The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (Spring 2026)

I'm going to see the movie at Tuesday. I heard it was kind of… bad. What should I expect? (Please don't spoil)
 
Fawfulthegreat64 said:
Just don't let critic reviews influence your expectations. I really liked the movie all things considered, and I think it's absolutely insane that critics are going so hard for the throat on it.
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I heard some fans trying to defend the movie by saying that the mario games also didn't have a story, and I thought that was pretty funny. Either way, I'm still going to see it, and I hope its good.
 
I think the later wave of bad reviews is going to come pretty soon. I'm pretty sure the first Mario Movie got so much bad reviews is because you kind of have to play the games to like it. Which I think this happens to most video game movies.
 
I just saw the movie this morning. I thought it was quite enjoyable but not as good as the first movie. I enjoyed Fox McCloud from Star Fox as a main cast character but think it's a bit odd that we're getting characters completely external to the Mario franchise in the movie while there's still so much in the Marioverse that wasn't referenced in this movie (e.g. Mighty Peach from Princess Peach Showtime since it's spaced themed, or The Shroobs from Partners in Time for the same reason) and we still haven't had any Mario RPG characters appear. I did think it was cool that we had some minor Mario RPG references in this movie (e.g. The Dark Prognosticus appearing as a cameo) but I actually didn't notice any of those while watching (I just found out about them from reading the Mario Wiki page.) I also wasn't a huge fan of Rosalina and Peach being sisters but it's okay I guess. I really enjoyed the relationship with Bowser and Bowser Jr in this movie especially the storytelling flashback. It was a shame Peach never really uses power ups in this movie besides the Super Mushroom and power ups in general were pretty underused in this movie. I'm not a massive fan of the implied buildup to the romantic pairings of Mario+Peach and Luigi+Daisy but not hugely bothered by it either. Overall though I enjoyed it quite a lot, the plot and writing was decent, I really loved the Mario and Peach dungeon scene, I think the movie had a lot of great music and it looked beautiful too.
 
Just got back from watching the film. It was very fun and enjoyable! "Worse than AI" my butt. It was better than the first film.

The line for my theater was so long… it extended outside the front doors! I haven't seen that before. Thankfully we sat down JUST when the film started.

Oh my gosh… I couldn't contain myself while I watched! I loved pointing out the new characters I recognized.

What really surprised me was Fox's 2D sequence where not only the Barrel Roll is referenced (Toad even directly says the meme later in the movie) but Slippy Toad is made fun of. I also didn't expect to see Mr. Game & Watch and Dry Bowser.

And yes, I saw Daisy in the post-credits scene.
 
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I have a question, how do you make the spoilers tab?
 
I just watched the movie. I really liked it! It was cute, you can see stuff from the video game in a natural fashion. And I mean it's really cute. Obviously there isn't some grand narrative or philosophical argument. It's a kids' movie. But if you're out with kids or with a loved one and want to watch something cute and light, it delivers that in spades.
 
I bought tickets at Cinemark, and, to make it extra special, I decided to buy D-Box seats. It was just me and my brother, so when we chose our seats, my brother paid me 5$ just so I wouldn't make him sit by me. When we got there, there was only like a couple of families there, so it was pretty easy to go and get snacks, I bought some Sour Cream and Onion Pringles (unfortunately they didn't have Lay's) and my little brother got an ICEE. We also both got a large bucket of popcorn. Also, when the trailers were going, the first trailer was a horror movie about dinosaurs, and the next one was a Paw Patrol movie about dinosaurs (which I thought was pretty funny). The movie was great. I think the casino box was a really cool idea. And one of my favorite references was when that baby Luma said "I'm hooked on the brothers" (If you know, you know) Also, pretty cool how they made Peach and Rosalina sisters. Obviously, this isn't canon towards the games, (for a number of reasons, and not just this) But if they can make an entire planet over just putting both their hands together, that's pretty cool. Also, kind of surprising how Rosalina got captured THAT easily. And Dry Bowser is SO COOL. I don't know why, I think I just have an addiction to skeletons in general (I also thought that one puppet scene with Bowser and Bowser Jr. was really cute). Also, when R.O.B tells Peach and Toad where to go, there was this ONE SOUND EFFECT that gave me chills. In NSMBU, there's a challenge mode, and the SAME SOUND EFFECT is used when you're too slow, and you'll get a worse medal. But overall, I don't think the movie was that bad. Of course, it isn't a masterpiece, but I think the critics are being a bit too harsh. "Worse than AI" is probably an exaggeration, but no, of course not, it's NOT worse than AI. Anyways, they're obviously going to make a third movie with Daisy being revealed, (if the movie does well) and you know that I'll be at that movie as well.


















