The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026)
Directed by Michael Jelenic
Having thwarted Bowser's previous plot to marry Princess Peach, Mario and Luigi now face a fresh threat in Bowser Jr., who is determined to liberate his father from captivity and restore the family legacy. Alongside companions new and old, the brothers travel across the stars to stop the young heir's crusade.
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41 films that influenced The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
What critics say influenced The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Back in 2023, I described The Super Mario Bros. Movie as “assaultive and lame,” and I would say the same about The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (now in theatres)…
I wasn’t a fan of the first animated Mario, which I thought was a not especially super adaptation of the property.
With the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, audiences heading into the Super Mario Galaxy Movie are likely looking for the same blend of humor, charm, and nostalgia, but this time on a cosmic scale.
I was one of the few critics to really enjoy The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but I can’t say I found any similar pleasures in this sequel…
Prior to the release of 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, there were reasons to be cautiously optimistic that this wouldn’t just be glossy sponsored content aimed to peddle the innovative yet addictive wares of the Nintendo corporation.
That’s why 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, from Illumination (the team behind Minions), felt like such a pleasant surprise- it got enough right to honor something many of us hold close.
…with “Super Mario Bros.” (1993) and “Street Fighter” (1994) being the most infamously recognized…
Unlike the widely reviled (and later cult-reclaimed) live-action Super Mario Bros. of the early 1990s, Illumination’s Mario cartoons are like a Nintendo style guide brought to life.
Even though Nintendo was, understandably, nervous to license this particular character after the live-action "Super Mario Bros." bombed harder than one of the original game's Bob-ombs in 1993, we're now living in an age where Mario movies, based on the long-running game franchise about plumber brothers Mario and Luigi, are actually profitable.
The first "Mario" movie, a 1993 live-action take on the 1985 Nintendo game, was colossally awful.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 had real weight in its storytelling while being epic, fan-service-heavy, and genuinely funny.
…my daughter, who literally said, “Finally!” at the post-credit scene to Sonic the Hedgehog 3…
The Sonic and Minecraft movies raise my blood pressure with their unrelenting live action laziness.
The second movie added both Tails and Knuckles, and the film wouldn’t work without either of them, which is how it should be.
He sounds like a grown man channeling a child from a '90s Nickelodeon cartoon (think Invader Zim), and it works for his adorable character model.
…even “Invader Zim” makes its alien conqueror a villain…
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…their riff on the “Jurassic Park” franchise was delightful…
"Jurassic Park" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" both got shout-outs in moments I won't spoil here…
…the aesthetics of her attackers is a mix of “War of the Worlds” tripod legged machine that talks…
…one of the most successful gags in the movie is essentially a reskin of the famous Sloth DMV sequence in “Zootopia.”
…there’s a straight rip-off of the sloth from Zootopia where all the characters get annoyed waiting for plot information from someone who speaks very slowly…
…we are only weeks/months removed from the critically acclaimed releases of both Pixar's Hoppers and Walt Disney Animation's Zootopia 2…
READ MORE: A Brutally Honest Kids Review of Zootopia 2…
It’ll be such a hit that “Project Hail Mary, the current box-office big kahuna, will surely topple.
…it’s a shame this comes out so soon after Project Hail Mary, a moving, emotional, relatable hand-crafted masterpiece compared to this shrill visual din…
You’re not getting the loose, inventive energy that Phil Lord and Chris Miller brought to “The LEGO Movie,”…
We could also point to something older like The LEGO Movie as a model of a brand-management enterprise that managed to be irreverent and thoughtful (and, indeed, brilliant) at the same time.
Is it because he was in The LEGO Movie? Pratt being a blank slate of a protagonist was actually part of the joke/theme of that movie.
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You could argue that the same madcap pace powers the child-centric _Minion_s movies, and that’s true — but they are, crucially, often very funny.
Illumination’s animation is probably better here than in the Minions movies, but even that isn’t a 1:1 comparison.
They’re not Minions.
…nor those MINIONS…
That’s why 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, from Illumination (the team behind Minions), felt like such a pleasant surprise- it got enough right to honor something many of us hold close.
When it comes to Illumination’s work, I enjoy the early Despicable Me and Minions films but dislike the most recent handful of those…
I wasn’t expecting a kid-friendly “Super Mario’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,”…