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MAD MARIO: RAINBOW ROAD - The Super Mario Bros. Movie

I'm not interested in waiting 5 days for a weekend tally, so I'm just posting the first day numbers and projetions.
variety.com

Box Office: ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Scores Huge $31.7 Million, ‘Air’ Lands $3.2 Million on Opening Day

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” launched to the top of box office charts, collecting a mighty $31.7 million on opening day. Ben Affleck’s sports drama “Air,” which also …
variety.com variety.com
After a bigger-than-expected opening day, estimates for Universal and Illumination's big screen adaptation of the popular "Mario" video game have been revised up to $92 million over the traditional weekend and $141 million in its first five days of release.

More bullish pundits suggest the movie could even approach $150 million.

At the international box office, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" ignited with $34.7 million from 44 markets on Wednesday.
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X-posting:

Saw it earlier today with my mom and sister. Mom played Mario with me back when I was a kid.

As a Mario fan, I am satisfied. There were things I would not have done, but it cearly shows passion and respect to the source material. Also, Bowser's portrayal is near-perfect.

My criticism is one certain character being damseled for most of the movie (but it's refreshing to see Peach be proactive for once). Also Bowser acts like he's a personal enemy to Mario before and even after they meet.

It feels like they had to cut things out for runtime. I'd be happy if we got an extended edition that smoothed out the edges.

Honestly, Peach made Mario her Player 2. Which I am fine with, it's a nice twist on the formula.

And the Super Star scene is subtly but still pure Popeye eating his spinach, harkening back to the secret origins of DK Arcade. I love it.

The post-credit scene nakes me wonder if we aren't gonna get an adaptation of Mama Luigi.
 
Enjoyable but uninspired. If you are here for blorbo, it has blorbo. It looks good. Its a short movie with quick pacing, so it doesn't waste your time.

If you wanted anything more than that, it does not provide. It plays most things straight and literally. The story moves far too fast to do worldbuilding, develop narratives, or progress character arcs. Its focus is instead on shoving as many references into as little screen time as possible. The movie almost never had time to breath, and those times that it did, I could see hints of what could've been.

Jack Black is the only voice actor that's actually trying. Bowser's heavy metal skulls and fire aesthetic on the outside but goofy on the inside is a perfect fit for him really.
 
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firefossil said:
If you wanted anything more than that, it does not provide. It plays most things straight and literally. The story moves far too fast to do worldbuilding, develop narratives, or progress character arcs.
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I'd actually disagree with than in part. The movie does play it very straight and it moves very fast.

And it is undeniably a kids movie - if you're to watch the best movie of the year than the Mario movie is not it. On the other hand there's no third act giving up/misunderstanding and it doesn't seem to assume that all children are blithering morons who will snicker at the stupidest of things so 9999/10 for those two points alone - and the worldbuilding is mostly visual (and standing on the top of decades worth of people knowing about Mario) so while relatively shallow it is still kind of there.

Character wise it's Mario characters and they are recognizably Mario characters with recognizable Mario characterizations. More to the point all of them are likeable. Like there are no characters that I can point to and say without reservation that the movie would have been more enjoyable without them in it - and the bond between Mario and Luigi is something every other movie about brothers (or even just about male friends) could take notes from even if it was kinda corny.

So while it was very much being propped up by the Nintendo IP attached to it the movie was still a good kids movie which is about all you can ask for at this point really.
 
The issue with the movie is its a mile wide and an inch deep, counting on our investment and knowledge of the characters and setting to fill in the blanks.

The Kongs and Karts sequence is the epitome of this. I liked the characters, the action, the references. The thing is they serve no purpose to the plot other than to keep the protagonists busy for a 2nd act that leaves the protagonists back where they started. They shouldn't have been in this movie. They should've been saved for a sequel movie of "Bowser's back, and we need the Kongs to help", then reinvest that 2nd act time to actually explore the other main characters, or the setting, or just have some more time to breath.

The "its just a kid's movie" doesn't cut it with me. I enjoyed The Secret Life of Pets, but compare it to something The Last Wish, and its not even a contest. People have limited time and money. Why settle for a movie is that is passable enjoyable, when you can have one that is enjoyable, and good, and by being good makes the enjoyment feel more earned?
 
