After clearing a billion at the box office, a sequel was inevitable. Nintendo and Illumination went bigger, louder, and busier. But bigger isn’t always better.
If you stuck around for the end of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, you saw that Yoshi egg and knew we were heading somewhere bigger. Maybe Super Mario World. Maybe another Mushroom Kingdom run with a little more confidence and a little more story control.
Instead, we got The Super Mario Galaxy Movie—a sequel that feels less like a focused follow-up and more like a highlight reel of Nintendo references taped together at high speed.
I wanted to love this. I really did. I’m exactly the audience for this kind of thing. I grew up on this world. I know these characters, these sounds, these beats. And while parts of this movie absolutely work, the whole thing never lands the way it should.
The short version
The plot is chaos.
Rosalina gets taken by Bowser Jr.
Peach goes after Rosalina.
Mario and Luigi go after Peach.
Bowser is with Mario and Luigi… until he isn’t.
Then Bowser spins off into his own father-son arc with Bowser Jr.
That’s the clean version.
The movie keeps splitting the party, jumping tracks, and stitching in game-inspired set pieces that are fun in isolation but often feel disconnected from any emotional spine. It’s not “simple Mario storytelling.” It’s sequel bloat in a Mario costume.
What works (and really works)
Let’s give credit where it’s earned.
1) The animation is terrific
The movie looks fantastic. Colors pop, environments are rich, and movement is smooth in ways that make even throwaway shots feel expensive. There’s a starship battle sequence that’s staged with real energy—exactly the kind of scene that can spark a kid’s imagination for years.
2) Brian Tyler’s score carries serious weight
Best performance in the movie? The music.
Brian Tyler once again understands the assignment better than almost everyone else in the room. He doesn’t just recycle themes—he reshapes them into something cinematic while keeping that Mario DNA intact. There were moments where the score made me feel more than the writing did.
And that’s kind of the problem: when the soundtrack has the clearest narrative arc, your script is in trouble.
3) Some fan-service moments actually land
Not every cameo is bad. The quick, blink-and-you-miss-it references are often the most effective because they don’t stop the movie dead to congratulate themselves. A nod, a grin, move on. That’s how this should be done.
Where it falls apart
1) It’s overstuffed and underfocused
The first movie had a basic plot, yes—but it was clean. Straight line. Easy propulsion. That worked for Mario.
This one mistakes “more” for “better.” More teams, more subplots, more character detours, more references, more everything. Result: less momentum, less emotional clarity, less payoff.
I kept thinking: pick one lane and drive.
The Bowser–Mario–Luigi trio dynamic was genuinely promising. There’s comedy there, tension there, weird chemistry there. The movie has that thread in its hands, then drops it to chase three other things at once.
2) It wears the Galaxy title like a marketing skin
This is where longtime fans are going to split hard.
When you call it The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, people expect certain tonal and story anchors from that era. Instead, the film plays like a mashup buffet pulling from multiple Mario corners, with Galaxy often feeling like branding more than backbone.
You can adapt, remix, and still respect source identity. This felt like it couldn’t decide what it wanted to be.
3) Big character moments are burned too early
Some characters and boss reveals should have been saved and built into major events in future films. Instead, a few of them get treated like disposable checklist items—cool to spot, instantly wasted.
Fan service is dessert. This movie keeps serving dessert as the main course until you feel sick.
The critic-audience split? It’s real, but not the whole story
I’ve seen the “critics hate fun” argument. Sometimes that’s true. Sometimes critics absolutely miss what families actually want from these movies.
But in this case, the quality drop from the first film is hard to ignore. Not because it’s “for kids,” and not because it’s bright and silly. Kids’ movies can still be tight, coherent, and emotionally clean. This one mostly chooses spectacle over structure.
Will kids enjoy it? Yes.
Will families make it a hit anyway? Probably.
Does that make the writing above criticism? Not even close.
The odd romantic shrug
There’s also this half-commitment with Mario and Peach that the movie keeps teasing without ever meaningfully developing. It gives “maybe, maybe not, who cares, next scene.”
If you’re not going to build it, don’t keep winking at it every twenty minutes.
Final verdict
I had fun in moments. I was disappointed overall.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is beautiful, loud, occasionally exciting, and consistently less than the sum of its parts. The craft departments came to play. The script showed up with a bag of references and no discipline.
If you’ve got kids, they’re likely to have a blast.
If you’re a longtime fan hoping for a sharper sequel, temper expectations.
If you love Mario music, bring headphones and just buy the score afterward.
Score: 5.5/10
A visually polished nostalgia rocket with a weak guidance system.
Have you seen The Super Mario Galaxy Movie yet? Did it work for you, or did it feel like a franchise sprinting ahead without a map?
And while we’re at it—what Nintendo property should get the next big-screen swing? I still think Zelda and Metroid could be incredible with the right creative team.
