The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

• 1. Introduction

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  The Super Mario Galaxy Movie cost $110 million to make and earned $992 million worldwide. Critics were far less generous than ticket buyers. This 2026 animated sequel sends the plumber brothers Mario and Luigi into outer space, where Bowser and his son are waiting. It finished as the highest-grossing film of 2026. Among films adapted from video games, only its own predecessor, The Super Mario Bros. Movie from 2023, has earned more. So why did audiences turn out in such numbers while many reviewers wrote scathing verdicts? Where did the idea come from, and who lent their voices to it? And what do a dinosaur, a fox pilot and a long-lost sister have to do with the story?

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• 2. A Sequel Takes Shape

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  In May 2021, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa made a conditional promise. If the first Mario film succeeded, the company would gladly make more animated films from its properties. That film's post-credits scene hinted at a follow-up featuring Yoshi, Mario's dinosaur steed. Jack Black floated a wish of his own, hoping Pedro Pascal would voice Wario, Mario's self-declared arch-rival.

  After the first film opened in April 2023 to a strong box office, Nintendo said more films were coming. It would not confirm a Mario sequel. That June, Chris Pratt said a sequel would be announced "soon", though he warned that the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike would affect production. In December 2023, Black said he hoped the sequel would be a musical titled Bowser's Revenge.

  Confirmation came in March 2024, during a Mario Day presentation. Illumination CEO and producer Chris Meledandri and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed the project together. Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic would direct again, and Matthew Fogel would return to write the screenplay. Meledandri said the Illumination team was storyboarding and "developing set designs for new environments".

  Miyamoto later revealed that the sequel was first planned as a Yoshi movie, with Yoshi living in Brooklyn. That idea shrank into a montage in the finished film. The core inspiration became the games Super Mario Galaxy, from 2007, and Super Mario Galaxy 2, from 2010. The Star Fox series supplied further ideas, and Meledandri promised "surprises for fans of every Mario era". In October 2024, Keegan-Michael Key predicted a story "broader in scope" with "new folks and old favorites and some folks that he thinks are really deep cuts".

  Miyamoto also described a change of heart about Princess Peach. He, Horvath, Jelenic and Meledandri felt that her portrayal as a "strong woman" in the first film "wasn't enough". So the sequel gives her worries, emotions and shifting feelings in her relationship with Mario, to make her more relatable. The finished title was revealed in September 2025, during a Nintendo Direct presentation.

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• 3. Voices Old and New

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  Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Black, Key and Kevin Michael Richardson were confirmed to reprise their roles at that title announcement. Pratt voices Mario, and Taylor-Joy voices Princess Peach. Day plays Luigi, Mario's timid younger twin, and Black plays Bowser, the King of the Koopas. Key plays Toad, while Richardson plays Kamek, Bowser's Magikoopa advisor and informant.

  On the 12th of November 2025, a Nintendo Direct presentation for the trailer announced Brie Larson as Rosalina, a princess from outer space. Benny Safdie was cast as Bowser Jr., Bowser's son. The final trailer, on the 9th of March 2026, revealed Donald Glover, Issa Rae and Luis Guzmán. Glover voices Yoshi in every dubbed version of the film. Rae plays the Honey Queen, a large queen bee who rules the Honeyhive Galaxy. Guzmán plays Wart, a toad crime boss who owns a casino.

  Days before release, on the 27th of March 2026, Glen Powell was revealed as Fox McCloud, the Star Fox protagonist and a red fox mercenary space pilot. Powell and Glover had each pitched themselves for their parts after the first film came out. Powell had long dreamed of appearing in a Star Fox film. Glover had always wanted to be in a Nintendo film. Meledandri contacted both of them back.

  The creators of Star Fox reacted warmly. Developer Argonaut Games felt proud to see Fox included. Designer Takaya Imamura was "overwhelmed with emotion" and thanked Miyamoto for the inclusion.

  The smaller roles have a family flavor. Juliet Jelenic, daughter of co-director Michael Jelenic, returns as Lumalee, a nihilistic blue Luma who was once Bowser's prisoner and now works as a prison guard. Her sisters Pepper and Virginia Dare voice the Lumas together. Roxana Ortega voices Ukiki, a monkey-like thief, and story supervisor Ed Skudder voices R.O.B., a robot who works in the Gateway Galaxy. Eric Bauza returns as the blue Toad general in Peach's court. For the Japanese dub, the actors were given freedom to improvise their characters' dialogue.