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firefossil said:
The thing is they serve no purpose to the plot other than to keep the protagonists busy for a 2nd act that leaves the protagonists back where they started.
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Everything about this statement is wrong.

The Kongs serve a very clear purpose in the plot. Peach needs to find help to protect her Kingdom, because her subjects aren't combatants, and no matter how good she personally is, she can't beat an army on her own.

If you take the outside Army out, the entire plot of the movie has to change.
 
Jcogginsa said:
Everything about this statement is wrong.

The Kongs serve a very clear purpose in the plot. Peach needs to find help to protect her Kingdom, because her subjects aren't combatants, and no matter how good she personally is, she can't beat an army on her own.

If you take the outside Army out, the entire plot of the movie has to change.
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The characters go to meet the Kongs, they convince the Kongs to help, the Kongs are easily defeated. The only one that matters is DK, who helps Mario fight Bowser's minions and rescue the imprisoned characters. But DK's role could've easily been filled by Peach, Toad, Luigi, or even just narratively written to not need backup at all.
 
It's as corporate as it gets and lot of self referential stuff from not just the Nintendo franchise but a couple of shoutouts to the cast. The ending scene with Mr.Blue Sky screams GotG2 and ironically enough we are teased for GotG 3 at the theatre I was watching this

Good way to pass the Easter Weekend though and I can't ask for less
 
firefossil said:
The characters go to meet the Kongs, they convince the Kongs to help, the Kongs are easily defeated. The only one that matters is DK, who helps Mario fight Bowser's minions and rescue the imprisoned characters. But DK's role could've easily been filled by Peach, Toad, Luigi, or even just narratively written to not need backup at all.
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No, DK's role couldn't have been filled by any of those characters .

DK's role requires someone who is
A: Not on Mario or Peach's side at the start
B: someone stronger than Mario, because the character needs to serve as a challenge for Mario to overcome.

B disqualifies Toad and Luigi, while A disqualifies them all.

And as for "Just narratively written to not need back up at all", that is a radical rewrite of the entire movie. At minimum, it requires a second act that has no resemblence to the actual film, because you've removed the entire driving force of that section of the plot. Since you've removed it, you've got to replace it with something.

And if taking something out requires a rewrite of an entire act of the film, that's a pretty clear indicator that it serves a purpose
 
Jcogginsa said:
No, DK's role couldn't have been filled by any of those characters.
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Your argument here is tautological. DK's role can't be filled by a different character in a DK-centric 2nd act. So?

My point is that the 2nd act should never have had the Kongs and Karts in the first place. The actual narrative purpose of the 2nd act was for the protagonists to try to solve the problem and fail. Thus setting them up to despair, recover, learn from their mistakes, and succeed in the 3rd act. None of that required introducing the Kongs and Karts into the movie. That should've been saved for a sequel to do it proper justice.

Then again maybe it could've worked. The Last Wish was able to handle a whole lot of characters in relatively little time. But this movie felt like it was trying to do too much, too fast.
 
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firefossil said:
My point is that the 2nd act should never have had the Kongs and Karts in the first place. The actual narrative purpose of the 2nd act was for the protagonists to try to solve the problem and fail. Thus setting them up to despair, recover, learn from their mistakes, and succeed in the 3rd act. None of that required introducing the Kongs and Karts into the movie. That should've been saved for a sequel to do it proper justice.
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And again I'm going to have to disagree in part. Despair and nearly giving up in the second act is not a requirement for good movie - it's an admittedly powerful narrative device popularized by Pixar that I am sick and tired of. Setbacks are of course required for any good story and those indeed do happen.

Because they do fail. The army never made it to the mushroom kingdom because Bowser in a shockingly competent move counter ambushed them so he could cut the threat off before it ever became one thus breaking the army up and splitting the protagonists apart. The protagonists then have to resolve this - sure they do so with a minimum of despair (hallelujah) and the movie is so short that this is resolved quickly but it's still there.

