Mario Galaxy Movie Breakdown

People are genuinely mad about a Mario movie, and we can’t stop talking about it. We sit down with our first-ever guest, Chandler, to review the Super Mario Galaxy movie and unpack the strangest part of its reception: how a bright, funny, family-friendly video game movie can be massively successful and still attract intense online rage.

We get into what actually makes this sequel work, including the upgraded story momentum, the way it balances references without drowning in them, and why Illumination’s animation polish matters more than most reviews admit. We also nerd out over the soundtrack choices, those quick Mario music stings that slide into fresh arrangements, and the small details that make the Mushroom Kingdom feel lived-in instead of staged. If you care about video game movie adaptations, this is a great case study in “game feel” done right.

Spoilers start early as we break down the full plot: Rosalina and the Comet Observatory opening, Peach’s mission to Gateway Galaxy, Bowser Jr.’s attack, and the escalating set pieces that pull from Galaxy, Odyssey, Wonder, and Mario Maker style design. We talk Bowser’s brief attempt at growth, the father-son dynamic that yanks him back into old habits, the casino deep cuts, and the Star Fox cameo that had us begging for a spinoff. We also react to the post-credits scenes, including the surprisingly dark Luma gag and the Daisy tease.

Listen, then share your rating out of ten, subscribe for more movie reviews and Nintendo talk, and leave a review if you want Chandler to come back for the next one.

Transcript

Cold Open And Guest Welcome

SPEAKER_05 0:00

And we're rolling. We started, and we're back with another review for the Super Mario Galaxy movie starring Crisp Rat and um Childish Gambino, Charlie Day, and Bree Larson and Jack Black. And Anna is it Joy Taylor or Taylor Joy?

SPEAKER_04 0:23

It's Taylor Joy, and it looks like it might be Is her? Is it pronounced Anya? I've already heard it Anna, but there's a Y in there.

SPEAKER_05 0:33

Yeah, I would assume it's Anya then.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

Also, we have our first ever guest.

SPEAKER_05 0:39

Yeah, and uh if you're watching the video podcast, um I drew that picture in the middle of the screen. A little picture with Psyduck drowning in a waterfall. Welcome Chandler to the show.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Hey, thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_05 1:00

Talking about Mario Galaxy movie with you. Alright. Well, as you can see, today's episode is a very special one. We got a sequel to the Mario movie by Illumination. Can I get a yippee?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Yippee!

SPEAKER_05 1:25

Nathan, are you gonna say yippee?

SPEAKER_04 1:28

I'm gonna hold out this time.

SPEAKER_05 1:29

You're gonna hold out.

SPEAKER_04 1:31

I'm I'm gonna let Chandler have the yippee. Appreciate that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:38

That's so sad. Well, I'm looking up who the inventors of the uh the film camera were, because I I someone told me like years ago that the so like the Lumineer Brothers or something like that, and they they were French. There's a movie Yeah, it is the Lumineer Brother Brothers. Apparently the they started the company that became Illumination. Um just a fun little fact. Also there's a movie Was it Hugo that they're technically cameoed in much much after their their death. But yeah, interesting little tidbit about that. They're not only a minion company. So we've all seen the movie.

SPEAKER_04 2:38

I was just gonna say when we were there at the movie theater, we saw another trailer for yet another minion.

SPEAKER_05 2:47

Dude, I actually might go see that one though. We might get a review on that one. I mean it looked pretty interesting. Like I'm not gonna lie, it looked kind of fun until the the toilet came to the end.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

Draining the minion well. Oh, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

That cash cow is getting milk dry.

SPEAKER_05 3:06

I don't know. It's looking like it's like recuperating. It looks like it is like plentiful. Like there is there's so much milk they're going to have to start doing advertisements on TV and like putting it in schools so they can get rid of milk and start paying farmers more.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

And turning it into cheese and hiding in caves in remote locations. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:28

Minion-shaped caves.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

With minion-shaped cheese.

SPEAKER_05 3:33

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 3:34

I mean, minions are yellow, so I mean, I would honestly, now that I'm thinking about it, be surprised if someone hasn't made minion cheese. Like as a marketing thing. Not cheese made out of minions, but oh, I've done both.

SPEAKER_05 3:50

I've done both.

SPEAKER_04 3:53

It's an acquired taste. Kind of like goat cheese.

SPEAKER_05 3:58

Uh goats are weird. I don't like their eyes. Yeah, I honestly don't even know if I've had goat cheese. Just one time a goat showed up at our elementary school. Uh well, they they brought it. It was part of a petting zoo thing.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Uh I like the narrative where it just showed up better.

SPEAKER_05 4:16

Yeah. And they were like, yeah, you can you can milk a goat. And I was like, there's no way. There's no way. That's cool. You can make soap out of goat goat's milk.

SPEAKER_04 4:31

It sounded like you were gonna say you can make soap out of goats, which you probably can.

SPEAKER_05 4:35

You probably could.

SPEAKER_04 4:36

They used to make flu out of horses. That's exactly what I've got. There are soaps made out of animal product. Bones. Take fat mostly.

SPEAKER_05 4:48

Yeah, gubbins. Fat, all that. Our British viewers will know that one. It's a nice little Easter egg for for the British. They love gubbins. Well, how's everyone doing this week?

SPEAKER_04 5:07

Doing great.

SPEAKER_05 5:09

Yeah. What's your favorite thing that you've had to eat this week? And your favorite thing you've smelled this week.

SPEAKER_04 5:17

Favorite thing I've eaten this week, hands down, poppy seed chicken.

SPEAKER_05 5:22

Dude. Neil's poppy seed chicken?

SPEAKER_04 5:25

No. Just had it at home. Why? That was fantastic. Uh, favorite thing I've smelled this week was cinnamon toast. So Dude, I I had cinnamon toast uh this week too.

SPEAKER_05 5:38

Chandler, what about I didn't even have it. You didn't even have it?

SPEAKER_04 5:41

You just were sniffing it like a freak? Yeah, I mean, just holding the bag close.

SPEAKER_05 5:46

You had a nice bag full of cinnamon toast? No, I someone else. My lobster's too buttery, my cinnamon is toast is too cinnamony. Man. That sounds dope. Really is. I'm just suffering, if I'm being honest. Uh Chandler, what's what's the what's your favorite thing you've tasted this week and your favorite thing you've smelled?

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Hmm. Favorite thing I've tasted, I would say, is probably um these breakfast waffles that we get sometimes with uh our meal prep plan. They're really good. They got like chocolate chips and sugar crystals inside of them. It has like syrup substitute. It's they're they're good. They're tasty. And then favorite smell, uh I don't know. We've we've had some pretty decent rain today, so that that fresh, just right after rain smell.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

Do you know not everyone can smell the moisture in the air?

SPEAKER_02 6:53

Yeah, no, it's it's a weird hereditary thing whenever.

SPEAKER_05 6:59

I'm glad I have that, because it's it's a special experience.

SPEAKER_04 7:03

Yeah, for sure. Man, that's wild. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_05 7:08

Yeah. Not every 50% of people have an inner monologue. Just remember that when you're driving on the road.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

Wait, are you so you're saying me when I'm driving? Only 50% of people have an inner monologue? Yeah. Yes. So there are 50% of people who are just there's just nothing going on in there.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's a are you are you joking? Lights aren't even on and no one's. I wish I was joking.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

I can't even fathom what life would be like like that. Like you wouldn't be able to fathom it because you wouldn't have an inner monologue. That's wild. I bet I'd get a lot more done.

