The Besties - The Super Mario Bros. Movie? Mamma Mia, What a Film!

Episode Date: April 14, 2023

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is out, which you already know, because everyone on Earth saw it and it made a bajillion dollars. Do you want to know what we thought about it? We're assuming so, because you're reading this. Great! Let's jam. Also discussed: Psychonauts 2, Dark Souls 3, Brotato, Resident Evil 4 Remake Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

Russ, I have, well, everybody, this is big news for everybody and our listeners too. After two years off the menu and this, sorry, I'm just finishing up enjoying it right now. After two years, America's favorite egg sandwich is back on the menu. That's right. If you've been craving the authentic egg sandwich, the one you know and love, McDonald's has brought their bagel and egg sandwich back to the menu and russ i am so happy to be enjoying america's best and favorite egg sandwich and just how many have you eaten since the return and just to confirm is the egg in that a perfect circle uh no it's the luscious handcrafted folded egg that mcdonald's is known for as the originator of the egg sandwich.

Russ, how many of these McDonald's sandwiches have you enjoyed since the return, as we're all calling it? I mean, I just can't abide. I can't abide. Hey, scooch on down to the bodega and get a egg bagel. And walk past it and keep going past the bodega until you get to the McDonald's and get a real sandwich. I'm sure it tastes pretty bad but I will say the steam that this

thing gives off is unimaginable. I don't know what kind of technology they're using to infuse this little egg filled just with so much steam but it is rejuvenating to be near. This counts as appropriation.

I just want to be really clear. I know. Well, okay. I know that the goof here is fresh eggs, eggs steam right, but I can't get past the question of the bagel. What the hell does a McDonald's bagel taste like? Is it a soft one or is it a hard one?

I don't know how they spent the two years while this sandwich was not on offer, but I know that those two years were not spent learning how to properly make a bagel. I mean, I'm sure it's like a lender's bagel, right? Something like that. I don't want to split hairs. There's actually a few on here,

but I'll get them. I don't want to split hairs, Russ, but technically every time you eat egg, it's chicken appropriation. So something to think about. Is it? Am I stealing chicken culture by eating their eggs? Chickens don't eat eggs.

I would say so. I would say so, yeah. No, they don't eat them, no, but they do come out them. Yeah, but like- Just something to think about. I don't think eat them, no, but they do come out them. Yeah, but like... Just something to think about. I don't think culturally speaking I'm matching anything that they're doing. No, no, Frush, it's just something to think about. It's just something to think about.

It doesn't, you don't have to tear it apart. I shouldn't say anything. Well, no, you can say whatever, just make sure you're also thinking about it. Okay. It's pretty smart, it's pretty smart. Yeah. it okay it's pretty smart it's pretty smart yeah my name is justin mcroy and I know the best movie of the week. My name is Griffin McElroy, and I am trembling with excitement. It's-a me, Chris Applanta, potentially canceled after this accent.

That's one. That's one. My name is Ross Froschek, and I know the best game of the week. Welcome to The Besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a video game club, and just by listening, you, my friend, have become a member. But not this week, because this week we're taking a step outside of the small screen and stepping right in, like in the purple rose of Cairo, into the silver screen. Actually, I guess in reverse, but still into the silver screen actually I guess in reverse but still into the silver screen with Super Mario Brothers

the Super Mario Brothers movie I'm so glad that you've already made a movie reference that will out snob me for this entire hour it's great oh I doubt that very much the only reason I know about it is that my acting teacher was in Purple Rose of Cairo that's the only reason that that

that landed. Hey, should I tell everybody what the Super Mario Brothers movie is? Yeah, I guess it's kind of... Yeah, so the Super Mario Brothers movie, yeah, it's a Super Mario Brothers movie, but not the one from the 90s. This is a new one, baby.

It's computer animated from the wonderful folks at Illumination. You might know them for such wonderful movies as Minions and The Grinch and such not as wonderful movies as Sing. And that's it. Whoa. Shots fucking fired. You think you're just going to slip that in?

Yeah. I'm here to talk about the truth. That's what our jobs are. Sing whips ass. If you're going to pull out one that's bad, you just say Hop. That does the trick. Just say Hop. Just say Hop.

Fine. Oh, okay. Fernando. Such great movies as Despicable Me and such not as great movies as hop. There you go. There we go. So, yeah, we'll talk about it. All right, y'all.

I need to know about, I think before we talk about this film, very briefly, as briefly as possible, I would like to know about your viewing situation, the context under which you. It was Easter Sunday afternoon. Yeah. Theater in Bethesda took my son Henry, who was decked out in his Sonic jacket, and he brought a Sonic stuffed animal with him for some reason. And we were in a mostly empty theater and we watched and we watched it it happened i think i've been to that movie theater it's oh yeah it's a great one it's nice um i am a voting member of bafta it would surprise everyone to learn my god and i was invited to a screening of this movie in Manhattan. I got a babysitter and my wife and I went

and we just chuckled it all up. Have they heard the accents you do? I cannot believe the British would have. They were convinced that I was one of them. They were sold on it, huh? Alright. I went with Mosey

and it was his first movie in a my gosh that's so good and uh he had i would i would say he had a bus the his favorite moment was they had trailers before it you know as they do with movies uh as they don't often do with movies they had a trailer for the anniversary screening of flash dance whoa and he jumped out of his seat and he danced and just started yelling faster faster faster whoa and love that's is that you found i know i was like we should just go watch this movie. This sounds great. Juice, what about you? I went with... I picked up Charlie and Cooper after their school.

I told... We're going to go see the Mario Brothers movie. Charlie said, oh, man, that's great. All the kids in my class have been talking about it. I heard there's funny songs. So the kids are wild about this one. And Cooper said, oh, yeah. Who's Mario so that was

it was but we went to the Pullman Square Cinemark there and had ourselves a heck of a time that's you get the range there

you have like a range of knowledge are we just dancing around talking about the movie because it there's

it there's not a lot of movie in the movie there's not a lot of movie and there's not a lot of i think we have to summarize your teeth into there huh summarize the plot okay sure mario and luigi get teleported into the mushroom kingdom and bowser is just fucking things up and so peach is like we gotta get the donkey kongs to help and they get the donkey kongs to help, and they get the Donkey Kongs to help, but then they don't, and then they go back home, and they fight Bowser. Also, Luigi gets kidnapped.

Sure. Yeah, Luigi gets kidnapped. We're not rescuing the princess. We're rescuing Luigi. Luigi gets chased by a horde of Dry Boneses, World War Z style, in a sequence that was, I would say, pretty scary for a child.

Pretty scary start to the Mushroom Kingdom adventure, I would say, pretty scary for a child. Pretty scary start to the Mushroom Kingdom adventure, I would say, if we're just giving notes for a Super Mario Bros. movie, too. Maybe next time, don't have a really scary, scary part in it. But that's in the games. You've got to be authentic. Yeah, that's... Yeah, no, in the games, I don't think there's a scene where a Dry Bones is being melted by lava

while holding onto Luigi's foot and trying to pull him into the lava to fucking kill his ass. That was Mario 128. There's a lot of bad boys in this movie that are just trying to fucking kill Luigi. There's a lot of darkness in this movie. There's a lot. There's a lot. Well, okay. Before we get into that, I do want to say some nice things.

Because I don't want to go straight into just NBA Jam Dunk Fest. I think this movie is perfectly fine. It is the definition of a fine kids movie. I think it's a little disappointing for me, because I actually like Illumination movies a lot. I think the Grinch movie is legit fantastic. It's good. I look forward to watching

it a hundred times every season. And Despicable Me 1 is also very, very good. It towers over Opie's version of the story. I was going to say Sing 2, but I just recently learned that this is not a safe space for that kind of dialogue.

I haven't seen Sing 2. I have other podcasts I do, Chris, with people who will lift me up in my Sing fandom. Sorry. We haven't even talked about Trolls. Is that them? Oh. Sorry. No, I think they make really good things.

I think they are great at creating incredible, beautiful worlds. And unfortunately, the Mario series has that, which they did. It does not have any story really to work with that's compelling. And wow, you can just feel it. And that, I think, for me, it felt like watching an hour and a half of the game on, like, hardware that won't exist for another couple decades. Yeah. That's fair.

I mean, it's, you say there's no story, but if you look to the, like, Paper Mario series, like Thousand Year Door and stuff like that, I actually think the writing in those games is, like, head, shoulders, and feet above the writing in those games is like head, shoulders, and feet above the writing in this, which again, I actually did enjoy it. We had a good time, but I agree with Planet

being like, it was fine. It checked the boxes of what it needed to do, but from a financial standpoint, I think it did exactly what it needed to do, which is A, make a ton of money. Make a billion dollars. And B, set up the idea that there's going to be fucking 20 of these in the next few years. Yeah, already rumors of a Donkey Kong spinoff, which is...

Oh, thank God. Which is unfortunate. Big golden ray of light for me is Donkey Kong in this film. Oh, my God. Were you not? Are you serious? Oh, wow. I'm genuinely shocked.

I have a video. That's the only interesting choice that they made. The only best choice they make is fucking Himbo Donkey Kong voiced by Seth Rogen. Yeah, I didn't have an issue

with the casting. I just thought that. No, it's the art. I mean, okay, if we're gonna talk about it with slightly less rose-colored glasses, because if you take your kids,

they're gonna enjoy the movie. Yeah, yes. And you know what honestly in a way i appreciate something that is not attempting to be for quadrant entertainment like sure yeah yeah they're really not trying i think it is like it's your kids you take your kids your kids like it's a kid's movie it's for kids um but they're even with a kid kids movie and i don't mean that in a derisive way necessarily i'm saying like a movie that is targeted at kids you gotta have some the character has to do something and change in some way and i feel like nintendo's influence on this is that like mario is just has to be... He's bad at being Mario.

It reminds me of the Jesus thing. It reminds me of that. There's so little fault with Mario. There's nothing really wrong with Mario. He just has to sacrifice himself for all of us. He's Batman. Mario's Batman. And that's the thing about Batman movies.

Yeah, Batman has trauma. Well- Yeah, he doesn't- Mario doesn't change. Throughout this entire movie, it's like Mario wants to do something. He doesn't- He's exactly the same at the beginning of it. Him and Luigi are like, brothers stick together. We can do anything if we work together. We're very supportive, and we love each other very much.

And that is exactly where they end the movie. Luigi gets the change. Well, that's the thing.'s the theory and that's what i wanted to say so luigi the the real crime of this movie and again i i did enjoy myself but the real crime of this movie is how little luigi gets to do in this movie because really all he is is like maybe there's probably like 10 minutes of luigi screen time in this movie if that dude if that and if i had my druthers, I'm sorry, Griffin, but if I had my druthers, cut the entire Kong sequence, like just rip it from the movie and just give Luigi more things to do,

specifically Luigi being a coward and afraid and scared of ghosts or whatever the fuck he does so that by the end of the movie, spoiler alert, when he does something brave, it's like this major step for him. And that's character. That couldn't really hit. I was like halfway there.

I was expecting it at any second. There's a bit. How spoilery are we going to get with this fucking flick, gang? I mean, I'm pretty. Yeah, let's just go for it. The entire world saw it. I know that there are some listeners who didn't. There is so little story here.

It's fine. Listen, what I'm about to say, there are people who are going to laugh at the fact that I was worried about this being a spoiler. Bowser's got the superstar. He's like, you're just going to marry me. I have a fucking superstar. And the whole movie, Luigi is also this terrified little shell of a man. But the whole time in the last battle, Mario's getting his ass kicked.

You're like, Luigi's gonna step up. You're gonna use that as superstar. He's gonna get brave. He's gonna fight everyone. But then like, they both kind of do it. He like does something else instead. And then Mario and Luigi are like, let's both get the superstar.

And it's like, man, again, it seemed like Mario could have taken a back. I think it would have been interesting subversive yes fucking anything if maybe mario was needed to rely on his his little scared brother for a change it really felt like they were setting that up and i do not know that they they paid it off but in lieu of that they didn't do that they did do donkey kong instead yeah donkey kong is interesting yeah They made a choice with Donkey Kong because he doesn't have to be the er, the er man who is pleasing to all people.

Right. He can have the slightest bit of like hubris and, or, or, you know, character. And then by the end of it, he like has a bit of a relationship change with his dad who sees him for who

he is, which Mario does not like, it's just, I, they just didn't do anything interesting with mario and i understand why they can't write it's hard it's kind of like writing a an interesting superman movie like because you can't you can't actually challenge him right he's mario he's he has to be kind of like the characters around that character that are a character that are doing more interesting things because they can change that's how you have to structure the film yeah right like that's how you have to build it that way so you see like maybe the princess doubting herself which also you don't ever

ever ever that doesn't happen like i just wish a little bit more character choices because i do think that even what i said with about it being kids movie and it kind of sounded like damn with a faint praise i do think that the movies that kids can return to over and over again have a little bit more character and and narrative and plot than than this stuff yeah that's interesting this while watching it and again my son is too young to like really do movies quite yet but while watching I was thinking this is so light on character and stuff it sort of seems like the thing that would just be played on loop in the background it's like black background noise yes i said the exact thing i told rachel when i got home she was like how's the movie i was like it we are

going to just kind of have it on in the background yeah on the weekend because you can just pop in there's no like moment where it's like oh no you know there's no like character slow you do not need sound for this movie except for bowser songs i think you could enjoy this movie perfectly fine without sound really good like compositions of like classic mario tracks i was gonna say actually that i do question without sound maybe without dialogue but the music in this i thought is the superstar of the entire like i think it's the most successful except for the fucking needle drops that are constant

yeah before we get to that I want to get to the orchestration I think it is beautifully done it is very cool to hear these like very epic you know full orchestra versions of Mario songs felt cheesy as hell I like it really there were just so

many things this movie that every time i thought i was getting like getting into it something like that would like a one a needle drop would happen but two would be like this is a big moment boo boo boo boo boo and it's like yeah no you're having a bit of fun here i don't think that's no it was it was okay no that no that was that was not a couple times that was not thank you yeah i mean okay sorry griffin the needle drives it's just it's just there's a lot of here's what's frustrating about this movie i understand that it is a a risk averse project you can still make a choice or two though that the audience maybe wasn't expecting. For example, here's a fun

exercise for the listener, if you did not see the film. There's a scene where Princess Peach takes Mario out back of the castle, and a bunch of blocks float up, and they do a training montage. What licensed song did they use for the training montage? Did you say Holdin' Out for a Hero? Because

fucking yes. Like, Hold say hold not for a hero because fucking yes like it could have been take on me for some reason thunderstruck wait wait don't skip ahead and take on me wait one second because this is my favorite needle drop it in the movie is take on me take on me works great happens because they show up in kong country and the first person they meet in Kong Country is a Kong, like a random Kong, who is dressed in a white blazer 80s style for no reason, who hops in his cart and drives him around to take on me.

They're 80s because the Kongs are all like 80s. Are they? Like Kong is like an 80s vibe, right? He's kind of like a beefcake for one of those. Yeah, I guess. I don't know. They're also kind of like a beefcake for one of those yeah it's like i don't know that's the vibe they're also kind of doing a mad max thing there's there's a lot of different flavors in the mix i i just want to be clear about something because griffin and i've been very like even the kong stuff is like it's better than the bad stuff but it's not like go see this one

like my mother-in-law's been telling me I gotta watch The Blacklist just for James Spader. This is not that. This is not that. This is just like a pleasant spot in the film. I don't even know, like, from like a, I mean, I'm glad you like the comics. I don't know what the bad stuff is. It's just all fine.

Some of the writing's quite bad, I will say. Some of the writing is quite bad, yeah. There's scenes where you can tell that they're like, we need to do this story beat because it has to happen. Obviously, Mario has to meet the princess. And then there was some sort of weird time accountant who was like, you get 13 seconds! And they're like, fuck, 13 seconds? That's not

a lot of time for dialogue. Um, okay. You have a scene here where Peach is, uh, Mario's gonna talk to Peach about maybe he's from her world. And then the time accountant's like, you have four seconds. And I'm like, holy shit, time accountant. Okay, just have her say, it's a big universe with lots of galaxies. What's that fucking mean?

Like, there's so many times in the movie where it's, is it an Easter egg that they mention the word galaxy and there's a galaxy in it? I think what she is alluding to there is that if this movie makes a billion dollars, Nintendo will open its galaxy wide asshole and shit as much of this stuff down your throat as you want. There is, there is, we are all, maybe except for Russ, just because your kid was a little young for going to the films. But like there is a sliding scale. My metric for judging movies that are aimed at kids has changed because of some of the movies that have come out in the last three or four years. The last movie I went and saw in theaters with Henry before this was Puss in Boots. That movie, as anybody who has kids who took them to it will say, beats ass, is so good and surprising and has a lot of stuff going for it that is unpredictable. I would say that's probably the biggest thing I'm looking for if I'm going to see a movie, is to not just let it

kind of wash over me. I would say I had about the same viewing experience with this film, which unfortunately I have with the Paw Patrol film, which is just like, yep, okay. Yeah, of course. Yeah, that's what Marshall does next. It's the kind of, I kind of felt the same way about this one. Yeah, you're waiting a good comparison because both have great action sequences though. Right. Great action sequences. It is really, really well directed. I wanted to mention just because it helped to contextualize it for me. The movie is directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael though right great action sequences really well directed i wanted to mention just because i it helped to contextualize it for me the movie is directed by aaron horvath and michael jelinek who i i know from uh teen titans go they like the showrunners of that for its entire run

love that show and they absolutely and the movie was great the movie was great right which they also directed i i feel like the problem here is really, it's not with the direction, I don't think. It feels like the hand of Nintendo being really hesitant to take any sort of chance. Yeah, there can be no characters. Okay, but I'm gonna counter that by saying there's one character, and I think you all know exactly who I'm talking about,

who actually comes out of left field and has some laughs to them. Racist Dig Dug was, yeah, I thought that was weird to you, Russ. Dig Dug. No. Having Dig Dug in it, weird. Having it be a huge racist.

Super racist. That was super, super weird. I'm talking about the, of course, the depressive star from Super Mario Galaxy, who clearly was like there from up, like it felt like it's so out of character for the rest of the movie and actually elicited laughs in the audience.

And it felt like a punch up moment where it was like someone was brought in who has like actual more talent and was able to like, hey, let's do something weird and left field. And that I would imagine like scored very highly with people i guess no you don't think star is is my my my number one gripe of this movie yeah i think it's up there for me

too it's not it's not that it's bad because you're right they do the joke too well okay so the blue star the whole joke is it's the blue star from super mario galaxy and the blue star wants to die. The blue star sounds like a three-year-old who wants to literally kill itself because it wants to be free of the sweet pain of existence.

And like, very good. That would be very cool in a different movie. Extremely weird to have a movie that has no jokes. But one thing this movie does a lot which i do not

remember happening in pretty much any other kids movie is talk about death a lot a lot a lot like every character is like i am going to kill you i want you to die and then you have that and uh hey not a fun hang afterwards yeah it's really weird that's a really weird place that nintendo you feel like could have stepped in and be like yeah yeah we don't really people kind of get squished um even the koopas just become shell-less yeah yeah and or or like do one or the other like if it wants to be more like a PG, one of those, I don't know, the dudes who made 21 Jump Street, Lego movie, right? If you want to go for that sort of,

I don't know, 10 years ago, hey, I'm on Twitter and it's a hell site. I want to die. Fine, whatever, go for it. It's outdated, but go for it. You know, the movie also talked about death a lot but it had something to fucking say about it was in boots um i yeah man this movie really in the three days that have passed since i've seen this movie i feel like i have disliked

it more and more just because it didn't it i it feels like i get that you can't do a ton with these characters but you can do like something. You can do something with them. And that would have been just one just one cool choice. You mentioned the blue star in any other movie. That would have been one joke. Yeah. One joke delivered once.

But this movie has so little sort of like it. It felt like we need to add jokes. We need to add seven jokes yeah yeah they definitely ran into the ground so to speak um real quick i tell you wait i want to say two really fascinating things the first one is uh this movie made me like sonic more oh boy can i tell you sonic movie can i tell you like the proudest moment of my entire fucking life we are in this movie we are in the middle of the donkey kong sequence my son turns to me does not understand volume and loudly says can we watch the sonic movie

hell yeah i have never been happier for me so i'm surprised at when he delivered that well afterwards we did a movie review and i asked him i said what was your favorite part he said the the bowser song and I said what was the part you did not like and he took a very long minute and said the Donkey Kong song I'm sorry and all they say is DK rap there's not

even more than that I like Sonic wow Sonic's really good the other thing I wanted I need to unpack a little bit guys is the presence of charles martinet in this film oh yeah holy shit two two roles large in the most and it's so no no no it's very very very confusing why i need to understand giuseppe okay is giuseppe his dad or the other guy hey but his dad just happens the other guy okay help me there's a guy

that's kind of like mario yeah yeah and he's voiced by charles martinet and when he says is my italian accent too much mario asked this about his commercial this guy giuseppe turns around and says too much it's a perfect wahoo okay. Okay, it's Charles Martinet there. Okay? Yeah. And then Mario's dad is in it later, and it's also Charles Martinet. I cannot fucking understand it, guys. What's the deal with Giuseppe?

What do you mean? He's just like a friend of the- I don't think he's a real person. I think he's like in Mario's head. What do you- I think he's in Chris Pratt's head. I don't- I honestly don't understand- He's definitely in his's head. I think he's in Chris Pratt's head. I honestly don't understand.

He's definitely in his head. Are you? Okay, there's a guy that's dressed like Mario. Yeah, I remember the scene. And he sounds like Mario. You understand that much, right? Yes, at the beginning. Okay.

And he's basically justifying why Mario doesn't speak like Mario. Right. I think for what they tried to accomplish there, which is Chris Pratt's going to kind of do – I imagine they got Chris Pratt in the studio. They're like, you're Mario now, baby. And he was like, hell yeah. And they're like, step up to the plate. And he steps up to the plate and they're like, all right, man, just – you know what? Let's just get a few clean takes.

Just start letting them rip. And he was just like, first take, just like, let's go, meatball. And they're like, they're like no way dude you gotta reign that the fuck in and he took the dial and turned it down to like four percent and then they were like okay but is it still kind of weird that he's doing four percent of like a huge italian accent and they're like what if we get the original mario in there to literally say the words like you, you crack. He may as well just say, you got, that's it,

Chris chase. That should be his line in the movie. That's it, Chris, the magic was in you all along. This is okay by me. Real Mario. Now this other guy,

is he Italian? And it was like, um, no, but a lot of people. Okay. I love, can I guys say, I love this. I love this direction. Can we use him twice?

Uh, yeah, I guess that's kind of like us paying tribute to Charles Martinet, but we'll do it twice. It would have been less confusing if just the film had opened, show the Nintendo opening logo, black screen, Charles Martinet walks out and he's like hey guys it's fine it's fine i've been doing first of all on two account two things to worry about here i'm being replaced it's fine the chris pratt's a huge hollywood actor it's gonna happen all the appropriation imagine imagine my face on a mcdonald's cup y'all it just ain't gonna happen all the appropriation imagine imagine my face on a mcdonald's cup y'all it just ain't gonna happen okay it's fine all the appropriation stuff the other thing i've been doing this a long

time just hearing about it now huh okay i'll talk to you guys later check you later martin a out yeah martin a's like yeah i think it is really terrible. He's sorry about Italian, everybody. Get him. I can't believe we do this. Okay. God, guys, I had looked at the box office. This movie made a lot of money. It's probably going to be the biggest movie of the year. Do you know how many people are going to be furious with us because of this?

They're going to be like, why don't you just learn to have fun? No. We're going to get a lot. I had fun at times in the movie. I'm crediting this for exactly what it is. Yeah. But Sega does what Nintendo don't. I'm sorry. That's a really great point. Hey, Bowser's great.

Jack Black's great. That's true. Yeah, Bowser's an interesting take. Yeah, and it is a core kids movie. Like you were making the point about the four quadrant thing like although there are references that like for to like uh fucking wrecking crew whatever it is like to old people like 98 of this movie is just for kids and clearly that is the winning combination because it made a fuckload of money and all the kids except for Mosey loved it. He was fine.

It was all the Easter eggs. I think that's like the adult stuff. They're like, let's make a general... Yeah, but I mean, they're like... The background of this movie, it's like a wash. You know, it's an Easter egg. Yeah, they clearly cared, not just Nintendo. Like, the filmmakers clearly cared

to jam every single frame with fucking boomerang flowers and whatever else and and like i got a kick out of that stuff even though i know it's low-hanging fruit and like what was your like did you have a favorite of those things uh a favorite reference to like a random nothing that jumps out but i whenever i saw them i was like oh that's fine i mean i liked the even though it's very telegraphed the like dry bones like dying and then luigi cheering and then it coming back to life was like yeah i got a kick out of that it was funny there's a king bob-omb um oh yeah the crowd has a lot of at the wedding it's fine it's absolutely fine

it is also funny to see how many people the reviews that talk about it being 90 minutes that is like the best thing about this movie is that you I love that it's 92 minutes is like oh you guys crushed I think this could have not been an origin

story and shaved off some time there and put more time in the i don't know luigi redemption arc or whatever just have them be plumbers who work at the mushroom castle that's cool there's a great musical called super claudio bros that was produced as like it was kind of a fringe thing um i saw it in dc uh and it was very much about like lu Luigi always feeling inferior. And then Mario dies at one point and Luigi has to like kind of take it. The Luigi stand in has to kind of take over. Now I'm not saying that they should have killed Mario.

But something like that, just like a little bit more, but again, like, I don't know. Kids will like it. And I also want to give props because we haven't done it yet. We've talked a little bit about the song,

but Jack Black, as he always does, but especially here, totally fucking owns that character and does an amazing job and clearly gave a lot of shits to like sell every scene that he's in. It's, it's really hard. Like I, it's funny. I had just done voiceover for something else

that was feeling really bad about myself, and then I went and saw this movie and somehow felt even worse. The amount of energy and power he is bringing to that when he's just standing in a booth is really incredible. Honestly, it's a really, really good performance. I think next next mario movie because they're definitely gonna make another one of them is going to have that you know uh paper mario super mario rpg yeah where they have to team up yeah yeah totally 100 and i think there's more

promise there because you can have more characterizations mario will stay the same and that's fine but you can do more with side characters and if they're all together you can do even more with those combinations you basically and that's where they're going with this i mean we'll talk about it i think maybe a little bit in the b segment but where where they could go next but you know what i still like the 93 movie better because it's more of an adult weird fucking swing at the fences yeah but this is the fineness that like you know the first jj abrams star wars movie was like fine it did the trick it wasn't bad it was fine and that's all this needed to be really to like launch what again

will be a dozen movies over the next 10 years. It's going to be fucking crazy. Yeah, it's going to be weird. I hope some of them are funny or good. We're going to take a quick break, and then we're going to come back, and we're going to talk about more Super Mario Bros. related, and I've got a great, I've got a treat. Oh.

So one thing that I very much enjoyed about this film is that even though it is made for a specific group of people all the critics have to go see it so I was very interested to see how critics would start to communicate about video games which

I know that there are many film critics that would prefer not to ever do that or know anything about it. So I just wanted to bring you some of my favorite snippets. I'm very excited. From some reviews. Again, not trying to embarrass anybody or put anybody on blast. I'm sure if I've written video game reviews about anything outside of my area of expertise,

which it is vast, I probably... This is like a dentist and someone comes in like can you build a house for me exactly right la weekly super mario bros has been one of the most popular video games for nearly 40 years and watching this joyous colorful concoction it's easy to see see why art house film wire the super mario bros movie is super nostalgic but not super fun granted i haven't regularly played home video games since nba jam 1995 fuck yes that's what i'm talking about that's good right out there home video game what a way to end your gaming career though that's a good one to go out on yeah 411 mania the super mario bros movie movie is a joyous event they'll

bring excitement to all longtime nintendo fans and players giving them a new generational story that they can share with their children and families that's insane but then it says the movie this movie is playing with power which i appreciate that's a great one i mean it's cool that chat gpt wrote so many reviews for them. I think that's very useful. Stuff.co.nz, a breathless, hilarious, knockabout action adventure that may be slight on plot, but delivers on thrills and laughs, as well as Easter eggs and fan service for anyone who has played a Mario Nintendo game. I love that franchise. That would be so much better if instead of their names being Mario Mario

And Luigi Mario If their names were just Mario Nintendo And Luigi Nintendo That's what we named the company after guys Minneapolis Star Tribune In terms of servicing fans who want more of their Super Mario Bros Than they can get at home Or in an arcade

This movie gets the job done Oh my god They're probably talking about Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games arcade machine at Dave and Buster's. Yeah, definitely. That's what I'm assuming. Definitely. None of this... Sorry. Washington Post says the artistry is enough to keep children and

adults watching. At its 8-bit heart, the Super Mario Bros. movie is ultimately about family. Excellent. Sure. This is from AP. None of this is likely to be enough for every anyone to exclaim oh yeah while hopping up and down and doffing their cap that's mario's my favorite catchphrase mario has always been oh yeah yeah for sure jumps up and down and repeatedly lifts his hat while saying oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah but it is an hour and a

half's worth of superlative marketing that will whet your appetite for more mario back home on the couch yeah oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah i i will say this i actually totally agree with that while i was watching this movie i was like fuck i kind of want to play Odyssey again. Yeah. Last two. Variety says its ingenuity is infectious. You don't have to be a Mario fan to respond to it, but the film is going to remind the millions who are already why they call it a joystick. Yes, dude. Yes, for sure, dude.

Yes. We all love joysticks here in 2023. You know, you got our number. And lastly, my favorite from CTV News, the Super Mario Bros. movie has all the charm of an unplugged Game Boy. Which is to say, perfect amounts of charm. The normal amount. There's a regular amount of charm.

Well, how much was it charged before? A link cable? Yeah, maybe it doesn't have a link cable. Well, batteries or what is the situation? Yeah, I think it's just regular, batteries or what is the situation yeah i think it's just regular all the charm of an unplugged game and you have to buy that plug separate like that doesn't come with the game boy yeah um so that's that's fun anyway that's all i want i i i saw that last one first i was like oh man these guys are having to write about it can you imagine

like a single day as a movie critic and you're seeing Bo is Afraid, Mario movie, back to back? I would not come out of the other side of that one normal. I would come out of the other side of that one a different person, I think. You know, there's a lot of similarities between Ari Aster's Bo is Afraid and the Super Mario Bros. Both are a journey. Both have a lot of sort of psychosexual kind of implications. Well, I'm going to open the mailbag. That's cool by y'all.

I'm going to pour it out on the floor. Boy, it's looking full today. Okay, here's what we've got. This one from Amanda. Familiar. Amanda Herder on Twitter. Who is that? That's our business manager, Amanda.

Oh, I've spoken to her and worked with her. She's lovely. What's your go-to snack going to be to keep your energy up during your Tears of the Kingdom playthroughs? I don't believe in snacking while gaming. I feel the same way. Same way. Control just has it. I don't call gaming at all.

It's rare to me that I have a chunk of uninterrupted gaming time that is so long that i feel like i need to also plan some of my basic biological instincts and functions around it usually it's kind of catch-as-catch can can i add an x factor here do you know how some people in japan i guess maybe it's spread since then, but some people in Japan game and snack at the same time? They have a paid assistant who puts the Funyuns. How do they do it? They use chopsticks. Yeah.

Naturally. So you don't get it on your fingers. It's fucking genius. And why am I not doing this now? That makes perfect sense. I like gamer grub, obviously. Sure. If I am going to eat a meal while getting my game on

as a knight of the controller, as I prefer to be called when I'm in full-on gamer mode, I will order breadsticks from Geno's. Oh, I love this they put a lot get them with cheese and extra spice and then it's a plate that sits next to me you know what I mean

and it really makes me feel like I'm treating myself and it makes me really happy to like just get a big game going just a big release and just eat some Geno's breadsticks. I just can't even eat like that. Once I start, I'm going to like, that's going to be my focus.

Once you pop. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's good if it's got like a lot of talking. You ever play games that have a lot of reading or talking? Yes. No.

Yeah, I do. Do you? Just ask a plant specifically that was reading during gaming. I'm just surprised that you don't need hydration and maybe occasional nap breaks. That's what I have the IV for. I have my fluids, you know? And I have my catheter, and I'm all good.

Plant's favorite genre of video game is page turners. Sorry, Plant just suggested a sort of gamer situation where you have fluid coming in the IV bag and then... Yeah, it's called the perfect circle. One for one going out into a stadium, pal. The virtuous cycle of Mountain Dew. Yeah. Water world.

Hey. This one is just a comment about the movie from John Henry. This was my son's second... He's a two-year-old uh first movie theater experience and he was able to sit down and watch nearly the entire movie without fussing once of course he pooped in the middle of the night and he got everywhere but that's progress baby i i mean from a kid i didn't mention what my kids thought of it but like they didn't move like they were transfixed i mean i got up several times just to go walk around a little bit inside the theater uh they they loved they they loved it they were they were deeply into it um this one is from butch uh okay but did y'all

watch the dnd movie and the answer is yes and i haven't seen it yet i hear it's tremendous it's so good uh it's really good i'm kind of yeah yeah i'm jealous of other role play role play people yeah sure do like streaming that got invited to the premiere and i and i didn't wow that kind of hurt my feelings it kind of put a bad taste well we stopped playing dnd but they're bad they're super pissed off yeah also they're all based in los ang. That was easy. Also that. You're paying for an Uber at that point. And I'd love it out in La La Land.

It would be a great fit for me. But I just don't think I can make this switch at this point. I just want to see you dancing on the highway. Nobody else giving a care. This one's from Buds. What retro game deserves its own movie? Gats! This is going to care. This one's from Buds. What retro game deserves its own movie? Gex! Okay, this is a good segue.

What did Griffin yell? I'm sorry. I reflexively yelled Gex. It was like an animal. It was like a primal. Sorry, I stepped all over you, Russ, but Gex. Go ahead, Russ. Well, I was going to say, first of all, Gex is a good choice because it's already basically a movie, so they really

don't have to change very much. It's already very similar. And the writing is already top-notch. I guess my question is, there's two questions here. One, which retro game could be as financially successful as the Mario movie? Nothing.

On Earth. No, I mean, it's a singular problem. I mean, right like nothing could be that successful i think if there hadn't been a pokemon movie yet and they were just now going to do it off of the success of mario it has the potential to be more successful but yeah and maybe if kid icarus was 10 times as popular then and they made a Icarus movie, then I think that would probably be better too. A Pokemon movie by Illumination would have made for a much

better movie. I'm not saying it would have made more money, but there's actually a story. That Detective Pikachu movie was pretty good. No, he's saying the Mario movie. Did you guys see the trailer for Migration? Yeah. Oh my god, what was that? Guys, there was this trailer. If you didn't see, the movie has a preview for a movie called Migration

that looks so boring. It's just about ducks like flying south or something. And the first, it's a two minute long trailer, but the first like minute 30 is them like reestablishing their bona fides as a studio. It's like a 90 second long, no, no, no, but trust us. Seriously, seriously. No, we made, we made Sing and we made Sing and it looks like all of their franchises.

And then they're like, okay, and here it is, our movie about ducks. Can I be real? I can put a seven minute just ducks on a pond video in front of my son and he will stare at it like it's the fucking Oscar winning movie. Yeah. Also, I am very excited for this movie because when i get a trailer like that that is them telling us hey we get to make one movie for ourselves we've been doing this for a long time is that what it is we've you know we've earned it our boring duck yeah we're making our pixar movie we've we've made the animals sing for you we made the marios

let us make one movie and and they're like how are we going to market that and they're like everything we've got let's just show them all the billions of dollars we've made and maybe that will get somebody to show up to the theater um yeah it's gonna be that fucking movie i don't care um yeah i mean i'll probably go see that they don't make that many kids movies now which sucks let me let me ask you this do you think the next steps for this is basically turning this into the mcu for nintendo like where they'll just be like at the end of the third mario movie fucking samus's ball rolls past the frame and that like i just think i don't this is i i wouldn't have predicted that this movie would do as well as it did, so fuck me, what do I know?

But I would say that I don't feel like they can continue to play this same card over and over again. I feel like it's going to have to evolve as an actual movie a little bit more before you start to see diminishing returns. That's my gut but and to that extent like the way you could potentially do that is you have different movies on different characters that are sort of introduced in this baseline right like it started with iron man and then this movie is making so much money they're not gonna think about what makes a good story they're going to make a donkey kong tv show yeah and and they're going to make another Super Mario Bros. movie. It'll probably be Super Mario Bros. Galaxy. Or, you know what? Super Mario Bros. World.

Whatever the fuck that means. It doesn't mean anything. That's how these things get made. It doesn't mean anything. I was joking about Kid Icarus, but that might actually be an internet. That'd be kick-ass, man. Kid Icarus Uprising. It's not as reductive.

It's not based on... You think about XCOM, right? If you turn XCOM into a movie, it's just going to be... An alien movie. Alien, right? It's just going to be... Yeah, I mean, they've done that with Need for Speed and stuff. Yeah, and they stopped.

But it's not what I want, right? I don't want that. Here's a retro game franchise I would like. Castlevania. And I know that was a great anime. Amazing anime. The time isn't right for that. I'll tell you one. Carmen Sandiego.

I feel like it would be a fantastic movie. Yeah. I think that's right. Um. I mean, fucking Blaster Master? Oh my. I don't know what you want from me. You read my mind. I was like, guys can I say something? It was the first thing that popped into my head.

Blaster Master was a... I kid you not. If you haven't played it, it's a sort of two... It's a game with two sides. One where you're running around. It's like a platforming and you're little, I think. And then there's also, you have like a little tank car that you drive around and you blast up in. But you're like some sort of like amateur scientist

who accidentally shrinks himself down and then has to go on this tank adventure. And there are a bunch of sequels that have like surprisingly decent story in them. Yeah, the sequels are good. They're on Switch. And a number of other platforms. They're very good. Yeah, I would be into that.

River City Rampage? Let's get fucking gross with it. I guess that was Scott Pilgrim. Fuck. I was just thinking of how awesome it would be to do a Samus anime with no dialogue whatsoever. Fuck, that would be so cool. That would be cool. Did y'all...

Not related to this movie. Well, actually related. Charlie Day's Luigi. Have y'all seen the trailer for this Charlie Day movie that he wrote and directed where he doesn't talk? Yeah. Interesting. I want it to be good. It does look interesting.

Talk about like a movie that's like, hey, I get to make one thing because I've been doing this for a long time. Yeah, it's definitely, he wrote and directed it and stars in it. It's definitely his like passion project. I want that movie to be good. Anyway, the 12 hours he worked on the Mario movie was also bad. But what an afternoon it was. the press tour is what you're paid for for those movies yeah you know that does sound exhausting actually i don't i i would rather yeah um so honorable mentions anybody play anything else i'm up for the dlc in dark souls

3 which i've been replaying but i'd never play the DLC. And fuck, is anyone doing DLCs better than FromSoftware? I really don't think so, because those fucking DLCs are... That's Ringed City, right? That's Ringed City and also Ashes of Ariandel. Both are amazing. Ringed City is one of the most dopest things FromSoft has ever made. I haven't played since

it came out. How hard would it be for me to get back into it? I would start from scratch, which is what I've done. Cause the dark souls three fucking holds up and is great. And, and just play until you get to the DLC. That's,

you know what I've realized while playing these, I think the best time, and I'm going to ignore this for Elden Ring, but I think the best time to play the from software games is when all of the content is out and you play them together. Cause the DLCs are so well integrated into the main game. Yeah when all of the content is out and you play them together because the DLCs are so well integrated into the main game yeah and like the items like

pair well with like the other things that are in the main game that I mean that's kind of the experience I always end up playing the DLC or like dipping a toe in and it's been six months since I played the game or whatever it is and it feels weird and I feel lost and overwhelmed it's honestly like come to it late

and play through them all together it's great um maybe i'll do that i don't know um i have yeah i'll tell you what i'm gonna have another update on this next week because i'm gonna keep playing it but uh in light of the double fine documentary i returned to psychonauts 2 because i felt like i hadn't really given it a fair shake. And can I just say, I was like, this must have been a bunch of games coming out at the same time or something because I bounced off of it way too quick. I'm really enjoying it. I'm past the part that I dropped off at last time

and I didn't get very far and I'm really, really enjoying it. I think it has a slow to its peril opening, like first three to four hours. It was just like not the most compelling parts of the game. I think that is my experience. Yeah. I knew some of the, the,

the narrative stuff that was coming a little bit because the documentary. So I was like able to hang on through it, but it is slow starting. But once it gets to like helmet, I guess was the, the level where with the senses, you know? And that really like resonated a lot and that was like really really effective it looked amazing and i'd be up for doing a

reassessment episode on that if there's like if a slow season exists at some point this year i think it could be fun yeah and i you know what i never played rhombus ruin either so i mean nobody you're gonna be able to play that is it on pc or is it just on playstation vr yeah oh yeah that's a good question actually i don't know anybody else um i have been working my way through i mean still octopath but also resident evil 4 remake um played a lot of that on steam deck while i was traveling have now switched to playing it on a TV in my office. And wow, this game is very pretty. Is it okay on Steam Deck?

It works perfectly fine on Steam Deck. I am very glad that I'm now playing it on a TV with my headphones on in a dark room. Yeah. It just looks great. And on Steam Deck, I really felt like, yeah, this is old game this like this does not feel like a new game um but on a tv it i don't know the the graphics help a lot and making it feel fancier it's still very much like mechanically i i don't know familiar I guess is the nice way of putting it but it's good I'm like not super far still but I'm enjoying

it enough that I'm going to keep to it yeah it's good just a lot more Brotato hey I've been playing that too Griff good video game everyone agrees good video game well done

rotato premium rotato premium I wish they would tweak the like rewards for a good run type thing sometimes I wish it was something like you know a lot of these games a lot of these ass games you can look forward to like a big

payoff when you have a really good run where you get a lot of credits and you know you can look forward to like a big uh payoff when you have a really good run and we get a lot of credits in that and uh you know you can use that for uh better gear or skills or whatever and there is a system like that for achievements but i wish it was more one one but good really good uh folks what are we doing next week we're gonna be doing dead island 2 which is it's shocking i guess there was a spin-off dead island but this is the sequel it's been in development for like fucking eight years or something and it's actually finally coming out wow i can't believe it okay who could do the recap here because i i actually

just can't up to it i got it yeah that's what i do here's everything we talked about super mario brothers the movie no and then it's called The Super Mario Brothers Movie. I know. I know. I know. We also talked about Psychonauts 2, Dark Souls 3 DLC, Rotato Premium, Resident Evil 4 Remake. Oh, and we're talking about Dead Island 2 next week. That's it.

Yep. All right, folks. That that's gonna do it for us wait what the hell why does it say you can't make sense without a little horse sense at the bottom of the document yeah so I was thinking Griffin mentioned that like we need to start doing

PSAs and have phrases that don't mean a whole lot so I came up with you can't make sense without a little horse sense. That's good. I can't believe I got tricked. You made that possible,

Chris. Let's end the show. I'm Justin McElroy. I'm Griffin McElroy. I'm Chris Flayton. Wait, what are we doing? We don't say our names. We just went into Mabim Bam mode. We sure enjoy seeing you next week for the besties

because the world's best friends pick the world's besties. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba. Besties!