The Super Mario Galaxy Movie might as well have been written by AI
There has been a lot of discussion of AI art and its effect on the movie industry, but not enough discussion of art that has been produced in such a careless and profit-minded way that it might as well have been written by AI. Nintendo and Illumination’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is one such movie.
The movie was written by Matthew Fogel and directed by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, and co directed by Pierre Leduc and Fabien Polack.
The story, in so far as there is a story, begins with the character Princess Rosalina, who is voiced by Brie Larson, reading a bedtime story to a room full of childlike star creatures about the exploits of the heroic Princess Peach, who is voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy, only to be attacked and captured by a giant robot piloted by Bowser Jr., the son of Bowser, who is voiced by Benny Safdie.
The story follows the efforts of Peach, as well as Mario, who is voiced by Chris Pratt, and his team of forgettable video game tie-in characters, and their quest to rescue Rosalina from Bowser Jr.’s imprisonment. Bowser Jr.’s plan is to use Rosalina as a human battery for the doomsday weapon he plans to use to impress his father Bowser, who is voiced by Jack Black.
The movie is quick to disabuse its audience of any notion that the movie’s plot points and themes have any meaning or significance by drowning them in slapstick humor that will make even most 8-year-old children fall asleep and a frenetic pace that offers no opportunity to dwell on any one aspect of the story.
Bowser goes on a redemption quest for much of the movie, even making sacrifices for Mario and friends midway through the story. His relationship with his son, Bowser Jr., held potential for an interesting exploration of parenting and fatherhood, but these themes are trivialized when the movie makes the entire plot a wind-up to a punchline about the absurdity of building a universe-destroying doomsday weapon to impress an absentee father.
The concept of a doomsday weapon is prime writing material in a world constantly under threat of nuclear annihilation, and themes of parenthood are universal across human experience, but the film cannot do the children and parents in the audience the courtesy of attempting to engage with its themes.
This is a story that has been haphazardly thrown together for marketing purposes by writers and directors who do not care about the artistic merit of their product. Video game tie-in characters like Fox McCloud, who is voiced by Glen Powell, and Mr. Game & Watch appear in the story without cause or reason for marketing purposes.
The character of McCloud is a particularly egregious example of this. His function is merely to serve as a suave mode of transportation to ferry the characters back and forth on his spaceship.
The story is full of side quests that contribute nothing to the plot. There is an entire sequence in which the protagonists are shot by Bowser Jr.’s baby gun, transformed into babies, and chased by a dinosaur through the jungle that can be cut entirely from the story without the film losing anything.
There is no artistic purpose aside from the idea that kids should buy the latest Mario figurine or the immediate feeling of a silly joke landing. Artificial intelligence cannot produce art because art is human, but this cold and lifeless marketing ploy could easily have been generated by a machine.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is currently playing in Charlottesville at the Violet Crown up until April 30 for those who have the misfortune of having to watch it.
