Nintendo Nostalgia List: Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

This piece will be a little different from some of our other fare, it will be a list in essence of the various other Nintendo franchises referenced in Super Mario Galaxy Movie. So that we can discuss where Nintendo might go with it’s shared universe next.

The most prominent one and the one that they announced before the film was even out was Fox from Star Fox, unlike a lot of the others he plays a role in the third act of the film and could be viewed as a supporting character. It seems a little odd for them to feature Fox so prominently despite the fact they haven’t made a Star Fox game since the Wii U era, but who knows rumour has it, this might be setting up a new game announcement and or a spin off film. This would jive also with the fact that they introduced the rest of team Star Fox as well.

The Pikmin also appear during the same hub based sequence that gives us Fox, however they have far less to do and are more or a background cameo you can see them spill out of a craft of their own. These creatures from Nintendo’s series of puzzle/real time strategy games could see a film of their own down the line or perhaps an animated TV show.

Mr Game and Watch is a call back to the 80s era for Nintendo and could be called the deepest cut of the film. He is created by Luigi during the third act of the film using Bowser Jr’s magic paintbrush and defends the Mario Brothers and Yoshi.

R.O.B is again a call back to an accessory from back in the day and is probably the most obscure reference over all.

A final point we wanted to touch on, but this might be slightly off base as we aren’t seeing other people talk about it. The magical paintbrush that Bowser Jr has and how it uses paint as a weapon, which looks very similar to the video game Splatoon in which paint is used in various ways. This could be a reference to Splatoon existing within the Nintendo verse as there is no clear indication as to where Bowser Jr got it from.

There is the list, we tried to do something a bit different and focus it only on other Nintendo properties, rather than listing the various Mario characters cameos. Let us know if we missed anyone out.

Super Mario Galaxy Movie: Nostalgia Missing A Soul

Summary, the Mario Brothers are threatened by the arrival of Bowser Jr who has set out to find his father after the events of the first film.

So on the press tour for this film Charlie Day was asked who his Luigi from recent American History was and said the murder who shot the CEO in an act of left wing defiance. This was pretty breaking at the time of writing this review, and sadly it does impact enjoyment of the film, as Luigi was a highlight before this incredibly poorly thought through statement.

The film itself is good and perfectly serviceable, and more of the same if you or your kids liked the first film you will like this, however, where this film is let down from the first is that it doesn’t have the same emotional core. The first film had Mario’s feelings of insecurity, Bowser’s love of Peach and even the depressed Luma to give the film stakes this one really doesn’t have that. You have the father son stuff with Bowser and his son, and the sisterhood storyline between Peach and Rosalita, but neither of these hit the same depth of feeling as the stuff from the first film. It was nice to see Mario and Peach as a couple get teased out more, this is an important part of the games that the first film did not spend enough time with. One assumed that that Mario asking Peach out would be one of the post credits scenes of the film but it wasn’t.

The adventure is interesting you see a lot of the galaxy and a lot of new things, this is mainly a chance to set up new films or to promote different IPs, obviously a film cannot spend the same amount of time with a universe as a game, but it does feel like in each of these cases it is just window dressing it is like look its Star Fox, or oh look its Daisy rather than having the world’s feel lived in or the characters seem like they matter. For example if they had replaced Star Fox with a different Nintendo character would it really have mattered at all, not really. That’s the problem in a nutshell. Nowhere is this truer than with Yoshi, not only do they have Yoshi be out and about in the over world without anyone thinking it was weird, but also all the character’s function is to follow Mario around and act like one of the minions characters. The fact is if you were to play one of the Yoshi games you would see the character has a lot more personality than he was given in the film.

The music was a lot better this time around, it was more classic game music rather than horribly forced in pop music, and the end credits that showed scenes from the film in puppet form was a lot of fun so it gets bonus points for those things.

Overall, it is serviceable and fun to a degree but there is a hollowness to it.

3/5

Pros.

Mario and Peach

The Music and Puppet Show

The scope of the film

Cons.

It has a lot of new characters but they don’t need to be there and it just feels like a shop window

The emotional core of the film is not enough

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Hoppers: Pixar Is Trying To Indoctrinate Your Kids

A young woman decides to make her grief everyone else’s problem.

So this film shows that Pixar learnt absolutely nothing from previous failures and that it is going to continue to be preachy and force in left wing messaging into kids films. The oddness here is the messaging would clearly go over a child’s head, some of it is high concept so they are just trying to pander to the parents who have been forced to see the film. The whole film goes on and on about environmentalism, so get ready for that.

