Screentime: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) Spoiler Discussion

Kristal (0:00): I don't know where my Genesis could be. I haven't seen my Super Nintendo since 2003. That's alright. I don't mind. I've got a switch in the old switcheroo.

Kristal (0:22): My friend Mike and J Mo too.

Unknown Speaker (0:28): As

Jaymo (0:30): a great man once said, or a woman in that case, wahoo. Which means welcome back to the old switcheroo where we're talking gaming retro with Mike and J Mo. I'm Mike. And I'm J Mo. We're the often imitated, never emulated gaming podcast that researches, reviews, and playfully ribs every game in the Nintendo classics catalog.

Jaymo (0:48): But in this special screen time episode, we're slinging shells over the twenty twenty six animated feature, the Super Mario Galaxy movie. If like you what you hear, don't forget to like, subscribe, and give us your thoughts in the comments below. Joining us once again is the man who scored three kills with a single Star Wars Hunter headshot, allegedly, cosplay king brian dot s dot lee. How's your universe been, Brian?

Unknown Speaker (1:09): It's been pretty good. Thank you for the nice reminder. I I I forgot about I mean and also that you believe me because, like, I didn't know at the time how to save video on the Nintendo Switch. Then I found out after the fact. What's it?

Unknown Speaker (1:22): You were

Jaymo (1:23): good at Hunters. Like, I I believe it in that headshot.

Bryan (1:25): Oh, thank you. Yeah. No. I mean, I in in that short window that that it still existed as a game, unfortunately, you can't play it anymore because they've shuttered shut it shut the servers down. But, yeah.

Unknown Speaker (1:36): I mean, yeah, I'm I'm very proud of that moment that I can't prove to anybody, but at least I have your trust that it happened.

Jaymo (1:43): Just sketch it. Sketch it. Oh, yeah. And last seen narrowly beating me in the Animal Love Islands Battle Royale, Yoshi's number one fan, our friend Lisa. Do you see any blue sparks driving home tonight, Lisa?

Unknown Speaker (1:57): Just mine.

Unknown Speaker (1:58): Okay.

Unknown Speaker (2:02): Wait. So you see yourself driving in the third person, like, Mario Kart style? No. It's Only if you hit

Unknown Speaker (2:06): the change view button.

Unknown Speaker (2:08): There's that. Exactly.

Unknown Speaker (2:10): Just went in the rearview of my car.

Bryan (2:12): It makes me wonder how hard that would be to actually do. Like, have a drone following your car, and then, like, you're driving, but from the drone's view.

Unknown Speaker (2:20): You know? There was there's a YouTube video of it. And what they didn't do it with a drone. They did it with essentially an elaborate crane that was, like, angled just right. Nice.

Jaymo (2:28): But apparently, it's no. Apparently, it's incredibly difficult.

Bryan (2:32): I'm just saying if we have if we've had all that training doing third person, you know, Mario Kart ing, like, the theories should hold. You know? I mean, I guess it's not joystick and, like but, I mean, come on.

Jaymo (2:43): You know what else had trouble what else had trouble staying on the road? The Super Mario Galaxy movie. Are we ready to jump are we ready to jump into the Warp Star, everybody? Sure. So we'll get for So let's talk about the Super Mario Galaxy movie released in theaters worldwide in April 2026.

Jaymo (3:03): As described on imdb.com, Mario ventures into space exploring cosmic worlds and tackling galactic challenges far from the familiar Mushroom Kingdom. Let's take a look at the film's poster since that is somewhat sometimes a person person's since that is sometimes a person's first impression. We have a vibrantly colorful image of Mario flying towards the viewer while an array of allies and enemies loom behind him. In the foreground are several locations from the movie, such as the Mushroom Kingdom and the casino like Gateway Galaxy, while in the background various planets and structures float in the distance. Mike, we like this trailer poster?

Mike (3:39): Not really. It doesn't have anything that sort of stands out

Jaymo (3:43): Yeah. To me. Yeah. It it it's kinda like the movie to me. It's like a lot of stuff packed in, but nothing particularly memorable.

Mike (3:53): Yeah. Theoretically focused on Mario, but I don't care.

Unknown Speaker (3:56): Yeah. Because it's Mario. Yeah. I

Unknown Speaker (4:00): I would argue this is actually Peach's movie. But

Jaymo (4:04): Yeah. Yeah. More than his, anyway.

Unknown Speaker (4:06): Yeah.

Bryan (4:07): Yeah. In a lot of ways, especially considering the way it ties to her relationship with her sister. I mean, it's a little I'm a little with Jeremy, and, obviously, we'll we'll we'll get into it about the the frenetic kind of jumbled busyness of the movie, which I feel like on some level is represented by this poster. Yeah. But but, yeah, I mean, like, I mean, it's a common term for posters like this, the the floating heads poster, that it's not meant to be that the focus is less the artistic, you know, artistic value and more just like, make sure everybody sees who's in this, you know?

Bryan (4:39): But, I mean, I I feel like floating heads floating heads poster designs can be done very tastefully. You know, look at any of Drew Struzan's paintings, and, like, this just feels like everyone coming at you. And this is sort of right in the center and, like, I don't know. It's fine. It's it's an advertisement, but it's not a it's not one to put up on your wall.

Unknown Speaker (5:01): You know?

Unknown Speaker (5:01): I do wonder if it looked cooler in three d, and I really felt that watching this movie too. Like, I kinda like, I don't know if you were like, you know, this should have been a four d x thing.

Unknown Speaker (5:10): I don't know. I got that vibe. Had bits where I'm like, would this be more fun in four d x?

Unknown Speaker (5:15): Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Yep.

Unknown Speaker (5:18): Never watched the movie.

Jaymo (5:21): Well, produced by Illumination and distributed by Universal Studios with a budget of a $110,000,000, which it made back in the a day. Like, this movie is doing quite well as of recording. Really?

Bryan (5:36): Yeah. It's apparently the highest grossing animated film of the year already from its first weekend. So I mean, granted the year hasn't been that far. But, I mean, we're already in April. Like, because just to

Unknown Speaker (5:47): have a crazy number of screens because, like, that was not for a Friday night showing, there was not that many people in there.

Unknown Speaker (5:55): It's a kids movie, though.

Unknown Speaker (5:57): Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (5:57): On Townsend. So, like

Unknown Speaker (5:59): that theater.

Lisa (6:00): Saturdays afternoon is probably packed. Sunday afternoon.

Bryan (6:05): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. At least from its Wikipedia page, it mentions I mean, because it's what? It's only been out

Unknown Speaker (6:12): Four days, I think.

Bryan (6:13): Yeah. Less than a week. It says but it became a commercial success, grossing $372,000,000 worldwide against a $110,000,000 budget, becoming the third highest grossing film of 2026 and already the highest grossing animated film of the year.

Unknown Speaker (6:27): Yeah. People are waiting.

Unknown Speaker (6:28): It's it's story. Or

Unknown Speaker (6:30): as Lisa would say, Wahoo. You do it better than me. You do it so much better than me. Alright. Well, let's see how good you are at this, Lisa.

Jaymo (6:38): We're gonna do a quick mini game minute. We're calling super sorry. Smartio Galaxy the movie. That looked better on paper than it sounded. Smartio.

Jaymo (6:48): Mario get anyway, pretty simple concept. I'm gonna hit you with some trivia from imdb.com. Shout it out as soon as I'm done reading the question. We got six total here and a tiebreaker. So Super Mario Galaxy is actually the second animated movie that Illumination has released on April following what Easter bunny adventure from 2011?

Unknown Speaker (7:08): One point for Mike. Hop.

Unknown Speaker (7:10): Good job.

Jaymo (7:12): Yeah. I forgot that movie existed. Same.

Bryan (7:15): Oh, me too. Well well, even the I was just a little thrown off by the question. You said it was following the what do you mean?

Jaymo (7:21): That was the last time they released a animated movie on April Fools.

Unknown Speaker (7:25): Oh, on the okay. I mean, alright. Yeah.

Jaymo (7:28): You know what? Do better on this one, Brian. Which which major character in the Super Mario Galaxy movie is being voiced by a male voice actor for the first time?

Unknown Speaker (7:38): Oh. Yoshi? Nope.

Unknown Speaker (7:45): Mike, Lisa, any guesses?

Unknown Speaker (7:48): No idea.

Unknown Speaker (7:49): I think for the

Unknown Speaker (7:50): first time.

Unknown Speaker (7:51): Mike. I think this was Bowser Jr.

Jaymo (7:53): Another point for Mike. Yes. Benny Safdie is the first male voice actor to play Bowser junior, having always been represented by female voice actors in the games.

Bryan (8:03): I get you. I mean, that makes sense because I I know they'll often use women to do, like, kid voices, and Bowser junior is a kid. So

Unknown Speaker (8:09): Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Alright, Brian. Ready?