Pilots can be found on the flight deck, which is located right overrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
 
Some thoughts about it. But before that, I just want to express my concerns with the film before I got to that point.

Anyway, now the thoughts...
  • I love the Illumination scene where the Minions activate the Hammer. I long for the times where Mario is not afraid to reference anything from his original game, given how much his anniversaries are misattributed to Super Mario Bros. (note that Nintendo always attribute the anniversaries to SMB, not Mario!)
  • The Rosalina scenes didn't do much to me, since I don't quite consider Rosalina as one of my favourite characters. It's not an opinion shared by most, but I am fine with Rosalina not getting as much screen time.
  • With that said, sometimes I wonder if making Rosalina one of the more powerful characters is a drawback itself. Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope made her corrupted by a villain because the developers feel that she is generally depicted as powerful (and I can imagine that it's a reason that some thought it was a letdown that she becomes a standard playable character)
  • Personally thought the Yoshi reveal was kind of abrupt. While I would love to see Brooklyn again, it would be nice to see Yoshi having some trouble in Brooklyn instead of merely a montage, with a logical lead up to the Mario brothers. In other words, the screen time between the two scenes could be switched, if they can't allocate more time for them.
  • That scene where Luigi sang the "that's amore" song, I chuckled because of the association with Mario head.
  • It's funny to see how the Mario brothers personally support all the Toads by dealing with their problems.
  • Although Bowser is hardly my favourite character, I do at least give them credit for making him less heartless than before.
  • I personally liked that Bowser Jr. is used as the way for Bowser to be free, and while his shifting eyes are odd (compared to his beady eyes in the original), it something that didn't quite bother me as much.
  • I didn't expect the Honey Queen to be antagonistic, which is funny from how I thought she would have behaved.
  • That casino cube is very lovely to look at. It's the kind of imagery that is awesome to look at, and great to see in a film.
  • The ROB is kinda funny with how long it takes to turn around.
  • The depiction of Fox is really great, I really like how well he's integrated to the cast by displaying logical interactions, like Mario and Fox's mutual respect for each other.
  • The integration of the Baby characters is funny, I feel. Like how the Mario brothers now behave like kids. I also like how there's a Baby Toad in the film. No longer is Baby Waluigi the youngest baby, because now Baby Toad is "born"!
  • I think it's surprising that the famous Super Mario Bros. axe scene gets used in this film, and when I see the next part, I knew it segues into another famous game scene (New Super Mario Bros.). I think this is handled quite nicely.
  • Some of the references were surprising, namely, the Ruined Dragon. Some, I already read about beforehand, like Game & Watch.
  • I am a bit unsure about Peach and Rosalina being depicted as sisters, because it might have made them seem more in mirror to the Mario brothers in a sense and casting Daisy out (since Rosalina is not quite similar to Peach, compared to Daisy); but even moreso about the uncertainty is how Peach is being depicted as giftedly powerful. I would've thought that it would be nice that Peach is not treated as another mystically powerful character.
  • The Super Mario World montage when the crew are remaking the Mario castle is nice, but I am a bit disappointed that one of the characters (I'll get to that) doesn't get to be depicted in this style.

The post-film, mid-credits scene having a surprising appearance of Lumalee is not what I expected, but I guess it makes for a nice "closer" for the imprisonment of Bowser and his son. I expect Bowser to return to his fleshy form next time, given how in the games, that's what happened (though it doesn't have to be done by Jr.). Fox getting some closure got me to suspect that the impression for a StarFox film has increase. This is something I agree on, even before this movie. In fact, I felt the biggest detraction for a StarFox film is its relatively lower star power compared to Mario or Zelda. Perhaps this means that they are working on it as we speak.

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And then... the post-credits. I wanted to lay down my multiple predictions on what it's going to be, but I decided against that because of a lack of places to put it down. Suffice to say, none of what I would put down in writing would be something I expected, lest so something I would have liked. I thought it would be the expected but unexciting Koopalings, Wario (and only Wario), or even StarFox, but nope. It's actually much better than I thought.

As the scene plays out, when I see the punch with the short gloves, I made a slow realisation that I am going to like who it's going to be, but I didn't expect to see them reveal Daisy's face, since the last film didn't even reveal Yoshi at all (only the egg).

