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The Super Mario Bros. Movie

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

1h 32m2023Japan, United States of America
FamilialComédieAventureAnimationFantastique

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Detailed parental analysis

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a family animated film with a colourful, fast-paced and resolutely joyful atmosphere, firmly rooted in the Nintendo video game franchise universe. The plot follows two plumber brothers thrust into a fantastical world where they must face a tyrant to save a kingdom. The film primarily targets children from 5-6 years old and families, with a layer of nostalgia aimed at parents and teenagers who grew up with the games.

Violence

The film builds its narrative around perseverance, hard work and self-improvement: Mario fails, tries again, improves and ultimately succeeds through effort rather than innate talent. Brotherhood is the central emotional driver, with the brother-to-brother bond treated with sincerity and without irony. Sacrifice and teamwork are valued explicitly. These values are coherent and well integrated into the narrative, without being delivered in a moralising manner.

Underlying Values

The film builds its narrative around perseverance, hard work and self-improvement: Mario fails, tries again, improves and ultimately succeeds through effort rather than innate talent. Brotherhood is the central emotional driver, with the brother-to-brother bond treated with sincerity and without irony. Sacrifice and teamwork are valued explicitly. These values are coherent and well integrated into the narrative, without being delivered in a moralising manner.

Parental and Family Portrayals

Mario and Luigi's family of origin is briefly present and depicted as loving but lacking confidence in the ambitions of the two brothers. This initial lack of parental support is a narrative device that motivates the heroes' quest for recognition, without the film making a pointed critique of it. It is a discreet but real angle, which can open a conversation about self-confidence independent of the regard of those close to us.

Discrimination

The film plays on Mario and Luigi's Italian identity without really exploring it: the characters bear Italian first and surnames, their family speaks with marked accents, but the main voice of Mario is entrusted to an actor with no connection to this background, creating a notable discrepancy. This choice has sparked debate about the coherence of cultural representation. For a child, this goes unnoticed; for a teenager or attentive parent, it is a concrete example of how the entertainment industry sometimes treats cultural identities superficially.

Strengths

The film is visually generous, with artistic direction faithful to the games and visual energy that holds children's attention without ever losing them. The pacing is well controlled and action sequences are clear, which is far from guaranteed in large-scale family animation. On an emotional level, the relationship between the two brothers is treated with genuine warmth and narrative coherence that goes beyond mere pretext. For parents and teenagers who grew up with the franchise, the film also functions as an object of cultural transmission dense in references, without these excluding uninitiated viewers.

Age recommendation and discussion points

The film is suitable from 5-6 years old for children without particular sensitivity to frightening images, and without major reservations from 7 years old. For younger or sensitive children, supervised viewing is advised to defuse scenes of violence and appearances of unsettling creatures. Two angles of discussion are worth pursuing after the film: ask the child what he thinks about the fact that Mario fails several times before succeeding, to discuss the value of effort and error; and, for older children, explore together why Luigi needs to be rescued and what this says about the roles assigned to characters in stories.

Synopsis

While working underground to fix a water main, Brooklyn plumbers—and brothers—Mario and Luigi are transported down a mysterious pipe and wander into a magical new world. But when the brothers are separated, Mario embarks on an epic quest to find Luigi.

About this title

Format
Feature film
Year
2023
Runtime
1h 32m
Countries
Japan, United States of America
Original language
EN
Studios
Universal Pictures, Illumination, Nintendo

Content barometer

  • Violence
    2/5
    Moderate
  • Fear
    3/5
    Notable tension
  • Sexuality
    0/5
    None
  • Language
    0/5
    None
  • Narrative complexity
    1/5
    Accessible
  • Adult themes
    0/5
    None

Watch-outs

  • Violence

Values conveyed