The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Review

So we've got another Mario movie. But it is just as good as the first or is this sequel a bust?

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is an animated adventure comedy movie that's based on Nintendo's broader Mario franchise, but the story takes influence from the 2007 video game Super Mario Galaxy and it's 2010 sequel. The movie also serves as a sequel to 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie. This was produced by Illumination and Nintendo with Universal Pictures serving as the distributor. Returning to write the story is Michael Fogel and also returning to direct are Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic.

The story is, Princess Rosalina is the ruler of the Comet Observatory and mother to the Lumas, and she's just been kidnapped by Bowser Jr. who plans to both free and avenge his father. After receiving word of what's happened, Mario along his brother Luigi and their friends head off to outer space to save Rosalina and put a stop to Bowser Jr.'s plans.

Initial Reaction

So the reason why I wanted to go and see this was because the first movie was a fun surprise. I wasn't expecting it to be so good. So once more and more information of a sequel was released and then later a trailer, I was looking forward to this.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

There is one slight problem with the story. Now all of the space adventures, action, and comedy are very well done, those were the biggest highlights. But I feel as though Bowser's story was rushed. Now if you feel like I'm heading into spoiler territory then feel free to skip to the Pros section of the review! Okay, so at first it does seem like Bowser is turning over a new leaf. He has moments of out burst but he later apologizes for them. He also helps Mario & Luigi and shows worry/guilt for their safety and/or well being. But the moment he's reunited with his son Bowser Jr. and Bowser Jr. takes him down memory lane it's right back to villainy with him. Now I totally get it, Bowser is a recurring villain of the franchise so of course he was gonna turn back to his evil ways soon enough. But it felt like a little bit bummer when they dangled that story element over you and then just threw it away. Again, the story is still good, it's just that part felt rushed.

Pros

First praise will go to the pacing. This movie was a breeze to get though. It's a nice tight and brisk watch and not one minute is wasted. I also want to yet again give props to the voice cast. Once again Chris Pratt and Charlie Day are very entertaining as Mario and Luigi. And Anya Taylor-Joy also did a great job with Princess Peach, and even though she's not in it that much Brie Larson was also very good as Rosalina even getting rid of my originally fear she'd either be insufferable, wooden, or both. But I think my favorite newcomer was Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr. He was wonderfully charming in a very chaotic way. I just couldn't get enough of him. The last thing I'll praise is the animation. Wow, I hope the animators were paid well because they did a fantastic job. The space parts were incredible and captured the cosmic charm of the Mario Galaxy games. There were two moments that are stuck in my head. One was a beautiful moment where the characters are watching shooting stars and another was when Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi were out running a castle crashing right behind them. That was an awesome action moment.

This isn't a perfect movie, but I think professional critics saw a totally different film then the one I saw. Because the one I saw was a blast.

My final rating is, Good.

That's gonna do it for me. Come back on Monday, Apr 6th, for my Look Back at review of season four of The Boys. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day, and tomorrow, I hope you all have a very Happy Easter. 🐰

Raiders of The Lost Media - Family Guy: The Lost Pilot

Once again it's been awhile since I've done a Raiders. So it's time to change that. Let's get to it.

Part One - What is Family Guy?

Really? Do I really need to explain what this show is? I'm sure you know about one way or the other. Oh well, let's do it anyway.

Family Guy is animated sitcom created by Seth McFarlane that premiered on Jan 31st, 1999 on FOX following Super Bowl XXXIII with the rest of the first season airing on April 11th of the same year. The show was originally canceled shortly after the third season in 2002. But due to favorable DVD sales and high ratings from syndication, FOX was convinced to revive the show in 2004. The fourth season would later air in 2005, since then the show has continued with currently twenty-four seasons and over 400 episodes. The show also spawned two spin-offs the first being The Cleveland Show (2009-2013) which focused on the character of Cleveland Brown. The second is Stewie focusing on Stewie Griffin and as of writing this is scheduled to air somewhere in the 2027-2028 season.

The main plot of the show is about the dysfunctional family called the Griffin family consisting of married couple Peter & Lois and their three kids of Chris, Meg, and Stewie along with their talking dog named Brian, who are just trying to living normal lives in Quahog, Rhode Island. But often times that normalcy takes a curve ball when something or someone crazy gets involved and turns their day upside down.

Part Two - History of the Unaired Pilot

Before the pilot episode titled Death Has a Shadow aired there was an unaired pilot. It was 16 minutes long and was made sometime during 1998. The pilot would eventually become the aired pilot but when you watch the two side-by-side you'll notice differences in clothing, character designs, and scenes.

FOX gave Seth McFarlane a very small budget, a total of $50,000 to be specific, where most animated half-hour pilots are giving a budget of $1,000,000. Seth spent six months animating the pilot along with Jim Keeshen Productions, but according to Jim Keeshen he was the one who did all of the work. He would later file a lawsuit against both FOX and McFarlane on June 1st, 1999 but it would later be dismissed on Dec 28th, 2000.

At first the unaired pilot could only be found on the volume two DVD of the show, but it was only 7 minutes long with a "Coming Soon" bumper replacing the rest of it. The other proof of its existence were images found on fan sites, IMDB, and a few articles on BlogSpot. There were also some snippets of it that aired on early commercials and interviews with Seth McFarlane. It was also assumed that the full pilot was shared around years ago, where exactly though was never confirmed.

Part Three - Discovery

So the story of it's discovery is a short one. On Mar 20th, 2025, a user going by the name GhostTheDeadGirl discovered the full 16 minute pilot was on Robert Paulson's personal website and it's been there since Sept of 2022. Paulson's credited as one the "Digital Ink & Paint" crew members and is also credited under "Compositing".

So that's all for now. Come back on Saturday, Apr 4th for my review of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.