Unknown Speaker (8:11): Sure.

Unknown Speaker (8:12): This one's this one's yours, baby. Okay. Get ready for it. Get ready for it. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (8:16): I'm I'm working my way.

Jaymo (8:18): Speaking of sound, Super Mario Galaxy reuses an iconic sound effect from what multibillion dollar Universal franchise?

Bryan (8:26): Oh. Oh, I mean, the Dress Park.

Unknown Speaker (8:29): Boom. The T Rex roar.

Unknown Speaker (8:31): Oh, that But is that the actual one?

Jaymo (8:33): Yes. So it turns out they just pitched it down a little to give it a bit more of a rumble, but it is the same sound effect.

Bryan (8:39): Yeah. I mean Oh, man. At the same time I mean, I I didn't figure it was the same, but I it sounded so similar. I I'm not surprised to hear that they they'd more or less use the same same, like, core audio for it. Because, I mean, if anything, it was such an iconic movie, Jurassic Park, and this this the the the very signature sound they give the T Rex.

Bryan (8:59): I feel like every time we've seen a T Rex in anything, it's been kinda riffing off of that sound, that, like, that bellowy kind of, like, I forget what animals they use to sort of that mix together to make it. But, yeah, I mean, it's it crossed my mind seeing the movie too. Like, oh, man. That's that's a that's a Jurassic Park T Rex roar. I I don't

Unknown Speaker (9:17): know the movie.

Mike (9:17): In the trailer, and that was my initial thought. I like, is that just is that the Jurassic Park?

Bryan (9:22): Yeah. I mean, it was it's it's just sort of forever become, I think, on some level, what people expect now a T Rex to sound like. It's sort of like how the whoever first decided the red tailed hawk makes a much better caw sound than the than the bald eagle, which if you've ever listened to an actual bald eagle, they just sound like kinda chirpy.

Mike (9:41): Or kinda like how kookaburras are like thought of as like jungle things all over the place because it's they sound good.

Bryan (9:49): Right.

Mike (9:49): Actually, frogs too. They use it's Southern California frogs are, like, in everything, and it's, like, that's not what frogs sound elsewhere.

Bryan (9:56): Or, like, the what is it? The the Canadian loon that that yeah. I I just know there's there's tropes like that in in sound effects where they kinda just pick the bird or the or the frog or whatever that just sounds the best and then everybody used to that same sound effect.

Mike (10:11): Alright. Frog. And after Jurassic Park, all mathematicians and movies are sexy.

Unknown Speaker (10:16): There you

Unknown Speaker (10:16): go. Yes.

Unknown Speaker (10:16): That makes sense.

Unknown Speaker (10:18): And they gotta be in real life too. Right?

Jaymo (10:20): Alright. Speaking of actors, there's my segue back into the game here. You can each get a point for this one because there's three possible answers. Name a voice actor who lobbied the studio to get into this movie.

Unknown Speaker (10:30): Oh, Glenn Powell.

Jaymo (10:32): Glenn Powell was one playing Fox McCloud. Lisa gets a point. Brian Mike, you got any?

Bryan (10:36): I'm gonna wager maybe Brie Larson. I think she was a Nintendo fan.

Jaymo (10:40): She was indeed. Sweet. Mike, last one. Donald Glover? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (10:48): Yes, guys. We'll push for everybody.

Unknown Speaker (10:50): That was called who else is new in this movie I can think of? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (10:54): You did it.

Unknown Speaker (10:54): Obviously, it's it's not the returning cast. It's like all the yeah.

Unknown Speaker (10:57): That would be sad.

Unknown Speaker (11:00): Well, Seth can I see my character?

Jaymo (11:03): Seth Rogen didn't have a line. I saw Donkey Kong for half a second, so they did him dirty. Alright, guys. Doing great here. When Peach and Toad met Fox McCloud, there's an obvious cameo of Captain Olimar's ship as it unloads a crew full of peak men, but taking off in the background is a blink and you'll miss it sighting of a gunship flown by what other Nintendo spacefarer?

Unknown Speaker (11:29): Sam Samus?

Unknown Speaker (11:30): Samus. Lisa pulls ahead. Samus arrives.

Unknown Speaker (11:33): Lisa didn't see it.

Unknown Speaker (11:35): Well, it was there.

Unknown Speaker (11:36): Good good. Good good.

Jaymo (11:38): There's two shots where Samus and her gun well, you don't see Samus, but you see the gunship flying around.

Mike (11:43): I mean, you never really see Samus.

Unknown Speaker (11:45): Right. Well, no. I mean, not in the games you played. Yeah.

Bryan (11:49): So so they're very much sowing the seeds of, like obviously, like, you know, Fox McCloud is a is a major character in this, but, like, they're sowing the seeds of Smash Bros. You know? Yeah. Yeah. That's cool.

Jaymo (12:00): Weird segue to Samus in the bikini, though. But, Mike, you do see Samus, so you're doubly wrong. Anyway, this movie features the big screen debut of three iconic bosses from Super Mario two. Wart the frog played by Luis Guzman in the Vegas like gateway galaxy chilling out with Birdo, the gender ambiguous egg spitter, and a bomb tossing rodent named what?

Unknown Speaker (12:24): Steve?

Jaymo (12:28): What was the name of the bomb tossing mouse in Super Mario two? It's the third

Unknown Speaker (12:33): Oh. I don't know.

Unknown Speaker (12:36): The bomb tasking mouse. I remember its name. Not Pikachu. It's the mouse. How can you think of it?

Unknown Speaker (12:43): The Mouser?

Unknown Speaker (12:43): The Mouser?

Jaymo (12:48): You know, you don't get the point. It was Mouser. Okay? Alright here. Last one to potentially tie the game here.

Jaymo (12:57): The final cut scene of Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii and the first teaser trailer for this film both started with the sight of what insect landing on Mario's cap?

Unknown Speaker (13:09): Beetle? Butterfly?

Unknown Speaker (13:11): Mike Oh, actually, wait a minute. I might have marked the thing wrong. Yes. Yellow butterfly, which I don't know why, but I like it. It's pretty.

Jaymo (13:19): So then I might have been keeping the score wrong, full disclosure, but we have a tiebreaker question. K? Price is Right rules. Brian, you can't win, but you got a lot of heart, kid. Between Brian and Lisa Mike and Lisa, how many minutes long is the Super Mario Galaxy movie?

Jaymo (13:34): Price is the right rules, closest without going over.

Unknown Speaker (13:38): 186.

Unknown Speaker (13:41): Mike?

Mike (13:44): Thirty seven.

Unknown Speaker (13:47): You mean a 137?

Unknown Speaker (13:50): No. He's going prices right over.

Unknown Speaker (13:51): Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Fair.

Unknown Speaker (13:53): Fair.

Unknown Speaker (13:55): Well, Lisa went over. So Mike wins.

Unknown Speaker (13:58): So Mike wins?

Unknown Speaker (14:00): I would say

Unknown Speaker (14:01): I thought he was gonna one minute bob you, honestly.

Unknown Speaker (14:03): That's fine.

Unknown Speaker (14:04): Wait, Lisa, he's at a 186? Yeah. That's like Three hours. Over three hour movie.

Unknown Speaker (14:11): A hundred and eighty six minutes?

Unknown Speaker (14:12): Yeah. Six sixty minutes per per hour. That that's an over three hour movie. That's like, I don't know how long you thought of it.

Unknown Speaker (14:18): I don't know. I got home at Lake.

Jaymo (14:20): Mike wins. Mike wins. Alright. So that was fun. Before we get started on the plot review, I want your first takes on the first Super Mario movie and overall how this one compared to the previous film.

Jaymo (14:32): Lisa, can we start with you?

Lisa (14:33): Sure. I did not like the previous film. I was like, this just isn't for me. So I wasn't too excited going into this film. But afterwards, I really enjoyed it.

Lisa (14:42): I really liked it. I thought it did so much better than what the first movie did, and I don't know if that's just because they had got all the things they needed to out of the way, And now they could just actually do like a movie like, you know who Mario is, you know who everyone is, so let's go forward. I really enjoyed it. It hit all the nostalgia points for

Unknown Speaker (15:04): me. Okay. Okay.

Mike (15:07): Had you had you played Super Mario Galaxy?

Unknown Speaker (15:10): Yes. And I do not remember it.

Jaymo (15:12): Okay. There's it's not there's not a ton to do. There's so many cameos towards the end of the movie. And there's the galaxy cube that has the kind of gravity defying rules that that game is known for. You know?

Jaymo (15:26): They kinda represented that in Peach's battle in the casino planet where she gets to run on the walls and the ceiling. That felt the most like a Mario Galaxy level to me. So, Mike, have you played Mario Galaxy, and what did you think of the film?