SPEAKER_05 7:54

I'd probably be a lot happier. There's a lot of uh a lot of joy that comes from ignorance.

From Minions To Mario Sequel

SPEAKER_05 8:04

Well, anyways, Mario Galaxy movie. Mario Galaxy movie. If you aren't privy to it, Mario Galaxy show. Girominoto himself has been uh getting into the film industry. Um second entry, the first entry in the Super Mario movie franchise uh was back in what was it, eighty-six, eighty-seven, something like that. We had that nasty live action movie.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

87 or 88, yeah, with uh Bob Hoskins and John Liguizamo.

SPEAKER_05 8:42

Yeah, that's the one. That's the one.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

And um Super Mario Bros.

SPEAKER_05 8:47

The movie scared them into not out of doing anything related to movies. I've never seen that. Over 20 years. I rented it from Blockbuster when I was younger, and it was one of the worst things I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_04 8:59

I remember saying anytime you went to the video store to rent one, there they were. It was always there. Right there in your face.

SPEAKER_05 9:06

Man.

SPEAKER_04 9:07

And I still never rented it.

SPEAKER_05 9:09

Did you ever see The Wizard? That was the one with the uh power glove and everything. Yeah, the one where they announced Mario 3. It's like they made The Wizard, then they made the Mario movie, and then there was nothing until a long time later. Other than some like animated features.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

I mean, not directly followed up, but didn't wasn't it followed by uh Street Fighter movie? Oh, dude, Combat's uh Nether Realm.

SPEAKER_05 9:41

Uh Street Fighter movie. When did that come out? Not the new one. New one looks goofy. Yeah. I have opinions about that as well, but we can talk about that at the end. 19 uh 95 was the or 94 was the Street Fighter live action movie. So it actually came out later. But that's also Capcom.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Yeah. Um I guess it wasn't it wasn't a direct follow-up per se, but it was one of the last video game movies.

SPEAKER_05 10:13

Have you seen the animated Street Fighter movies from around that time, Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter 2? No, but I've heard about Street Fighter Alpha. Those movies are actually really good. Hmm. Um about what you'd expect from that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04 10:29

The real question though is are any of them as good as the Speed Racer movie?

SPEAKER_05 10:36

Oh, it's it's really tough. It's a speed racer movies up there with like I mean Citizen Kane, that's one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_04 10:46

Yeah. The Maltese Falcon. You know, and probably the Speed Racer movie.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Yeah. Followed closely by The Godfather. And Angry Birds 2.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

Yeah. We've talked about the Speed Racer movie on here before.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:05

It was it was a fun time, but it was terrible. It was one of those so bad it was new things.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Yeah, you definitely uh you definitely go it don't go into that expecting to enjoy it for the plot.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

Me, I just don't go into that. Oh no, come on, dude. You've seen it like three times.

SPEAKER_05 11:23

Dude. I've I actually have seen it far more than three times, unfortunately. Yeah. Probably in the tens of times. Um dude.

SPEAKER_04 11:34

Man.

Why People Hate Fun Movies

SPEAKER_04 11:35

Well, talking about like criticisms, okay, so and this is no surprise, this happened with the last Mario movie. But before we got on here, I was just looking online just to see what people were saying. And people are so, which I mean people, I mean terminally online people, are so angry about this movie. And it's just mind-blowing to me. Like a movie can be this successful and and generally people like it and it'd be fun and everything. Right. And then there's just people who are just like furious about it, and not like there was some horrific thing in it or something. Just I don't know. I think there's just a lot of people out there who just want to be mad and want to hate things when they can't just enjoy a fun movie.

SPEAKER_05 12:24

It surprised me to see that you know, ratings mean nothing. But the first movie has higher ratings, it has a seven out of ten instead of a six out of ten, uh, fifty-nine percent instead of forty-two. So it's very listening to me.

SPEAKER_04 12:40

That discussion back then was oh, the critics don't like this, but everyone else does.

SPEAKER_05 12:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

And now it's like or so or whatever, but yeah, we're seeing that.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

Because I've seen lots of people just really enjoying it, really liking it, and then I've seen even more, like you said, uh Nathan just absolutely tearing into it.

SPEAKER_05 13:09

And I I wonder if part of that I I don't know, like it are people taking it too seriously? Because this movie is very fun. It's a family movie, but you know, I can enjoy it too. Like and you don't necessarily have to know anything about Mario. They they really you just take it and run. They take that universe. This one I feel like had more of a story and more driven elements of um individual exploration between groups of characters than the previous one. It wasn't just cameo after cameo, you know.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Yeah. I feel like a lot of it, at least as far as I can discern, comes down to just expectations, I guess. Like if you're going into this expecting it to be, you know, the next citizen cane, like we said, or the next godfather or whatever. And you're gonna be disappointed. You're probably gonna be disappointed. Yeah. Or if you're expecting it to be a one-to-one recreation of Galaxy or Galaxy 2, where the namesake came from, you're also probably gonna be disappointed because they're just not gonna go that limited in scope with things. But if you go in expecting it to be, you know, a fun little adventure where you watch a bunch of silly little characters go off on a grand journey, then you know, you're probably gonna have a pretty good time with it. You're probably gonna enjoy it. This is the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure of Video Game movies.

SPEAKER_04 14:41

Yeah, and I feel like what we've seen from the first two is just like unapologetically, hey, this is just a fun movie. And this is just a silly movie, and it just like, yeah, not everything has to be, you know, perfect or or like a direct, you know, adaptation of a game, like you were saying, and that was some of the stuff I had seen online was, you know, it's not the game, and I'm like, okay, well, they didn't say it. I wish they did more.

SPEAKER_05 15:15

And yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

I will say, I mean, and I've only seen each of them once, and it's been a while since I've seen the first one. I remember kind of liking the first one a little bit better than this one, and maybe laughing a few more times than I did in this one, but I've both of them I kind of just walked away with. Yeah, that was fun, you know, and I think they do a really good job with what it is. It it's clearly intended for kids, but also made that parents can go see it with kids. And I think they do a really good job with it. I one of the things that I've noticed this time that I really liked was I think they make it look really good.

SPEAKER_05 15:58

I mean, yeah, it's pretty the colors, the yeah, the art direction is just phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Like that's one of the things illumination really gets right across anything they work on, is just making it look spectacular.

SPEAKER_05 16:12

They also like to show off. I noticed in this movie something that caught my attention every time was whenever they're at Planet Bowser or whatever, there's so many things happening in the background and characters moving independently doing tasks like Koopa like hammering something, or like, you know, a roller coaster moving, and they're all happening at the same time. And it's it's not even the focus of the scene. It's very impressive.

SPEAKER_04 16:40

Yeah, I like how many background and minute references there are that, you know, I'm not like a huge Mario person, but you know, if you've ever played different Nintendo games or Super Smash Bros. or Mario games, there'll be several times in either one of these movies that even if it's not like a direct in-your-face cameo or whatever, you're you'll see some nod or some reference to something that I think they do a really good job with that and making it fun.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Yeah. And to that end, I think too, the first movie was definitely a lot more focused on like general Nintendo properties or things that are kind of tangentially related to Mario as far as the cameos were concerned, because you know, you had Duck Hunt packaged with the original Super Mario Bros. Uh, you had a Punch Out with the Pizzeria, uh, that Mario appeared in that as a ref. You know, like you had a lot of references from across Nintendo's history, but then in this one it was more so concentrated not just on Mario's specific history and the greater Mario universe, but more so recent history with games like Yeah, the Mar the Greater Mario Galaxy. I was trying not to shoehorn that one, and you got it. Uh but but they did focus a lot more on the more recent stuff, not just Galaxy and Galaxy 2, but Odyssey, uh Super Mario Wonder, um a little bit of uh the There was some worldview.