If you know me, whenever I see Daisy gets a modicum of mention, I will make sure to highlight that she is there in material that I found on a whim. That's because I still feel that she is the relatively unloved Mario character given how much flak she gets for appearing too much in spinoffs, as though appearing in spinoffs is the worst thing to happen to them that I wonder why anyone would even want their favourites to appear in them (her appearing in a few main games didn't seem to change that opinion). My history of my excitement are as follows:
  1. I got excited for the The Super Mario Bros. Movie movie during the casting call because they revealed Donkey Kong.
  2. I got excited for the The Super Mario Galaxy Movie movie only very close to the release because they revealed Fox.
  3. I am excited for the next Illumination Mario movie because they revealed Daisy in its predecessor.
While it's a shame that Daisy didn't appear earlier, I am still glad that she did. As they always say: better late than never.

While the majority might have preferred the films to play straight to their source material, I like that the films wanted to do something different. Like for example, I applauded the idea that Luigi is the kidnapped one (in the The Super Mario Bros Movie movie), as a contrast to how Peach was typically the kidnapped character in the games.

Thank you for reading.
 
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Hey everyone. Here's my thoughts on the Super Mario Galaxy Movie!

The Good:

  1. Yoshi was super adorable, had some really funny scenes, and Donald Glover made him sound pretty good. My older sister, who saw the movie with me, was amazed as well. She's a huge Yoshi fan, and she found his potrayal in the film to be very cute and comedic.
  2. I liked the scenes that resembled the in-game graphics, such as the scene in the climax where Mario and Peach are working together to find their way out of Bowser Jr.'s maze and the castle rebuilding scene at the end.
  3. The flashack scene with Bowser Jr. was very cute, and probably my favorite scene of the whole movie. The Bowser puppet looked kind of silly, the puppet show was quite entertaining, and Bowser's bond with his son is very believable.
  4. Peach was a powerhouse yet again, but this time, both Toad and Mario got to shine along with her.
  5. Rosalina's life-force being drained away before Peach saved her almost made me cry. The fact that they were revealed to be sisters was an odd choice, but a good one, nonetheless. I don't care if she got sidelined, she really stood her ground against Megaleg in the opening and against Bowser Jr.'s army after he hurt her Luma.
  6. There were no liscensed songs. I was enamoured with how much of the original soundtrack they left in.

The Bad:

  1. The pacing was just as breakneck as the first one, if not more. They could've had something breathing room in between all the action. My brain was still processing scene after scene, even when we left the theater after the movie finished. They really need some structure in between all the gags and references.
  2. Wart and his army felt kinda weak as secondary villain characters. Peach powered through them with little to no effort, and after their scene ended, they just disappeared for the rest of the film.
  3. We don't get to see a lot of the galaxies Mario and the gang travel to on their adventure. In the first movie, Peach said the world was a big universe, with lots of galaxies. But in this film, I think we only saw a handful of said galaxies. They could've had a lot more variety in the locations department beyond Bowser's evil amusement park, lush grasslands, the Gateway Galaxy and its casino, and Tostarina Town.
  4. Luigi barely had a role in the film, much like the first one. We don't even see what he and Yoshi do during the climax. This could've been a great opportunity for much needed character growth, and I was disappointed in how much he faded into the background.
  5. While I appreciated the references to other Nintendo properties, such as R.O.B, Mr. Game and Watch, and the Pikmin, Fox McCloud felt out of place. I admit his role in the story is all right, but he did not need a poster to showcase his presence. I feel like its way too early for a Smash movie, especially when most other Nintendo properties besides Pokemon and Animal Crossing don't have films yet.
  6. The attempt the writers made at trying to redeem Bowser felt very forced. Not only that, but the way Bowser Jr. convinced him to go back to his evil ways was a step in the wrong direction. I appreciate the effort, but with how fast the story was going, it had very little impact on his character growth in my opinion.

Overall, I give the movie a 7/10. I had a lot of fun seeing it and there were a good chunk of funny and emotional scenes. However, it has a lot of rough spots, and I don't think it was as memorable as the first movie was. It's not a bad film by any means, and will likely entertain avid Nintendo fans and their families.
 
Just read that Miyamoto thinks the negative feedback of the Super Mario Galaxy Movie is "strange", though he did say the negative reaction was a bit expected for the first one. Here is the original Japanese article for extra context in case these websites misrepresent anything. There's more to it than Miyamoto's one-sentence slight shock reaction to critic reviews, so if you want, you can read it.

He also touched upon IP mixing:

Miyamoto Up until now, within the gaming genre, we've been operating with a fairly strict rule of not mixing characters from different IPs.


It's like Walt Disney insisted that "there's only one Mickey Mouse in the world," but when there were two attractions, he had no choice but to have two Mickeys, so he reluctantly decided that "they wouldn't appear in the same place." Similarly, Nintendo has avoided mixing characters from various games.