Mike (15:40): I have not. And I think I had sort of let off my take on the first of these movies with the most important part of this movie is presumably Mario, and Mario is also the weakest part of this. Yeah. And I felt that held for the first, and I felt it held for the second.

Unknown Speaker (16:00): Yeah.

Mike (16:02): And that this felt more haphazard plot wise to me. And so there's interesting characters and some interesting bits, but I felt like I spent a lot of the movie just like, okay. I know where we're going with this, and I'm just waiting for the movie to catch up with itself and hope that something entertaining happens along the way. It's like my favorite bits are all not the main narrative, really.

Jaymo (16:32): Yeah. I I think my issue with it is that I didn't know where it was going because every time I thought it was gonna do something really interesting with the characters, it swerved into the most straightforward, like, story you could imagine. I could feel like time and time again, it was just like one missed opportunity after the other. And, like, it felt weird because, like, I'm really easy to please. I'm a real cheap date.

Jaymo (17:01): I like far dumber movies than this.

Unknown Speaker (17:05): I know. That's true.

Mike (17:07): Actually, say this or this gets deeper into plot, I think it's clear we're going to be doing that. Right.

Unknown Speaker (17:14): We haven't got full spoilers yet, though. We haven't we we're not doing full spoilers yet. Right?

Mike (17:19): Yeah. Although I think this is in the category of it should have been a spoiler. Okay. Or it's related to something that should have been, which is I do not like that I knew that Star Fox was in this A million percent. Going into it.

Mike (17:35): Agreed. Agreed.

Unknown Speaker (17:36): Yeah. That was a weird thing.

Unknown Speaker (17:37): Like, just let that because it's in the film, it's set up to be a surprise, except they told you.

Bryan (17:46): It it did feel like an an like an intentionally cash grabby thing to spoil that ahead of time to Yeah. Get butts in seats, and it's clear that they didn't have to.

Mike (17:56): Yeah. And I think the interesting part with that, the one time where the movie sort of surprised me was it set that up to play off the trope of expecting Mario to see Peach with Star Fox and have some sort of jealousy or insecurity. Yeah. And it pauses for them to then immediately just get along well. And I Yeah.

Mike (18:23): It's the one time where it did something unexpected, and it's mostly because it set it up to do the most predictable thing for a movie and then not do it.

Jaymo (18:31): Yeah. But that would have been more interesting. Like, you know, it's like like when they meet Yoshi. Like, Yoshi, the cutest freaking thing on the planet. I feel like they nailed the Yoshi look and the sound, and I Yep.

Jaymo (18:44): Love him, and he's a baby, and we must save him at all costs and all that stuff. But, like, there's a beat when they find him, and it's like, oh, Yoshi's scared. And you're like, what's happened to Yoshi? And, oh, they're gonna have to build his trust, and he's getting and then when Yoshi finally trusts them or saves them, it's gonna hit. And it's like, no.

Jaymo (19:00): He loves them immediately, and they love him immediately. And even Toad's like, so is this part of the team now? Okay. And it's like, it's a funny joke for the trailer, but, like, this whole movie had that vibe of, like, oh, friends join the party. Oh, bad guys, you know, stay bad.

Jaymo (19:17): Don't be complex. Like, I just

Lisa (19:20): Well, I feel like yeah. That's true, but I feel like Bowser did get more complex than that because he what he he had the choice yeah. And I guess this is getting into spoilers.

Unknown Speaker (19:33): Yeah. I think we should just go to spoilers. Yeah. So if you're listening, spoiler time.

Lisa (19:37): Yeah. So he has the choice to go back to being evil, and he chooses not to. He chooses to stick with Mario.

Unknown Speaker (19:45): What? No. He doesn't? I'm not

Unknown Speaker (19:49): Well, he does because he doesn't know what he is. Him.

Jaymo (19:53): Right. But then he tries to kill him later.

Unknown Speaker (19:55): Yeah. He just flip flopped on that quite a few times.

Unknown Speaker (19:59): They walk that back.

Unknown Speaker (20:00): Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (20:01): They do. And they oh, I feel like because he becomes dry bones, like, he's a little different. They also tried to kill him.

Unknown Speaker (20:08): Mean, they arguably did kill him.

Unknown Speaker (20:11): He should be a little pissed here.

Bryan (20:13): Sure. I mean, if I may so so so my general take on the movie, like, I I on the flip side, I actually was pleasantly surprised by the first one. I wasn't expecting a lot, but I I found more of it enjoyable than than not. But I still had the similar issues kind of that that Mike mentioned before as well, where, you know, your particular character seems seems to be the weakest point. But it still it still I felt like the first movie still carried very much with over with the portrayal of of the other characters, whereas in this one, it felt like well, I remember going into it kinda feeling like because I did not play the the Super Mario Galaxy games that I a lot of it would go over my head.

Bryan (21:03): I was I I remember very early on just seeing the title of the movie going like, oh, I wish this movie had been called Super Mario World so they could just sort of steps to kinda roughly system to system to system. But then I kinda got the reality check of how old Super Mario Galaxy already is as a game. And plus I already knew from the first movie that it in a way that I found very pleasantly surprising about the first movie, it ended up being an homage to the whole franchise. Like, I I nerded out very much over in the first movie, as I did a lot in this one as well over all the references to Koji Kondo's classic themes at at at key moments in ways that didn't feel like you know, because fan service has a way of really putting off people who don't get the fan service sometimes. Like, I've I've heard it criticized about the newer Mortal Kombat movie of, like, if you don't know Kung Lao and you're they're just like, oh, this is a hat guy scene.

Bryan (21:58): You know? Like, they're lingering on him in a way. It's like, it's Kung Lao, you know? Whereas in this movie, I or in in either of these movies, I feel like they they they blend in a lot of those those references very organically. Like, I I love, like, at the first appearance of the gunships in this movie, you hear that.

Bryan (22:16): Yeah. You know, just that little cue that you remember from Mario three when you would have to go up in the gunships. I mean, things like that that that those those were those were still there in this. But I'm I I lament to say that there really wasn't much else to to to pull me into this. Like, that that's a lot of what sticks out in my mind of what I enjoyed about this.

Bryan (22:37): It felt like there was a lot of subplots that felt underdeveloped. There was something interesting going on at times with Bowser and his son and the father son dynamic there that would sort of get abandoned similarly to some degree with with Rosalina and and Peach's sisterhood and their history. Although, if anything, I feel like that was maybe, like, the the core of this movie that they should have maybe leaned into a little bit more because of you know? Because that's, I guess I feel like the the most of the backbone of what drives the story is is is, you know, that lost connection between Rosalina and and Peach. But, like, to, you know, to the detriment, I feel like, of Mario and Luigi story and and and the the stuff with Yoshi.

Bryan (23:23): Like, like, yeah, I I'm kinda there with you and Jeremy where, like, it's where it's, like, suddenly everyone trusts Yoshi now. And and if anything, that line about, like, oh, we're we're just cool with this dinosaur joining us now. Like, I thought that would be set up for something that never quite realized either.

Jaymo (23:39): Yeah. There's there's a whole through line that this movie could have been about, like, kinda trusting again. Right? Yeah. Because, like, they set up this thing with Bowser, and he has this kid.

Unknown Speaker (23:49): And he was like, this deadbeat dad. And I'm like, oh, that's gonna be interesting.

Unknown Speaker (23:52): Right.

Jaymo (23:52): Like, no. Bowser junior is obsessed with him. He does not care that Bowser low key abandoned him as a child. He just immediately loves his dad, and Bowser loves having a kid. Like, there's just no tension.

Bryan (24:04): I I think double crosses them too once once a kid gets back into his into the picture too. But sorry. Mike, what were you saying?

Mike (24:10): I was saying, think that that is a route to go is that it could also go down, which is not the you left and I'm angry, but the I have been trying to do things that would earn your approval ever since you're gone.

Unknown Speaker (24:25): Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (24:26): Right. Like, I think it does go

Unknown Speaker (24:27): much doing.

Mike (24:28): Yeah. Like, yeah, it does go down that path. So I think you're going like, well, he's not angry. There's not tension. It's like, no.

Mike (24:32): This is a different

Lisa (24:34): It's a different path he could go down. Yeah. And, basically, he decided, well, clearly, my dad left, so I need to do everything he did or he told us to do, and then I'll win his love again. And that essentially boils down to that.

Unknown Speaker (24:49): And You it

Lisa (24:49): know, Mario and Luigi killing Bowser.

Jaymo (24:53): So, I mean, if if someone hasn't seen it, one of the twists is that little Bowser genuinely wants to do better. And he, like, befriends Luigi and Mario and actually kinda sacrifices himself when they crash land on the b planet. He's like, I'll I'll be enslaved in your place so you can go rescue the princess. And Bowser and Mario have this moment of like, hey. You're not so bad.