SPEAKER_05 18:21

Yeah, Sunshine. Oh yeah, sunshine for sure. Yeah. Um also I don't know. Like it's just very it it just felt a lot more tasteful. It wasn't just this thing happened because this thing happened. It seemed like there was actually like a journey to go down and um a plot established from the beginning.

Spoiler Setup And Opening Plot

SPEAKER_05 18:43

And um I don't know. Do you guys I I think I can do like a summary of each part and then maybe we can talk about each like main part of the movie. There's major spoilers in that. So if you've somehow gotten this far and you haven't seen the movie, and you plan to see the movie, please, please come back later. Don't don't just don't. Um so we start out the movie and Rosalina's reading to some Lumas at the Comet Observatory. Um and a robot shows up and takes her, yeah. And we see that Bowser Jr.'s inside of it, and what what's the little uh what's the little guy? The blue wizard dudes.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Kamek or Magikuba? Yes. I think he's specifically Kamek in this movie though.

SPEAKER_05 19:38

So they take um they take Rosalina for an unknown reason, um, at first. We find out later. And I'm I'm even gonna bundle this in that the Lumas um were all excited because Rosalina reads them stories about Mario, Luigi Peach, and um Donkey Kong. And then we see Mario and Luigi for the first time driving through the desert excite bike style. Um they get to what is it is that town from Odyssey technically? Because the Upside Down Pyramids, I thought I recognized those from 64 and the desert.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Yeah, that's from No, that's the uh the Sand Kingdom from Mario Odyssey and Toasterina. And the little people are called uh Toasterinans.

SPEAKER_05 20:32

Gotcha. What what's the uh what's the Easter Island guy that's waddling around?

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Moai. Moai. Like that's that's actually the character's name as well.

SPEAKER_05 20:42

That's hilarious. So they get here because there's a plumbing issue, and of course Mario and Luigi being plumbers have to solve it. And um what's blocking the pipes is a Yoshi. And Yoshi then goes on the quest with them. So this is our uh kind of opening to the movie. What'd you guys what'd you guys think for this? Introduction.

SPEAKER_04 21:09

I thought it was good and I like the uh kind of felt like I was playing Mario Kart when they were doing the dirt bikes to to check out the plumbing issue and I what are those little bendy cactus things called? Oh, the ball ones.

SPEAKER_05 21:29

You know the ones that you have to like lick up the balls, Yoshi?

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Like they're stacked up. Oh, the uh the pokies, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

Yeah, I just remember like I used I played Mario Kart Double Dash like all the time with I remember hating those things, and I was like, oh man, there they are.

SPEAKER_05 21:48

Oh, also something I remember from when I was younger with them. And correct me if I'm wrong on this, Chandler, but on Mario World Super Nintendo, which I played first. before Mario Advance 4, like the port to the Game Boy Advance. Pokies were at the end of the first water level before you can go through the warp pipe to exit the level. But for some reason in Mario Advance they're not present.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Is that do you recall that I think I know the level level you're talking about. It was the first water level of the first world. And I think you might be misremembering it slightly, either that or I am, because I do remember there being a secret area in that level or like a level that's what it was the secondary area where they had pokies and stuff that you could uh eat with Yoshi if you had a Yoshi up to that point or uh attack with whatever power up you had and then you went back into the main course of the level and finished it out from there. I don't recall there being pokies throughout the main course of the level but I I could have forgotten.

SPEAKER_05 22:58

No no you're I I think that's spot on because it seemed like it was kind of a different area but I yeah it was they were always really frustrating to get over because I I never really had a Yoshi at that point. Yeah and they were always the tall pokies too like the four or five stacks.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

I guess one other about the intro and I I might as well bring it up here just be the best place to go for it. So Bree Larson is a very much maligned actress there's a lot of opinions about her in different movies and stuff like that. I did one I didn't even notice that it was her while I was watching the movie voicing her. Yeah I thought she did a really good job yeah with her voice acting in this movie. And I like definitely fit really character.

SPEAKER_05 23:50

Yeah the very motherly kind of voice so I thought she did a really good maybe maybe she needs to uh focus on voice acting well she does sometimes this is a controversial take but I really actually like a lot of things she's in I didn't hate Captain Marvel like other people do. I she's in Scott Pilgrim um she plays uh Envy and in the cartoon uh it's not a sequel it's like a retelling where something different happens it's like an alternate timeline thing. Uh she does new games she reprises her voice in that too and she does a really good job. So I I've always thought that she did a good job with things she's in but people get a little a little upset.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Plus she has a pretty long standing well I say pretty long standing but she has a history with Nintendo as well because she's been in several of their commercials and things over the years.

SPEAKER_05 24:46

She also since before Nintendo's like movie presence as of late she's always wanted to play Samus in a Nintendo movie of some kind Yeah I could definitely see her fill in that role but as far as this movie goes I I mean Rosalina's as good a casting for her as any for sure.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Yeah I will say I I with this cold open or with the opening I appreciated it being a cold open kind of in the same vein as the first movie like we started you on a cold open in the Super Mario Bros movie that came before this so now we're gonna start you in a essentially similar cold open with this one except now it's shift to where instead of Bowser attacking the Penguin Kingdom it's Bowser Jr. attacking the Comet Observatory I thought that was a nice little bit of parallelism.

SPEAKER_04 25:46

Yeah I liked the opening a lot it really like big set the stakes and really quick and the Rosalina power scaling too yeah dude which I gotta be honest I don't know that much about Mario stuff you guys know a thousand times more about Mario than I do. I didn't even know who she was I had just seen her before and like so I was like man this lady's serious like she had some really she was very powerful so I thought I really liked her character in it the surprising thing is she doesn't even do half of that stuff in Galaxy or Galaxy 2.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Like she's a pretty static character in both those games to so to see her really get that extra little bit of characterization and that extra little bit of insight into what she can actually do as Mother of the Stars I I thought that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 26:46

Yeah I I thought that was a very um I don't know tasteful opening you you see some some different characters you get the parallelism like you said and I I didn't even really notice that before that's not something it's been so long since I saw the first movie. I saw it in theaters and then just did not see it again. Maybe twice. I think I saw it in theaters twice same as this one.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

And um yeah I did that that is a good point you bring up I will say too as well um going a bit further into that opening uh of course we mentioned all of the excited bite Mario Kart uh stuff but I like how they just right out the gate finally said all right y'all wanted fire Mario and fire Luigi here you go and they went straight into it uh just right off the bat yeah and also this is a great showcase this is the first time we hear a little little trill of the underground music and uh one thing this movie does very well with is in its music cameos it doesn't make them overwhelmingly um I don't know front and center like you hear a little trill you hear a little ditty and then it goes into an arrangement.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

They recontextualize it and it's it's always like super subtle like you're saying uh whether it's this one or we hear something for like Star Fox uh later on like it's it's always uh a nice little surprise yeah Brian Tyler does excellent job with the composing for this movie uh I actually have the cinematic soundtrack saved on Spotify which if you're interested in that definitely go check it out for both Galaxy and the first movie very very good compositions just all the way through yeah I loved how they did the music like you said well I love you know I love that they are nodding to all these things they're not just not doing it or just playing the whole thing outright like some movie when they when they nod to it you know it made me smile and then they move on from it instead of just like here let's play the whole song the whole time they're in the underground or whatever. Yeah so yeah I thought they handled it really well and and like you said Chandler the music was really good in in this I also want to point out the power scaling on Yoshi in the scene he is so incredibly fast.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

He's also canonically a predator by the way because his eyes glow in the dark oh just putting that out there. That's true.