The film itself would be quite distressing for kids, you see a number of scenes that play upon the fact that the lead’s Grandmother recently died and you have that emotional manipulation from Pixar. You also have scenes of small animals looking in danger or being distressed to traumatise little kids if that was not enough.

On top of that the lead is incredibly unlikeable. She makes everything about her, she wants to keep the glade open, she feels angry, she is grieving etc. She uses people and the Mammal King in order to achieve her own ends but we are supposed to root for her. It shows you the modern Hollywood morality where they are like ‘she has a righteous cause who cares if she is a good person she automatically is as she cares about what we care about’.

Don’t let the focus on talking animals trick you, that is just a gimmick to push political messaging.

1.5/5

Pros.

The Mammal King

Some of the sillier aspects

Cons.

The political messaging

The deeply unlikable lead

The emotional manipulation

The scenes of animal distress

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Goat: Life Post The Right Side Up

Summary: On its surface this film looked generic, the idea of a sort of off brand Space Jam, looked readily apparent, and we shared that view via our socials. However, the film actually has some charm and manages to have moments that do make you smile.

That is not to say it isn’t a generic sports animated film, it is you have seen things like this before many times over, however, it is not soulless as it may first appear from the marketing.

A point to be made about the film is that it is strongly reliant on internet meme and social media culture so if you are older or not the most active online then you may be confused by a number of the references.

Overall, a watchable animated film with some charm.

3/5

Pros.

The charm

Its watchable

Its well paced

Cons:

It’s repetitive structurally

You have seen it before

It is too similar to Space Jam

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Looney Tunes The Day The Earth Blew Up: Back In Action

Summary: Daffy and Porkie fight aliens and their own character flaws in a gum soaked adventure.

It was nice to see a return to 2D animation, it has been far too long, and seeing it reminds us all of the horrible soulless feel of CGI animation. More films should be made in this format.

It was also enjoyable to see these characters back, Looney Tunes as a brand might struggle with relevance amongst modern kids but it is still just as charming and appealing as ever.

The story was very much how you would expect it to be, an alien is trying to take over earth for a silly reason and the gang have to stop him, only to find out that that he was trying to save earth. Then they work together, but one does not watch a Looney Tunes film for the story rather that gags and the slapstick both things this film gives you in equal measure.

Overall, a good return to cinemas for the Looney Tunes gang.

3.5/5

Pros.

The animation

Seeing the gang back in action

It has a few funny moments

It is well paced

Cons.

Bugs absence is felt

Not all the gags land

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http://ko-fi.com/anothermillennialreviewer Summary: Daffy and Porkie fight aliens and their own character flaws in a gum soaked adventure.

It was nice to see a return to 2D animation, it has been far too long, and seeing it reminds us all of the horrible soulless feel of CGI animation. More films should be made in this format.

It was also enjoyable to see these characters back, Looney Tunes as a brand might struggle with relevance amongst modern kids but it is still just as charming and appealing as ever.

Overall, a good return to cinemas for the Looney Tunes gang.

3.5/5

Pros.

The animation

Seeing the gang back in action

It has a few funny moments

It is well paced

Cons.

Bugs absence is felt

Not all the gags land

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SpongeBob Search For Square Pants: Laying Brickwork

Summary

I was a fan of SpongeBob when I was younger but have to admit I have lost touch with it a bit as I’ve aged. I didn’t know if I would just be able to watch this, or if I wouldn’t get it. Turns out it fit like an old glove.

I always wanted more of a focus on the Flying Dutchman back in the classic era so I really enjoyed that he got his moment here. I would have liked to know how he became the Flying Dutchman but I thought the amount of new information we got about him was great.

For the most part it was funny and enjoyable SpongeBob that reminded me why I liked it as a kid, however there were a number of off colour and oddly sexual jokes that I found to be uncomfortable in a kids movie. SpongeBob and Patrick got their asses out too often as well which was also uncomfortable.

Overall, I liked the SpongeBob Mr Crabs storyline and thought it was good we finally got to see more of the Flying Dutchman, but some of the jokes made me feel a little uncomfortable.

3/5

Pros.

SpongeBob and Mr Crabs bond

The focus on the Flying Dutchman

Genuinely funny moments

Cons.

The weird sexual humour

It has pacing issues

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Home Alone Three: Fighting Terrorists With Toys

Summary

We remove, Macaulay Culkin, we replace burglars with terrorists, and we have it so the child is only home alone whilst there mother nips to the office. Is it even still Home Alone?