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• 4. Rosalina's Rescue

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  Princess Rosalina, the adoptive mother of the Lumas, lives in the Comet Observatory. Bowser Jr. kidnaps her to drain her powers and fuel a cannon meant to destroy the universe. He does it in honor of his father, Bowser, who lost to Mario and Luigi and was shrunken by Princess Peach.

  Far away, Mario and Luigi are asked to inspect a disturbance in Tostarena Town. There they meet Yoshi, a dinosaur who hatched in Brooklyn. He was chased back to his home world after accidentally breaking a dinosaur skeleton in a museum. A Luma sent by Rosalina reaches the Mushroom Kingdom and recruits Peach and Toad. While they are gone, Mario, Luigi and Yoshi protect the kingdom and try to rehabilitate Bowser.

  Bowser Jr. then lifts Peach's castle into space to free his father. A battle with the brothers and Yoshi makes his spaceship drop the castle into the Honeyhive Galaxy. Bowser goads Mario into attacking him, which unshrinks him. He then kindly offers to be arrested for damaging the fields, if the brothers and Yoshi are transported to the Gateway Galaxy.

  In the Gateway Galaxy, the monkey thief Ukiki steals Toad's backpack and carries it to a hidden casino. Peach forces the casino's owner to reveal that Rosalina is in the Space Junk Galaxy. He then alerts the Bowsers about Peach. Mario, Luigi and Yoshi reunite with Peach and Toad, who have hired a pilot named Fox McCloud. His Arwing ship crash-lands in Fossil Falls after an attack by Bowser Jr., who uses a Super Scope to turn Mario and Luigi into babies. Yoshi finds the Super Scope, rescues the brothers from a Tyrannosaurus and restores their ages. Luigi alerts the Lumas, who pick the group up in the Comet Observatory.

  There, Peach learns that she shares Rosalina's powers. Rosalina is her long-lost older sister, and when their hands touch they can summon the power of the cosmos. Both were born from stardust. Rosalina sent infant Peach to the Mushroom Kingdom to protect her from an unknown attacker.

  Bowser's own family story runs alongside. His son has abducted him after years apart. Bowser expresses regret over double-crossing the brothers, but he returns to his old ways to mend his relationship with his son. Fox, Toad and the Lumas pilot the Comet Observatory to send Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Peach to Planet Bowser, a newly made world.

  Mario and Peach confront Bowser on a bridge, and Mario drops him into the lava moat below. He survives in a skeletal form. Luigi and Yoshi help Mario beat the Bowsers with power-ups. When one of Bowser Jr.'s creations turns against him, Mario destroys it to save the young Koopa's life. Peach revives a dying Rosalina, and together they terraform Planet Bowser into a new world.

  Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario, Luigi and Yoshi help the sisters, the Toads and the Lumas rebuild Peach's castle. Fox sends the Bowsers to prison before heading home to his own universe. Back at the Gateway Galaxy, Princess Daisy stops Ukiki from committing another robbery.

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• 5. Paris Studio and Orchestra

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  Illumination Studios Paris, in Paris, France, animated the film, just as it did the first. Production was underway by March 2024, and the animation finished in November 2025. In January 2026, Meledandri confirmed that animation was complete and post-production had begun. Benjamin Faure animated the scene in which Fox explains his backstory.

  Brian Tyler, who scored the first film, returned as composer. On the 12th of September 2025, it was reported that he would come back. Tyler said he composed several pieces of the score from a hospital without telling the staff. A 70-piece orchestra performs the music, which arranges themes from both Super Mario Galaxy games and other installments in the Super Mario series. Back Lot Music and iam8bit released the soundtrack on the 1st of April 2026.

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• 6. Premiere and Box Office

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  The film premiered at Minami-za in Kyoto on the 28th of March 2026. Universal Pictures released it in the United States on the 1st of April, moving it up from an original date of the 3rd of April. Japan followed on the 24th of April. The release included RealD 3D and IMAX formats.