SPEAKER_05 29:32

Um but they aren't on the side of his head are they actually yes they I don't know do you I would qualify that part of his head the the whole top of it? He kind of has like Mr. Crab's eyes going on. Yeah a little bit those are his eyes sticking off his skull that's disturbing.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

There's a lot of little funny things here like Luigi getting scared and tripping which the fireball I really want to talk about that specifically but I also don't want to spoil too much for later I will say Oh everyone here's already seen the movie Chandler that's okay true but for the audience sake um I I find it very interesting if you go back and look at both this movie and the first movie is they really like to use Luigi at the beginning of the movie as a foreshadowing device for things later in the movie. Because in the first movie um the whole pipe repair scene that kind of starts them off on their adventure in the uh New York apartment where they're dealing with the dog uh Luigi has a moment in there where he's using a mirror to push back a stream of water and then of course later in the movie in the final climactic battle with Bowser he uses a sewer cover to push back Bowser's fire long enough for him and Mario to collect the star. Yeah shout out to Game Explain for pointing that on out didn't notice it the first time but I really appreciate it. And then now going into this movie I was looking into and kind of watching out for things like that a little bit more and to avoid spoiling things too much in that specific moment where Luigi gets scared of the buzzy beatles and he starts chucking fireballs at them he says a very specific line which is uh I am scared I am scared people don't change and I'll I'll I'll revisit that later yeah that's uh that is a good point out I see where you're going with this um is there anything Chandler's really elevating our he really is our review process hey that's what I'm here for Chandler reviews every movie like just Corsese film um also we get to see a showcase of Chris Pratt's revised Mario voice and Charlie Day as well for Luigi um they have a bit more of a New York Italian accent going on and I appreciate that subtlety where they you know they still have the same voice but like they're they lean into it a bit more and it's more convincing.

SPEAKER_05 32:30

Yeah also Yoshi can drive a motorcycle yeah and it is wanted for several crimes in the state of New York I forgot totally about that sequence. That was one of the funniest parts of the movie the where he's like waddling through New York Yeah and like no one's even like reacting that's New York but to be fair you we also see like Donkey Kong swinging around like there's crazy things that people saw from the first breach I'll call it oh yeah that's a good name for it man and that's how he isn't that how Yoshi or not Yoshi that's kind of how Peach we'll see later gets into the Mushroom Kingdom uh in a similar manner through warp pipes.

Peach Birthday And Luma Mission

SPEAKER_05 33:20

Yeah fairly similar I would say yeah so that's kinda kinda nifty so moving on from that um Maru and Luigi uh you know had their big win from the last game game movie and uh Bowser's still shrunk and he's uh in a little little castle inside Peach's castle and he wants to he wants to see Peach he wants to grow big again and Mario has a severe distrust for him because he is hold up pause uh you're skipping a little bit ahead here okay Peach's birthdays Peach's birthday yes correct right they have to go back from toasterina get themselves cleaned up for the party and nice little cleanup slash dance montage you see the Mario has a gift for Peach and Luigi and Yoshi kind of give them a hard time for that um they're like oh do you like her and Mario's like no no she's just my friend and so they go to the uh they go to the party we see the penguins dancing there we see Toad and Toad and Toad all having a good time and then Mario has this kind of quiet moment on the rooftop of the castle where he gives Peach the present and um it's the Parasol that she has um and we see this meteor shower overhead um and right before this we have this cutaway where again Rosalina is captured along with one of her lumas is does that one have a name by the way I don't know that any of them really have a name to be honest the primary Luma that we usually see is the one assuming Yellow Luma Yellow Luma and uh for a brief moment um I keep wanting to call Rosalina Lusamine Rosalina breaks breaks away and lets the Luma go and tells uh the Luma to find Peach Mario and Luigi and so that's exactly what the Luma does um Rosalina's captured again and then the Luma makes its way there in this meteor shower um and they bring it inside and it's like hey you gotta help uh Mama Rosalina Rosalina yeah and um they're like okay well that sounds crazy um and the toads is that their species name toadstools they they they don't like the idea of Peach having to leave to go on an adventure um they are very dependent on her and so she sneaks away in the middle of the night with the primary toad that we know um and they canonically kill the Luma and boost off to the Gateway galaxy to try to find Rosalina. Meanwhile Mario and Luigi have to keep the kingdom locked down and they have a little montage of them you know fulfilling their duties while the princess is away and it becomes a funny little thing. I think I think from there we can can talk about some of the things that have happened Yeah that's a pretty good stopping point I or not there's a big thing that happens right after that.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

Yeah I guess first and foremost just starting back at the start of that segment with the uh whole cleanup montage uh shout out to um Charles Martinet there because uh when Luigi and Yoshi are giving Mario a hard time they do uh a little segment of that's a more and of course Charles Martinet one of his famous things is his floating Mario head performance of that Samore. Oh dude back in the Mario 64 days man from the E3 presentation yeah so shout out Charles Martinet there.

SPEAKER_05 37:51

Yes really appreciated that reference I really like that scene of them getting ready for the party I I thought it was super funny.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

Sunshine reference in the closet as well with the uh oh the outfit outfit yeah the little tropical short shirt yeah yeah no the song choices for this were excellent like anytime there was just uh like an actual song put in the in the movie I I feel like it really aided to the scene yeah which to that end as well I I'd also like to make mention that in this movie they took a lot of the feedback from the first movie that people had specifically about the soundtrack and it it seemed to me like they really cut back on all of the licensed first party music from like Universals um records and backlogs like a lot of it was original compositions this time around and they all worked very well.

SPEAKER_04 38:50

I want to point something out though there were a lot of universal sound effects like uh later on we hear a T-Rex that has the Jurassic Park rendition of a T-Rex roar yeah so I I do like how they sprinkled things in without making licensed music so egregious Nathan what did you think of this party scene and the the getting ready yeah I thought that was fun it was one of the funnier like lighthearted scenes that I think they do really good with that kind of stuff and just just like you were saying Chandler it's just I'm so impressed at how many little nods and references there are in this movie and they do such a good job with that and so yeah I thought this was a pretty fun you know transition scene to and of course you know of course we all know Mario has a crush on peach so it's just but uh so yeah I thought it was pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:01

Speaking of which I thought the uh Chekhov's gun for later too with the whole Parasol thing a really nice way of bringing that in yeah instead of her just materializing one um I thought it was hilarious how when Peach left the castle and left a note for Mario it appeared like the note that Peach had for Mario and Mario 64 on screen.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

Yes sir yes sir that was it's so funny it was really really well done too because they they pretty much matched it shot for shot.

