Mario Movie

I remember the day I received a brand new Nintendo Switch for my 11th birthday. It was October 2017, and my family and I were walking through the Nintendo World Store in Manhattan, searching for the perfect gift. As I walked through the vast shelves of Nintendo themed merchandise, I stumbled upon a brand new Nintendo Switch. At that moment my mind suddenly clicked as I said to myself, “I want that.”

I played numerous games on my Switch ranging from Mario to Smash Bros., to Pokemon. The memories I gained while playing these games helped contribute to my ever-growing love for the Nintendo franchise. When I finally came to see the new Super Mario Bros. movie in theaters, it did not disappoint me one bit. The numerous Nintendo references and interesting storyline appealed to me the most. I thought the movie would serve as an amazing and nostalgic experience for anyone who grew up playing Nintendo games. But to my surprise, many fans saw things differently.

After listening to ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’: I received a different perspective on the film. While I was busy being drawn in by the colorful visuals, various hidden Nintendo references, and deep storyline, I hardly ever considered the significance the film had on the actual Mario games. It was shocking to hear how Thompson and his podcast guests first start by expressing their love for the references and vivid animation, but suddenly change their tone to disappointment as soon as they discuss the plot and significance. After considering their perspective, I also started to notice the film’s differences from the actual Mario franchise, allowing me to see the movie more as a separate story rather than an adaptation of the original video game. To many viewers such as Thompson, the Mario and Nintendo franchise serves as a nostalgic and memorable part of their lives. Therefore, by having your expectations lowered by a lack of significance to the original game, it’s easy for me to understand why Nintendo fans like Thompson may have been disappointed with the result. But I believe that just because a movie doesn’t accurately depict something enough is not a good reason to be disappointed by it.

Although the Mario movie is still very recent and successful, I don’t think it’s right to judge a film negatively just because it doesn’t depict something accurately and significantly enough. The way I see it, tons of movies and TV shows are said to be film adaptations of something already existing that don’t do a good job of representing what they are trying to depict. Film adaptations will almost always find subtle ways to twist the plot and rewrite things differently. What I believe makes the Mario movie receive more disappointment than numerous other movies is that Mario veterans like Thompson initially had tons of high expectations for the film. I am happy that Thompson and his guests still have lots of appreciation and respect for the film. I understand that film is still as subjective as any other form of art out there. But our film culture shouldn’t consider the level of the depiction of an original work to be the most important aspect of a film adaptation, instead, the quality of the film itself, which I believe the Mario movie did not disappoint us with.