With the first Super Mario Bros Movie (2023) grossing $1.36 billion worldwide at the box-office a sequel was a certainty, the only surprise being that it’s taken three years to hit cinema screens.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie follows straight on from the 2023 film, hopefully you’ll have caught the end credit sequence as it plays a big part in the latest adventure of the Italian/American plumber brothers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day).

The ever so thin plot sees brothers Luigi and Mario, who are now hailed as the heroes of The Mushroom Kingdom after defeating Bowser (Jack Black), again teaming up with Princess Peach’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) after her sister Rosalina (Brie Larson) is kidnapped by some strange alien being. Also thrown into the mix is a subplot that sees Bowser’s son, Browser JNR (Benny Safdie) trying to rescue his father who has been shrunk by an adult Peach and is imprisoned in her castle.

As someone having only a passing knowledge of The Super Mario games it’s hard to know what to make of the latest film. Whereas the first film was easily followed, even if you did have only the basic knowledge of the games, the second film, with so many references to the games characters and the actual games themselves, demands more of an in-depth knowledge to truly appreciated what’s going on.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is fast and frenetic and will no doubt please fans of the original games but if, like me you’ve, never played a Super Mario game you might just leave the cinema being a little bored and lost as to what you’ve just witnessed.