I think of Nintendo as a "Nintendo Troupe." The Nintendo Troupe has a variety of talents, and they come up with the mechanics of the game and use the characters that best suit those mechanics. So, when Nintendo makes a game, they start by thinking about the mechanics without knowing whether it will be a "Mario," a "Zelda," or something completely different. They've always made games by deciding things like, "This would be better as a 'Zelda'," or "We should create a new character."


As an exception, the reason why Nintendo characters appear mixed in with the others in Super Smash Bros. is that it's unavoidable, so after much thought, we decided to make them into dolls. A toy box full of Nintendo characters. Because it's a toy box, we've always said that it's okay for them to be mixed in just Super Smash Bros.


However, we've decided to make an exception for Pikmin, allowing them to be mixed with any other character.
Since we've created one character that breaks the rules, if this project develops into a movie, we're thinking we might be able to loosen the rules a bit regarding who from the Nintendo Theater Company's talents can appear and in what roles, and even have them appear together.


However, it wasn't a free-for-all. Since this was set in the Galaxy, Illumination suggested that "Fox is the go-to pilot in space."


If it were a licensed production, I think I would have said "NO" the moment I was asked, but since we were working on it together, I thought, "Maybe it's possible." From there, I actively thought about what kind of appearance would be most welcome if it were to happen. So, it's not like every single Star Fox character makes an appearance; only Fox actually makes an appearance.


My favorite is the Pikmin, who are prominently featured (lol).
I usually put the Pikmin on the side, but this time they appear right in the middle. From now on, I'll be using a strategy of having Pikmin all over the world, so please look forward to it (lol).
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I mean, one Mario game out of...however many in a franchise over 40 years old isn't exactly disproving what he said :P
 
he specifically cited smash bros as *the* exception though. MK8 is a pretty clear example of them doing that in a major way, in a non-crossover series, and in a way that's more prominent than just a little cameo like the ones in SMRPG.

i feel like smash bros. didn't need to be explained, it's self-evident why that's a crossover game.
 
Fawfulthegreat64 said:
he specifically cited smash bros as *the* exception though.
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I think you need to reread that. He said "as an exception". Not "As the exception". So naturally there are more exceptions. Smash bros basically relies on IP mixing, which is why he mentioned it and said it was unavoidable. There are other games, like MK8 as you said. As well as Links Awakening, SM3DL, SMRDW. The point is that Nintendo had a strict view on crossover IPs with some minor exceptions. And "minor" meaning that there hasn't been very many of them.
 
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I mean Smash makes sense as an exception so it's weird that that's the one they feel the need to explain, when the times it's happened in 100% Marioverse-set games raise more confusion imo.
 
Because its the most famous example so its gonna be the first thing that comes to mind, including his.
 
It's not inaccurate to say Nintendo has largely avoided IP mixing. Do note: "fairly strict rule"; they didn't say it has never happened, it's just that it's rare when it happens). When they DO include content it's largely confined to DLC (i.e. bonus paid content) or amiibo (bonus paid content). We've seen this in Super Mario Maker, Mario Kart 8, Animal Crossing, going off the top of my head. I don't think that conflicts with that statement that they avoid IP soup.
 
Guest appearance is fine, but what make Mario fans feel awkward is the simultaenous overlook of Mario world contents.

Both Mario Kart World and the use of Galaxy game contents in the movie are the examples why fans feel concerned about the ignorance of Mario world. It feels like some kind of message "we'd never plan to mention Tatanga no matter if we insert Kirby or not, so don't ask us why we insert Kirby".

Unless the directors balance really well and make both host fans and guest fans happy. I think Sonic's Crossworlds at least managed to do an average job, even if not perfect.

And tbh, even for the guest idea, there is also actual potential to insert Kirby and Samus as cameo in the airport scene, just like how Brooklyn could also had added more guest cameos.
 
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I don't really get why anyone thinks the issue of this movie is that they didn't include particular characters, or that they didn't include enough Mario characters. This movie is a jumble of Easter Eggs from various points of the Mario franchise. The characters that returned from the first movie already have barely a reason to justify their existence in this movie. This is the digital equivalent of 100 keys of different colors and materials being jangled in front of you, should we really have more? You could swap a chunk of these keys with your favorite color and it would still be the same thing.
 
Yeah people are treating this movie like it marks a list of playable characters like a video game than anything actually meaningful. I don't think anyone is taking away Mouser's 1 second cameo here. Nobody's talking about the crappy script and how much of a missed potential it is to tell something meaningful.

I don't care if it's Mario, Sawada inserted a bit regarding needing to still be funny while his father is undergoing cancer in that gag comic Super Mario-kun that otherwise has a lot of butts and farting.
 
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