The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a 2023 computer-animated adventure produced by Illumination and Nintendo and released by Universal Pictures. Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic directed from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel, with Illumination founder Chris Meledandri and Mario’s creator Shigeru Miyamoto producing. Chris Pratt voices Mario, leading a cast that includes Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong.

It was Mario’s first big-screen outing in 30 years, following the live-action Super Mario Bros. (1993) and, before that, the Japanese anime Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! (1986). Unlike the 1993 film, this one sticks closely to the games, packing the screen with power-ups, enemies, locations and music that fans will recognise instantly.

Reviews were mixed, but audiences turned out in huge numbers. The film took $1.36 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing video game adaptation ever, Illumination’s biggest film and the second-highest-grossing release of 2023 after Barbie. It earned three Golden Globe nominations, made Bowser’s ballad “Peaches” a viral hit and led directly to the 2026 sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: official trailer (Illumination)

In Brooklyn, brothers Mario and Luigi have quit their jobs to launch their own plumbing business, much to the scepticism of their family and Mario’s old boss, Spike. When a burst water main threatens to flood Brooklyn, the pair head into the sewers to save the day, only to be sucked through a strange green pipe into another world. Along the way, they are torn apart.

Luigi lands in the gloomy Dark Lands, where he is captured by Bowser, the fire-breathing king of the Koopas. Bowser has just seized a powerful Super Star, and he is determined to make Princess Peach his bride, whether she likes it or not. Mario, meanwhile, tumbles into the bright Mushroom Kingdom, where an eager Toad takes him to see the princess.

Peach is preparing to defend her kingdom and, after putting Mario through a crash course in obstacle courses and power-ups, she sets off with him and Toad to win over the Kong army of the Jungle Kingdom. Cranky Kong has a price for his help, though: Mario must first take on his son, Donkey Kong, in front of a cheering crowd. From there the adventure races along Rainbow Road and on towards Bowser’s forces.

We’ll leave the rest unspoiled. The story builds to a showdown in which Mario’s determination to rescue his brother is put to the ultimate test, and it ends with a post-credits scene that hints at things to come.

Miyamoto revealed the voice cast in a Nintendo Direct on 23 September 2021. Chris Pratt as Mario was the headline, and the most debated choice. Many fans had hoped Charles Martinet, Mario’s game voice for three decades, would get the role, and the announcement prompted a wave of internet memes. The directors defended the casting. Fellow cast member Khary Payton later said that an early, heavier New York-Italian accent was dropped because it sounded too much like Tony Soprano.

Elsewhere, Jack Black’s theatrical Bowser became the performance critics and audiences talked about most. Anya Taylor-Joy plays a capable, action-ready Peach, Charlie Day plays a nervous but loyal Luigi, and Seth Rogen plays a cocky, chest-thumping Donkey Kong. Martinet was not left out: he voices the brothers’ father and a Brooklyn local named Giuseppe.

In the Japanese dub, Mamoru Miyano voices Mario, alongside Arisa Shida as Peach, Tasuku Hatanaka as Luigi, Kenta Miyake as Bowser, Tomokazu Seki as Toad and Kōji Takeda as Donkey Kong. The film opened in Japan on 28 April 2023, three weeks after its US release.

Japanese voice cast

Nintendo announced in January 2018 that it would make an animated Mario film with Illumination and Universal, with Miyamoto and Chris Meledandri as co-producers. Matthew Fogel, who had written Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru, was hired to write the screenplay. According to director Aaron Horvath, Nintendo was involved at every stage, from story and visual development to the animation itself.

The animation was produced at Illumination Studios Paris. Work was under way by September 2020 and was completed in October 2022. Horvath and Michael Jelenic wanted a faithful adaptation and treated it as an origin story, presenting Mario and Luigi as blue-collar Brooklyn plumbers who are thrown into the Mushroom Kingdom. They also took a blockbuster approach to the action. The Rainbow Road kart chase was reportedly the most technically demanding sequence to make.

