The Super Mario Galaxy Movie just hit theaters, and it might be the best animated movie of 2026 so far. As the sequel to the movie The Super Mario Bros released in 2023, Chris Pratt (Mario), Charlie Day (Luigi), Anya Taylor-Joy (Princess Peach), and Jack Black (Bowser) return to reprise their roles with some newcomers that pay homage to Nintendo’s many franchise characters.
Meet Our Heroes
Princess Rosalina, voiced by actress Brie Larson, is in her home world in a galaxy far away, preparing to tuck her children, who are stars known as Lumas, to bed, when the son of Bowser, known as Bowser Jr., aka Baby Bowser, comes to kidnap Rosalina. Meanwhile, Mario and Luigi are preparing for Princess Peach’s birthday party at the castle alongside a new member of the gang, Yoshi, whom they rescued on a previous mission. Future events would lead the Lumas working alongside Mario and the gang to rescue Princess Rosalina, while Bowser is imprisoned in the castle of the Mushroom Kingdom.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie – Analysis (Spoiler Alert)
Fundamentally, the movie meshes well with the Super Mario Universe, as well as the Super Mario Galaxy game as its adaptation, although it does not follow the original story as a landmark.
The movie is technically sound and blends well as an adaptation of the Super Mario Galaxy video game, where you could insert scenes of the movie into the game, and it would feel as if it were part of the cutscenes as a whole.
The inclusion of characters such as Yoshi (voiced by musician Donald Glover) and Fox McCloud (voiced by actor Glen Powell) were positive added nuances that made the film feel larger as a world. However, the manner in which Yoshi was introduced felt less authentic than Fox McCloud’s introduction. Yoshi was found at the beginning of the movie in a sewer pipe, after having his own mini-adventure, while Fox was doing maintenance on his ship at a port in outer space, which felt a lot more natural.
The goal of rescuing Princess Rosalina from the hands of Baby Bowser felt like more of a nod to the traditional motif of the gaming franchise. The objective of the Mario Bros was to save a princess, which abandoned that traditional element in its first movie, due to a more feminist approach to Princess Peach as a whole (instead of rescuing the princess, you had to rescue Luigi). Unless you are familiar with the Nintendo games as a whole, from Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros, Super Mario World, Super Mario Sunshine, and the Super Smash Bros franchise to name a few, a lot of the elements used in the film would go over your head, and nothing is really explained, including the power ups and weapons used by the characters (you are just supposed to know).
One point of inconsistency is that the movie reveals that Princess Rosalina is the older sister of Princess Peach, separated due to an intergalactic event, where it is also revealed that they were born from fragments of stars. However, canonically, Princess Rosalina and Princess Peach are in no way related by blood whatsoever, and they are separate princesses with separate bloodlines.
In the movie, Luigi’s desire for a love interest, seeing that Mario may have an interest in Princess Peach, may hint at Luigi’s future relationship with Princess Rosalina, or the introduction to another princess by the name of Daisy, but it is unclear.
The movie, in the end, shows Bowser in his skull form (aka Dry Bowser) after falling into a pit of lava. However, it is unclear if this is permanent or if he is somehow going to return to his original form through some sort of magic. Although the end shows him and his son in prison, it would have been a much more interesting easter egg if Bowser and his son somehow interacted with Wario and Waluigi from the franchise as future villains, but this was never the case. After all, Wario was the main villain in the game Super Mario Land 2.
Ultimately, the movie lacks personal flaws for an emotional story that the characters have to overcome in order to solve the big problem of the story. You cheer for Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi to succeed because they are the franchise heroes, not because you want them to do better in the midst of their major flaws, which were not present in the film.
Fun for the Family
With several cameos of Nintendo’s all-star lineup, this movie proves to be a fun family film for people of all ages. Familiarity with the stories is not a requirement. However, those who are aware of the canon and relationships between these characters can spot a few plotlines that make no sense in the grand scheme of things. In contrast to the first movie, where the objective was to rescue Luigi instead of Princess Peach, the rescuing of the damsel in distress, combined with a strong female lead, makes more sense in the sequel than in the first movie. Due to this strong franchise, it will be no surprise if a third installment of the movies is in the works to explore other vast concepts surrounding the Super Mario brand.