SPEAKER_05 40:37

Yeah dear Mario man I I love that kind of thing just picking up the nuances from uh from something that's super video gamey and making it fit in the context of the scene in the movie um yeah and another thing that we kind of see from that vein is Mario and Luigi trying to save the kingdom while Peach is away they're on an overworld map similar to you know a 3D Mario game but there's a lot of Mario directions a lot of Mario world yeah yeah and um that there there's a lot of fun parts that come out of that we see them powering up we see them throwing or going up to the the Hammer brothers and saving a tote Mario Freestyle I loved that that was a good one.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

They're incredibly fast for some reason.

SPEAKER_04 41:30

Great music sting there too with the Hammer Bros battle theme just reorchestrated very nice I love like and there's there's a scene I'll talk about later but I love the times when they do things like that with the Super Mario world map or the Hammer Brothers. It's they do it in such a cool way where it's like oh this is from the video game but we're putting it in movie format I just love how they do that. I think it's really good.

SPEAKER_02 41:59

It makes the world feel very lived in too like it yeah you see all these tiny little things happening and they're interacting with things that aren't as big as the plot of the movie if that makes sense yeah just all the little things that keep the kingdom running from the day to day point Nathan with um just translating things from games to movies it's especially worth pointing out that they're doing a lot of that stuff based off of the very two-dimensionally structured games the original Mario Bros, Mario 3 Mario World stuff like that taking that from that 2D environment and converting it into the living breathing 3D world like Wilson is very impressive.

SPEAKER_04 42:50

Yeah they have who all the people involved with these movies like I'm just so impressed. I mean you can debate whether or not you know plot wise and all that stuff if it's a great movie or not but like the production of these movies is so good and just so I appreciate the the labor of love that I think these movies are yeah I agree with you there for sure I I wanted to mention this earlier now's a good time as well but like just going back to our initial reviews you know it not every movie has to be a a best picture contender or the next cultural touchstone to be an entertaining movie.

SPEAKER_05 43:40

Yeah this is parents will put on for their kid m hundreds of times right yeah you'll you'll see this movie on one of the options on a flight and you might be like oh yeah I remember this movie this was funny but it's not going to be something you watch all the time it's not going Be an every year rewatch kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 44:03

Yeah, it may not have a lot of cultural significance, but it has plenty of entertainment value. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 44:11

Yeah, and I I feel like it it really accomplishes its goal. Like it's not trying to be the video game. The video game's already a thing. Yeah. I think having this nice little supplement is uh it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:29

It kind of just recontextualizes the worlds that you've seen, experienced over the years through various Mario games into this again to keep going back to what you said, Will, this new living, breathing, lived-in world that could exist in a fantasy.

SPEAKER_05 44:50

Right. An amazing fantasy.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

Absolutely. Speaking of uh recontextualizing, I wanted to go back to one specific thing you mentioned in the synopsis of this part was the um the canonical killing of the Luma.

SPEAKER_04 45:08

Yeah, just nonchalantly. You just dropped that in there. Like if you're a listener and you hadn't seen it, you know what he's talking about, you'd be like, they murdered the star.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

To put a little bit of context to that though, the Luma turned itself into a sling star, which Peach and Toad use to travel through space to the Gateway Galaxy. Though canonically in Mario Galaxy, when that happens, that's technically the Lumas sacrificing themselves to become those sling stars or galaxies or whatever they turn into. So yes, your technically your assessment is technically correct. Correct.

SPEAKER_04 45:59

So there's the moment of silence for the for the Luma. Okay, that's enough.

SPEAKER_05 46:05

That's enough. We we have we have show to talk about. Also, we get another little Captain Toad tidbit here. He has his backpack and all his gear. Um not as intense packing as in the last one with the helmet and everything, but you know, he still has his handy dandy bag full of all his gear to go on his adventure with Peach.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

Um and then we'll never gave him this headlamp, though, which is awful. With it being galaxy themed and everything, but I digress. Please

Castle Abduction And Bowser Jr Fight

SPEAKER_02 46:46

continue.

SPEAKER_05 46:46

So the next part um we get into Mario and Luigi have finished their duties to the Mushroom Kingdom, and an earthquake starts.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

And we see was the um their visit to Bowser and his little castle, like you mentioned.

SPEAKER_05 47:04

Right. I got that out of order. So Bowser's still in the castle and he wants out. Mario has a distrust for him. Um Bowser's been painting and making soup. And there was supposed to be a song here by Jack Black that didn't make the mu movie for some reason. I don't know if you've heard it on YouTube, Chandler.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

Yeah, uh The Ballad of Mario, I believe. Yep. And it's pretty. I think they did it on uh the Tonight Show, too. Oh, did they?

SPEAKER_05 47:30

Yeah, I wonder why it didn't make it to the movie.

SPEAKER_04 47:33

Yeah, that was really like when the movie was over and there was no Jack Black song, I was just like, Yeah, what? Like every time you see Jack Black in one of these types of movies, like there's a song, and I just I was like, almost felt like I got cheated out of a Jack Black song. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:51

And I feel like it sold it for a lot of people on the first one, too.

SPEAKER_05 47:55

Like it was very profitable.

SPEAKER_02 47:58

And uh that's what I was fixing to say, is they definitely recognized that too, because a little bit later on they had that little subtle light motif of peaches play in the background when Bowser's talking about a few things.

SPEAKER_05 48:13

Oh, I didn't catch that.

SPEAKER_02 48:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:16

Man.

SPEAKER_02 48:16

So like they missed our Yeah. They knew that Jack Black singing in these movies was popular, but for whatever reason they didn't let him go off in this one. That's tragic. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:31

But that's pretty earthquake happens. Earthquake. And um a ray of green light shines upon them. Green lantern tries to kill them all. Uh it's really sad. It's Guy Gardner. Uh he shows up and he's he's just the worst. Um, no, but there's a UFO overhead that picks up the um it picks up Peach's castle and they're evacuating all the toads. And Mario, Luigi, and Yabby don't make it out in time. Oh no. So the castle lifts up, up, up into the sky, and then Bowser Jr. shows up trying to break his father out of the little castle. Um, this is our first time seeing Bowser Jr. fighting, and he's using his brush, armors himself up, and then uses the brush to make tools out of paint. Um, I don't know what canonically that is. You said didn't you say, Chandler, it's from is it from Wonder or is it from uh his specific transformation, yes, is from I didn't even know he was in Wonder.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

The paintbrush is a bit of an extension of that, although it doesn't appear in Wonder, but gotcha. Yes, his transformation is one of his wonder transformations.

SPEAKER_05 49:52

Okay. So we get this fight. He's obviously much stronger and has honed his skills much more than Mario and Luigi and Yoshi combined for some reason. And um Yoshi uh almost has him. Um, and then we see the robot break through the ceiling. Little wizard guy is trying to save Bowser Jr. And then Yoshi eats him, puts him in an egg, and then the thing starts flying up into the UFO. Bowser Jr. jumps into it, and then they barely escape before it crashes into the UFO. And it causes the tractor beam to let loose, and Peach's castle starts plummeting to a planet below, along with Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and presumably Bowser. Um so this next little segment, they're running away from the castle as it's falling, and they all make it out, and then we see Tiny Bowser trying to get away. And this is one of those little moments where they're trying to build character for Bowser. Uh he's, you know, they catch him and they're like, dude, you can't do that. Um it's funny because uh one thing to note, um, Bowser really likes Luigi, but he really doesn't like Mario. Like he has these little chummy things going on with him. He doesn't really care at all what Yoshi's doing, but he's he he seems to be good friends with Luigi. They have a soup and book club together, so that's a thing. And um they start walking, they're trying to find a way to get off the planet that they're on now. It's a is it a different planet or just a different different area of the Mushroom Kingdom? Different planet. Different planet.

