First off this movie is for kids and fans of Nintendo and the Mario franchise. I still think an adult who isnt a fan could still enjoy it but this movie is so full of fan service that it will have you smiling the whole time. The voice acting I was skeptical but they all work and work well too. Jack Black is the star here. I love how they kept the story simple like all of the games. Truly felt like a video game on screen. This movie felt like a beautifully animated amusement park ride. The audio in the movie was amazing too. The sounds and the score with reimagined iconic music was perfect. Some of the songs in the movie felt unnecessary but they worked. I think they should've bumped the run time to 105-120 min. 90 min felt too short as it goes by quick. I havent had this much wholesome fun at the movies in a long time. If youre a fan you HAVE to see it.

I am someone who is not swayed by "critics" or rotten tomato scores. I didn't even really have any expectations going into this movie. As someone who grew up playing Super Mario Bros, Super Mario World etc., I was really just going to see this movie based on nostalgia and it does deliver on nostalgia. The visuals are stunning, and while everyone has their reservations about Chris Pratt the voice acting is perfect (except one for one elderly character). While many have said this movie moves quickly or "too fast", I would say it has great pacing and never leaves you bored. While it is not a perfect film it leaves little to be desired. It is everything you want from an animated Super Mario Movie.

Granted, this film is not going to appeal to people who have never been fans of any games featuring the titular brothers. But given the fact that these filmmakers were tasked with making a movie that caters to a fan base that spans four decades and thus have a myriad of tastes and expectations, they did a pretty good job. In fact, a slightly better job than I was expecting.

The voice cast was the subject of much controversy, and I thought that for the most part it was actually spot-on. A couple of characters were horribly miscast in my opinion, but in particular Jack Black as Bowser and Charlie Day as Luigi shine as perfectly encapsulating the spirit of the characters.

Platforming elements from the games was very efficiently worked into the action sequences, and some of them were quite thrilling. This is easily Illumination's most visually stunning film, and a massive step up from every one of their other films since the first Despicable Me.

As for the plot, it's just the plot of every Mario game. And for the most part, that's all it needs to be. Every beat plays out almost exactly like you'd expect it to, with a couple subversions pleasantly thrown in there.

The messiest parts of the movie, if I'm going to get critical, are the dialogue (which is often quite stupid) and the characters. They just try to deal with too many of them, and although four or five characters are strongly introduced with background and desires, almost none of these introductions actually amount to a payoff, and even when there is a payoff, it's haphazardly thrown together for a rushed ending.

Although I think 85-90 minutes is actually the perfect length for an animated film normally, this one could've benefitted from an extra 10-20 minutes to flesh out these points a bit more. We move so quickly from location to location that there's never any time to breathe or get invested.

But that's my adult perspective. I had a pretty breezy, fun, and heartwarming time, though I would've liked more meat on the script.

My theater was PACKED, and probably 75% young children, and they all seemed to have the time of their lives. Your kids will probably love it, and you will probably more than tolerate it.