Mario is finally physically here to watch again and again and again.
I’ve eagerly been awaiting the home physical release of The Super Mario Bros. movie, and it’s finally here. Though, it’s hard for me to pin down when it actually released. Mine shipped last week, but officially it’s not supposed to come out until June 13th. That said many retailers are selling it now, so good luck if you’re interested. I pre-ordered the Best Buy exclusive Power Up Edition that comes with a special SteelBook. This edition includes a 4K Ultra HD version of the film, the standard Blu-ray, and a digital copy of the movie.
Upon first examination, the SteelBook looks very nice, especially the inside art of the Mushroom Kingdom. However, it does include a paper back that folds over the front a bit, and there is no way to nicely tuck that stuff inside. I’ve also found it hard to remove the standard Blu-ray version in the back, and the SteelBook seems to scratch fairly easily. So if you go with this version handle it with care.
I’ve hopped around to selected scenes of the movie, and it looks great on my home setup. When I have more time, I’ll give it a full viewing, while taking full advantage of a feature I couldn’t use when seeing the film in a theater: the magical “pause” button. I’ve already given it a shot and was able to spot an Easter egg I missed in theaters, so I’m excited to hunt for more on my own time. The movie sounded fine to me, but I have a simple soundbar setup.
While the movie may be great, I was rather let down by the Bonus Features included on both the 4K disc as well as the standard Blu-ray. These consist of Getting to Know the Cast, Leveling Up: Making The Super Mario Bros. Movie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie Field Guide, “Peaches” Lyric Video, and Leadership Lessons from Anya Taylor-Joy.
All of these are fairly straightforward but don’t offer much substance. It’s mostly the cast, directors, and other fine folks that worked on this cinematic masterpiece saying typical marketing stuff about the movie interrupted by frequent clips from the film in an attempt to add entertainment to the presentation. There is some concept art shown and brief behind-the-scenes looks at things, but it all goes by fast and everything here feels more like an infomercial for a movie I just bought.
There are some Nintendo personalities shown in the Bonus Features, such as Shigeru Miyamoto and Koji Kondo, and it was nice seeing them. Miyamoto especially seems thrilled to be there and not forced due to some contractual obligation. Though I should say Jack Black continues to seem like the cast member that is enjoying his time the most during all of this.The biggest takeaways from the Bonus Features are that Miyamoto came up with the idea of Mario disliking mushrooms for the film, and most of the cast and people behind the movie would love to do another Mario movie and/or spinoffs.
I don’t know what I was expecting out of the Bonus Features; some more in-depth talk about why certain decisions were made, a concept art gallery, some commentary with Miyamoto would have been nice, but maybe asking a bit much. Sadly we got none of this. I just walked away from the extra content, which I think ran for a little more than an hour, wishing I hadn’t watched it at all. Please folks, just stick to the great feature length film instead of seeing clips, some of which are repeated throughout the Bonus Features while people sell you on it.
Overall, I’ll live with the purchase as it’s still The Super Mario Bros. Movie whenever I want it and in high definition. But if you’re going to get a copy for yourself you should probably stick with the standard case version unless the SteelBook is really appealing to you. I only went with it to match my SteelBook copy of the hit 1993 film titled Super Mario Bros.: The Movie. That ain’t no game.
