Nintendo boss Shigeru Miyamoto has said the harsh reviews of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie are “baffling”.
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The Super Mario Galaxy Movie sees the return of Jack Black (Bowser), Chris Pratt (Mario), Charlie Day (Luigi), Anya Taylor-Joy (Peach), Keegan-Michael Key (Toad) and Kevin Michael Richardson (Kamek) alongside newcomers Donald Glover (Yoshi), Brie Larson (Princess Rosalina), Issa Rae (Honey Queen), Wednesday’s Luis Guzman (Wart) and Benny Safdie (Bowser Jr.).
The follow-up to 2023’s blockbuster The Super Mario Bros. Movie hit cinemas earlier this month and has already become the highest-grossing film of 2026 but isn’t a hit with critics. The film currently has a 43 per cent score on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes and a “generally unfavourable” review score on Metacritic.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was also panned by critics but went on to gross more than $1.36billion. “Regarding the previous film, I felt that the critics’ opinions did hold some validity. However, I thought things would be different this time around—only to find that the criticism is even harsher than it was before,” Nintendo game director Shigeru Miyamoto told journalists ahead of the Japanese launch of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (via Famitsu).
“It really is quite baffling. Here we are, having crossed over from a different field [and] working hard with the specific aim of helping to revitalise the film industry, yet the very people who ought to be championing that cause seem to be the ones taking a passive stance,” he added.
In 2023, Miyamoto said bad reviews of The Super Mario Bros. Movie “contributed to the movie’s notoriety and buzz.”
“You need some luck to achieve this level of success for a film,” he added. Next year, a live-action Legend Of Zelda film will be released and there are reports a third Super Mario movie and a Donkey Kong spin-off are also in the works. However Miyamoto has shut down speculation that Nintendo are working towards a Super Smash Bros.-inspired film.
In other news, the organisers of the Ivor Novello Awards have announced a new ceremony to recognise film, TV and video game composers.
The post Nintendo boss “baffled” by negative ‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ reviews appeared first on NME.
