LOS ANGELES, March 31 (UPI) -- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, in theaters Wednesday, uses deep knowledge of Nintendo lore for clever Easter eggs. Unfortunately, it lacks basic storytelling.
Princess Rosalina (voice of Brie Larson), tells her Luma children the story of Princess Peach and the plumber. So they all know about Mario (Chris Pratt) and Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) but have never contacted them, even though Peach and Rosalina are sisters.
Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie) captures Rosalina to fulfill his father's (Jack Black) evil plan, thwarted by Mario and Peach in the first animated Super Mario Bros. Movie. So, Mario, Peach, Luigi (Charlie Day), Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) and even a reformed Bowser travel a galaxy full of Nintendo worlds to rescue Rosalina.
Even for a quest movie, Super Mario Galaxy has no pretense of narrative cohesion. It's simply a series of bits, perhaps akin to levels of a game, but the whole point of a movie is to connect those levels with some story.
Peach even calls out how some characters' backstories conveniently fit the needs of the plot, but joking about it doesn't absolve the inconsequentiality. Mostly, conflicts are arbitrarily undone when the bit is over.
