Editor’s Note: The following piece contains spoilers for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which is currently in theaters.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is a 1-up from most video game to film adaptations. It goes full steam ahead on fanservice but takes a poison mushroom when it comes to the plot and characters. 

Video game powerhouse Nintendo teams up with “Despicable Me” studio Illumination to deliver an animated film adaptation of their flagship series “Super Mario Bros.” 

The film is directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and stars Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day and Jack Black. It is also produced by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and founder of Illumination Chris Meledandri.

The film follows New York residents Mario (Pratt) and his younger brother Luigi (Day), owners of a struggling plumbing business in Brooklyn. When attempting to fix a manhole leak underground, the brothers are sucked into a warp pipe leaving them separated in another dimension. 

Mario finds himself landing in the whimsical, fungi-fested Mushroom Kingdom while Luigi falls into the clutches of the villainous King of the Koopas, Bowser (Black), who seeks to – you guessed it – rule the world. Upon discovering his brother’s predicament, Mario embarks on an adventure with the Mushroom Kingdom’s ruler, Princess Peach (Taylor-Joy) and one of its mushroom-headed inhabitants, Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), to save him.

This isn’t the first time the iconic game series has been adapted into a feature-length film. It was first attempted back in 1993 with a live-action film adaptation starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo. 

Unfortunately, this version barely had anything to do with the source material, leading to it being a box office flop and hated by fans and critics. Although, the 1993 version has since received a cult following in recent years.

Thankfully, with Mario’s creator Miyamoto on board as producer and Nintendo working very closely with Illumination, this new adaptation definitely excels over its predecessor. However, it still has flaws.

While the live-action “Super Mario” movie struggles from a confusing and bloated plot that has no connection to the source material, this animated adaptation suffers from having a generic plot held together by fanservice. 

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” tells a simple hero’s journey story that doesn’t have many twists or turns to make it unique. This also leads to many of the characters in the film being generic. 

Mario is an every-man who wants to prove to his family, mainly his father, that he can be successful as a plumber. However, this is brought up only two other times throughout the film, and by the end, he manages to achieve that goal. The film does try to use the rocky father-son relationship to give him some sort of chemistry with Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen), who’s also implied to have a rough relationship with his father. Unfortunately, that doesn’t go anywhere either. 

Luigi’s the wimpy scaredy cat who wants to be brave like his brother, an arc which also resolves itself by the end with no major development. Peach and Toad are possibly the worst, being the strong-willed love interest and comedic relief, respectively. 

While the film’s plot and main hero have the issue of being basic, the dialogue and even some of the comedy in the film was good. Bowser is definitely the highlight of the film as he’s given plenty of room to be both menacing and funny. The King of the Koopas even gets his own musical number titled “Peaches.”

Speaking of music, the score by Brian Tyler is a love letter to Mario fans, incorporating many songs and jingles from the video games into it. Like many of Illumination’s past films, however, there are licensed songs in the film too, such as “No Sleep ‘Till Brooklyn,” “Thunderstruck” and “Take On Me.”

The voice performances are also a stand out for this film as well. While Pratt is definitely a weird choice for Mario, his voice has since warmed up to me. The only voice I didn’t enjoy as much is Rogen as Donkey Kong. The very thing that I feared Pratt would do with his voice for Mario is exactly what Rogen did with the ape: used his regular voice. Whenever Donkey Kong opened his mouth, it’s Rogen’s regular raspy voice, which sounds out of place when paired up with the other performances in the film. Even when the character laughs, it’s still Rogen’s infamous laugh emanating from his vocal chords. 

The animation is expressive, colorful and is easily one of Illumination’s best looking films. Mario and friends look fantastic and accurate to their video game counterparts. The film’s set pieces and especially its action scenes are high-octane and fun as well. Both the Rainbow Road and Mushroom Kingdom invasion sequences contain impressive single shot takes, something not very common in animated films – at least to the extent they go to in this film. 

Even if the plot is generic as a red ball, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is a fun and enjoyable experience. The flaws that the film holds are ones that can and should be improved upon in the inevitable sequel. In fact, there’s a possibility that Nintendo could, down the line, turn other properties like “The Legend of Zelda” or “Kirby” into film.