The film was first dated for 21 December 2022. In April 2022 Miyamoto announced, via Nintendo of America’s Twitter account, that it would move to 7 April 2023 in North America and 28 April in Japan. Then, on 28 February 2023, Universal brought the US date forward by two days to Wednesday 5 April, with the UK following suit. The teaser trailer debuted in a Nintendo Direct on 6 October 2022, and the full trailer followed on 29 November. A Super Bowl LVII spot in February 2023 revived the theme of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! to promote a tongue-in-cheek website for the brothers’ plumbing business.

The film premiered at Regal LA Live in Los Angeles on 1 April 2023. It opened in the United States, the UK and dozens of other markets between 5 and 7 April, timed for the Easter holidays, with South Korea following on 26 April and Japan on 28 April.

Its opening shattered expectations. The film earned $146.4 million over its first three-day weekend in North America and $204.6 million across five days. Its worldwide five-day launch of around $377 million beat Frozen II‘s record for the biggest global opening by an animated film. It then posted the biggest second and third weekends ever recorded for an animated film in North America. On 30 April it became the first video game adaptation to pass $1 billion worldwide, and in early June it overtook Frozen to become, at that point, the second-highest-grossing animated film ever, behind only Frozen II.

Box Office Mojo records a final total of $1,360,879,735, made up of $574.9 million from the US and Canada and $785.9 million from other territories. That included about $67.9 million in the UK and $101.9 million in Japan. It finished 2023 as the year’s highest-grossing animated film and second overall behind Barbie. It is also Illumination’s biggest film and the most successful video game film ever made. Against a reported $100 million budget, Deadline estimated its net profit at $559 million.

Critics were divided. On Rotten Tomatoes the film sits just below 60% approval from nearly 300 reviews, and Metacritic gives it 46 out of 100, which counts as mixed or average. Reviewers widely praised the bright, detailed animation, the energy of the action scenes and the film’s affection for the games. Jack Black’s Bowser was the most common highlight. The main complaints were a thin, hurried plot, flat writing and some of the voice work, particularly Pratt’s Mario. Several critics also felt that Peach, while capable, was given little personality.

Audiences were far kinder. Cinema-goers polled by CinemaScore gave it an “A”, PostTrak recorded 94% positive scores, and the Rotten Tomatoes audience rating stands at 95%.

In awards season the film received three Golden Globe nominations at the 81st ceremony on 7 January 2024: Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song for “Peaches” and the new Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award. It won none of them. Other nominations included an Annie Award for Black’s voice acting, a Critics’ Choice nomination for Best Song, a Producers Guild of America nomination for Meledandri and Miyamoto, a Visual Effects Society nomination and Best Adaptation at The Game Awards 2023. Its wins included the Movieguide Award for Best Movie for Families and Favourite Villain for Black at the 2024 Kids’ Choice Awards. “Peaches” was eligible for the Oscars but did not make the Best Original Song shortlist.

Brian Tyler composed the score in close collaboration with Koji Kondo, the composer of the series’ most famous themes. Kondo supplied notes and samples of game music, and Tyler reworked them into an orchestral score full of leitmotifs from Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario 64, Super Mario 3D Land and other games, plus Donkey Kong music for the jungle scenes. The score was recorded at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Bros. between October and December 2022. The 37-track soundtrack album was released on 7 April 2023, digitally through Back Lot Music, with CD, vinyl and cassette editions from iam8bit.

The film also uses a string of licensed songs, including “Holding Out for a Hero”, “Take On Me”, “Mr. Blue Sky”, “Thunderstruck” and “No Sleep till Brooklyn”, along with the “DK Rap” from Donkey Kong 64. Some critics found these needle drops distracting next to the game-inspired score.

The breakout track was “Peaches”, Bowser’s lovesick piano ballad to the princess. Jack Black wrote it with the two directors, editor Eric Osmond and producer John Spiker. Released as a single with a music video on 7 April 2023, it entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 83 and peaked at No. 56, Black’s first solo entry on the chart. It reached No. 28 in the UK and was certified Platinum in the US. The song was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award, and Black later performed it at The Game Awards’ 10-year concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

The film is packed with nods to Nintendo history, many of them in the Brooklyn scenes. The brothers hang out at Punch-Out Pizzeria, decorated with pictures of Little Mac, Glass Joe and Doc Louis, where an arcade cabinet called “Jump Man” recreates the original Donkey Kong. Their old boss Spike comes from Wrecking Crew. Mario’s bedroom holds an NES running Kid Icarus and an Arwing model from Star Fox, while a French restaurant borrows the Duck Hunt dog for its sign. A dash across a Brooklyn building site recreates World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros., right down to a flagpole slide, and the sewer they explore is labelled 1-2, complete with the underground theme.