Jaymo (25:15): And then Bowser is literally before the camera cuts away rescued by his son. So that sacrifice he just did was was a five minute sacrifice. Honestly, I didn't I didn't even

Mike (25:26): buy it as a sacrifice when it happened.

Lisa (25:28): I I really didn't buy it either. I figured he knew his son was coming to pick him up or something, and this was just this was more like, let Mario and Luigi get their story going, and we don't have to delve into this spot.

Bryan (25:40): But see, would have liked it to lean a little bit more into that, because I'm kind of with Jeremy in that, at least the way I read that scene, like, you with the surprise that Mario has at at Bowser's behavior and the Bowser yeah. Like, like, it it but it's like I I just felt like they couldn't decide what they wanted to do with Bowser in the story. And it could've it could've if it had been a little bit more consistent in a way where you could see, like, an arc of him, like, having to choose between, you know Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (26:08): I think he's

Bryan (26:08): Between trying to be the good guy and then also connect with his son who is trying to impress him. Like, the whole reason why yeah, I would have liked to see some sort of something a little bit clearer in terms of Bowser's intentions, you know? Like, it it it felt like Bowser was just the least I don't know. I

Mike (26:29): think if if it had felt to me like he had changed, but Mario wouldn't give him the benefit of the doubt, that'd be one thing. But I didn't feel like he had changed. Like, they had they kept relying on him snapping as comedy too much to feel for it to feel like, oh, no. He has changed. Mario can't move on to Mario's probably got a point.

Mike (26:51): Like, he's a jerk about it, but he's not wrong.

Bryan (26:54): Well, maybe. Maybe that'll play definitely on other watch, but I definitely felt like it was, like, they were trying to say that he had changed it, especially considering, like, right right when he goads Mario into, you know, embiggening him again. Yeah. I don't know. I see what you mean.

Bryan (27:14): I would have liked it to be a little bit clearer that he was, like, getting ready to double cross. Ultimately, he does double cross them, but it didn't I don't know. It didn't feel like it it felt like they it felt to me like they weren't really sure what they wanted to do with his character, to be honest. But maybe that was sort of the subtext of it.

Lisa (27:32): I wouldn't say they wouldn't didn't necessarily know what to do with his character. I think they're trying to walk a fine path. Because yes, Bowser's a villain, but people also really like Bowser. So it's trying to find that place of, you know, you can't really kill the bad guy because he's kind of a good guy at times, you know, to make it more complicated. This and I also go, this is a kid's movie too, so I don't know how deep they want to dive into some of this stuff that then maybe, you know, I don't know, this might be some Japanese culture or not where they're like, we don't know.

Lisa (28:08): You know, we're not saying, you know, be this way or be that way. You know, that we'll just kind of keep it ambiguous and let us, you know, and let you choose what it is.

Jaymo (28:18): I think I'm just missing the story beat, and it could have been, like, a five second shot of the moment when Bowser genuinely is, like, trying to kill Mario again. And it's like they're not allies anymore. And, they're, like, literally, you know, the recreation of the Bowser Bridge fight from the NES, which I thought was pretty clever. So cool. But that that that that

Unknown Speaker (28:37): was When that hit, I was like, no freaking way.

Jaymo (28:40): That was so cool. And they were smart about not make you know, cutting the little eight bit. Like, I thought the movie did that one too many times where it's like, look. It's like looks like the old game. And I'm like, yeah.

Jaymo (28:49): This is the third time you've done that.

Lisa (28:53): I don't know. That didn't bother me, but I thought it was really cool when they introduced Fox McCloud, where he all of a sudden it was a different type of animation. Yeah. Was very anime.

Unknown Speaker (29:03): He was very

Lisa (29:04): spider messy. Which I know a lot of films are doing now, which is awesome, but also now it feels cliche. But I think it would be cool if we do get a Fox McCloud movie or Star Fox that that is anime.

Unknown Speaker (29:17): Oh, that'd be neat.

Unknown Speaker (29:18): In that same style. And then that way, like Mario has its visual style.

Unknown Speaker (29:22): Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (29:23): Star Fox has its visual style.

Unknown Speaker (29:25): You're cooking.

Unknown Speaker (29:25): You know, the Legend of the Zelda has its visual style because that's gonna be live action.

Unknown Speaker (29:30): Right.

Unknown Speaker (29:30): So that would just be really neat.

Jaymo (29:32): I want to finish my point about Bowser, though, was that, like so so when he goes back to Big Bad and it's their big final boss fight, I just needed one moment where, like, he realizes that if he does go good, he's gonna have to leave his son again. So he's gonna be bad to stay with him. Yeah. You know? Or or or something.

Jaymo (29:51): Or like Mike said, like, Mario pushes him to it. And he's like, you know what? Screw. I did. Like, there had to be some kind of relatability.

Jaymo (29:57): But like Lisa said, this is a kid's movie. So, like, what's the message to kids that you can't really change? And if you're bad, you're always gonna be bad deep down? It just didn't hit right.

Bryan (30:09): Yeah. I don't know. There was a lot of thought that went into the substance of the story, to be honest. It seems a lot of, like, a frenetic pieces that on their own are, you know, are done well, but, like, collectively, I mean

Unknown Speaker (30:21): Connecting them is

Bryan (30:23): Yeah. I mean, falls apart. The style is there. Like, you talk about the animation style and obviously all the all the all the touchstones to, like, to the things that we're familiar with without being too too feeling, like, left out of Left Fields fanservice. Because I I I clearly knew that there were, like, stuff tied to the Galaxy games that that were kinda going over my head.

Bryan (30:43): But, like, you know, I I certainly got a thrill. I remember mentioning to you, Lisa. Let me see the the the I forget the name of the the upside down pyramid from from Odyssey and, like, the Yeah. Yeah. But it worked in that universe.

Bryan (30:56): It's not like, hey, look at this thing. That that's just where Mario and Luigi, you know, are are on a mission, you know, and like so yeah. But at the same time, style doesn't make up for substance. So I've Sure. Yeah.

Bryan (31:11): I just felt like I I wanted more out of the story points that they were that like like like what Mike mentioned before about the about Fox McCloud and, like, you know, if anything, I wanted to see more with him, not just screen time, but, like, character dynamics. You know? Like, how it affects how it's affecting other people other than just that brief moment of Mario kinda going like, I don't know. I don't like this guy that that that Peach is attracted to this guy or something, you know, or suspects that he is. I feel

Unknown Speaker (31:39): like if I I

Mike (31:40): I am impressed to what extent he functions as the movie's Han Solo.

Unknown Speaker (31:45): To the

Mike (31:45): point of heart of gold with a price who takes them to a destroyed planet location. And it's like, you really hit all the points here.

Bryan (31:55): And brings the and brings the cool vehicle.

Unknown Speaker (31:57): Loved it. Yeah.

Jaymo (31:58): It's funny, though. The Han Solo comparison just points out how much better of a movie Star Wars is because Han Solo, you don't know if you can trust him, and he might abandon them. And he kinda struggles with that, but Foxy's just the solid bro. He does it for the money, but that never comes up with the allies. Like, shouldn't it have same thing with, like, Yoshi.

Jaymo (32:20): Yoshi is just, like if you add a character and they're just useful, I feel like they're a tool in the story.

Unknown Speaker (32:27): Yeah. There's like there's

Unknown Speaker (32:28): like no.

Bryan (32:29): With very little like, much like Han Solo mean, I don't wanna say Han Solo is a is a small part of Star Wars, but, like but, yeah, like, to to give that arc especially I mean, there's such a payoff in so many ways, the ending of Star Wars, because amongst everything, Han comes back save So the day, you so, yeah, something like that with Fox McCloud that that makes him a little bit more of this little more than than what I feel like is a little bit of the, you know, one trick pony kind of in this. Yeah. He's cool, and it was great to see him. But, yeah, I I just something more than that would have been nice.

Mike (33:09): Yeah. On that same star borrow from Star Wars thing, I was not expecting to have a middle surprise we're at the casino planet bit.

Lisa (33:17): Yeah. Very much They have casinos in the games and stuff. Like, don't Yeah. No. I remember seeing them in, Mario Kart world or not world, the phone version of the game.

Unknown Speaker (33:32): So it's like, sure. Yes.

Jaymo (33:34): Yeah. That's right. That I mean, that that was a really fun sequence, but, like okay. So to complete the Star Wars trilogy of comparisons, the the climax of this movie is that Bowser junior is gonna use Rosalina as, like, a battery for his death star. Yeah.

Jaymo (33:52): And, like, in Star Wars, they show you what the death star does, so it's scary. Right. We don't really know what his giant sky be. It's gonna destroy the universe, but, like, what is and I guess he said he's gonna aim it at the mushroom kingdom.

Unknown Speaker (34:04): But They they destroyed a thing with it or before that. Didn't they?

Jaymo (34:08): Oh, that's when they were running. Okay.

