The Super Mario Galaxy Movie 2026

I mentioned this in my review for the first Super Mario Bros Movie just a few days ago but this was my first theater trip since having a date night with my wife to see the Naked Gun back in August. This time around I took my older daughter to this movie as she’s a big Mario and specifically Rosalina fan so we had to go see this one together. We waited a week because it was tracking to be a pretty huge opening weekend and I prefer a less crowded theater so we waited until its second weekend and went to a fairly early Sunday showing where there were only about 3 other families in the theater (although the one with the youngest kids initially sat a few rows in front of us until someone pointed out that they weren’t in their correct assigned seating so they moved a couple rows behind us, but about 4 different times in the next 30 minutes, the dad went back to the row they were sitting at with his phone as a flashlight trying to find something or other on the floor). The movie itself was mostly more of the same, but with much less direction and way more and more varied fanservice than the last movie including much that was completely lost on me as I’ve never played Galaxy or much of any Mario game past the SNES. It was still a fun diversion but not likely something that I could see myself coming back to time and time again. And since this is still a new movie, here is your spoiler warning from here on out.

This being the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, it does have a lot of space in it. The first movie had a few different kingdoms in it, plus Brooklyn in the real world, and this really expands that with several small planets like the one that Rosalina and all the Numa stars inhabit as well as the hub world, a Koopa casino world, and a bee world for some reason. With all of these worlds it feels like it should be structured like an adventure movie, but because there’s the ticking clock of Rosalina who was kidnapped in the opening scene, there’s not enough time to really explore any of these different areas. Plus, for much of the time Mario and Peach are separated so they have that extra split focus. And while this does more or less mirror the structure of the first Mario movie where Mario and Luigi are separated and have different adventures, it still feels more cohesive in the first movie. This also introduces a couple new characters with Yoshi as the cute Chewbacca-esque sidekick who is powerful in his own right but only makes animal noises and says his name. The movie also introduces a multiverse character with Star Fox who was revealed late in the marketing campaign which seemed to imply that he had just a brief cameo appearance, but he was just a little bit more than that as a full on side character, if a minor one. They also have a nice little moment of expectation subversion when Mario meets him for the first time and there’s an expectation of jealousy from Mario thinking that Star Fox might be competing for the Princess’s affections, but instead Mario is immediately on board with Fox.

The other side plot that wasn’t fully satisfying was the entire character arc of Bowser. He was a villain through the entire first movie, and here he is still miniaturized and a prisoner, but seems to be making an attempt at rehabilitation. At least when he’s not getting overly aggravated towards Mario. He ends up an unlikely companion which initially seemed reminiscent of Super Mario RPG where he did team up with the heroes to face a bigger foe. But in this case, the bigger foe turns out to be Bowser Jr. It’s also not a surprise to the audience though it is a surprise to Bowser when they meet for the first time roughly halfway through the movie. Bowser does make a play to sacrifice himself in a way to help Mario and Luigi, but that sacrifice is almost immediately undone when Bowser Jr. rescues him and then his character shifts towards being this evil father figure as Bowser Jr. reminds him of all the destructive and evil things he was taught growing up. There are brief moments of Bowser still questioning his newfound loyalty towards the Mario bros, more in favor of Luigi, but that just ends up being dropped in favor of a great recreation of the bridge battle from the classic NES game. And then he comes back as a large skeleton Koopa which undercuts and confuses the audience reaction of whether to feel happy that Mario defeated him, or sadness that he died. But either way he just came back with little repercussions.

The fanservice elements of this movie felt a lot more heightened, from the Baby Mario and Luigis which were fun, to the T-Rex which was initially lost on me despite it being a prominent feature of the Mario Odyssey advertising, to the inclusion of some more classic references like those from Super Mario Bros 2. The inclusion of the fully NES style pixel graphics felt a little forced during the security system moment and also felt reminiscent of a similar scene in Superman III which is not exactly a great movie to emulate. The climax of the ending also felt like it was a little too easy. But what really keeps things going throughout the movie are the characters themselves. The plot has a whole lot of issues, but the characters are still a lot of fun and keeps the movie from being a complete disaster. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.