Kids will probably love this scattershot dash through Nintendo’s most popular properties. But then kids, rarely the most discerning audience members at the best of times, will routinely mistake familiarity for fun – something that this lazy picture exploits extensively. Musical motifs from beloved games, minor characters, nods to the Mario legacy: all were greeted with shrieks of excitable recognition at the screening I attended. The Super Mario Bros Movie is a frantic Easter egg hunt of a film that does the bare minimum to please its loyal existing fanbase. Those less enthralled by the antics of the moustachioed Italian plumber will wonder which of Donkey Kong’s weaponised barrels this joyless, noisy mess was scraped from.
