Our real first look at the new Mario movie soon

[Lord_Brand]

Liking what I've seen so far! That intro scene with Bowser attacking the penguin kingdom was epic. And Jack Black as Bowser...awesome.

Now I want to see a DKC film by these guys. Imagine how they'd handle King K. Rool!

[vanguard333]

On 10/7/2022 at 3:36 AM, Lord_Brand said:

Liking what I've seen so far! That intro scene with Bowser attacking the penguin kingdom was epic. And Jack Black as Bowser...awesome.

Now I want to see a DKC film by these guys. Imagine how they'd handle King K. Rool!

Yeah, the scene of Bowser attacking that penguin kingdom was really cool. Jack Black as Bowser is probably going to steal every scene that he's in.

It would be absolutely hilarious if, without any context, the movie had King K. Rool get hit by King Dedede's hammer, with Dedede saying, "Now we're even!"

[Lord_Brand]

What amazes me is how everything still looks basically like it does in the games, but more detailed. The Toads look like Toads, the Koopas look like Koopas, Bowser looks like Bowser, and Mario looks like Mario.

[Hawkwing]

A little late responding, but I had to laugh when Nintendo spent 5-6 minutes hyping up a 2 minute long trailer and then said nothing afterwards. That was such a Nintendo move, and I still don't know whether I love or hate them for it. Still, I'm glad they said upfront that they were still working on polishing parts of the movie and that they were composing the soundtrack right now. The music in the trailer was pretty generic.

Speaking of the trailer, I love this movie visually. Every creature looks recognizable but with the added detail that a movie can afford over a video game, and the poster alone has a ton of attention to detail about how various parts of the Mario Universe could function outside the context of a videogame. Any tweaks to the character designs seem like they were made to be easier to animate in the context of a movie and don't come off as jarring. I don't go to the theater that often, but I'm legitimately thinking about going to see this on the big screen.

In terms of voices, Jack Black makes a strong first impression as Bowser, Toad doesn't sound annoying, and Luigi's grunts still sound like Luigi. I need to hear more lines before making any calls on Chris Pratt as Mario, but the little we did hear was... fine. And honestly, I'm okay with fine in this scenario; I can see myself being not complaining about listening to the voice for an entire movie.

Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic. Nintendo seems to have enjoyed the process of making a movie so much they straight up bought an animation studio, which I'll take as a good sign. I do get the impression from the trailer alone that a lot of people involved were very passionate about getting a Mario Movie just right. I am by no means expecting a masterpiece, but I dearly hope that this is a super fun family film that is gorgeous to watch.

[Perkilator]

Movie just received another trailer

 

[vanguard333]

The movie looks like it will be good. But the Chris Pratt voice really drags it down; everyone else is putting in an at least okay performance that at least somewhat resembles the video game voice of their respective character, with Jack Black's Bowser voice easily being the best out of all of them, but Chris Pratt's voice is just so bad in comparison; I don't want to say it sounds zero-effort; it sounds more like someone put in a lot of effort without having any idea how to start practicing and got almost nowhere.

[Lord_Brand]

Haven't seen the second trailer yet, but will soon. I will say however that, judging by the thumbnail, Peach looks really pretty. As does the film itself. It's amazing how well they balanced the games' usual style with that of a more conventional animated CGI film. It's so detailed, yet it still looks as colorful and cartoony as Mario should. Is it a stretch to call this the best-looking video game film ever?

EDIT: Saw the trailer. I'll post here what I posted in the comments section there.

Looks good. My only concern at this point is how they're handling Peach. Let me know if this sounds at all familiar:

The film has a male protagonist who, whether through his own actions or due to circumstances entirely beyond his control, finds himself thrust into a situation where he must grow in skill and ability, and of course acts overconfident and screws up for most of the journey, while catching snark from the much more competent female character who's already oh-so-good at these things to the point you wonder why she isn't the one being chosen to come up against the main bad guy, up until the end when the male hero miraculously catches up to or surpasses her in ability to the point he's able to defeat the big bad, and maybe save the up-until-now more competent female character in the process, thereby proving he really is a hero and is "good enough" for her and all that jazz, with a few scenes interspersed throughout where they bond and she maybe starts legitimately supporting the hero rather than rolling her eyes and mocking him for his every screw up.

Yeah, this wouldn't be the first time Hollywood's done a plot like this, and they've done it frequently enough that I consider it a cliche in its own right. I'm wary of them turning Peach into yet another "girl power" character who gets handed the distress ball just in time for the male hero she was showing up until then to catch up, thereby creating the illusion that they're equals which will just end up annoying both the feminists for "chickifying" their action girl and everyone who's tired of that kind of dynamic like I am (and there may well be some overlap between the two).

Don't get me wrong, I am stoked to see this film. It's the first Mario movie we've had in over 20 years, and it looks fantastic. I just don't want it to be tainted like so many modern films are by clumsy attempts at compromising and pushing messages of "equality" that in practice really don't feel all that equal. I want to see a Peach who's wholly supportive of the fact Mario wants to help save her kingdom, and maybe rather than mock or make light of his struggles, she can be legitimately helpful towards him overcoming his shortcomings?

I dunno, maybe I'm getting the wrong impression due to the choice of clips. Maybe Peach's frustrated flop isn't aimed at Mario but someone or something else, and maybe her line about "no pressure" isn't supposed to come off as mocking as it first did, but if that's not the case, then the trailer didn't give me as good of a first impression as it could have, because right now it's making me fear this will be just another "male idiot and hypercompetent action girl" story but with Mario characters. I'll withhold judgment until I see more.

On the upside, upon a rewatch I realized Mario's fighting DK in an arena full of Kongs, and the Kong wearing the crown is none other than Cranky himself. That is seriously freaking cool. I wonder if we'll see more of the Kong characters from DK's own series like Funky, Candy, Dixie, Tiny, Lanky, and Chunky? Even just as background characters or one-scene wonders? Also, I'm digging DK's design. It's like a middle ground between the original and the Country versions.

Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic about this film. I'm a little worried after some things I saw in this trailer, particularly in regards to Peach, but my hopes are that this will turn out to be the greatest video game movie yet...and pave the way for even greater video game movies to come.

Edited November 30, 2022 by Lord_Brand