Once the brothers reach the other world, the references come thick and fast. The Dark Lands, Dry Bones and the Tanooki Suit come from Super Mario Bros. 3. Luigi’s torch-lit wander and a snatch of music recall Luigi’s Mansion. Peach’s Castle, with its stained-glass window and painting-lined halls, is modelled on Super Mario 64. A guard even repeats the classic line about the princess being in another castle. The flagpole at the end of Peach’s training course recalls both the 2D games and Super Mario 3D World, which is also the source of the Cat Suit Mario wears against Donkey Kong.

The Mushroom Kingdom streets include a Crazy Cap shop, and Bowser’s wedding plans borrow the outfits from Super Mario Odyssey. Donkey Kong arrives to the “DK Rap” and fights with moves from Donkey Kong Country and Super Smash Bros. The Rainbow Road sequence is full of Mario Kart details: blue shells, coloured drift sparks, and anti-gravity wheels and kart-select music from Mario Kart 8. Lumalee, the gloomy Luma, comes from Super Mario Galaxy, and the credits nod to that game’s Gusty Garden Galaxy theme. Smaller touches include a piano signed “Ludwig Von Koopa” and a shop sign featuring Disk-kun, the Famicom Disk System mascot.

• It was the first film based on a video game to gross $1 billion worldwide, passing the mark on 30 April 2023, less than four weeks after release.
• Its global five-day opening of around $377 million broke Frozen II’s record for the biggest worldwide launch by an animated film.
• Charles Martinet, Mario’s longtime voice in the games, has two cameo roles: the brothers’ father and a Brooklyn local called Giuseppe.
• Chris Pratt originally tried a heavier New York-Italian accent, but it was dropped for sounding too much like Tony Soprano, according to co-star Khary Payton.
• The Super Bowl LVII advert used the theme from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! to promote a mock website for the brothers’ plumbing company.
• “Peaches” is only about a minute and a half long, but it became Jack Black’s first solo Billboard Hot 100 entry and went Platinum in the US.
• The US release was brought forward from Friday 7 April to Wednesday 5 April 2023, giving the film a five-day Easter opening.
• The arcade cabinet at Punch-Out Pizzeria is titled “Jump Man”, after Mario’s original name in the 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game.
• Lumalee, the cheerfully nihilistic Luma who steals scenes in Bowser’s dungeon, is voiced by Juliet Jelenic.
• On Netflix, the film was watched about 80 million times in the first half of 2024, making it the service’s fourth most-watched film of that period.
• All the animation was produced in France, at Illumination Studios Paris, and was finished in October 2022.

Universal released the film on digital platforms in the US on 16 May 2023, just six weeks after it opened in cinemas. The 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD editions followed on 13 June, with some retailers selling them a week early, and the UK disc release came on 24 July 2023. The Numbers estimates that US disc sales alone brought in more than $29 million.

In the US, the film began streaming on Peacock on 3 August 2023. Under Universal’s deal for its animated films it then moved to Netflix on 3 December 2023 for ten months, where it became one of the platform’s most-watched films of the first half of 2024. It returned to Peacock in October 2024.

Its success turned Mario into a film franchise. On MAR10 Day, 10 March 2024, Meledandri and Miyamoto confirmed a sequel, with Horvath, Jelenic and Fogel returning. Its title, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, was revealed in a Nintendo Direct on 12 September 2025, and it opened on 1 April 2026. Miyamoto has also said that Princess Peach: Showtime! was developed alongside the first film, at a time when the team was discussing how to give Peach a more active role. For many fans, the 2023 film finally gave Mario the faithful big-screen adventure that the 1993 live-action version did not.