The first Super Mario Bros. Movie from Illumination was… well, okay at best.
It got a fair bit right, like the excellent visual presentation and delightful Easter Eggs throughout its 92-minute runtime. But a weak script, baffling casting decisions, and reliance on licensed music over iconic tracks from Koji Kondo resulted in a middling experience that I wasn’t too keen to watch again.
Alas, I did watch it again – many, many times. And the reason why is simple: I have a three-year-old daughter. Need I say more?
Well, I will. Y’see, my family and I were fortunate enough to go on a cruise toward the end of last year, stopping off at Hamburg, Bruges, Rotterdam, and Le Havre. Our cabin’s TV included a range of on-demand movies, one of which was — you guessed it — Terrifier 3 the Mario Movie.
So whenever we had a bit of downtime, which normally came toward the end of the day when we were getting ready to hit the hay, we’d stick the Mario Movie on for my daughter after much begging on her part. And I have to admit, watching her eyes light up whenever Princess Peach came on the screen, or when she giggled in delight when Bowser trapped Kamek’s fingers in a piano, my opinion of the film began to shift.
Don't get me wrong, I still don't think it's a great film or anything, but my daughter's enthusiasm became infectious. It is, after all, a movie primarily aimed toward kids, and so I started to view it through that exact lens. All of its faults — everything that I, as a self-proclaimed movie connoisseur, saw as blights upon a game series I'd adored since the mid-'90s — faded into the background.
Soon enough, we bought our daughter plushies of Mario, Luigi, and Peach, and we'd begin to act out scenes from the film together (with my wife begrudgingly playing the role of Bowser – heh!). This not only strengthened her love for the film, but also the bond that she and I had begun to foster.
Truth be told, the first couple of years of fatherhood were quite difficult for me; family and friends warn you that young children like to pick favourites and play parents off against one another, but I'm quite sure my daughter took this concept to its absolute limits, and it honestly pushed me to breaking point. So when she fell in love with the Mario Movie, it opened up a crucial opportunity for me to finally break down that barrier, and for nearly a year, we've enjoyed a wonderful relationship together that's only gotten better with time.
Needless to say, when I showed her the first trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (which officially releases on 3rd April 2026, by the way), she was thrilled beyond words. And so was I, for that matter. I love the Galaxy games so much, and I genuinely can't think of a more appropriate direction for the upcoming sequel.
What's even better is that, thanks to the aforementioned cruise ship also containing a small cinema, my daughter has proven that she's capable of sitting through a movie and staying reasonably engaged from beginning to end. So you can bet we'll be right there at our local Vue on day one for the sequel. This has the potential to be a memory that will last until my dying days, and that is far more precious to me than any criticism I might have against Nintendo and Illumination's work on the adaptations so far.
I'll never try to convince those who don't want children that they're making the wrong choice; parenting is really hard, man. But it's also full of magical moments that I wouldn't change for the world – or the galaxy, for that matter. The Super Mario Bros. Movie might not be anywhere close to being a masterpiece, but my goodness, am I glad it exists.
Bring on the sequel.