by this setback, Nintendo took 30 years before trying its luck again at the cinema, this time in an animated film.
In the new film, which has been a huge success since its launch ten days ago, Mario and his brother Luigi are thrust into the Mushroom Kingdom. There, they come to the aid of the resourceful Princess Peach in order to prevent the “dangerous madman” Bowser from conquering the world.
As in any game in the franchise, the scenario is, in the film, reduced to its simplest expression. The characters hardly evolve and the story is just a succession of scenes.
Fanatics of the games and the little ones will not take offense, however, since the action is, of course, there, but, even better, the Easter eggs, visual and musical, number in the hundreds.
The references – some subtle, others not – to the highlights of the series are indeed very numerous. We laugh at this or that reminder and we smile when we hear a sound or classical music. The film also transports us to the worlds of cult games such as Mario Kart and Donkey Kong.
There’s also something very enjoyable about watching Mario go through the same frustrations as the millions of players who have controlled his destiny over the past 40 years – like falling down a hole or picking the wrong pipe.
The animation is more on point. With its somewhat retro appearance, it is more akin to that of Shaun the Sheep and the original Toy Story than that of the more recent films from Pixar and Dreamworks.
Despite a conclusion that falls a little flat, a go-kart sequence that could have been more imaginative, and the complete absence of a second degree, Super Mario Bros. The Film managed, in my opinion, to make the most of the potential of the video game series.
When is Zelda, Punch-Out! or Metroid?
(Three out of five stars)
Tetris
In Tetris, Taron Egerton travels to the USSR to obtain the distribution rights for the popular video game. – Courtesy
If you grew up in the 1980s, you probably know that Nintendo’s revolutionary Game Boy video game console came with the game Tetris. What you probably don’t know is that the underside of the association between the Japanese giant and the inventors of the Russian game looks like a spy novel.
It’s this totally implausible – yet true – story! – told by the movie Tetris (Apple TV+).
Taron Egerton (Rocketman; Eggsy from the Kingsman saga) plays Henk Rogers, a video game distributor who, in 1988, bet everything he owns (including his house) on the success of Tetris. But to secure the distribution rights to the game and sell them to Nintendo, Rogers must go behind the Iron Curtain, where he will face the KGB and a corrupt English investor. Even Mikhail Gorbachev had to intervene!
Tetris, the movie, has absolutely nothing to do with the cinematic adaptations of Mario Bros, Sonic or Pokemon. We are not propelled into the game, but rather into the story of the game. For a parallel, consider The Social Network (2010).
The live-action images are complemented by charming 8-bit animations, which brings a bit of levity to an otherwise tense film.
The film takes place a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall and demonstrates how the USSR was a police state where even its citizens were not safe.
A fascinating listen, in which we witness a very profound clash – from a somewhat too American point of view, unfortunately – between communism and capitalism.
(Three and a half out of five stars)