‘Super Mario Bros.’ is okey, dokey

Not a lot of story here, but a big delight to eyes

By Jake Coyle AP Film Writer

A lot has changed in the three decades since “Super Mario Bros,” the very first video-game adaptation. A once widely derided genre is now a cash cow. “The Last of Us” is a massive success on HBO. Pokémon and “Uncharted” are box-office hits. With Sonic the Hedgehog already two movies in, Mario is playing catch up.

And “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which opens in theaters Wednesday, is a spirited and sprightly attempt to race to the front of the pack. A collaboration between legendary video-game designer and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination founder Chris Me-

Movie Review

ledandri (both producers), it’s a drastically more sincere effort to capture the fun and spirit of the Nintendo game.

And visually, it’s a dream. Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and their animators have rendered the Mario universe with cartoony splendor, matching the game’s ingenious simplicity with a more robust and equally delightful day-glo palate.

If part of the appeal of playing “Super Mario Bros.” and its many offshoots has always been to be immersed in such a sunny imaginary world - plus the bouncy earworm compositions of composer Koji Kondothe movie has successfully mirrored that mushroom-stomping pleasure. It makes you ... want to play Mario.

That’s because as nice as it is to look at “The Super Mario Bros.

Movie,” it’s not anywhere near as fun as it would be to play it. It’s a-him, Mario, but it’s no amasterpiece. The storyline is only a touch above the interstitial bits of plot you usually get between gameplay.

With the exception of Jack Black’s grandly lovesick Bowser (he’s part Phantom of the Opera, part Meatloaf-styled balladeer), there’s nothing here that deepens these characters beyond their usual 2-D adventures. Mario may be a modern-day Mickey Mouse but his kingdom is on the console.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” begins much like Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”: in a Brooklyn pizza parlor. There Mario (Chris Pratt, passable despite the outcry) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are struggling to get their plumbing business off the ground. There are a few moments of stereotypical Italian life - pasta and a big family dinner - before the brothers’ attempt

Fair: HH

to fix a water main break drops them through a portal and into the fantasy realm of the game. (In future Brooklyn-set sequels, Mario will presumably combat waves of strollers and hipsters.)

On the other side, Bowser lords over a Koopa Troop army in scenes that can feel like the most surreal imitation yet of “Triumph of the Will.” But while shrinking or enlarging are possible on this other side of the green pipe, there’s never any mention of the possibility of lives being lost as Mario makes his way through mushroom patches and question-mark boxes.

His predicament is just as clear as in the game: He’s been separated from Luigi and he must help save Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) from being forced to wed Bowser.