  The first day in the United States and Canada brought in $34 million, beating the $31.7 million earned by the predecessor's first day. Over its first two days, the film earned $122.1 million worldwide. Its three-day opening of $131.7 million was the fourth-biggest Easter three-day opening of all time. It trailed The Super Mario Bros. Movie at $146.4 million, Furious 7 at $147.8 million and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice at $166 million.

  The five-day debut reached $190.8 million, fourth-biggest in the region. Only Moana 2 ($225.4 million in 2024), The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($204.6 million in 2023) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($200 million in 2009) opened bigger. Its Monday gross of $16.8 million was the highest Monday of 2026.

  Internationally, 80 markets delivered $182.4 million over the opening weekend, for a global debut of $372.6 million. That was the biggest global opening of 2026. It made the Mario films the only animated franchise with two entries opening above $350 million globally. It ranks as the fifth-biggest global opening for an animated film and the second-biggest for an Illumination film. Among video game adaptations, only the first Mario film opened bigger.

  The weekends that followed shrank steadily. The second brought $68 million, a decline of 49%, and kept the top spot. The third, at $36.5 million, was still first. In the fourth weekend, the film slipped to second place behind the film Michael, with $20.6 million. In total, it took $427 million in the United States and Canada and $565 million elsewhere. It was also the highest-grossing animated film of the year.

  At home, the film reached video on demand on the 19th of May 2026. Under Universal's long-term deal with Netflix, it streams first on Peacock for four months, then on Netflix for ten months, then returns to Peacock for four months. Discs on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD arrive on the 16th of June 2026.

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• 7. Critics and Crowds

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  Kevin Maher of The Times gave the film zero out of five and called it "the end of cinema". He wrote that it "provoked periods of actual physical discomfort". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave it one out of five, calling it a "bland screensaver of a movie". Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail compared it with cosmic horrors like Cthulhu and Azathoth. He wrote that the film "retains no vaguely redeeming qualities".

  William Bibbiani of TheWrap complained that the film lacked substance and purpose, so that the dialogue vanished under "the incessant sound of Aristotle's ghost punching himself". Alissa Wilkinson of The New York Times found "a flat empty nothingness" and said the overstuffed narrative left little room for emotional investment. She still gave mild praise to the animators' imaginative planet-hopping world-building. Tara Brady of The Irish Times said the subplots remained half-formed and the ending felt abrupt. Her last line was "At least it's short."

  Owen Gleiberman of Variety had praised the previous film. He called this one a "frenetic and disappointing sequel" and wrote that it "almost seems like these talented artists have been body-snatched". Wilson Chapman of IndieWire gave it a C-, describing imagination packed into "the most cleanly corporate and focus-group approved form possible".

  Other critics were kinder. Soren Andersen of The Seattle Times wrote that watching it "is akin to being inside the 2007 Super Mario Galaxy game itself". Joseph A. Wulfsohn of Fox News called it "a joy for both kids and their nostalgic parents", praising Tyler's score and Jack Black's performance. Andrzej Lukowski of Time Out gave it three out of five, saying it was "made with love and it hits the spot". Clint Gage of IGN called it a "dazzling, reference-stuffed sequel" but found the plot crowded and lacking a single emotional throughline.

  Lindsey Bahr of the Associated Press praised the inventive animation and playful family dynamics. She found the embedded merchandise placement distracting. Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film "hits the sweet spot in terms of what its target audience wants", while noting that adult non-aficionados might find little beyond its superficial charms.

  Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave an average grade of "A minus ", down from the first film's "A". PostTrak found that 79% of audiences gave a positive review, and 62% said they would "definitely recommend" it. Miyamoto said the fast pacing was intentional, to keep both children and their parents engaged.

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• 8. What Comes Next

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  In May 2025, Nintendo and Universal filed copyright information for an "Untitled Donkey Kong Project". In March 2026, Jack Black inadvertently revealed plans for a third Mario film, to be released in 2029.

  In April 2026, after the film's release, Miyamoto implied that no crossover film based on the Super Smash Bros. games was planned. He said that unlike Super Smash Bros., "I don't think you'll have a situation where all Nintendo characters would be joining." That same month, an "untitled Illumination/Nintendo event film", rumored to be a Donkey Kong-centric spinoff, was given a release date of the 12th of April 2028.

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