It's interesting because I struggled to enjoy ACOTAR the way others do, and hearing my best friend say, "It doesn't have to be well written to be enjoyable," really helped it make sense to me. All of those romantasy books deliver on what women want to read, and they do it in ways that are predictable, building anticipation in the readers from the very first chapter. Full fan service.
I think this a really inspirational essay, in the sense that I feel inspired to start my own Substack just to write a spiteful 2,000-word takedown of *your* essay >:D
Because, look, there are good things about 2023!Mario movie! The score is great, Illumination has an eye for color, Jack Black is having the time of his life as Bowser, whatever. But it is also a movie totally in the thrall of IP, and dedicated to cramming in as much I-Understood-That-Reference content as possible. And, you know, I do in fact understand the references, so I can say "oh, that guy harassing them in the pizzeria is Foreman Spike, antagonist of the pre-'Super Mario Bros.' title 'Wrecking Crew,' ha ha." But... who cares? Is there anyone under the age of 40 who has actually played "Wrecking Crew," even? The film isn't *bad* because of that, but that's an early signal that this is a children's movie that isn't actually for children, IMO.
We've had two successful (financially, anyway) movies adapted from Nintendo games, this and Detective Pikachu. The latter is an artistically successful movie, IMO, but that's obvious in hindsight because the films are based on very different franchises! The premise of Pokemon - imagine a world where you coexist with and befriend magical creatures! - is flattened by the rules of JRPGs into a string of nonstop combat scenarios interrupted by the occasional "feed Bulbasaur muffins" minigame; the joy promised by Pokemon can only be fulfilled by animation and narrative storytelling. Whereas the iconography of Mario games (pipes, ? blocks, mushrooms, coins) is, well, iconic, but it's also arbitrary and nonsensical outside the world of video games - the Mario games are a series of technicolor obstacle courses with no pretense of realism beyond "fuck it, let's make a fun video game." (Except Odyssey - which in going all-in on photorealism for everyone *except* Mario makes it obvious just how deliberately silly Mario and his world are.) Hence why the Pokemon anime is still popular in its six millionth season, whereas all the Mario TV shows are unwatchable kitsch coasting on the recognizability of the [?] sprite.
I can tell you that Mario is definitely for children. Every aspect of Mario and every game he's ever been in is for children. That they add little winks to the adults in this movie is no different than Shrek adding in sexual innuendo that won't be understood by anyone under 15. I would say the same thing about Up. The toddlers in the audience weren't weeping during the first ten minutes, but most of the adults at the theatre were. That doesn't mean that Up is for adults and not children. It jsut means that the filmmakers understood that the sea of children would have a number of adults out there as well and since they need to sit in the dark theatre for 90 minutes, we may as well try to engage them too.
That movies can attempt to amuse and entertain multiple audiences at the same time isn't a sign that it favors one audience over the other.
And of course it's in thrall to its IP! It only exists to feed the Mario machine! But if someone is opposed to that (which is fine), why go to the movie? Because if it upsets you that a Mario movie would be full of fanservice for people who love Mario...I mean, I literally don't know what to tell you.
If you stand in line to get on a rollercoaster, you can get annoyed that it's just like a bunch of other rollercoasters where you go fast, go up and down, or you can throw your hands in the air and scream at all the right parts and have a good time.
You know, I want to agree with you! I want to agree with the Ebertesque "meet the movie where it is" philosophy; I know I have grown past the "oh, you're over 18 and you're watching cartoons?" phrase of my life. And yet! There are good rollercoasters and there bad rollercoasters, and there are good IP-driven movies for children and there good IP-driven movies for children. I genuinely enjoyed Detective Pikachu both on I Am A Serious Moviegoer grounds and on the OMG IT'S BULBASAUR!!!! front. It puts effort into having its own aesthetic, which synthesizes the source material with the visual language of film noir; it has an actual story, with characters with discernable personalities and motives, and at least one genuinely surprising and funny plot twist. What it is *not* doing is *just* piggybacking off "hey, it's Pikachu!" - there is a genuine movie here. I cannot say that about the Illumination Mario film.
Ultimately I think a Mario movie could have been *actually* good instead of "something to plunk your toddler in front of while you politely chuckle at the easter eggs," but it would've required creative risks. Risks which Illumination and Nintendo... could have easily taken! "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is a five-word license to print money.
Just commenting on the beginning of this article. I believe a lot of people think they used to be smarter because they were always pondering the big ideas, talking about different philosophies, etc. But the truth is that there are only so many big ideas and it gets old. After a certain point, you're just running in circles and coming up with the same five "answers." That's my experience, anyway.
I'd rather read this article again than some rehashed answer to "does free will exist" or whatever.
I would say that most Marvel movies deliberately pander to their audiences, especially the mid-credit and post-credit scenes. I'd say the Disney remakes are also very deliberately made to pander to their audience. I think those Lego sets that have 18+ on the box are also pandering to a very specific niche audience.
The joyless people you mentioned are known as misanthropes- they have it in their nature to hate many things, but more specifically, they hate other people and being around them. Which is basically what taking in a movie at a theatre is.
Some media critics have this quality to their reviews, but it is mainly because they have measured the work against the standards they have for their media or genre of choice, and have found it wanting.
They want the people and industries responsible for them to do better, so that, to paraphrase George Orwell, life can be worth living.
I think it's all well and good to want media industries to do better, but I also think making the Mario movie a lightning rod for this sort of criticism is baffling.
Mario is one of the most recognizable creations on the planet. Mario games have sold nearly a billion copies. If you've already made the decision to go, you should know that you're not getting Fellini or even something remotely attempting to do anything like that.