And while DK being saved for a sequel is a sentiment I can get behind I think that DK being included makes sense in the wider context that this movie was made in. For one thing a sequel was not by any means certain and for another DK was there as a major presence before Bowser - he is Mario's first villain. Mario having to overcome him so that he can find the strength to overcome Bowser is a neat parallel. It is admittedly a parallel that gives Illumination more credit than it deserves but I still like it.

Again not the best movie animated or otherwise that I've seen this year (The Last Wish exists so unless Spiderverse is really really good it's basically a fight for second place at this point) but I still quite liked it.
 
DK was there because they want Universal Nintendo Land to have DK attractions and wanted movie loose tie ins to them ASAP, methinks
 
firefossil said:
Your argument here is tautological. DK's role can't be filled by a different character in a DK-centric 2nd act. So?

My point is that the 2nd act should never have had the Kongs and Karts in the first place. The actual narrative purpose of the 2nd act was for the protagonists to try to solve the problem and fail. Thus setting them up to despair, recover, learn from their mistakes, and succeed in the 3rd act. None of that required introducing the Kongs and Karts into the movie. That should've been saved for a sequel to do it proper justice.

Then again maybe it could've worked. The Last Wish was able to handle a whole lot of characters in relatively little time. But this movie felt like it was trying to do too much, too fast.
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What you said was "they serve no purpose to the plot". And I hate lines like that, because they are always BS, said to make an opinion seem like a fact.

If you don't like them being in the movie, that's fine. But don't try to make that sound more objective than it actually is.
 
What's your hopes for the NCU?

Personally I want a Punch Out movie, Luigi's Mansion, and some Ice Climber love.
 
www.hollywoodreporter.com

Box Office: ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Opens to Stupendous $204.6M in U.S., Record $375.6M Globally

The movie scored the top global launch ever for an animated pic, and the second-best ever domestically. Ben Affleck's adult-skewing drama 'Air' opened to $20.2 million in a win for Amazon's foray into theatrical.
www.hollywoodreporter.com www.hollywoodreporter.com
... The pic scored the top opening of all time for an animated film with $377 million in worldwide ticket sales, including a massive five-day domestic haul of $204.6 million and, of that, $146.4 million for the three-day weekend. It currently stands as the biggest opening weekend of the year (overtaking Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with $106 million), as well as the second-best debut ever for an animated title (surpassing 2016's Finding Dory with $135.1 million). It landed biggest five-day launch in history after besting Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($200 million). It's also the highest-grossing debut for Illumination, beating 2015's Minions with $115.7 million.

... In terms of openings, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 was the previous opening crownholder [for videogame adaptations] with a $72 million debut over a traditional weekend.
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I mean, stabbing someone in the face is technically sign language, right? It's definitely communication of some sort. Link could pull that off.

... anyway, the only things I think I care about regarding this thread's topic:

1. Walk the Dinosaur, yes or no?

2. Was there a bowsette cameo?
 
My sister and I had huge smiles on our faces the through the whole movie, which is all we can really ask for.

loved it/10
 
If nothing else, if this overtakes the Remake of the Lion King as the highest grossing animated movie ever it will certainly be a massive upgrade in quality.
 
SomeOneElse007 said:
And while DK being saved for a sequel is a sentiment I can get behind I think that DK being included makes sense in the wider context that this movie was made in. For one thing a sequel was not by any means certain and for another DK was there as a major presence before Bowser - he is Mario's first villain. Mario having to overcome him so that he can find the strength to overcome Bowser is a neat parallel. It is admittedly a parallel that gives Illumination more credit than it deserves but I still like it.
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Also 90% of the normies age 30+ and up who don't play newer games are going to automatically associate Mario with Donkey Kong, and might get a nostalgia hit from seeing him on the screen. It's just a way to cement the all ages nature of the movie by making sure it also appeals to old people.
 
I, uh. Think the older folks that are going to strongly associate DK and Mario are... more like 40+, not 30+? Being in the mid thirties and growing up with that stuff, the strong connection is earlier than that, with the original Donkey Kong. After that it was over a decade before the two series came together again meaningfully with SSB, and most of it beyond SSB is relatively recent.

Most normies in that age range wouldn't really think to connect the two, outside maybe both being major nintendo franchises. The older stuff didn't have much connection past the original arcade game.
 
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