Review by Michael J. Findley
We watched this with our adult children. It is bright, vibrant, colorful, and fun. You will have to explain some things to young children, but you will not be embarrassed to take them. Based on the various Mario Brothers games, familiarity with games helps you understand.
Characters, movement, scenes, and goals are all based on the Mario Brothers series of games. Like real life and the games, character development for Bowser is confusing. He starts off reduced size and defeated; convinces Mario that he is reformed, goes back to his original size and ways.
The movie combines real life, 3D cartoon style animation, 2Danimation from the original Mario games, and realistic 3D animation in a delightfully confusing entertainment. This is more like the magic of Disney’s original Fantasia than the dark, adults only “must miss” movies of the past several decades. Even without children, this is delightfully enjoyable, something Disney and Hollywood abandoned decades ago. It’s worth viewing in the theater then owning as Blueray to watch for years to come.
FINDLEY FAMILY VIDEO 