The Mario Movie: My thoughts

I went and saw the new Mario Movie by Illumination. I thought the movie was alright in a general sense as a new big animated project trying to appeal to a young demographic. The animation was good but still had that same feeling of being another illumination feeling, taking away from the movie having its own identity and making it feel more of a marketable product than a project coming from the passion of the creators. In the story it feels like the characters aren't going through any change even though the plot is moving forward. In normal stories, characters go through change and feel emotions that impact the characters and plot. Kung Fu Panda’s training montage incorporates a clever character trait of Po the panda to aid his training, whilst simultaneously strengthening the relationship of his master who once despised him. It incorporates creative editing and colours in sync with its own original music. The Mario movies montage doesn’t take anything from its source material to create a song and instead uses Bonnie Tyler - Holding Out For A Hero. The montage doesn’t have any emotional connection with the characters, just Mario failing the obstacle course and eating mushrooms he doesn’t like. Yes it mimics how it feels to play the mario games, but it doesn’t translate well into an entertaining or fulfilling watch. At the end of the montage Mario still doesn’t make it to the finish completing the course, making it feel like more of a waste of time. The characters feel very one dimensional, I understand Mario being a character made to fit every situation, but the rest of the cast feel like wasted potential. Luigi, instead of him being put in a cage with nothing to do the whole movie, he could have gone through different trials to build up his courage and stop being so afraid and skittish. This would have made Luigi's moment of saving Mario much more fulfilling and meaningful, rather than a spontaneous leap of courage. Peach has no character at all other than she’s good at everything and is perfect. It would’ve been nice to see anything that would challenge Peach’s character. Donkey Kong is just an asshole with nothing witty or funny to say. It would have been nice to see some growth between him and Mario rather than him throwing insults at Mario every chance he gets. Bowser could have had a more interesting relationship with Mario other than hating Mario as his love rival. It would have been more interesting to see the bowser leave his castle and interact with the characters more. To conclude the movie is very dull and has very little substance through a critical lens. The animation felt very basic and stuck with the Illumination feel taking any form of identity away from the movie. Even though it was made for a younger, more broad audience that doesn’t negate the safe approach the movie wanted to go. 1 out of 5