The Super Mario Bros. Movie · reception & legacy

2023 · Aaron Horvath

How The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Announced with Chris Pratt's casting in 2021, it was the internet's favourite punchline for two years — then it opened, made over $1.3 billion, and became the highest-grossing video game movie ever, leaving the doubters to quietly delete their tweets.

What's debated

The great critic-vs-audience standoff of 2023: reviewers shrugged at a feature-length nostalgia delivery system while audiences (and plenty of Letterboxd users) insisted a movie this joyful and colour-saturated doesn't owe anyone a theme.

Its footprint

Jack Black's Bowser crooning 'Peaches' escaped the film entirely — it charted on the Billboard Hot 100, flooded TikTok, and Black performed it in full costume; for a stretch of 2023 the internet was legally required to sing it.

Where it stands

Not a cinephile object and doesn't want to be — it lives on as a comfort rewatch, a kids'-birthday staple, and the movie that proved video game adaptations could print money.

★ Did you know? Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario in the games for over 25 years, appears in the film in cameo roles — including as Mario's dad — a passing-of-the-torch moment before he stepped back from voicing the character later that year.