Thirty years out from the 1993 Mario Bros. movie’s bizarre fever dream, it seems we’ve finally awakened to a movie that fully looks like a Super Mario Bros. movie. Aptly, it’s called The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and here’s its final trailer.
As we said with the film’s prior teaser, this seems fine. It was never going to be high art, and this looks about as good as it could get. Some things could be tweaked (Chris Pratt’s voice, that the spiky guys no one knows the name of aren’t regarded as “spiky guys you can’t jump on”), but it’s clear from the Rainbow Road falling shortcuts on down that this is a Super Mario Bros. Movie that is, if anything, too reverential in referencing its source material. But jeez if it isn’t better than Mario joining Sonic in hanging out with James Marsden in Montana. By all appearances, Pratt has doubled down on The Lego Movie in having a reductively-titled kiddie flick that shouldn’t work but ultimately does well enough. Can’t fault him for that.
We’ll see whether we can fault him for the final product when The Super Mario Bros. Movie hits theaters April 5.