The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) is directed by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Pierre Leduc, and Fabien Polack, featuring a script by Matthew Fogel. It stars Chris Pratt, Anya-Taylor Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Benny Safdie, Brie Larson, Donald Glover, Issa Rae, Kevin Michael Richardson, Roxana Ortega, Luis Guzman, Eric Bauza, Virginia Dare Jelenic, Ed Skudder, Juliet Jelenic, and Glen Powell. Following their defeat of Bowser (Black), the Super Mario Bros. and company embark on an intergalactic journey to save Princess Rosalina (Larson) from the clutches of Bowser Jr. (Safdie). This forces them to work alongside the seemingly reformed Bowser, who claims he intends to make amends for his missteps as a father.

The returning cast easily step back into the shoes of these iconic video game characters, which is unfortunately more than can be said about this sequel’s new additions. Benny Safdie does little interesting with the role of Bowser Jr., and Brie Larson as Princess Rosalina just comes across as a hilariously lazy carbon copy of the already dangerously generic (but likable) Princess Peach. It feels as if they were cast simply to add a few big names to the marketing. The most egregious example of this is Donald Glover as Yoshi, which is comparably unnecessary to Vin Diesel’s casting as Groot in The Guardians of the Galaxy movies. The only new addition that somewhat works is Glenn Powell as Fox McCloud from the Star Fox franchise, but even he feels a bit tacked on and underutilized. 

  The visuals are arguably stronger than those of the first film, which is somewhat expected considering the larger budget and inherently flashier setting. It’s once again nice to see an animated film that feels like the budget shows in the final product. As an endless stream of bright images and easter eggs, the film works as a zippy, shut-your-brain-off roller coaster ride. Unfortunately, this has even less story than its predecessor, which contained only the bare minimum to get by. Everything about the characters is as generic as you can imagine, with the only development being that Mario and Luigi are basically treated like superheroes now. Nearly every development makes them less interesting than before, which ultimately makes this journey feel meaningless. 

Jack Black’s Bowser receives the best arc of the bunch and is once again the standout character. Unfortunately, this arc just sends him straight back to the exact same person he was at the beginning of the first movie, which feels kind of regressive. Considering that it reestablishes him as the villain he was always meant to be, it’s easily forgiven. However, this is still a significant step down from the character’s role in the previous film, even though it remains one of its stronger elements. 

Overall, this is a sharp-looking sequel with all of the references and easter eggs fans desire, but little else. Compared to its predecessor, the story is shoddy and simple, while the humor and overarching tone are much more childish. It loses a lot of the first film’s crowd-pleasing magic, but should satisfy audiences who care primarily about the visuals/references. It’s not offensive, but it’s pretty generic and disappointing. C