The Super Mario Bros. Movie – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2023 film The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Story

The writing was concise and clean. The story was a thin scaffolding for large game set pieces and had little to no substance. I appreciated all the nods to the vast catalogue of Mario games.

Score: 0.5

Characters

Mario and Luigi were fairly bland. The addition of their family felt weird and the fake, and disappearing, accents were jarring. I had my reservations about Donkey Kong being played by Seth Rogen but his iconic laugh was perfect for Kong.

I already knew that Bowser would steal the show and he did. Jack Black did an excellent job. A great surprise was the nihilistic cheerful blue star Lumalee. Absolutely hilarious.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

The video game references were great and everything Lumalee said were great. Bowser’s dialogue was good, but the rest was a little forced and juvenile.

This is not a movie that will be quoted outside of Bowser’s lines.

Score: 0.5

Visuals and Music

Visually stunning and impressively colourful. It was great to watch the background and see all the easter eggs.

The original song will be stuck in my head forever and the rest of the score was wonderfully referential.

Score: 1

Fun

This was an easy watch with lots of nostalgia. I’ve been playing mario games since the eighties and this was very faithful to the world.

That being said, I really did find Mario and Luigi to be the weakest part of the movie.

Score: 1

Overall

A fairly inoffensive nostalgia-driven ride that will have gamers pausing every five seconds for the easter eggs, others will enjoy the angst free fair, and kids will be singing “Peaches” for way too long.

Final Score: 3.5 Stars out of 5

I like to play games

Hello My Imaginary Friends,

I love games. I love board games, table top games, card games, and video games.

I had never bought myself a video game console. I have an amazing brother who’s bought me a PS3 and PS4 and a lifetime ago we got a free Nintendo Wii with a computer purchase. (Before that, I used my mom’s systems.)

Dragon on her giant Yoshi. (I’m mildly sad she’s stopped calling it sushi.)

Well, last week there was a sale we couldn’t resist and we bought a Nintendo Switch. I worry that it’s about to be replaced, but hopefully there’s a few more good years in them.

Of late, Pegasus has been obsessed with watching me play Mario Kart on my phone. (He’ll climb on my lap and say, “race” although it sounds like “wash”) Dragon has been doing well with Disney Infinity, but I feel she needs games that are a little simpler.

With that in mind, we got Mario Kart 8 deluxe, Switch Fit, Lego Avengers 2, and Just Dance. I’m planning on getting Yoshi’s Crafted World for the kids. I’d also love to get Link’s Awakening and maybe one of the Mario games.

For someone who’s really busy, having something that I don’t have to spend an hour re-learning the controls or several hours doing side quests will be a nice change (Looking at you, Spiderman). To be honest, I’ve missed Nintendo.

So any recommendations for games? Both for a 4 year old with little gaming experience and a 37 year old who loves games, but isn’t very good at them?

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Ottawa Comiccon 2019

Hello!

JenEric Designs, JenEric Coffee, The Travelling TARDIS, and Eric Desmarais will be at this weekend’s Ottawa Comiccon. We’ll be at booth 2606 and 2608 Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!

We have two new flavours for this years event: In Another Castle (Peach) and Unbirthday Cake (Cake Batter).

We’ll also have another 16 flavours available.

We’ll also have new Captain Marvel crocheted awesomeness!

Hope to see you this weekend at Ottawa Comiccon!