Mike (34:10): Yeah. There's a whole bit that they're gonna go, like, place to place and destroy them.

Unknown Speaker (34:15): Okay. Maybe I'll

Unknown Speaker (34:16): They also fight in the end over lava. I mean, it's Yeah. Star Wars. It's it's like poetry. It rhymes.

Jaymo (34:23): Okay. I I I don't know. But I thought it was a weird choice because Rosalina is a fan favorite, and you have Brie Larson playing her. And she's so prominent in the advertisements, and, like, she gets captured in the first scene and stays in a cell until the last scene. Yeah.

Jaymo (34:39): She's a princess.

Unknown Speaker (34:40): That's what they do.

Unknown Speaker (34:41): Right. I get it. And then Especially in this franchise.

Unknown Speaker (34:44): Yeah. And

Jaymo (34:44): keep her saving her sis but then

Bryan (34:46): Well, in that same vein, that's sort of that's sort of why I like, you know, because Peach is Peach's story among and reconnecting and learning about her sister is kind of more told, well, from Peach's perspective. So I'm kinda with Lisa in in that, like, I feel like if there's a the main character of this movie kinda should've been Peach rather than Mario. And ultimately, the argument could be made that it is her. But Yeah.

Mike (35:11): I think it would be stronger if it shifted that way.

Jaymo (35:15): Yeah. They just never figured out an interesting approach to Mario. And I thought and again, this movie, in my notes, I said this movie has a bunch of nah moments where it's like, sets up an interesting idea and then nah. And so, like, they you know, one of the subplots is that Mario has feelings for Peach, And he, like, clearly likes her likes her, and Luigi and Yoshi are teasing him for it. And he's trying to build up the courage to say something.

Jaymo (35:43): In the end of the movie, he never says anything, oh, but Peach kisses his cheek. It's fine. She made the first move. And it's just like

Bryan (35:49): If anything, I would have liked it to because I I believe it's Shigeru Miyamoto who says there's like, he never saw, like, Peach as his love interest. Like, he's he's just he's just saving her like, they're they're friends or something. I don't know. Just remember some authority with with within Mario has sort of just defined the that Mario and Peach are are just friends in that way. So I if anything, I was watching this movie and seeing that, okay, now they're doing a subplot in this of, like, Mario having feelings for her and, like, does she does she have feelings back?

Bryan (36:21): Is she going for Fox McCloud instead? I thought maybe it'd be nice for them to have an ending that maybe was a little unexpected for like, because you would think a typical kids movie like this, oh, he's gonna find out, oh, they're they're then they're gonna be together at the end. But, like, you know, I know, Jeremy, you and I particularly appreciate, like, certain Pixar movies, for example, who who who will do, you know, certain subplots that you might not expect much like Marks Monsters University, where it's like, you know, where kind of the message behind it is like, no. Just because something's your dream doesn't mean, you know, you're destined for it or or that it was that it's yours to take. You know?

Bryan (37:00): Like, I would've liked some something like that where, like, maybe Mario comes to terms with, like but but, no, they leave it very they don't really, really resolve that, and they just more or less, I guess, are kicking the can down the road for for him telling her how he feels. Or I don't know. Like like you said, it just sort of ends, and he just gives him a kiss on the cheek. And, like, next movie, I guess, is still will they, won't they? You know?

Unknown Speaker (37:27): Still counts. He kinda does.

Bryan (37:29): I mean, will they, won't they works. I mean, so they did it for years on The X Files and so many other shows like it. But, I mean, like, I just feel like it would have been nice for them to sort of address that in a way that is atypical, maybe, and also just, like, you know yeah. It doesn't mean they had to be together. They're they're friends.

Jaymo (37:49): Do you know the ending of Mario Odyssey?

Bryan (37:52): I it's been a long time since I played it.

Unknown Speaker (37:55): Mario has to back and has to kill all the court the people trying to court Peach while disguised as some other dude.

Unknown Speaker (38:01): Wrong Odyssey.

Bryan (38:04): Well, I know people people often criticize the ending of Mario 64 where, like, oh, at the end of all this, like, Pete just makes him a cake? Big whoop. But then that leads to other discussion of just, hey, she doesn't owe him anything? Like, did you think that, you know, she just become his girlfriend just because, like Actually, I'm gonna disagree. I do

Unknown Speaker (38:24): think she owes him cake. I think that's actually an appropriate thing.

Unknown Speaker (38:27): Oh, Exactly. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (38:29): Opposed He

Unknown Speaker (38:30): gave my life. Here's a cake.

Bryan (38:31): I think think that's fair. Oh, she owed him to become his girlfriend or something. It's just a freaking cake. It's someone doesn't like cake.

Jaymo (38:41): Right. And as a cake American, I'm, like, pretty great. Pretty good. Pretty great. I think, you know, Brian, you mentioned, like, I wish Star Fox had been a surprise.

Jaymo (38:50): I I'm so glad I didn't know about Mister Game and Watch showing up in their big ink battle. Like, I popped off because I didn't expect it. And it so Bowser junior and after this movie, Jackie really didn't like this movie. She hated this movie so much it was, causing a fight on the way home, as Lisa and O'Brien know.

Bryan (39:09): But that's kinda funny because it sounds like you didn't love it either. But then, clearly, you appreciate things about it too.

Jaymo (39:15): So I I was I was really trying, and I was confused for a lot of this movie. And I kept going like, wait. Why are they on this planet? How do they know to come to this planet? What is Magic.

Unknown Speaker (39:28): No.

Bryan (39:28): I'm there with you. And suddenly there's a there's a Bowser planet and, like, a yeah. It just seemed a little, like, this shouldn't be hard to follow, but

Unknown Speaker (39:36): it's Right.

Unknown Speaker (39:36): Kinda hard to follow.

Jaymo (39:37): So Jackie was trying to ask me what was going on, and I was trying to listen to figure out what was going on, which didn't work out in anybody's favor. But what was my point, though? Oh, yeah. So one of the questions she said, you know, on the way home, she was like, why did Bowser junior have, like, a Marvel bad guy ink powers? Like, what was that?

Jaymo (40:00): And, like, I I I don't know. It's such a visually cool fighting style kind of green lantern esque of creating these weapons out of the paint on his paintbrush. Yeah. And, you know, that culminates in him summoning one of the coolest bosses from Mario Odyssey, the Ruined Dragon, which is this big black and white dragon. And it's cool in the game because it's like the game is so colorful, but you enter this stark, almost like Dark Souls esque area.

Unknown Speaker (40:29): And you're

Unknown Speaker (40:30): like, what is this? Yeah. As if I I thought you're gonna say you enter the dragon.

Jaymo (40:34): Yeah. There you go. But I don't know. I just I think something that just made me less interested in the movie was every conflict was solved with physical skill. It was always punch harder, jump faster, and I just I just You may

Mike (40:54): be one conflict that can't be say solved just with more and more force.

Jaymo (40:58): Romantic ones, Mike. They should have been more part of the story. That was a perfect answer. Oh my god. I'm gonna leave the Zoom.

Jaymo (41:07): Oh my god.

Unknown Speaker (41:10): Just drop the mic.

Jaymo (41:11): But I don't know, though. Like, I do like it a little more hearing you guys talk about it and, like, the music cues and, like, it was just so pretty at points.

Bryan (41:20): I know it has its value. I mean, it's it's definitely a visually stunning movie and at least, you know, not that it makes makes it a good movie per se, but of it, like but the the the fan service, I feel like, was handled very, very well in a way that's not gonna throw off people who are not who aren't, you know, enjoying the fan service. Like, you can you can enjoy I mean yeah. Even even the stuff that, like because I know it wasn't one that was available in North America, but did they use, like, the what was it called? Like, the Super Scope?

Unknown Speaker (41:54): Yes.

Bryan (41:54): Yeah. The SNES, like, little gun thing. That's how they turn the turn them into babies.

Jaymo (41:59): But I'm gonna count as this movie's nod to the nineteen nineties Bob Hoskins Mario because Bowser also uses a Super Scope in that movie. That's right. It's like the devolution ray. So I think I think that was their little nod because it turns them back into babies. Couple of scenes that really worked for me was the comedy of Yoshi trying to rescue baby Mario and baby Luigi from climbing in the T Rex's mouth.

Jaymo (42:26): And there's a scene where baby Luigi licks the T Rex's open eyeball, and you're

Unknown Speaker (42:30): just like, oh my god.

Unknown Speaker (42:32): Oh, gross.

Unknown Speaker (42:33): I forgot about that moment. Yes. I was was hurting laughing at that because just just looking at its eyeball.

