Finally, after some delays from post-production; the long awaited movie has been released. So power-up with a mushroom for this review.

When the voice cast of “The Super Mario Brothers Movie” was released, a lot of people were upset and disappointed that Chris Pratt was going to play Mario, instead of the original actor Charles Martinet, due to his limited vocal range.

My speculation of this might be that they wanted to have an all star cast to entice people to see them in the theaters. But, when the movie was released, people thought that his performance was better than anticipated.

This wasn’t the first time Nintendo released a Mario movie. In 1993, Super Mario Bros. premiered in theaters; however, it felt more of a Tim burton-styled Blade Runner than an actual Super Mario Bros. movie. Unlike this new rendition, which has crisp and bright animation and colors.

The animation is stellar, I still couldn’t believe that Illumination, the animation company, made this movie because of how detailed and clear it is. The water looks realistic, the textures on the clothing are flawless, and the backgrounds of the locations are spot on such as the Rainbow Road scene, one of the most iconic tracks in the Mario Kart Franchise. 

Mario, Princess Peach, Toad, and the rest of the Kong Kingdom raced on the classic Rainbow Road track. The road itself is colorful and a great callback to the game. But, the characters really shine in this scene. The animation team does a great job at combining all of these characters together while not sacrificing any of them. All of the characters look sharp, colorful, and unique in every way, not just in animation.  

 The characters are more fleshed out and have additional personality traits. Mario throughout the entire movie is helpful but inexperienced in his life. He starts off as only a plumber, but faces some challenges throughout that turns him into a hero. Bowser in this movie was not only funny, but intimidating. He successfully conquered kingdoms and imprisoned others who stood in his way of domination. 

The performances in this movie are great. Chris Pratt’s performance as Mario was decent to say the least. To top it off, Jack Black who plays Bowser rocked his role as the Koopa King

Finally, the “Peaches” song is well-sung by Jack Black; It’s one of the most iconic scenes in the movie.

Overall, this was a fantastic movie. The animation is amazing, the voice cast does a great job, and the references were a nice nod. And for that I give 4-and-a-half stars.