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The 2nd Mario Movie and Narrative Balance

I watched the second Mario Movie with my brother, and it left me angry. What had the workings of a good movie was ultimately held to the ground by its narrative incoherence, unnecessary number of forced references, and lack of strong plot thread.

The first Mario movie was special to us both. It wasn't anything new in terms of plot, animation, or character development, but it was fun all the same. It made me, personally, feel like I was getting in touch with my inner child and holding her hand. Some people hate it, but it has a special place in my heart. It still does. And I just wished they left the movies there. There's nothing more tragic (in cinema) when studios feel the need to make a subpar sequel to rake in that sweet, sweet millennial nostalgia cash.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie felt like eating M&Ms for dinner. Sure, it tastes good, if you have fifty sweet teeth. But it has no substance, nothing to connect them, and a mish-mash of sugary flavors that end up just giving you a headache. There's a reason children are (usually) taught to enjoy vegetables. It's the same with movies.

Sure, if kids want to watch something mind-numbing, it's a good choice. But children's cinema, and media in general, are better when they teach children something. Be nice to others, don't judge by appearances, sharing is caring, and so on. For children who enjoy movies/TV, simple point A to point B plot structures are helpful in shaping early media knowledge.

Did I like anything? Yeah, basically all the parts with Yoshi. The exploring Brooklyn NY montage was so cute and made me 'awwww'. And, uh... that's basically it. Honestly, Yoshi was done SO dirty. A whole movie focusing on Yoshi as a pet, dog, and man's best friend type character would have gone so hard. But he barely matters after the first five minutes.

What is Narrative Balance?
Let me start by saying I'm no expert in writing nor storytelling. Ultimately I've just been fudging my way through with scotch tape, glue, and the few screenwriting classes I took in college. So I'm not sure if there's a better name for what I'm calling Narrative Balance. If there is, please tell me, but for now:

Narrative balance is (how I see) how a movie or story takes all of its plot points -- its main plot, B-plots, and running gags -- and ties them together in a cohesive manner. It's why movies stick to one plot thread, maybe with a B-plot if it has time and can keep the audience's attention. If you've watched the 2nd Mario Movie, you'll know where this is going.

The more plot elements you have in a story, the harder it is to juggle. When you have two or three plot threads, every scene needs to count. It needs to mean something and move the plot forward.

Sadly, as visually compelling as Fox McCloud (yes, you read that right)'s backstory was, and how fun the montage of going around the kingdom to help at the beginning was, they don't add anything to the plot. One or two of the scenes would be passable, but it's every page of the script where the movie shoves in another reference or another unnecessary sequence. When every scene is precious, and you have dozens of scenes that serve no purpose narratively, its balance falls apart. I'd say the balance probably fell apart 20 minutes into the movie. The rest was an utter slog to get through.

The "It's a Movie for Kids" Defense
Yeah. It's made for kids. Honestly, I wonder if they just hired a bunch of excitable 8 year olds to write the movie. But the wonky nature of the movie, coupled with cameos to make adults have the nostalgic serotonin boost, is insulting to all the viewers' intelligence.

Want to know some other kids/family movies with strong, coherent, intelligent plots?

Not only do these movies have a coherent plot, but they have messages. Mitchells vs. the Machines examined how families can fall apart due to misunderstandings. Nimona and Megamind both express the dangers of judging others and villainizing them by appearance alone. Home Alone's church scene has stuck with me as one of my favorite scenes in all of family cinema history. Hell, the first Mario movie talked about brotherly love, perseverance, and supporting loved ones through hardship.

What was the second Mario Movie's plot? Bowser becoming a good guy? The first part of the movie made me think it was just an act and I was genuinely confused when he started showing signs of changing. Bowser wanting to reconnect with his son? Welp, guess we gotta throw the first one out of the window. What? We could have used that dynamic as an emotionally charged way to rebuild their relationship as opposed to swinging Bowser's arc back and forth? Nooooooooo. Was it about Princess Peach finding Rosalina? Let's not talk about how little screentime Rosalina got in favor of... Fox McCloud?

Listen, a plot doesn't have to be groundbreaking. You can throw in as many references while doing so, too -- the Sonic movies were full of them and they were all expertly placed, subtle easter eggs, and a love letter to the fans old and new (still amazed by the inclusion of Sanic.) In fact, that's why many people watch children movies. They stick to familiar tropes and are predictable if you've taken any kind of storytelling class.

When Narratives Fail to Balance
In a future blog post, I'll talk about when I tried to write a sci-fi story and was ultimately held back by my inability to juggle large, wide-branching narratives. Mario's world is already pre-built (albeit a mashup for half a dozen games), so they didn't have to learn to balance everything. Unfortunately, the movie sacrifices structure for saying "here's this reference! Hey, remember this? 30 year olds will LOVE this reference, and look at this..." If they wanted to incorporate Odyssey elements, they should have split it into multiple movies. Hell, I wish they just did a Super Smash Bros movie, cuz then the references would, I dunno, make sense.

As it stands, the movie is bad. I think ultimately the movie's biggest mistake is splitting up into three teams. Mario, Yoshi, and Luigi; Bowser, Bowser Jr, and Rosalina; and Peach and Luma. Sure, the teams converge and split up and reconvene, but this is significantly worse. Keep three running major plot threads, a billion gazillion unnecessary scenes, and a checklist of references to show off, you will inevitably struggle to balance everything.

If the Mario movie focused on one, maybe 2 plot threads (like the first one, where the main story was Peach and Mario with Luigi being shown as Bowser's prisoner), it would have worked great. But as it is, the movie needed a better story editor/scenario writer. If their goal was to shove a bunch of references to get people hyped and bored again because that makes money, well, I suppose they did. But was it worth it? Was it really worth sacrificing a potential good movie in favor of pure junk food? I don't think so.

The end credits scene hinted towards a third movie. And... sigh. I'm not optimistic. If they're going to make another bad movie for quick cash, I wish they just didn't make one at all. But companies are driven by money, and we can't deny nostalgia is a huge source of it.

(If you're interested in how nostalgia is misused for marketing, I'd recommend this great video essay by gabi belle, "How Nostalgia Controls Us".)

#movie #narrative