It’s rare my wife and I both get time off at the same time.
She is the sole proprietor of a used bookstore in Castor as well as the secretary for our church and between the paper, school, and my photography, I am kept hopping.
Still, we do try to make time when we can and the other weekend we were both able to get into Stettler for a much-needed shopping and date day, including a movie at the recently reopened Jewel Theatre.
We ended up checking out the Chris Pratt-led The Super Mario Bros. movie.
While Hollywood has long been challenged by bringing video-game adaptions to the silver screen, The Super Mario Bros. is an example of the genre done right.
The 90-minute movie twisted the traditional Super Mario Bros. story that today’s generation grew up with; instead of Mario and Luigi being off to rescue the princess, Mario was actually off to rescue Luigi after the two were separated on their arrival into the Mushroom Kingdom.
Despite that change, there were plenty of nods back to the source materials including ample use of power-ups, the various suits Mario wore in the games, as well as connections to Donkey Kong and the Mario Kart series.
The show we saw was a Saturday afternoon matinee, so there were plenty of kids in the theatre; this made for plenty of laughter throughout the well-received film. On the bright side, my wife and I weren’t the only adults without kids in the show; it is definitely a movie that can be enjoyed by all ages.
I think what made The Super Mario Bros. movie work is that the writers and producers knew what it was; they knew it was a video game movie. However, they also knew the source material and the audience.
Yes, they made some subtle changes to the story and the lore, but the changes they made actually made sense. The producers also didn’t try to over-pack the story elements.
These reasons and the fact that it is a generally fun movie are all why the movie has stayed at number one on the charts for three weekends in a row and raked in nearly $1 billion.
The Super Mario Bros. movie is a nostalgia-driven fun ride and well worth checking out.