It's interesting because I struggled to enjoy ACOTAR the way others do, and hearing my best friend say, "It doesn't have to be well written to be enjoyable," really helped it make sense to me. All of those romantasy books deliver on what women want to read, and they do it in ways that are predictable, building anticipation in the readers from the very first chapter. Full fan service.
I think this a really inspirational essay, in the sense that I feel inspired to start my own Substack just to write a spiteful 2,000-word takedown of *your* essay >:D
Because, look, there are good things about 2023!Mario movie! The score is great, Illumination has an eye for color, Jack Black is having the time of his life as Bowser, whatever. But it is also a movie totally in the thrall of IP, and dedicated to cramming in as much I-Understood-That-Reference content as possible. And, you know, I do in fact understand the references, so I can say "oh, that guy harassing them in the pizzeria is Foreman Spike, antagonist of the pre-'Super Mario Bros.' title 'Wrecking Crew,' ha ha." But... who cares? Is there anyone under the age of 40 who has actually played "Wrecking Crew," even? The film isn't *bad* because of that, but that's an early signal that this is a children's movie that isn't actually for children, IMO.
We've had two successful (financially, anyway) movies adapted from Nintendo games, this and Detective Pikachu. The latter is an artistically successful movie, IMO, but that's obvious in hindsight because the films are based on very different franchises! The premise of Pokemon - imagine a world where you coexist with and befriend magical creatures! - is flattened by the rules of JRPGs into a string of nonstop combat scenarios interrupted by the occasional "feed Bulbasaur muffins" minigame; the joy promised by Pokemon can only be fulfilled by animation and narrative storytelling. Whereas the iconography of Mario games (pipes, ? blocks, mushrooms, coins) is, well, iconic, but it's also arbitrary and nonsensical outside the world of video games - the Mario games are a series of technicolor obstacle courses with no pretense of realism beyond "fuck it, let's make a fun video game." (Except Odyssey - which in going all-in on photorealism for everyone *except* Mario makes it obvious just how deliberately silly Mario and his world are.) Hence why the Pokemon anime is still popular in its six millionth season, whereas all the Mario TV shows are unwatchable kitsch coasting on the recognizability of the [?] sprite.
Ha, you should!
I can tell you that Mario is definitely for children. Every aspect of Mario and every game he's ever been in is for children. That they add little winks to the adults in this movie is no different than Shrek adding in sexual innuendo that won't be understood by anyone under 15. I would say the same thing about Up. The toddlers in the audience weren't weeping during the first ten minutes, but most of the adults at the theatre were. That doesn't mean that Up is for adults and not children. It jsut means that the filmmakers understood that the sea of children would have a number of adults out there as well and since they need to sit in the dark theatre for 90 minutes, we may as well try to engage them too.
That movies can attempt to amuse and entertain multiple audiences at the same time isn't a sign that it favors one audience over the other.
And of course it's in thrall to its IP! It only exists to feed the Mario machine! But if someone is opposed to that (which is fine), why go to the movie? Because if it upsets you that a Mario movie would be full of fanservice for people who love Mario...I mean, I literally don't know what to tell you.
If you stand in line to get on a rollercoaster, you can get annoyed that it's just like a bunch of other rollercoasters where you go fast, go up and down, or you can throw your hands in the air and scream at all the right parts and have a good time.
You know, I want to agree with you! I want to agree with the Ebertesque "meet the movie where it is" philosophy; I know I have grown past the "oh, you're over 18 and you're watching cartoons?" phrase of my life. And yet! There are good rollercoasters and there bad rollercoasters, and there are good IP-driven movies for children and there good IP-driven movies for children. I genuinely enjoyed Detective Pikachu both on I Am A Serious Moviegoer grounds and on the OMG IT'S BULBASAUR!!!! front. It puts effort into having its own aesthetic, which synthesizes the source material with the visual language of film noir; it has an actual story, with characters with discernable personalities and motives, and at least one genuinely surprising and funny plot twist. What it is *not* doing is *just* piggybacking off "hey, it's Pikachu!" - there is a genuine movie here. I cannot say that about the Illumination Mario film.
Ultimately I think a Mario movie could have been *actually* good instead of "something to plunk your toddler in front of while you politely chuckle at the easter eggs," but it would've required creative risks. Risks which Illumination and Nintendo... could have easily taken! "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is a five-word license to print money.
Just commenting on the beginning of this article. I believe a lot of people think they used to be smarter because they were always pondering the big ideas, talking about different philosophies, etc. But the truth is that there are only so many big ideas and it gets old. After a certain point, you're just running in circles and coming up with the same five "answers." That's my experience, anyway.
I'd rather read this article again than some rehashed answer to "does free will exist" or whatever.
Enjoyed this. To play devil's advocate, is there any film or other piece of media that you would say is legitimately pandering to its audience?
I would say that most Marvel movies deliberately pander to their audiences, especially the mid-credit and post-credit scenes. I'd say the Disney remakes are also very deliberately made to pander to their audience. I think those Lego sets that have 18+ on the box are also pandering to a very specific niche audience.
One complication here is that any work of mainstream media is necessarily targeted towards a specific demographic.
The joyless people you mentioned are known as misanthropes- they have it in their nature to hate many things, but more specifically, they hate other people and being around them. Which is basically what taking in a movie at a theatre is.
Some media critics have this quality to their reviews, but it is mainly because they have measured the work against the standards they have for their media or genre of choice, and have found it wanting.
They want the people and industries responsible for them to do better, so that, to paraphrase George Orwell, life can be worth living.
I think it's all well and good to want media industries to do better, but I also think making the Mario movie a lightning rod for this sort of criticism is baffling.
Mario is one of the most recognizable creations on the planet. Mario games have sold nearly a billion copies. If you've already made the decision to go, you should know that you're not getting Fellini or even something remotely attempting to do anything like that.
I would love to see a Fellini Super Mario Bros. movie.
Me too, honestly!