Illumination and Nintendo co-produced the animated film based on Nintendo’s Mario video game, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” It was released in the U.S. on April 5. As a big fan of the Mario series, I went to the AMC theatre last Wednesday. This was my first time watching a movie in the U.S. It has been a long time since going to the movie theater for me. Red seats, dim, yellow lights, the smell of popcorn, everything was pleasant because it looked the same as Korea.

The film industry is one of the most affected industries by COVID. Since social media offerings such as YouTube and OTT services increased, movie audiences decreased. This phenomenon was accelerated after the pandemic.

However, now our life is back on track. Box office sales at movie theaters in North America reached $100 million during the Memorial Day holiday in the U.S. in 2021. Additionally, the audience for the movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” was higher than before COVID. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has already grossed over $1 billion. It became one of the highest-grossing movies in 2023.

But personally, I thought the story was a shame. It was a banal narrative relying on characters, which is predictable. That doesn’t mean the direction or other technical aspects are special. The way of delivering emotional lines is also outdated. If another movie was made with the same story, I wonder if it would be highlighted. However, there were a lot of allusions in the movie. It is better to know some basic information about Mario before enjoying the movie more. In my case, I was satisfied with the movie even though I didn’t like the story.

New Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart, Mario Party, Super Mario Galaxy… It is safe to say that I grew up with the Mario series. The scenes where Mario gets bigger after he eats mushrooms, jumps on the bricks, and avoids obstacles arouse nostalgia. The familiar soundtrack brought me back to when I was 7 years old. There were more adults than kids in the movie theater. I guess it is because we are in the same generation who played Mario games. I could feel that we are sharing the same memories in one place, even though we are perfect strangers. Those 90 minutes while watching the movie gave me a weird comfort.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was released a few days ago in Korea (KST, April 26). I hope I can meet the people who I played the game together with, in the Mushroom Kingdom again.

Juri Kim is an international intern from Korea.