Mario’s character already was born tied to animation. The most famous creation of the brilliant designer Shigeru Miyamoto originated from his love for classic Fleischer studio short films: his original idea was to transfer the eternal rivalry between Popeye and Blutocaptured in more than one hundred company shorts, to the world of arcade video games.

Miyamoto did not get the rights to the characters, being forced to transform them into Mario (at that time still affectionately nicknamed “Jumpman”) and Donkey Kong. But their spirit remained intact in their creation, lasting through the decades and, despite the gradual evolution of its gameplay and appearance, preserving that kind of animated soul along the way.

In certain senses, one could say that super mario galaxy is on par with that. Even more so than its predecessor, the film takes full advantage of the medium in terms of its visual ambition. Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, once responsible for creating Teen Titans Go! and signing its film adaptation is excellent; seamlessly guiding the viewer through all kinds of action sequences which, in other hands, would be overloaded and frustrating.

And above all, its universe is memorable, since its director duo perfectly captures what makes the worlds of Nintendo attractive and exciting for the player and applies it to the big screen with ease and grace. That is why it is still discouraging that all this is at the service of a script that constantly restricts that freshness.

And it is a curious factor, because super mario galaxy It is a sequel that has learned multiple lessons from the previous one. Not only has the visual ambition improved what already exists in Super Mario Bros.: The overwhelming selection of pop songs from that one is absent here, replaced by an omnipresent Brian Tyler soundtrack that recreates and reinvents the themes with ingenuity that the legendary Koji Kondo has signed for Nintendo over the decades.

But His script keeps the problems of that one intact.and it is that Galaxy It’s an entire movie in search of a core. His characters go from point A to point B without questioning anythingwith all its motivations subjugated to the thin guiding thread, and without these managing to contain a narrative or emotional weight of any kind along the way.

And it is that our protagonists live here tied to the reference: They are transformed into babies, or chased by a T-Rex, without any of this contributing in the slightest to the final whole of the work; just because it is the nod to the games that we have to play at that moment. the movie it jumps from reference to reference at full speedforgetting that the magic of the games on which it is based has always resided in its ability to innovate and reinvent itself.

And some of These references are still ingenious.especially those that allow Horvath and Jelenic to bring out their talent for the sight gag: A climatic setpiece in which Bowsy tries to take down Mario and Peach by controlling a reverse recreation of the original NES game, for example, works like a charm.

But the film never fails to provoke the feeling of seeing a gameplay of best momentsmoving from one subplot to another like someone completing a to-do list, and without ever ceasing to be fun, but also empty. And of course there is also some value in recreating that spirit, but it is still a slight disappointment when we talk about characters with so much direct relationship and so much potential to contribute to the medium of animation.

Qualification

‘Super Mario Galaxy: the movie’

• Director

  Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic

• Gender

  Animation

• Country

  USA/France/Japan

• Synopsis

  Sequel to ‘Super Mario Bros: The Movie’, based on the ‘Mario Galaxy’ saga. Brothers Mario and Luigi and Princess Peach embark on an adventure to the ends of space and across the galaxy.

• Script

  Matthew Fogel

• Duration

  98 min

• Distributor

  Universal/Nintendo/Illumination

• Distribution

  Animation

• Premiere

  April 1