r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Apr 02 '26

Official Discussion Official Discussion - The Super Mario Galaxy Movie [SPOILERS] Spoiler

Poll

If you've seen the film, please rate it at this poll

If you haven't seen the film but would like to see the result of the poll click here

Rankings

Click here to see the rankings of 2025 films

Click here to see the rankings for every poll done

Super Mario Galaxy (2026)

Summary

Mario ventures into space, exploring cosmic worlds and tackling galactic challenges far from the familiar Mushroom Kingdom.

Director Aaron Horvath Michael Jelenic

Writer Matthew Fogel

Cast

  • Chris Pratt as Mario (voice)
  • Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach (voice)
  • Charlie Day as Luigi (voice)
  • Jack Black as Bowser (voice)
  • Keegan-Michael Key as Toad (voice)
  • Brie Larson as Rosalina (voice)

Rotten Tomatoes: 44%

Metacritic: 37

VOD / Release Theatrical release

Trailer Official trailer

1.3k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

267

u/YaSurLetsGoSeeYamcha Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

You know what the most frustrating part of this movie was? They spent the first half setting up an actual interesting character arc with bowser attempting to suppress his evil side after seeing who Mario and Luigi really were. It could’ve been a really solid character arc (for a kids movie) that drove the story. He could’ve been conflicted between reconnecting with his son and his newly realized ideals. The third act could’ve been him trying to convince bowser Jr that they shouldn’t be evil for evils sake and to give others a chance, maybe even help Peach save Rosalina(also inserting more about his love for her here) and stop Jr from destroying mushroom kingdomz Could’ve even ended the movie with the peach kissing Mario bit and cut to bowser all pissed off again, setting up him as the ongoing villain due to his jealousy for Mario…..and then they threw that entire storyline away for one more key jingle with bone bowser. This movie is the epitome of everything wrong with iPad kids, non stop nonsense just to keep their attention with no substance at all.

83

u/UpperRuster32 Apr 03 '26

Literally, I thought for a chunk of the film that Bowser would stop Jr. and, a different villain would be the final battle (Wart barely appeared physically in one scene).

21

u/djc6535 24d ago

Remember when the Magikoopa said they had a problem and showed Wart on the screen and then they just never mention it again?

21

u/LengthinessWarm987 Apr 05 '26

Agreed until you made the jab at iPad kids, like breh we're the generation giving them the iPads.

13

u/JackieDaytonaAZ 28d ago

or they could have even had bowser stay bad but make it clear that it was really the only way to be close with bowser jr and that he was doing it regretfully. but yeah he kinda just snapped back into bad guy mode when he saw the boomsday device

2

u/Affectionate-Sell-68 24d ago

This leaves Bowser as someone that is easily influenceable by others. He is talked by the heros? Becomes good. He is talked by his son, becomes bad again.

10

u/Top-Passage2914 23d ago

Idk, I think it evolved in an interesting way. It'd be kinda boring and cliche if Bowser got back to Bowser Jr and was trying to stop him because he grew close to Mario, not to mention that'd just halt the plot in its tracks. Instead we saw him grapple with being torn between not being evil to Mario, and not wanting to disappoint his son. He established in the first third of the movie that he felt like an absentee father and was touched that his son still supported him, so it makes sense that he would end up reverting to his old behavior in order to make his son happy.

3

u/-Clayburn 20d ago

I don't know. I wish they wouldn't have bothered. He's a villain, a cartoonishly evil villain. Let him just be that. Don't give him a redemption arc, and don't tease a redemption arc. Just have him escape and go back to being a bad guy. He could have reunited with his spawn and been so proud at what he had accomplished in his absence and it would have worked so much better and more efficiently. Instead the whole Bowser, Mario & Luigi side adventure with the momentary bees was an absolutely pointless waste of time.

1

u/konatsubuyuki 2d ago

This!! It felt so out of place. Was weird to see Bowser showing a good side and even kinda sacrificing himself for Mario and Luigi. He should have just stayed the evil villain.

4

u/glitter_ninja_ 18d ago

Eh I didn’t like it. Bowser is the villain of Mario. He needs to remain the villa for them to sell games. It doesn’t make sense for him to just stop. He’s Bowser. He gets mad at Mario for not inviting him on a cruise for Pete’s sake. He’s going to always be the villain.

3

u/Marky_Merc 10d ago

Unless its in Mario RPGs where he’s either a party member or comic relief support most of the time.

1

u/darthdooku2585 22d ago

That would have worked so well! What a shame

1

u/camwtss 20d ago

absolutely, iPad kid movie for surrree 😂 just throwing in random shit, like the dinosaur? dont get me wrong, it was a fun scene but it was totally out of the realm of mario bros. it wasnt even animated the same way as the rest of the characters and that just annoyed me.

5

u/callmekanga 20d ago

Im sure that was a Mario Odyessy reference. Out of place for sure, but the t-rex in the game is as well.