On April 5th, 2023, Nintendo, Universal Studios, and Illumination released The Super Mario Bros Movie, the first movie in an upcoming franchise of Nintendo video game films. With over 21 main video games in Nintendo’s Mario series, the first dating back to 1985, fans were ecstatic to witness these iconic characters on the big screen in this new format of storytelling. 

According to Collider reporter Rahul Malhotra, The Super Mario Bros Movie is now the 3rd highest grossing animated film, with a worldwide global box office of $1.248 billion, surpassed by Frozen and Frozen 2, which grossed $1.284 and $1.45 billion respectively. The Super Mario Bros Movie has also passed various animated classics such as Shrek, Toy Story 3, and Minions.

However, according to the Rotten Tomatoes score for this movie, only 59% of critics enjoyed it, as compared to 96% of average viewers. One possible reason for this large gap between the two perspectives is the expectations viewers had going into the movie. There seems to be a large number of critics who watched this movie expecting it to be a film that uses its target audience as a way to ironically incorporate adult ideas under the guise of a children’s movie. However, it is consistent within audience reviews that this movie was great for what it was, that being, a film aimed towards children. 

The movie portrayed familiar characters in the Mario universe in the Illumination style of animation, and characters were voiced by A-List celebrities such as Jack Black as Bowser, Chris Pratt as Mario, and Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong. Although the plot was thin and somewhat cliche in parts, within 1 hour and 32 minutes, the film was able to appeal to the sense of nostalgia of its viewers, as it incorporated various tidbits from throughout the franchise, and presented them in a cohesive manner. The Super Mario Bros Movie might have had a weak narrative, but it succeeded in presenting these familiar characters and settings in a new way that was entertaining and comedic, while still nostalgic and sentimental. 

All in all, The Super Mario Bros Movie demonstrated that Nintendo has come a long way since their first forgotten live action movie in 1993, and has also shown the possibility that video game adaptations can be extremely successful in the main market film industry. This idea has grown in popularity, as seen with Sonic the Hedgehog (2022), Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019), and the recent television series, The Last of Us (2023). Looking ahead, Nintendo has suggested their plans for future movies centering around different franchises under their domain, so it’s plausible to assume that more hit movies will be released by Nintendo in the near future.