Movie Thoughts: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026)

• Released: April 1st, 2026
• Directed by: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Pierre Leduc
• Running time: 1h 38min
• Rating 3.25/5

Synopsis

Mario and his friends go on a journey across the galaxy to save the universe against Bowser and his son, Bowser Junior.

My Thoughts

Ya'll know that I didn't care much about the first Mario movie. This one I'd say is a mild improvement, but not by much.

I will say this: This movie is gorgeous. The Mario movies are easily the best-looking Illumination films out there, they do really have that extra polish in the animation, character designs, expressiveness and texture departments. So no complaints from me there.

The story was okay if you ask me, however it does throw a lot at the audience in a relatively short amount of time, and not all of it sticks. Which sometimes felt a bit overkill. But the plot overall kept me mildly engaged.

I also did like how Bowser's character development was a bit unpredictable in this. For a moment I really was wondering if he was truly redeemed. Of course, they had him relapse and become a villain again in the end, but it was still engaging to see what they were gonna do with this character.

I do appreciate that there was much less familiar populare songs being used in this film than in the first. I thought the songs being used in the first was pretty annoying, so this is an improvement.

What I didn't care for as much was the characters of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, etc. They weren't very interesting here. I think the only one whose mystery I kinda got into was Peach, but the solution to the mystery was so obvious that it didn't really hit. Also, once they unite, Peach and Rosalina barely share any screen-time together, so their whole "coming together as sisters" didn't really do much for me.

The constant Nintendo references quite annoyed me. They legit did nothing for me and didn't feel like they added anything to the movie or the universe. The only really relevant reference was Starfox, and even he could've been replaced with an original character and nothing would've changed. 

I also didn't vibe with Rosalina being a damsel in distress here, especially when the trailers kept depicting her as badass and capable. 

It's also kinda weird how nobody in this movie seems to have parents? Yoshi's egg hatched without any parents present, Peach and Rosalina seem to lack parents, and Bowser has a son but Junior's mother is never even alluded to. I don't know, at first it didn't bother me, but with three instances where there's no parents around when they could've at least have been mentioned, it felt odd. Especially for Peach and Rosalina who are just girls when they get separated.

Eh, overall I thought this was an okay movie. I won't recommend it and don't think that it was very good, but it was decent enough.