SPEAKER_02 51:42

It's loosely based on the Honey Eye of Galaxy from Mario Galaxy. You see, I didn't get that far.

SPEAKER_05 51:48

I'm uh I'm LARPing. I I didn't play that whole game. It made me nauseous.

SPEAKER_04 51:54

I need to get this around to it. One part of the movie where I don't know if I just missed something or whatever, but that was a little bit confusing to me. Like I thought they dropped back onto the same planet. Yeah, same. But then it was clear as the movie went that it wasn't supposed to be the same planet. So I must have missed something or something wasn't clear in the movie, but it felt like they just dropped on the same planet, but then they didn't. So I wonder if there was some cut footage there.

SPEAKER_02 52:26

It's possible. It's definitely one of those things in the final cut, though, that's not very well explained beyond a passing comment of, well, we're on a new plant and now we gotta get out of here.

SPEAKER_05 52:40

Yeah. And, you know, as they're going, Bowser wants Mario to punch him so he can grow again because the blue mushroom is what shrunk him. And he rage baits Mario into doing so and is thankful to him. You see, Bowser kind of has some character development. He has some uh some growth. We we s uh both physically and metaphorically. And um he he wants to go find his son because Mario and Luigi are talking about how his son was looking for him, and Bowser wasn't always a great father. So this kind of leads to some some choices that Bowser makes to try to make amends for that. Um and and his first um, I don't know, display of gratitude. The Queen Bee is going to imprison Mario Luigi and Yoshi, and Bowser decides to go to prison work camp for them so they can get to the gateway galaxy to save Peach and you know, maybe make things right. Um meanwhile, Peach and Toad get to the Gateway Galaxy, they find um a little monkey. Is it named Ukiki? Ukiki? Is Ukiki from a game? Is that from Sunshine? Mario 64 and a lot of games.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

Right, no, Art stupid.

SPEAKER_02 54:08

Okay, I remember I remember this part now. Yeah. He steals Mario's hat in 64, which plays into what you're about to explain.

SPEAKER_05 54:18

So Ukiki steals Toad's backpack after tricking Peach and Toad into thinking that he's helpless, and runs off into this warp zone of sorts, where they chase him in full of all kinds of bad guys, and this is where we we get to a little casino area um where Wart is from Dokie Doki Panic. So I'll leave it at that. I think that's the next big part of the movie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:55

I like Tiny Bowser. Tiny Bowser is so funny, it's just pitch-shifted voice Bowser. I love those scenes when he's in the little castle and he's like he'll be like painting one second and then he just turns out and uses it into just his blind rage, and it's just really funny to me. I would do that too if I shut the door on my tail. Oh, yeah. Honestly saying, yeah. I love that scene where he's like talking about melting this flesh off of the water. Oh, yeah. He crushes the painting, and then he was like, oh, whoa, that's the old me coming out there.

SPEAKER_00 55:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:33

Yeah, I'm a real monster if I don't get my eight hours. Yeah, yeah, that was so good.

SPEAKER_04 55:42

Oh, one thing, this is just me being dumb, I guess, but like I thought when I was watching the movie that the guy voicing Bowser Jr., I thought they just took Jack Black's voice and either he did a younger voice or they made it sound younger because they sounded similar to me. And so then when I found out that it was a different voice actor, I was like, wow, I mean, because this whole time I thought Jack Black was just I thought the voice actor they picked for Bowser Jr.

SPEAKER_05 56:14

was like perfect. Like I feel like that is exactly how I think Bowser Jr. would sound.

SPEAKER_02 56:20

Yeah. Uh Benny Safty. Yeah, he does a really good job. For sure. Another part of that uh whole fight scene, too, is at one point Luigi, for whatever reason, does the falcon knee, the Captain Falcon knee, to Bowser Jr.'s skull, and then immediately he just stops and starts rubbing his knee. Because in the first movie, one of his big hesitations from doing the whole parkour that Mario did to get to their big plumbing job was it, oh, I have bad knees. So a little subtle reference to that first movie.

SPEAKER_04 56:59

I definitely didn't remember that. Man, you are a wealth of knowledge here. This is this is truly why we have you on the show, Chandler. Thank you. Chandler should probably just take my spot on the podcast. Yeah, probably a lot better gaming podcast.

SPEAKER_05 57:15

Just talking about Mario.

SPEAKER_01 57:20

So I forgot what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_02 57:27

That's fine.

Gateway Galaxy Casino And Deep Cuts

SPEAKER_05 57:30

Man. Oh yeah, the um Gateway Galaxy. We see a lot going on here. There's um characters.

SPEAKER_02 57:38

It's been very urbanized from uh galaxy, by the way. For sure. Gateway Galaxy was not that big and industrialized in the games.

SPEAKER_05 57:47

Very on par with Wreck It Ralph.

SPEAKER_02 57:50

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 57:52

Um I do like this little warp zone type uh that's what I'm going to call it, because that's what it is. It's a warp zone. Yeah. They're in this warp zone series of underground areas, and it looks very inconvenient to get one from one building to another because of the floating platforms. And Toad somehow is jumping between all of them like no problem. Um he also Oh, that's true. If he had the backpack, well, how did he get out of there?

SPEAKER_02 58:24

Oh, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_05 58:25

They don't show that. Man. Dude, the the casino is really cool. I like how they're playing uh was it one one up girl from uh Mario Odyssey? Yeah, yep. And um, yeah, we the huge, huge cameo for for Mario Brothers 2 American release, don't you panic. Um we see Wart, and he's a crime lord. Um what are the little ninja guys called? You know, Kingpin. Ninja. Ninja. And then um the bomb mouse. I don't know what he's mouser. That's a good one. Right on the nose for both of those. Yeah. And then Birdo. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 59:12

Uh-huh. Who is a guy. Which again, that's the first thought I had when I was saying Birdo in this movie was like, Will told me this is a guy. That is so hard to wrap my head around that that thing's a guy.

SPEAKER_05 59:24

Yeah. And the bow is part of its head canonically. So there's that. I I also like how after after Peach beats the heck out of Birdo, he falls over in the family guy death pose.

SPEAKER_04 59:40

Yeah. She's getting revenge on him for I said on one of the episodes, Chandler, that Birdo was my nemesis in Mario Kart Double Dash, and I hated it. So yeah. Pretty glad to see Birdo get beat up.