Jaymo (42:39): Hands down, Jackie and I agree that if there's something that makes this movie worth the ticket price, it's Yoshi's strut to Hypnotize by Notorious BIG, where it's just this cute little angle of his butt walking through, and it's like the same stride the whole time. And he gets, like, a construction hat and bumper stickers, and he goes on this whole journey. And then it cuts back to Yoshi, who's just been saying, Yoshi, Yoshi, Yoshi over and over again. And Mario's like, I guess we'll never know how he

Unknown Speaker (43:09): got here. And it's so funny. I was That was great. That was that was best part of it. I I and I really wouldn't have expected, like, a a biggie needle drop.

Unknown Speaker (43:17): It was so good, though. It was so perfect. Yeah.

Mike (43:20): Was like, the three things that I thought this did best were basically the Star Fox backstory in a different style. Yep. That Yoshi backstory, I think is is the best looking part of the movie. Yes. And then also the puppet show with Bowser and Bowser Jr, which is Yeah.

Mike (43:43): Again, it's exposition sort of outside of the main narrative. And my every time you left the story and did a little mini thing, that was better.

Unknown Speaker (43:53): So Mike thought that Yoshi's butt was the best looking part of the movie.

Unknown Speaker (43:56): It was.

Unknown Speaker (43:57): Just to

Unknown Speaker (43:57): make sure we all clarify.

Bryan (43:58): Honestly, the design of him too, like, that that slow reveal of his face in the in the in the shadows, like, and how you just see that nose, like, it's just it's they they they leaned into the cuteness of Yoshi in in very well. And that backstory, I just love so much that, like, that that it's just for the audience. It's, you know, it's it's that that dramatic irony, I guess, because ultimately nobody understood him. Like like, that was, if anything, something I slightly worried about going into this movie. I was grateful to see that, you know, eventually from one of the ads, the first trailer, that Yoshi was going to be introduced in this one.

Bryan (44:33): Because like I said before, like, I was like, oh, I'm Super Mario Galaxy. Why isn't it Super Mario World? In a lot of ways, this is a Super Mario World movie. Yoshi is introduced. They they even, like, they showed, like, briefly an overworld map that looks very SNES style map.

Bryan (44:46): You know? Like, clearly, they're they're they're hearkening to to Super Mario World, Galaxy, you know, that's all around the franchise. Not even, you know, even outside of even outside of Mario, clearly. But but I remember when I heard that Yoshi was gonna be in, I was excited. Then I heard Donald Glover was voicing him.

Bryan (45:04): And, you know, like, look, all all the love for Donald Glover and Childish Gambino, but I'm like, are they gonna have him say things more than his name? Like, I don't want him to be talking. He's like, he's Yoshi. Right? And I was very pleasantly surprised that they that Donald Glover plays Yoshi in a very, like, Alan Tudyk as as Hey Hey, you know, the the chicken.

Bryan (45:25): You know, like, just, you know, he's mostly just doing noises. And, obviously, every now and then, he says his name. But, like, I'm glad they didn't they didn't broach beyond that. You know, little literally, he's telling his backstory, they're like, well, I guess we'll never know.

Jaymo (45:38): Our friends from the Still Loading podcast, Mike, don't they know all about Yoshi's terrible voice in the Mario Super Show? Wasn't that a thing?

Unknown Speaker (45:46): Yeah. Was it, like, talk talk?

Unknown Speaker (45:48): Yes.

Unknown Speaker (45:48): Oh, god. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (45:49): I feel like

Unknown Speaker (45:49): Remember now? Talk.

Unknown Speaker (45:51): So but It sets a very low bar. Yeah.

Jaymo (45:56): In terms of Mario stories, I guess there's a lot worse than this. But that also you know, I gotta take Brian's segue about Yoshi's role. And, you know, he was he was added to Super Mario Galaxy two, and it was the first time he'd been a major part of a three d Mario game. So that was a kind of a big deal. But the final battle so Bowser has come back as Dry Bowser, which he's called because the skeletal Koopas are dry bones.

Jaymo (46:24): And so if Skeletal Bowser is Dry Bowser, that means up until this point, he's been Wet Bowser. So wet Bowser

Mike (46:31): No. Dry Bowser is no longer regular Koopas bones.

Unknown Speaker (46:34): Wet. Correct. Thank you for being on my board, Mike.

Unknown Speaker (46:37): I just figured dry Bowser burns. He he's he's sober now. He was he was, you know yeah. So now Koopas

Unknown Speaker (46:44): are medical officers?

Unknown Speaker (46:47): What? What?

Unknown Speaker (46:49): Oh, bones? Yeah. On Star Trek? Wow. Long walk.

Unknown Speaker (46:54): Long walk to a Star Trek reference.

Jaymo (46:56): Nah. You know what? We're smiling. Maybe it did work.

Bryan (46:58): Respect. Respect. It's Star Trek.

Jaymo (47:01): So the final battle, I gotta give them credit. Like, they they power up to fight dry Bowser and Bowser junior at the same time.

Bryan (47:08): Yeah.

Jaymo (47:09): And Yoshi, Mario, and Luigi all power up. But you get power ups you have not seen represented in this franchise before. So Mario becomes drill hat Mario. Luigi becomes cloud Luigi, and Yoshi just inflates like a helium filled balloon. I was gonna say battle the battle kicks in.

Jaymo (47:29): The battle kicks in, and it's raging. And they're throwing power ups, and Bowser's biting. And I had this thought of, where's Yoshi? And then right on cue, he just floats into frame and kinda bunk. Like, do you remember that shot?

Jaymo (47:43): It was so funny, and Yoshi is helpless to stop it. Wait. So I

Bryan (47:49): didn't know. I I thought maybe the those were, like, deep cut powers from a game I didn't play. You you said that would that's the first time we've seen the drill in the

Unknown Speaker (47:58): In the movie.

Unknown Speaker (47:59): In the okay.

Jaymo (48:00): We'd never seen those in the cinema. They've been in the games.

Bryan (48:03): Okay. Yeah. I guess I didn't.

Jaymo (48:05): But my point though was, like, you know, you can't make him get a star, and that's hype. We already saw the superstar takedown in the first movie.

Unknown Speaker (48:10): Yeah. That's OP.

Unknown Speaker (48:11): So they

Unknown Speaker (48:13): It is. That's why

Unknown Speaker (48:14): Oh, it is invincibility. Yeah.

Jaymo (48:16): Well and I I love that sequence in the first movie. And I think my final thought on this is that just I feel like the first movie had so many moments that really stick in my heart, like, when you realize that, you know, Brooklyn the run through Brooklyn is a recreation of one dash one. That was such a fun moment. The Mario Kart race, Peaches, right, and even that superstar finale. And I just don't think there's really much in here that approaches that level of, like, cleverness.

Jaymo (48:45): I feel like there should have been a Jack Black song about Bowser junior. He should have sang to his son or something. I don't know. I just feel like there were things that I wanted it to do, and it just kinda kept doing the same thing over and over, which is, like, a animated stunt show, but without any emotion attached to what was happening and animated action sequence is not really as good as a live action action sequence because that doesn't have the same oomph. I'm not my body's not reacting like it's real as easily as if it was a live action one.

Jaymo (49:17): So I think if you're gonna make an action movie, I think this is just an action slash adventure movie. And to make that work in animation, I just think you need a stronger emotional core to everything.

Bryan (49:29): No. I agree. If anything like, I I like that you you know, if any like, I kinda got reminded by you that they they'd started in Brooklyn in in the first movie and that, like and they even brilliant brilliantly used that as a set piece to show off, you know, recreating, like, you know, the the classic scene from the game and, like but at the same time, ultimately, that gives the first movie more of a narrative arc for, if not Mario, than the brothers that that kinda becomes the the backbone of that story. Yeah. Whereas I feel like there's not enough of one here.

Bryan (50:05): Or if there is, like, maybe they should've leaned more into Peach in that in that sense. But, you know, but it's still kinda called the Super Mario Galaxy movie. And and, you know, the as Mike mentioned before, yeah, it's like, if if like, Mario, the titular character seems to be the least developed and the least consequential to everything that's happening.

Unknown Speaker (50:25): Yeah. You can shift away from that, but you actually have to make that as a conscious choice.

Unknown Speaker (50:28): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa (50:30): Yeah. I feel they tried to, but even with Peach's story, while it was the main story, it it falls short. Like, they're like, oh, you know, Rosalina had to send Peach away, but we don't delve into why that was. Just, oh, something bad was gonna happen. And then they get together.

Bryan (50:46): You don't even really know what the thread is, right? She just sends her baby

Lisa (50:51): sister away and apparently has been watching over her the entire time.

Unknown Speaker (50:55): And And if

Unknown Speaker (50:55): anything, anything, if

Unknown Speaker (50:57): you want to feel good about what she did there, we should know what the threat was. Well, it feel weird that that was just sort of tacked on at the end, yeah. Like, what- Well,

Lisa (51:05): was tacked in the beginning then their their power's coming together. And then that was the end of the movie. And it was like, okay, but why why was Peach sent away? Why was Rosalina watching her and not saying, hey, you have a sister, you know, or you have family because Peach has been raised by the toads.

