The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

April 3 – 16

Friday April 3 – 3:30 & 7:00 pm
Saturday April 4 – 7:00 pm
Sunday April 5 – 1:30 & 7:00 pm
Monday April 6 – 3:30 & 7:00 pm
Tuesday April 7 – 7:00 pm
Wednesday April 8 – 3:30 pm
Thursday April 9 – 7:00 pm
Friday April 10 – 3:30 & 7:00 pm
Saturday April 11 – 7:00 pm
Sunday April 12 – 1:30 & 7:00 pm
Monday April 13 – 7:00 pm
Tuesday April 14 – 7:00 pm
Wednesday April 15 – 3:30 pm
Thursday April 16 – 7:00 pm

Rated PG – 1hr 38min
Family / Adventure

Nintendo has found a formula for its Mario universe and is sticking to it. In The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, as in the 2023 film, surprise character cameos, nonstop gags and action, and references to 40 years’ worth of games fly across the screen at 100 mph. If you’re ready to turn off your brain for a little under two hours and bask in the impressive animation and countless Easter eggs, there’s a lot of fun to be had in this sugar rush of a sequel.

This movie is packed wall-to-wall with references and what seems like every character Nintendo as a company has ever dreamed up and rendered as, at minimum, 8-bit sprites. In fact, there are entire locations in this movie, crowded and bustling spots we didn’t get to see in the first film, that are used as devices for dropping countless characters on screen as blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos.

The action is actually pretty great! This is something that Illumination really excels at. The Despicable Me series, Minions included, has some of the wildest animated action set pieces, and the fight scenes here are genuinely fun. Peach and Toad kicking ass in the casino feels closer to The Matrix sequels than a kid’s movie. The first encounter with Bowser Jr. has some three-against-one wuxia flavor to it as well. This fight is so intricate, in fact, that I found myself wondering how a guy who was just a plumber a few years ago got so good at fisticuffs.

As promised, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie expands the original’s ensemble by bringing in numerous franchise-favorite heroes, villains, and side characters, cracking Nintendo’s universe wide open. Two new additions drive the film’s overarching plot: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie kicks off by introducing Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) reading a story about Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Mario (Chris Pratt) to her dozens of Luma children, only to suddenly be kidnapped by Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), who wants to use her cosmic powers.

The growing cast allows for plenty of fresh dynamics between Nintendo’s iconic characters, but The Super Mario Galaxy Movie hardly allows enough time to capitalize on them. For instance, Yoshi’s arrival creates a one-sided jealous rivalry with Toad, but the recurring humor that could have come from it is largely dropped as the action gets going. The sequel also teases a charming friendship between the optimistic Luigi and manipulative Bowser, but attaches little-to-no stakes to this as new twists are introduced.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie works for what it wants to be: an entertaining, nostalgia-filled, comical, visually stunning romp through multiple generations of Mario. A third movie now seems inevitable after some post-credits scene set-up, and it’ll almost certainly be more of the same – for the Mario fans out there.