SPEAKER_05 59:56

Yeah, it's definitely. If that's one of your goals in life, it definitely was fulfilled in that scene.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:04

Yeah. Your wish has been granted. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:07

Peach's fighting was crazy. Back then I thought he was Yoshi's girlfriend, so there you go.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:13

Yeah, that's that's awkward. Yeah, I had no idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

How how how progressive of them. Nintendo trans rights activists since uh 1990.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:28

By accident. If if Miyamoto knew this, he would never would have done that. Um man, but yeah, um, it's common knowledge for the most part at this point, but Mario 2 um when they were bringing it to the West, um, they thought it was too too difficult. And then to know America thought it'd be too difficult for American audiences. And we eventually got the Japanese version uh as the lost levels and Mario All-Stars on the Super Nintendo. But what we got in America is a reskin with Mario characters of a game called Doki Doki Panic. Um, and that's why it's so different from Mario Bros. 1. Um, and there's a lot a lot going on here. You of course Peach being in the scene, very intentional, and then having Wart, the big bad. I thought that was kind of cool. I also like how when he was talking, the bubbles made it hard for him to talk.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:33

Yeah. Thought that was funny. They very much leaned into that um attribute from his fight in Mario 2 USA. Which, to add a little bit more context, yeah, from every remake after Mario 2, our version of Mario 2 was brought to the States, it was then henceforth referred to as Mario 2 USA. With the lost levels taking the moniker of Mario 2 proper. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:08

Yeah, and um honestly, not a bad game. People goof on it. I I do think it it is weird that turnips and everything are radishes or whatever. I like how a radish main appearance here. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:23

Yep, uh turnip uh Yeah. Which that's how you that's how you beat him in the game. Yeah. You turn throw turnips into his mouth.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:38

Yep. He is hungry. Yeah. Hungry for justice. And he alerts uh he alerts Bowser Jr. what's going on. Or so he says. Because Peach and Toad kill everyone in the room. Um and also Peach is shown turning into a gigantic Peach with a mushroom. So that was interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:04

Toad becomes the uh penguin costume toad as well.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:07

That was all he's sliding around, knocking everyone over. Um yeah, got this this huge thing going on. Um I'm gonna move a little bit faster. I only got 20 minutes here. So I'm gonna I'm gonna brush over some stuff here on.

Star Fox Rescue And Baby Chaos

SPEAKER_02 1:03:25

Um Bowser's actually saved by Bowser Jr.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:32

uh while he's at the B place. Mario and Luigi meet up with Peach and Toad um with uh Yoshi, of course, and they find Fox McLeod, who's gonna take them to go find Rosalina. He's he warped into the wrong planet, and we get this so, so cool animation of the Star Fox team that I wish they'd make a cartoon series of. He was probably the highlight of the movie for me. And Glenn Powell as Star Fox is a perfect match. He didn't know. We love Glenn Powell in this household. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:07

Um Glenn Powell's so good. Please continue.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:11

Uh, anyways, they they get into some um hijinks, and then Bowser Jr., while they're in space, shoots them, turning Mario and Luigi into babies with the Super Scope, and I like how they did the Super Scope commercial thing where Bowser Jr. has it up to his face and has the light on it from like the like side view. Yeah. Um little sight on it. Yeah, and he throws it out for some reason. Um he's like, oh, Bowser, Bowser Dad, we have to f fulfill the plan that you talked about using a power of a princess and the planet destroying weapon to like rule the universe. Um and the crew that we're following Crash Lands on Dinosaur Island has to escape a T-Rex and unbabify everyone and Peach and Mario Bond some more, and that's kind of where we're at there.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:13

Oh, you hit Oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:16

I was gonna mention before they left uh Gateway Galaxy, we see Rob, the Super Famicon one.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:21

I was fixing to say you hit most of the highlights, but uh yeah, Rob was like the uh information kiosk tendon at Gateway Galaxy.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:31

They did the Zootopia slow thing. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:34

I was fixing to say that was a neat reference, but then they just had him do the you know information service as his slow joke.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:40

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:43

All in all, dude, I loved the I loved the Fox McCloud thing. He's so cool. And like you said, by the way. That animation scene, dude. It's so at least make a whole movie or series out of that. That was awesome. No, and then I think. track they didn't have to go that hard but they did backing track boom boom boom boom boom boom i also like there was one scene which i mean they kind of just threw away a lot of bowser's like so called character development but i liked that scene where he's he's like really conflicted on Bowser Jr.'s ship and like I like kind of like the scene where Bowser Jr.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:25

goes to him and it's like oh so they were your friends you know and and Bowser's clearly sad about it but Bowser just gets like so enticed by everything that he he had wanted previously is right there in front of him and so he ends up going bad again but I thought it was a cool scene anyway yeah I I I like the father-son bonding thing and the backstory where he's like he has this very specific plan that he's telling Bowser Jr. with a puppet show with like very very specific details about the princess and what to build and what to call everything and Bowser Jr escapes boarding school and somehow secures a loan to build exactly that with a small army of Koopas like it's it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:14

Um pretty good for him and that's where a lot of the foreshadowing that I mentioned earlier starts to pay off with Fluigi is yeah maybe people don't change. Bowser tried to turn over a new leaf tried to you know rehabilitate himself but Junior comes along and he reverts right back to his old ways. For all have fallen short of the glory of God Yeah man.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:44

Thus Bowser um fell back into his old ways um will Mario forgive him or will he kick him into some lava well odds aren't looking great on that one so so um Luigi's um using the R Wings broadcasting system to try to put out an SOS he's he's like what do you call using as a ham radio yeah a hand radio like a trucker and the Lumas hear it and they bring Because they also have a ham radio for some reason. Yeah for some reason conveniently and it's tuned at the same time um and so they they just bring the whole castle over they're either whatever common observatory but yes observatory and um they're able to just use that as a ship to get to Planet Bowser.

Planet Bowser Gauntlet Showdown

SPEAKER_05 1:08:44

And Star Fox is piloting Fox McLeod's piloting through it destroying all the Mario 3 ships airships and um they break in and they're trying to get to Rosalina and they split up Mario and Peach Yoshi and Luigi and thus the next and fox are still flying around distracting the uh flying armados with the common observatory yeah. And um oh dude the next scene is really cool with the with Mario and Peach going through the gauntlet that's kind of like a Mario maker thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:26

Oh yeah that's the one that's the one that I was gonna refer to earlier like to me that's probably my favorite scene of the whole movie when they show it to you from the side like it's in the original NES game or whatever and then they move the camera all around and see it like go through the whole thing the way that it is in the movie and then you get to see them go through it you know kind of transitioning back and forth between game and movie and I was like this is so cool because it really made it feel like that's what you're that's what you're doing in the game. Yeah but like that's the way it feels like as a kid but you're seeing it you know real so I thought that scene was Meteor Maker.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:22

Yeah they leaned into it real heavy with the Mario Maker reference there like the Bowser OS too that's on the computer.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:30

Yeah that was cute. Um they escaped Bowser's Gauntlet and Bowser and Bowser Jr. are like what happened how'd they do that they used Peach's parasol and bounced out of the lava well they didn't touch the lava but a bunch of bombs fell into it and they boosted them in the air without getting hit by shrapnel somehow they used the updraft yeah they use plot convenience to get out of that one um yeah and then they find Bowser who is like irate at this point he he's on the bridge to get into the castle and he's like I didn't want to have to do this I liked you for a bit Mario but like I care about my son more and so he starts throwing axes and Mario has this idea he's like what if I can chop the bridge and kill him didn't have any other ideas. That was the first thing that came to mind was like let's just put him in the lava so he does that just like in the game just like Mario Brothers um and he locks Peach on the other side of the gate so he can go fight Bowser Jr, I guess and Bowser who has now become dry Bowser. Yes um crazy how that works how he's just immortal right the flesh is gone but the bones and the spirit remain yeah apparently yeah and um yeah so they start fighting fighting Bowser Jr.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:12

uh Luigi and uh Yoshi show up and they have power-ups I don't I'm not familiar with any of these if I'm being honest yeah I didn't recognize a lot of them okay quick rundown uh the drill is from Wonder the one that Mario took uh the cloud flower is from Galaxy and Galaxy 2 and Yoshi's fruit that turned him into a blimp is also from Galaxy 2.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:39

