Won't Somebody Please Think of the Children (Films)!?
The "Discourse" on The Super Mario Bros. Movie is bizarre, even for The "Discourse"
I knew the Mario "discourse" was going to be bizarre but I honestly didn't have "somebody please think of the children" level of bizarre on my forecast.
While somebody writing an article about how the first live action adaptation of the Mario video game was, “was weird, gross, and risky — and a lot more fun than the safe, faithful 2023 version” was expected.1 What I did not expect was people to take this up as a cause on behalf of “the children.” Yet, over the weekend we went from “this movie isn’t good” to criticizing it for not, and this is real, making “the slightest effort to challenge or enlighten them in the process.” 2
My theory is that there is only a handful of true films made for children/families that are absolute masterpieces. Films like E.T., Toy Story 1 -4, Beauty and The Beast, and The Lion King are among them. The rest are just films that people saw when they were kids, loved them then, and then grew up with them. I recently watched Hook with my kids and while it has some truly great moments from Spielberg, it’s not that great. Yet, people that saw it when they were kids love it to this day.
A handful of movies from my childhood have that power over me. A film like Masters of the Universe was panned by critics, but it’s a live action He-Man film that I loved as a kid and I love to this day. Would I try to make a case that’s a masterpiece? Absolutely not, because I don’t need others to put their stamp of approval on it.
I watched The Super Mario Bros. Movie with my nearly five year-old son. He had been counting down the days until we were going to see it. Unsurprisingly, he loved it. I viewed the film through the experience of him watching it. Don’t get me wrong, I thought the film looked beautiful and I chuckled a few times, but it’s not a movie for me. It’s a movie for kids like him. To them it is a masterpiece.
That’s good enough for me and more than enough for them.
Even if I find it silly, I still want to acknowledge the original work. https://www.polygon.com/23674765/live-action-super-mario-bros-movie-1993-bob-hoskins-john-leguizamo
Again, acknowledging the work. https://www.indiewire.com/2023/04/super-mario-bros-movie-interview-david-lowery-1234826802/
'Entertainment Strategy Guy' had a great point that Coastal and Interior America have widely different expectations in media, for sure that applies to the discourse . That said, Universal did smart thing in keeping the narrative low-key--it's Mario.