Welcome to our Colossus Movie Guide for The Super Mario Bros. Movie. This guide contains everything you need to understand the film. Dive into our detailed library of content, covering key aspects of the movie. We encourage your comments to help us create the best possible guide. Thank you!
What is The Super Mario Bros. Movie about?
The Super Mario Bros. Movie isn’t as all-in on a theme as Puss in Boots: The Last Wish but does explore concepts of believing in yourself, hard work, the power of teamwork and brotherhood, as well as contrasts the decency of Mario against the indecency of Bowser and how people react to the energy of each. Bowser has followers who are there out of fear, rather than loyalty or compassion. While Mario has a team of people who care about him because he cares about them. It also makes a great case for finding your craft and leaning into it wholeheartedly and the opportunities that come with being good at what you do.
Movie Guide table of contents
Cast
- Mario – Chris Pratt
- Luigi – Charlie Day
- Princess Peach – Anya Taylor-Joy
- Toad – Keegan-Michael Key
- Donkey Kong – Seth Rogen
- Cranky Kong – Fred Armisen
- Bowser – Jack Black
- Written by – Matthew Fogel
- Directed by – Aaron Horvath | Michael Jelenic
The ending of The Super Mario Bros. Movie explained
Recap
The Super Mario Bros. Movie climax occurs in Brooklyn. An explosion causes a Warp Pipe in the Mushroom Kingdom to throw the main conflict from Peach’s castle to Mario and Luigi’s home. A fistfight with Bowser leaves Mario badly beaten, but his friends step up. The teamwork and support from family, friends, and borough locals leads to Mario and Luigi gaining the power of the Super Star. Infused with invincible energy, the brothers defeat Bowser. This experience not only solidifies their friendship with Peach and Donkey Kong, but also earns the brothers the respect of their family, peers, and borough.
Instead of going back to work in Brooklyn, where the two would be extraordinarily famous and business, you can assume, would be booming, the brothers have moved to the Mushroom Kingdom. Awake, energized, and ready to seize the day, Mario and Luigi head off to enjoy this new adventure.
The after credits scene shows an egg hatching.
Meaning
The showdown between the heroes and Bowser is a battle between ideologies. Bowser embodies a negative, selfish, inconsiderate worldview that doesn’t value people for who they are. Bowser wants followers more than friends. Even though he says he loves Peach, he doesn’t know Peach. While Mario and friends embody positive qualities of trust, friendship, service, and kindness. Their teamwork overcomes Bowser’s might.
If the brothers had stayed in Brooklyn and enjoyed the fruits of their fame, it would convey a message that “doing something big is what matters”. Want your parents to love you? Achieve something huge. Want your old boss to respect you? Become famous. Want to succeed in business? Go viral. In some ways, Mario and Luigi would be resting on their laurels. Choosing to go to the Mushroom Kingdom is bold. It’s a new world they barely know much less understand. But it’s adventure. It’s not staying anchored to a place just because you were born there. It’s not allowing a sense of obligation to keep you tied to a family that hadn’t previously supported you. There’s no malice in Mario and Luigi going to the Mushroom Kingdom. They’re simply embracing the journey that feels right to them. And that can be a very empowering message. You love your home. You love your family. But go where you believe you should go.
Lastly, the egg, of course, is a reference to the fan-favorite character Yoshi. For the Yosh-heads, it’s arguably the most important scene in all of The Super Mario Bros. Movie—as it’s a promise of Yoshi’s appearance in the inevitable sequel.
The themes and meaning of The Super Mario Bros. Movie
A can-do attitude
One of the defining features of this interpretation of Mario is how positive and determined he is. Instead of working for Spike, he convinces Luigi to start their own company. Not only does he have the strategy to grow the business, he has the ability. This means he’s confident going into all plumbing-related situations. When Brooklyn’s flooding and none of the borough’s engineers can solve the issue, Mario knows exactly what to do and is about to solve it until the fault equipment foils his work.
Even when Mario arrives in a strange world, he doesn’t worry. Instead, he gets to solving the problem. It’s this positivity and determination that wins not only Princess Peach’s friendship and affection but Donkey Kong’s too.
The group is stronger than the individual
Mario and Luigi say to each other that together they can do anything. This concept extends beyond just the two siblings and into Mario’s entire character arc. After arriving in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario succeeds because he befriends Toad and Peach and Donkey Kong. Without everyone else helping out, there’s no way he could have figured out what to do, much less fight through Bowser’s army and defeat Bowser.