Okay that part was a mess. They were just doing whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:44

A little bit um that was kind of where the just throw references is the at the wall and hope it sticks part really fun though.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:54

I like when um when Luigi gets control of the paintbrush and then paints Mr.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:01

Game Watch because he's bad at drawing yeah dude that was awesome the one thing that they could have added there to just be the cherry on top is the nine when Game Watch uses the hammer. That's all that scene needed was the nine that would have been so good.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:18

I love when he hits Bowser and it just has that huge explosion. Because like you're saying Chandler like anybody who's played like Super Smash Brothers against somebody who's good with Mr. Game Watch has experienced that where you just get blown off the screen it's just like such a good reference Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:39

Also so Bowser gets defeated again um turns into a bunch of bones on the ground and then Bowser Jr paints um is is that the dragon from Odyssey at the end of the game yeah it's uh I think an interpretation of the dragon from Odyssey got it so it just eats Bowser Jr. immediately and um Mario being a good guy who just dipped Bowser into lava he's like he's had enough let me save his son so he saves his son from the dragon uses the power of uh the red star to save Bowser Jr. yeah yeah he turns into supersonic and saves pretty much Bowser Jr. And meanwhile Peach gets hit by a 60 mile per hour piece of metal and is just fine. She's just tanking hits from this machine that Bowser Jr.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:40

has created as she falls through it the machine that's currently imprisoning and draining the power from Rosalina.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:48

Yes I have good good observation. Um and there there was a story so Peach m mysteriously remembers her past that she was born of a star and so was her sister Rosalina.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:04

Because uh kind of glossed over it but in the segment where they the Lumas pick them up from the dinosaur planet and they're on the Common Observatory she happens to wander into the library where the movie started and the book that Rosalina was going to read is sitting there and it happens to be the story of her and Peach and the big reveal that they're sisters and uh how they ended up getting separated when they were young.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:34

Yes and uh Rosalina sent her away um for her safety and the toads raised her and if they put their hands together they can uh what generate star power to their location. Um so she's trying to get Rosalina to put her hand on the glass so they could do that and Rosalina's like being drained of energy and weak and uh eventually they do break out by doing just that putting their hands on the glass and um good good reuniting moment for the two of

Sisters Reveal And New Castle Build

SPEAKER_05 1:16:11

them. Um and I'm gonna be honest from this point we just kind of snowball into the ending of the movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:20

Um Yeah Fox does a sick drift with the Comet Observatory to come pick everybody up.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:26

He does like a like a Warhammer like helicopter maneuver yeah pretty much and they all go back uh the Lumas want to go see the Mushroom Kingdom and Peach's castle and they get there and the castle has died um as one of them says oh the planet yeah so it's it's destroyed so they Mario Maker style build a new one and I I kind of think there might be a new Mario Maker game with the Switch to have and the mouse controls and everything too. Yeah I think that might be in the cards. I don't know what you think it's very possible. There are two Star Fox games in the cards apparently a racer and a Star Fox they definitely packed it full of Mario Maker references for a reason. Yeah uh yeah and they they build the new castle it's really nice um Peach smooch's Mario Yeah a la uh Super Mario World peck on the cheek yeah just a little um yeah that was that's pretty much

Post Credits And Daisy Tease

SPEAKER_05 1:17:40

it then of course after the movie post credits oh what's up Nathan I just said and then there were two post credits yeah I was just gonna say postcredits so yeah yeah we get this really really creepy scene um of the blue um star from the first movie Luma and it's a prison guard and it's saying some really messed up things to Bowser and Bowser Jr. I'm really surprised that was in this movie to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:12

It was it was really weird and off putting yeah they definitely dialed it up from the first movie.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:18

This is super out of character.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:20

Well supposedly that's the same really depressing Luma that was captured in the dungeon of the floating castle in the first movie.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:29

I'm surprised that wasn't the first one to be honest.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:33

I like just talking about the first movie one I found that humorous but that's because I'm an adult and I just find it really weird that that especially the second one like you said I think wasn't dialed up I feel like it would be scary for kids like like mine talks about it and is like I haven't heard her talk about this one but she she like gets really fixated on death and all that kind of stuff because she's a little kid or whatever but like she she just like was talking about it the other day and my sister's like telling her hey no one wants to eat that and it's just like maybe we shouldn't have put that type of humor in a movie for kids but I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:18

Yeah well toddlers will walk up to you and look you dead in the eye and be like hey I see the ghost of a relative that I never met in my life because they died before I was born and they're standing right next to you.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:30

Like they will genuinely ask you if you're ready to meet God. Yeah I mean for sure and the funny thing about that Luma too is uh from what I've seen and heard about like foreign releases of the movie especially the Japanese version they dialed it down a lot overseas.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:51

That's surprising I feel like the Japanese would love that yeah I don't know if for whatever reason they dialed it back. We also get a Daisy cameo where she she um punches Ukiki yeah she punches Ukiki and doesn't say hi I'm Daisy. No says nothing.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:10

Says nothing they were like we don't want to pay a voice actor for this right so why would we but they paid Issa Ray to voice the Queen Bee that was on screen for like five minutes total.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:20

Wild crazy but yeah that was a Mario Galaxy next movie no no no new movies this is it's actually a Super Mario Strikers movie it's a soccer film there is allegedly another uh Illumination Nintendo project already in the works for 2028 the amount of money they've made on these two Mario movies I mean they're gonna be a cranking amount I would oh yeah Nintendo hates money don't you know that I don't know that I really hope it's a Star Fox project. I know it's not but one could only hope.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:03

Also I like that scene where Bowser like Dry Bowser and Bowser Jr. are like collecting all his bones and they're like laughing and joking and everything. It would get my foot sun really funny to me that was that cracked me up man such a

Ratings And Next Topic Tease

SPEAKER_04 1:21:24

good movie.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:24

I like really solid really entertaining yeah well I think next time we could talk about some uh some maybe your hopes for the the Switch too like some games we hope to come out some games we know about you think that'd be a good one for us yes we could do that all right Chandler thank you for uh joining us any any final thoughts from anyone about the movie give it a chance if you haven't seen it just give it a chance pretty good stuff all right I think Chandler really elevated our glad to have been a joy to have you thanks again for having me yeah um one last thing everyone out of ten what is your rating for this movie yeah let us know in the in the comments I'm asking you Nathan oh me yeah okay let me think for a second I don't know I mean I feel like saying like a six but I I feel like that makes it sound like it's not good.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:35

I enjoyed it I just would say it was like it's better than average I think that's a pretty good rating.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:44

I'm closer to a seven or an eight myself but I think I also somewhere between 7.27 Yeah I'll give it more than a six between six and a seven but Chandler you're you're you're a mark for this kind of thing like you you know this is this is your thing yeah this is my if you like it this is the piece of media right oh yeah no if you're a really invested Mario fan like you play a lot of the games you follow the series you know then this is gonna be a really good really solid movie for you you're gonna really enjoy it sweet you heard it here first well did they though maybe if anyone even gets past the first 15 seconds other than Ryan Ryan this message is for you oh I bet Ryan's already seen it the kids have probably dragged him to it our podcast well yeah that too but Mario maybe I bet so well thank you for watching we'll see ya next week when we hopefully talk about something else where our audio doesn't get destroyed more on that next time knock on wood knock on wood yeah for sure well see you around