Directed by Aaron Hovath & Michael Jelenic, Written by Matthew Fogel, Starring the voice talent of Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anna Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Benny Safdie, Keegan Michael Key, Glen Powell, Brie Larson and Donal Glover.

If the 1993 Super Mario Bros. demonstrates an old mentality whereby filmmakers were embarrassed by source material such as comics or video games, The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) proved that the successful approach was actually slavish devotion to the source material. That film prioritised putting on screen the most iconic elements of the game, whether they made much story-sense or not. The film subsequently made all the money. The sequel has the exact same philosophy at heart: “Give the kids what they want.” And the kids clearly love it.

It’s a theme park ride, just like Martin Scorcese has said. Whether it is one that audiences beyond young Nintendo gamers will find appealing will, as ever, be a matter of taste. Universal’s Illumination Studio have so polished their style of computer animation and arguably perfected the craft of character design so that everything moves beautifully and smoothly, and is bright and colourful and every frame is generally packed with details that make it hard to be bored. Scenes are dependent on the constant barrage gags – not necessarily jokes spoken by characters, but brief sequences of action that involve overcoming an obstacle. It is not unfair to describe this sequel (along with the Minions franchise, and honestly everything all the way back to Ice Age) as a collection of micro-length, Looney Tunes style episodes, strung together by the pursuit of a goal that allows the characters to wander through as many fantastical set-pieces as can fit into 90 minutes.

There’s simply nothing notable to highlight about the film. Every performer is enthusiastic and appropriately emotive for their part, though it seems reasonable to question the need to ask Donald Glover to make a few cute noises as the non-speaking Yoshi. The inclusion of adjacent Nintendo character Fox McCloud (voiced by Glen Powell) brings a potential heroic rival to Mario, but the film very quickly shuts down any hint of that. The fact that shortly after the release of the film Nintendo announced a new Star Fox game makes it very hard not to view the writing of the whole film with a level of cynicism – very much like the whole show is a very expensive ad for the Switch…which, of course, is exactly what it is.

Kids do not have a problem with that; the film is loud and has characters and power-ups and vehicles and worlds that they recognise, and the fact that it’s barely memorable does nothing to diminish the fact that it was enjoyable to watch. It’s inoffensive, so parents can easily tolerate it playing in the background while they finish taxes. It demands very little of viewers…save that they commit to seeing the inevitable sequel, and in the meantime make sure you keep playing the game.

Alan Moore once spoke in an interview of the notion “give the audience what they want”, saying quite emphatically that whether they realise or not, “It’s not the job of the artist to give the audience what the audience wants. If the audience knew what they needed, then they wouldn’t be the audience…they’d be the artists.” Films can be an experience that enriches the soul. The Super Mario Bros.Movie is like the fondant of an expertly designed novelty cake: colourful and shaped in an appealing way, but even though its made of sugar it is somehow bland and even kids get tired of chewing it very quickly.