For me personally I prefer the traps section in this film to either of the earlier efforts as it truly feels like this one went all out and gave us this idea taken to its fullest. Perhaps this is gimmicky but to me it worked.

The child is not as affable as Kevin and the family feel like an imitation but at least the traps are good. It was odd that the mother seemed almost modelled after Catherine O’Hara, but I suppose John Hughes did have a type.

I thought the parrot had a number of good moments and brought some levity to the film, though I must say that even it got to a point wherein I felt was becoming a bit of a crutch for the film ultimately.

Overall, there is still some charm to be had here particularly if you like the traps however, I would say that it is not as good as the other two films as films and feels like a made for streaming movie, though in its time it would more likely be a straight to video film.

2.5/5

Pros.

The traps

The parrot

A few funny moments

Cons.

The plot is worse

The terrorists stuff is ridiculous

It lacks the charm

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Diary Of A Wimpy Kid The Last Straw: Forced Conflict From A Writer Out Of Ideas

Summary

Greg and his family are back and this time he has daddy issues for no particular reason.

So I thought I was done with the horrible animated Disney + Diary of a Wimpy Kid films and yet here I am.

This time after embarrassing his dad at church, Greg is going to get sent to a military school unless he gets his act together. Cue a series of schemes to try and appear like he’s doing good at school which all go wrong, who could have seen that coming. This whole conflict is weird for three key reasons, one this conflict between Greg and his dad hasn’t been there before, the fact they have the author of the books writing these films and he just forgot that little detail is shocking, secondly is the fact that it is pretty clear to see Greg is accident prone not bad which makes the dad look unfair, thirdly Rodrick is actually bad and he just lets him get away with it. As such you end the film thinking that the dad is an insecure man child, who wants to punish his son for his own failings, which probably isn’t how the film wanted him to come across.

In the images on Disney+ for the film you see them wearing Christmas hats and it is presented as a Christmas film however, there really isn’t a mention of the season anywhere so it doesn’t really come across as a Christmas film. So if that’s what you are looking for then stay away.

All of my points about Greg being a goody goody from my last review also still stand here, it is quite sickening.

Overall, less cringe than the last one but the story and the conflict feels forced.

2/5

Pros.

It is short

There is one or two good laughs here

Cons.

It is boring

Greg is devoid of personality

The conflict feels forced

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Zootopia Two: China To The Rescue

Summary

Disney Animation could not get more generic if it tried.

The first film felt paper thin with the idea of the predators vs the prey metaphor working as a stand-in for race relations, everyone could see the very obvious message of not judging others by what they are but rather the content of their character. Yet this film feels the need to push a worn out and frankly reductive metaphor further forward as it has nothing to say otherwise.

In many ways this is the very worst kind of sequel not one that exists due to a need to, but rather one that is just done for profit. Everything feels a bit more low rent, the humour a bit more stale, the voice cast sound like they are going through the motions, they have the woman from Abbot Elementary basically being an animal version of her character from that show, it all feels very low effort.

Finally wherein Disney films of old used to have a clear moral message that the film would teach over the course of its runtime, there is nothing like that here, maybe it is the reliance of shades of grey rather than actually having established heroes and villains or the need to make everything morally complex that leads to this issue it is hard to tell.

Overall, this is just more animated slop that brings down the tone of the whole genre.

1.5/5

Pros.

It is watchable

It has a few unintentional laughs

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A Very Merry Pooh Year: Bring Back Hand Drawn Animation

Summary

Pooh and friends celebrate the holidays.

I needed a pallet cleanser after all of the horrible three dimensional animation I have seen recently for a project I was helping a friend with, so I thought some classic hand drawn animation was just the ticket. Seeing this makes me think about what we have lost, hand drawn animation has so much more heart and soul, even when it combines with three dimensional characters or elements.

I like that this is not just a Christmas film but rather a film that reflects the whole period, there are not many animated New Years films so that was a nice change. I thought that this special did a lot to not only make it feel like Christmas but show how each individual character interacts with the season. The Christmas magic really gave the sweetness of Pooh an extra something.

I would challenge you to watch this special and not even feel a little bit Christmassy, it shows the true meaning of the season and has a wonderful message that is relevant no matter who is watching it or when.

3.5/5

Pros.

It is sweet

It is novel

It is nice to see the different character interact with Christmas

The animation

Cons.

It is slow at times

It has almost a melancholy feel at times

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