Mike (51:25): It felt like it was trying to avoid the thing that apparently they can do with just one of them, which is use the power of just one of them to destroy stuff. Like, if it had been that they got her and now they have to also get Peach because you have to capture both of them, then I feel like that would work. But, like, when capturing just one is enough to be a problem, then you lose the why you have to why do you have to separate them kind of thing.

Bryan (51:54): Mhmm. Gotcha. Also minor bone to pick with that storyline about how they're like, oh, we we were princesses made made made of stardust. And, like, I mean, I know Mike will appreciate as a fellow doctor Carl Sagan fan. We're all stardust.

Unknown Speaker (52:08): Right? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (52:09): It's not so unique. More stardust.

Unknown Speaker (52:11): Yeah. Maybe that's the moral all along.

Mike (52:13): I'm I'm more annoyed that when they decide to, like, fix the Bowser planet, and it's covered in vegetation

Unknown Speaker (52:22): Oh, yeah. That was weird.

Unknown Speaker (52:24): The the the roller coasters are god. Those aren't inherently evil. Roller coasters can be good. Why did that place get so much less cool?

Unknown Speaker (52:33): Yeah. That's a

Unknown Speaker (52:34): fair point.

Lisa (52:34): Because they have no imagination, Peach or Rosalina.

Unknown Speaker (52:38): Oh my gosh.

Lisa (52:39): I don't know. But it's just, I think their power was more creating things. And so basically it took what, my guess is it took what was that malice and hate and metal and not natural and turned it into natural. We have wooden roller coasters. Don't think so hard.

Unknown Speaker (53:03): Yeah.

Bryan (53:04): They're made from little plant skeletons.

Jaymo (53:06): So now that Mike is disappointed at the downfall of the Bowser theme park, I'm gonna disappoint Brian. Brian all night before we saw we went to Yard House before, and he was trying to beat my best Bowser time. And he did. He did. He beat me by a few milliseconds, and I gave him the eshop gift card as agreed.

Bryan (53:28): I mean, you you did tell me beforehand that, you know, that I didn't what?

Unknown Speaker (53:32): Do I need to this right now or,

Unknown Speaker (53:34): like, right before the movie? But there we go. I I I did it on the drive home at least, and you told me that anytime that evening, I could I could beat you.

Jaymo (53:41): So I tied I tied you, Brian.

Unknown Speaker (53:44): Oh. We

Jaymo (53:45): have the exact same time now, down to the millisecond.

Bryan (53:50): Does that mean I have to give back the prize?

Unknown Speaker (53:52): Yes. I want that chef gift card

Unknown Speaker (53:53): back. Apparently

Unknown Speaker (53:55): sent it.

Jaymo (53:56): Apparently, it is possible to beat this time, but you it's like only two people have ever been recorded as doing it.

Bryan (54:03): I mean, it's it's like you mentioned, like, because I at some point, you know, on on Lisa's advice, because I was having trouble with a certain She's like, well, just watch what watch what Jeremy did. That was the first time I actually sat and watched your playthrough, and I realized, oh, you don't you didn't slow down at all. You were running you were running p speed, so to speak, and, like, and you don't like, you never strike anything. You never pause for anything. So I literally thought for a second, like, you I can't beat your speed.

Bryan (54:30): I think you're going maximum. But then you reminded me that, I guess, if you keep your jumps low, you're technically going a little bit faster.

Jaymo (54:36): Okay. So for context, because I didn't properly introduce this to the listeners, and some people are probably confused. I had Nintendo World Championships on my Switch, and I was challenging Brian to beat my fastest Bowser time. It's the Bowser level. You can beat it in fifteen seconds if you know exactly what to do.

Unknown Speaker (54:52): And so Brian was trying over and over to beat my time, and I got a kick out of the best scene in this movie being the Bowser bridge fight. And I'm like, Brian's been failing at this all day long, and here it is right in front of him. But, yeah, that was that was funny.

Bryan (55:06): But I guess the only way to beat, I guess, now our our time

Unknown Speaker (55:10): Our time.

Bryan (55:11): Is just to, like, keep keep lower, you're saying.

Unknown Speaker (55:14): We'll work on it.

Unknown Speaker (55:15): We'll work

Unknown Speaker (55:15): on Damn. I mean, that that's some speedrun shit. Like, it's like, that's so close.

Jaymo (55:20): But did we have any reaction to the post credit scene? Daisy's big debut. Daisy shows up. And by the way, Lisa, that was not Ukiki from Zelda. That was Kiki from Super Mario World two.

Unknown Speaker (55:35): You got the names backwards, but yes.

Unknown Speaker (55:37): Okay. I was about to say, I thought there was Ukiki.

Unknown Speaker (55:41): It was the they look super similar, though.

Unknown Speaker (55:43): They look super similar, and their names are super super similar. Because I looked it up afterwards because I was like, is that the monkey that was in Link to the Past?

Unknown Speaker (55:51): Like Right.

Unknown Speaker (55:52): That's that's crazy. I didn't realize he was, like, a Mario thing.

Unknown Speaker (55:56): Then I looked it up, and

Unknown Speaker (55:57): it was like, no. You're wrong.

Mike (55:58): I mean, this had the Chain Chomps from Link's Awakening.

Unknown Speaker (56:00): Ah, there you go, Mike. I see what you did there. It's funny, though. Even that little monkey is played by a comedian. It's Roxanna Ortega.

Jaymo (56:07): She was, like, on, new girl.

Unknown Speaker (56:09): This isn't really casting anybody to be like, oh, what do what do you wanna do with his voice? It's just can you you wanna bark like a dog? Like

Jaymo (56:15): But so Minecraft spoilers from Minecraft Sonic three and this movie. But Minecraft ends introducing the female counterpart, Alex. Sonic three ends introducing the female counterpart, Amy Rose. And now

Unknown Speaker (56:32): Galaxy ends

Jaymo (56:32): introducing Galaxy ends introducing I mean, I guess it's not the female counterpart.

Unknown Speaker (56:36): The third female counterpart?

Bryan (56:37): It's just interesting that Daisy is being introduced, yeah, at this point given that like, because didn't she first appear in Super Mario Land, like, for Game Boy or something? Like, she she predates Rosalina by a lot, I think.

Unknown Speaker (56:50): Oh, yeah. She does. For sure. Yeah. Because Rosalina doesn't matter.

Unknown Speaker (56:55): Well, I

Unknown Speaker (56:56): mean, honestly, you know, you're right because it's pulling from all the franchise at the same time kinda.

Jaymo (57:00): So She's a fan favorite, though. She's like there's whole memes about her being super chaotic and, like, super,

Unknown Speaker (57:08): you know Busy?

Jaymo (57:09): Yes. Yes. Busy. The Internet culture around her is very beloved and very just random chaos, brain rot. Like, I'm kinda here for it.

Unknown Speaker (57:17): I mean And I I

Mike (57:18): really off with chaos from just being named Daisy. I think it's utterly insane that Daisy is short for Margaret.

Unknown Speaker (57:29): That is nuts.

Unknown Speaker (57:31): Daisy is short for Margaret? Yes. Is it isn't it crazy enough that Margaret can be shortened to Peggy? Like, they can be Daisy too? Okay.

Mike (57:41): You have to go through, like Whoo. You have to go through, like, French flower names.

Unknown Speaker (57:45): I mean, how many names do Margaret's get? Like, jeez.

Unknown Speaker (57:49): Mike All of them.

Jaymo (57:50): You cannot cut out the pause of us waiting for your point. We're like, how is Daisy crazy? Man, you you know what? You win. Okay, guys.

Jaymo (57:58): Any other final thoughts before we go on to our verdicts?

Bryan (58:01): Well, would be nice that the to get a very different characterization of Daisy that leans into kind of what you were saying, Jeremy. Because, like, you know because, in part, maybe because this was kind of Peach's story and Rosalina was sort of you know, the damsel in distress in a lot of ways for the bulk of it. The we're not shown a great deal to show how different they are. But if Daisy is, like, significantly a different character, that'd be that'd be really fun to see that dynamic, you know? Yeah.

Bryan (58:29): Presuming that that's meant to be a singer for the next movie. You know?

Unknown Speaker (58:33): Right. Right. Yeah. Like I feel like

Mike (58:36): I spent most of this movie just going, obviously, they're related. I just don't know if this is a mother daughter or a sister's relationship. Like, it's like, it's obviously that.

Unknown Speaker (58:45): Right. I didn't see it coming, but also I think

Unknown Speaker (58:48): Wow, it's something two plus women, they all look the same and are related? Wow. Wow.

Unknown Speaker (58:53): They ended up being sisters.

Unknown Speaker (58:56): They also

Unknown Speaker (58:56): have the same first name.

