From originally appearing in the 1981 arcade Donkey Kong to becoming a memorable character with his own franchise sold on numerous consoles, Mario hit a new milestone after being animated on the big screen for the first time. On April 5, 2023, the iconic 1983 Nintendo video game-inspired movie hit theaters, becoming a major box office success with the highest-grossing debut of 2023, earning over $377 million worldwide in its opening weekend.

The computer-animated film, which runs an hour and a half, is geared toward true fans. It shares the background story for brothers Mario and Luigi, plumbers who end up in another dimension after traveling through the pipes. Audiences get to see some of the best-known characters come to life like Toad, Princess Peach and Bowser. Donkey Kong even makes an appearance.

My favorite moment of the movie was when Jack Black who plays Bowser, sang Peaches, a  song where Bowser declares his love and desire to wed Princess Peach. The song is being uploaded on all forms of social media, including TikTok, and even has its own official music video which has garnered more than 19 million views. It even hit No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100, with 5.8 million US streams and 6,000 downloads in its first week.

The movie shows many references to the video games including Rainbow Road from Mario Kart and the Blue Shell, a popular power-up item. From someone who has played many of the Super Mario Bros games, I can say that the movie definitely stayed on par with the original franchise. They displayed many of the characters who help and follow Mario around on his adventures. What I liked most about the movie was how the Mushroom Kingdom came to adopt Peach as one of their own and later on their princess.

I’ve been playing the Super Mario games since I was a little boy. This movie brings back so many memories and reminds me of the times I used to play the game for hours. If you ever played a Mario game I would recommend you watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It’s a great animated movie that brings you back to your childhood. Hopefully, they continue to make more Nintendo animation movies and bring back the inner child of everyone watching.