Having a craft is a superpower
Of course The Super Mario Bros. Movie exaggerates Mario’s plumbing abilities. It’s a hyperbolic animated film. But there is something to the idea of finding a niche and thriving in it. Mario is an excellent plumber. Why? Because it’s his identity. He fixes. Literally and metaphorically. Being who he is and what he is allows Mario the opportunity of a lifetime: to travel to a whole new universe and meet amazing people and explore unbelievable worlds.
The real world equivalent of that is someone who is passionate about food becoming a chef and getting to travel the world, cooking everywhere they go. Or someone who loves makeup and ends up working in Hollywood and working on productions at the highest level. Or someone who adores roller coasters and starts a YouTube channel where they ride roller coasters, talk about roller coasters, debate roller coasters, and it leads to an entire career.
Fear-driven negativity and selfishness don’t go far
Bowser is a giant juxtaposition to Mario. Instead of having friends, he has followers. Instead of winning people to his cause, he imprisons those who dissent. Mario inspires. Bowser terrifies. We see how much Bowser adores Peach. But instead of engaging with her as a person and connecting, he only thinks about her as a construct in relation to his own wants. Either she plays the role he’s assigned, he she’s an enemy. It’s a binary, rigid worldview that’s the root of the isolation and emptiness that Bowser feels despite having a massive army. There’s no love. No affection. No meaning. Maybe if Bowser just focused on music then he’d contribute more to the world instead of taking so much away from it.
Why is the movie called The Super Mario Bros. Movie?
In 1993, Disney, through its labels, released Super Mario Bros., also known as Super Mario Bros: The Movie. Believe it or not, no one had ever adapted a video game into a live-action film. This was the very first one. And a disaster. It was a dark, Verhoeven/Gilliam-esque nightmare that ditched all the bright fun of the Mario games. No one was happy with it. Not even the cast or filmmakers. The tragic nature of such an auspicious property has made the film infamous. Even a bit of a cult hit.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie could have claimed the simple version of the name. It’s been 30 years. But it seems they shied away from that, opting instead for something a little longer, a little clunkier.
Within the world of the film, Mario and Luigi have their company, Super Mario Bros. Plumbing and people sometimes refer to them as the Super Mario Bros. So there’s some narrative support for the title. Though it is surprising, especially with the emphasis on Mario, that they didn’t go with Super Mario World and make a clean and clear demarcation from the 1993 film. But, as Mario and Luigi always say, together, they can do anything.
Questions & answers about The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Who is Spike?
In movies that have a normal world and a fantastic world, it’s a trope to have parallels between characters, especially the villain. A famous example is The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Almira Gulch being the real equivalent of the Wicked Witch. The movie even plays the same music for both characters. For Super Mario Bros., Spike isn’t as big or bad or outrageous as Bowser. But they have similarly large statures and are both bullies that want to give the brothers a hard time. So there are visual and narrative parallels. Bowser becomes the hyperbolic version of what Spike represented in the real world. And by defeating him, the brothers win Spike’s respect.
As for the origin of the character. It’s a bit of a weird one. So Mario first appeared in Donkey Kong in 1981. It’s a huge hit. Nintendo then gave “Jumpman” a self-titled spin-off series. Mario Bros. dropped in 1983. Our red-hatted hero succeeded again. Leaning into their new mascot, Nintendo released an arcade game called Vs. Wrecking Crew where you play as Mario and/or Luigi and try to demolish stuff as enemies attack you. An NES version soon followed, title shortened to Wrecking Crew, and featured a new antagonist: Foreman Spike.
Spike doesn’t appear as a character FOR A LONG TIME. There was a Game Boy Color golf game only released in Japan. A brief visual appearance in a Wario-centric Nintendo 3DS game. And that it’s. His appearance in the film is a deep cut. And the initial parallel to Bowser is a nice touch that gives the character a bit of dimensionality.
Is “Peaches” an amazing song?
Yes.
Now it’s your turn
Have more unanswered questions about The Super Mario Bros. Movie? Are there themes or motifs we missed? Is there more to explain about the ending? Please post your questions and thoughts in the comments section! We’ll do our best to address every one of them. If we like what you have to say, you could become part of our movie guide!
