The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, is the highly anticipated sequel to 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, released April 1, 2026, by Universal Pictures and Illumination. The story picks up after Bowser’s (Jack Black) defeat — now shrunk and imprisoned in Princess Peach’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) castle. Longing to know where she came from and haunted by dreams of another princess out there, Peach sets out to find her origins.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the galaxy, her long-lost sister Rosalina (Brie Larson) has been raising the star-like Lumas on the Comet Observatory. The film’s villain, Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), kidnaps Rosalina and attempts to drain her powers to fuel a massive planet-destroying cannon in honor of his father, forcing Mario (Chris Pratt), Luigi (Charlie Day), Peach, Yoshi (Donald Glover), and a miniaturized Bowser to venture across the galaxy to save the day — and maybe even find a new friend in Fox McCloud (Glen Powell).
When I was a teen playing Super Mario at the arcade, I always imagined what a Super Mario Galaxy movie would look like — and I’m finally glad it’s here…not really. I just liked playing the game. The lore meant little to me. But I recognized that console games can get deep into lore, and a fanbase had been built along the way. Quite frankly, the movie was fun and tolerable.
“…Bowser Jr., kidnaps Rosalina and attempts to drain her powers to fuel a massive planet-destroying cannon…”
My point is this: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is a kids’ movie, not a family movie. I have the same feelings about it that I had with Pixar’s Hoppers — it’s made for kids, full stop. Here is where I say that Illumination is now the gold standard in feature animation, and Pixar lost its status as king of the hill long ago (just after Luca). What I enjoyed were the bright colors and the cool worlds, but that’s simply not enough to carry a film. The story is okay, but if I could write this story, it wouldn’t be a good one — and that’s how I felt walking out. I could’ve done this.
What I will say is that I like this one better than the first Mario movie, and that’s not saying much. There are sequences that replicate the video games — especially arcade games — and I wanted more of that. But animation alone doesn’t save a weak script, and that’s the core problem here. The story doesn’t give you anything to latch onto. It’s like leveling up in a video game — you accomplish things, but they don’t mean anything in the long run. It just serves to get to the next scene and the inevitable final boss battle. I spent extra money to watch it in 3D, and I wouldn’t do that again. Just watch it flat and save yourself the trouble.
I found myself more entertained by the bright visuals than by the actual storytelling of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which tells you everything you need to know about where Illumination’s priorities lie. The Bowser Junior relationship was funny — genuinely funny — and Yoshi was great and fun to have around. But animation needs a story, and this one’s storytelling needs serious work. If you have kids who are into Mario, there’s no reason to avoid it — they’ll love every second. But if you’re going in hoping for something the whole family can genuinely connect with on a deeper level, you’ll be disappointed. It’s a kids’ movie, plain and simple, and there’d be no way I’d see this if I didn’t have kids.
"…it's a kids' movie, plain and simple..."
