Referential ‘Mario Galaxy’ lacks narrative substance

Like its 2023 predecessor, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is about as engaging as watching someone else play a video game.

For a younger generation, that might be enough. The internet contains billions of hours of content of people just playing through video games. Somebody must be watching them.

The busy-but-empty “Mario Galaxy” movie stuffs itself with references to various Mario games and other Nintendo properties. As a middle-aged adult who happily played through most of the Mario Bros. library over the years, one might think these movies would tickle my nostalgia-tinged heartstrings.

For me, I’d rather just go back and play the games. I’m the type of gamer who wants to skip the cut scenes and jump straight into smashing Goombas.

“Mario Galaxy” features three main story “ideas.” Basically, 1) Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) needs to rescue Rosalina (Brie Larson) for reasons; 2) Mario (Chris Pratt) wants to go on a date with Peach, so he helps; and 3) Bowser (Jack Black) wants to be nice but loves his evil son.

No characters go through any consequential changes. Nobody learns anything. Instead, it’s just boss fight, location change, boss fight. Rinse and repeat.

My 8-year-old son enjoyed all the references to the games. He also enjoys watching me when I play through a challenging “Mario” boss fight that he can’t beat by himself. We could have stayed home to do that.

Just like the last movie, “Mario Galaxy” conjures the occasional, amusing callback to Nintendo history. The extended inclusion of Fox McCloud (Glen Powell) from the Star Fox game franchise worked on me, particularly because of Powell’s brazen vocal performance.

“Mario Galaxy” also fixes the cardinal sin of the first movie by including Yoshi, voiced by Donald Glover for no apparent reason. The adorable little dinosaur has little to do in this story, but any Yoshi is good Yoshi.

Returning cast members Black as Bowser and Charlie Day as Luigi infuse the film with energy, even as the script gives them little to showcase their natural comedic talents. On the other hand, Pratt continues to be the absolute wrong choice to voice Mario. I’m not expecting a Mario voice that sounds exactly like he does in the games. I am expecting a voice that isn’t just Pratt’s normal speaking voice punctuated with a high-pitched, “Wahoo!” from time to time.

Yes, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” aims to entertain children. It functions as a passable spring break distraction. But being “for kids” isn’t an excuse to punt on basic story structure and character development.

“Mario Galaxy” is empty, fleeting content without the luxury of even the most rudimentary button-mashing.

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at [email protected].

    This image released by Universal Pictures shows Yellow Luma, voiced by Virginia Dare Jelenic, left, and Princess Peach, voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy, in a scene from "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie."