Staff writer Dannica Paliza Batoon reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and its ambitious but fragmented storytelling.
The introduction of new characters in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie boldly and imaginatively expands the universe, raising the stakes of Mario’s adventure. While this ambition is visually impressive and at times genuinely exciting, it ultimately comes at the cost of narrative cohesion. The film reflects a broader shift in modern storytelling, with rapidly changing environments and multiple backstories competing for attention. Yet, as a film, it feels disjointed. As Mashable described it, the sequel feels more like a Nintendo commercial rather than a standalone story.
For a Super Mario fan and animator, however, the sequel generated excitement reminiscent of the 2007 Nintendo platformer. The film beautifully conceptualised the game’s “planet gravity” mechanics while effectively blending Bowser’s Galaxy Reactor with more traditional Super Mario visuals that even non-players would recognise. It bridged generations of players and non-players alike, transforming gameplay into a shared experience and reaffirming its place as a lasting pop culture icon.
Migration, Memory, and Meaning
Leaving was the goal for most characters in the film, and these departures were rooted in childhood experiences. Rosalina had to send the young Peach to the Mushroom Kingdom for safety. Rosalina also left the Lumas to defeat Bowser’s son. Most of Shigeru Miyamoto’s beloved characters must leave their home to save it.
The theme of migration and displacement was also critical to the successful introduction of several characters, since the original gameplay focuses mainly on Mario’s sacrificial love for Peach. This strategy makes sense because Nintendo originally used a simple, easy-to-follow story to highlight the platformer’s innovative and complex gameplay.
Culture heavily influenced the film’s fragmentation. Wa (和), a Japanese concept that favours harmony over individual recognition, is crucial to the producers’ vision. Shigeru Miyamoto and the team reportedly felt “great joy” in sharing the main characters’ spotlight with other Nintendo characters. Above all, Miyamoto was Illumination’s “most important audience.” As a result, the film becomes an emotional exploration rather than a simple rescue story.
It also offers real-life hope and perhaps a vision of international solidarity. Rebuilding a kingdom requires the aid of other kingdoms so that displaced people can return home. In the end, it was not primarily the Toads that rebuilt Princess Peach’s castle; a more capable kingdom had to restore it.
Migration as Fragmented Movement
The film’s rapid switching between settings echoes the experience of migration itself, where movement between places is rarely linear or settled. Just as the narrative follows multiple characters across different routes and temporary destinations, migration often involves overlapping journeys, detours, and fragmented pathways. Migration is not a single, stable progression. What may feel like cinematic fragmentation therefore resembles the lived reality of people moving between homes, identities, and unfamiliar spaces.
Its geographical positioning, from the Mushroom Kingdom to the Galaxy, can also be interpreted as a metaphor for diasporic layering. Migrant communities often maintain symbolic connections between their origin and destination. These movements create a mental geography in which multiple places coexist rather than replace one another. The film’s vertical expansion reflects how cultural imagination preserves links between homeland and new environments, which are never entirely separate worlds.
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