Unknown Speaker (58:58): Yeah. Princess.

Unknown Speaker (59:01): Mike's on fire. Alright. You guys so

Bryan (59:06): I could see that being something canon too. Isn't this also, like I mean, don't know. I it might just be canon to the first live action movie, but the whole, like, Mario Mario, Luigi Mario thing. Or didn't that become canon?

Unknown Speaker (59:16): Jokingly. At an interview, he was asked what their full name is, and he goes, Mario Mario. You know? We'll get

Bryan (59:22): It would be the thing that best make the Mario brothers make sense. You know? Yeah. Mike and Tom aren't the Mike brothers.

Jaymo (59:31): But I like that it's like a game with, like, mushrooms that make you grow and you throw fireballs, and that's not how names work. It's like you can't suspend

Unknown Speaker (59:37): your disbelief. Realism is a little bit thrown out the window. I I I gotcha.

Jaymo (59:43): Well, you know, and just gotta be said, you know, for my boy, Kyle, that should have been Wario and Waluigi. Like, I just I think I think, Lisa, we got a we got a we got a little crunchy with this series. Okay? They're playing it too safe. I want some fart jokes next movie.

Jaymo (59:58): Like, come on, Wario. Woah. Wario Ware TV show, but it's like Tim and Eric, like, random, I think you should leave skits. Nope. Okay.

Jaymo (1:00:09): There's something there. There's something there. Well, guys, we're gonna wrap that up for today. We've covered the joy pros and joy cons and every bit in between. So it's time to declare the Super Mario Galaxy movie, a Nintendo or a Nintendo don't?

Jaymo (1:00:24): I would like to start with Lisa.

Lisa (1:00:26): Well, clearly, I think it's a Nintendo. I guess if you didn't like the first one, you should like this one, I guess. I don't know. That's how I've worked. I didn't like the first like the second.

Jaymo (1:00:39): I I have, like, a family group text where we, like, rate movies and our rules that if you regret watching it, it has to be below a five. And I was kind of a four this morning. I was really disappointed by this movie. I just I just really wanted something to latch onto narratively, emotionally, thematically, and there's just nothing there. And every time I thought it was gonna do something different or interesting, it pivoted.

Jaymo (1:01:07): It's like, no. Don't make there any romantic tension. Don't make Bowser and Bowser junior have an interesting dynamic. Don't make Rosalina and Peach have an interesting tension. It's just like everyone gets along except for the ones they don't, and it just felt overly simple.

Jaymo (1:01:21): But in discussing it with you guys, I think I'm a reluctant Nintendo. I think there was enough fun things to talk about. And, like, I was lighting up talking about the things that made me laugh and the cool moments. So I think I maybe didn't like this movie because I was trying to sit there and watch it quietly. I think this might be I think this might be a streaming Nintendo.

Unknown Speaker (1:01:44): Sure.

Jaymo (1:01:45): But is that still a Nintendo? I don't I don't know if this is worth going to theaters, but I think it would be totally you could do worse with an afternoon if you're gonna stream it with especially with some friends.

Unknown Speaker (1:01:55): I've seen worse in theaters.

Jaymo (1:01:57): Sure. Sure. So, Mike, is that a Nintendo? Because I'm saying you should stream it just but don't see it in theaters, or is that a Nintendo don't see it in theaters? I don't know how this works with screen time.

Unknown Speaker (1:02:07): I feel like it's a Nintendo for a reason.

Unknown Speaker (1:02:09): Nintendo.

Unknown Speaker (1:02:10): Okay. Okay. Well, don't don't don't break your back to go see it.

Unknown Speaker (1:02:13): You you can put the caveat there of, you know, wait till it comes to streaming. That's fair.

Jaymo (1:02:18): Yeah. Or I I really suspect this might be a fun four d x. I think that might have been the missing piece that you know, there was a lot of scenes or, like I mean, I'm almost tempted to try it.

Bryan (1:02:29): Well, in that case, that gives me a little bit more confidence in because because in saying, I guess I'm gonna be the sole Nintendon on this.

Jaymo (1:02:37): I was almost there. I was I was I was I came in on that, Brian.

Bryan (1:02:40): I was expecting you to be a Nintendon't on this. And you like you said, you you like, by the Strauss Family rating system, you would have given this a four. I would I would I would give this a five, but that puts me entirely on the fence of, like, when you say, like, Nintendo or Nintendoo or Nintendon, like, if it's gotta be a I I look I mean, there's things I appreciate about it, like, I don't know. I I can't overlook the fact that I think this movie is a lot of style and hardly much substance. Yeah.

Bryan (1:03:13): There was potential there, but, let me be the sole dissenter in that case. I think this is a slight Nintendon't in that, like, it was it's almost there.

Unknown Speaker (1:03:23): Here's a I don't even feel

Unknown Speaker (1:03:24): comfortable doing the the complete positive or negative, like like, you know, the coin thing on this. Because, like I said, I feel I feel most comfortable with a five out of 10 on this one. You know? But

Unknown Speaker (1:03:35): That's an f.

Unknown Speaker (1:03:36): So a nin 10 maybe?

Bryan (1:03:37): But yeah. Yeah. You're right. I guess that is an f technically. It's an f plus.

Unknown Speaker (1:03:41): Here's the wild thing, I think Mike's gonna actually surprise you. Mike, what do you

Unknown Speaker (1:03:45): because I I

Unknown Speaker (1:03:46): think I think know his answer.

Mike (1:03:47): The first movie I gave three out of five stars. That was which is what I consider to be like it didn't have anything that that really stood out to me.

Unknown Speaker (1:03:58): But that's a six out of 10.

Mike (1:03:59): Good enough? Yeah. This one this one, I gave two and a half out of five. That it's got some bits that I like, but it it feels like there's too many gaps. So I'm at that same

Unknown Speaker (1:04:12): You're at the same five out of 10 then.

Mike (1:04:13): Yeah. Where I'm like, it's hard for me to say, like, yeah. You should check it out. Like, it's not at the point of me being able say, yeah, you should check it out, but it's hard to be like, avoid it.

Jaymo (1:04:23): Well, here's the fun thing. If you're a Nintendo, we get to throw it to the Discord, and I feel like a lot of people are gonna see this movie. So, Mike, will you start it down?

Unknown Speaker (1:04:31): Yeah. I'll I'll I'll go to Nintendo.

Jaymo (1:04:33): Alright, guys. Well, that means it's a tie. We're gonna call that game over for today. Our final verdict, the Super Mario Galaxy movie is up to you. So be sure to go to www.theoldswitcharue.com to get the link to our Discord and chime in on the discussion and vote and be heard.

Jaymo (1:04:55): Brian, Lisa, thank you so much both of you for always supporting the show and sharing your candy at the theater Friday night. Before you get on out of here, Brian, why don't you remind us where we can find all of your cosplay and your activism and all that cool stuff?

Bryan (1:05:11): Well, I'm on Instagram and TikTok at brian with a y dot s dot lee, and I'm on YouTube at brian lee. I was able to claim that. No no middle initials, no periods or anything.

Jaymo (1:05:24): Flagging that one. Yeah. Okay. Anyway and a show with Brian, and it currently has an active Facebook. Would you mind telling us about that real quick?

Lisa (1:05:37): Yeah. You should check out Geek Pop. We are geek popping on Facebook because that's what we could grab. We were still hiatus. We're not over, but we're not really producing much content, but the Facebook page still goes.

Unknown Speaker (1:05:53): We cover

Lisa (1:05:58): anything and everything in pop culture, So check it out. We want to be popping a geek.

Unknown Speaker (1:06:05): Yeah, you know what? Fingers crossed for a reboot. It's going be a Hey,

Lisa (1:06:10): it's just time and we're all a little discombobulated right now where we used to fill it all together in the same studio. So it's like, we know we can do it digital, but we liked doing it together. It's finding that place. But the Facebook is still running. It's still up and going.

Unknown Speaker (1:06:28): And Chris maintains that, and it's you know, he's always posting cool stuff. Like Yeah. Half the stuff I see on there, I'm like, oh, I didn't know that.

Jaymo (1:06:36): Mhmm. It's a good scroll. Oh, heard that sounds n e. Excellent. Everyone join us next time when we busting aliens in the Sega Genesis arcade classic, Alien Storm.

Jaymo (1:06:48): Also, remember to like, follow, subscribe to the old Switch ARU, and rate or review the show wherever you get your podcasts. You can also visit www.theoldswitcharue.com to find all our social media links, and we'd love to hear what you thought about this episode or what you're hoping to hear in future episodes. As always, thanks for listening to the old switch a rue. We'll be talking gaming retro with Mike and J Mo.

Unknown Speaker (1:07:09): I've been Mike.

Unknown Speaker (1:07:10): And I'm J Mo. Game on, everyone. One more Wahoo, Lisa.