Super Mario Bros 2: The Lost Levels

"Are you up 2 it?"

- Tagline

Super Mario Bros 2: The Lost Levels (also known as Super Mario Bros. 2) is a 2024 American computer animated action-adventure fantasy comedy film based on the Super Mario Bros. series and the sequel to Super Mario Bros. The movie is published by Nintendo and is produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film is directed and written by Alex Hirsch with Matthew Fogel and Jeff Rowe co-writing, produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller with Shigeru Miyamoto and Chris Meledandri serving as executive producers. The film stars Chris Pratt as the titular role of Mario while John Mulaney plays Luigi. The film also stars Charles Martinet, Gina Rodriguez, Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Charlie Day, Sarah Silverman, Josh Gad, John Cena and Gabriel Iglesias, al cast members from the previous films who reprise their roles while Jack Black, Zach Galifianakis, Stephanie Beatriz and Michael Peña joins the cast. The film follows Mario and Luigi after settling in the Mushroom Kingdom, being thrust into a new high octane adventure in Subcon where the Bros. are quickly separated and must team up with old and new allies to stop Wart (an evil frog king) who wants to merge all dimensions into one and rule them with an iron fist.

After the success of the first film both critically and financially, both DreamWorks and Nintendo had decided to greenlit multiple sequels and a spin-off film with the first of these sequels being announced in November 2020 with animation work beginning in March 2021, with a visual style similar to Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

Super Mario Bros. 2 was scheduled for a theatrical holiday 2023 release, but was delayed to April 5th, 2024 in the United States & Canada, and March 29th for European and Asian countries. The film received critical acclaim for its animation, action scenes, visual style, voice acting and humor, with many considering it superior to its direct predecessor. Particular praise and acclaim was given to how it tackled themes such as death, family trauma, honour, love and change in spite of a "similar story structure". Additionally, the film earned $1.2 billion in the box office, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2024 and the eighth-highest-grossing animated film. It set multiple box-office records, including records for the biggest worldwide opening weekend for an animated film and the highest-grossing film based on a video game.

The movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, but won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

Synopsis
"Super Mario Bros 2: The Lost Levels is a new animated movie that is the sequel to the hit first movie based on Gaming's Most Famous Plumbers. Set shortly after the events of the first film, Mario and Luigi are now running a successful plumbing business in the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario is also starting a relationship with the ruler of the land, Princess Peach, to the dismay of Toadsworth. Luigi on the other hand is raising a pet Yoshi as his own son and is trying to get with Peach's best friend, Princess Daisy (who rules Sarasaland). However, the Bros.' life is frequently hindered by the ruler of the Darklands, Bowser, alongside his son, Bowser Jr. and his new advisor Kammy Koopa who try to capture the Princess, rule the world and to have vengeance with Mario after he brought the Koopa Kingdom down. Since then, they've had many battles, but after Bowser loses to Mario while the Bros. are on vacation, he sets his biggest plan in motion to take Peach's Castle into space, but is abruptly halted when a race of people from the World of Dreams, named Subcon (which is lead by an evil frog king named Wart) have devised a plan to merge the dimensions to reign supreme. While this is going on, Sarasaland is under attack by Tatanga, Wart's second-in-command and best friend who goes to marry Princess Daisy (who is having her birthday party). The two Bros. are quickly separated in this strange new dream dimension. While Mario and Peach ends up in the Dream Forest, Luigi and Daisy end up captured by Wart and are set to be executed in the next 48 hours. The Brothers must use new strange powers and work with a few unlikely allies, both new and old, to stop a new inter-dimensional scheme that will end all worlds."

- Universal Pictures

Act 1
The film opens in a strange Factory in Subcon. Tatanga tells his boss that “The Red Demon” is the reason that he can’t merge the dimensions. Wart, his boss, says that they can lure Mario in and kill him by his special plan. Mouser calls The 8-Bits and they go to the Mushroom Kingdom using the Dream Machine. Meanwhile, Mario, Luigi and their friends go on a Vacation in Isle Delfino to get away from Bowser, but after the Brothers get some food in the Hotel, Bowser and a Blue doppelganger version of Mario creating Goopy Monsters attack Isle Delfino and capture Peach.

Voice Cast

 * Chris Pratt as Mario Mario A Kind, optimistic, outgoing, adventurous, courageous yet unknowingly somewhat cocky and childish plumber. When presented with a challenge Mario would try his best to overcome it yet can get frustrated easily when it’s not so straight forward, he will always look for the best in the worst of situations and will try to help people at all costs, no matter what. He also loves food, especially Spaghetti. In the Sequel, Mario would be dealing with the stress of the world changing around him and the inevitability of death but realises it’s a natural part of life.
 * John Mulaney as Luigi Mario, Mario’s Younger Brother who is timid, cowardly, childish (more than Mario) and has social anxiety yet would still have the same Heroic ideology as Mario. He is more of the straight man and more down to earth compared to Mario, Luigi in this film would be learning about how can’t rely on Mario all the time and needs to become his own Hero/person
 * Gina Rodriguez as Princess Peach, The ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom who isn’t that posh and fair like most people would expect but rather is more tomboyish and independent. Peach has always longed for adventure as she has been stuck in the Mushroom Kingdom all her life and know has the opportunity for that when the world is plunged into chaos with Subcon, helping Mario (her Boyfriend) to save the Mushroom Kingdom
 * Stephine Beatriz as Daisy, A Thrill-seeking Princess/ruler of Sarasaland who dismisses her role as one and instead wants to play sport, party and go on Adventure, she is reluctant to start a relationship however to the dismay of Luigi
 * Josh Gad as Baby Yoshi, The offspring/revival of Yoshi from the previous film and serves as Mario & Luigi adoptive son
 * Charlie Day as Captain Toad, The Heroic & resourceful Captain of the Toad brigade who is a musician, Toadworth’s nephew and Peach’s Number 1 supporter
 * Sarah Silverman as Toadette, Captain Toad’s wife who is a smart archeologist and is somewhat overactive, adventurous, intelligent and would help Captain Toad in his various antics despite how dumb they are or if Captain Toad doesn't want even her there.
 * John Cena as Donkey Kong The III, A dimwitted ape who is environmentalist and is obsessed with Food (especially Bananas).
 * Gabriel Iglesias as Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong’s Small Monkey best friend who is laidback, somewhat lazy and sarcastic, he also acts as the wisecracker of the group who will frequently tell jokes and break the 4th wall yet would know when not to have a joke in some instances and would be the person to talk to in the worst of situations.
 * Will Arnett as Bowser, The Main Villain of the previous Film and now teams up with Mario & Peach to save their friends and Bowser’s Kingdom, Bowser is a meathead, dumb, bafoonish, wimpy and a bit childish but is very capable, strong and knows how to get things done.
 * Michael Cera as Bowser Jr, The Nerdy 14 Year Old Heir to the throne of the Dark Kingdom and wants to impress his father due to being pressured by the entire Koopa Kingdom. He & his father are on better terms from the previous film.
 * Tress MacNeille as Kammy Koopa, Bowser’s new loyal henchwoman who is Kamek’s wife
 * Jack Black as Wart, The Main Villain of the film who is bafoonish, wimpy and childish but has an incredibly cruel side, planning to merge all worlds/dimensions to rule them all
 * Zach Galifianakis as Tatanga, A Purple Alien who was a resident of Sarasaland but was banished to Subcon where he was acquainted with Wart, Who promised him that Tatanga would return to Sarasaland if he helped served him
 * Michael Peña as Mouser, A Crazy Pyromaniac Mouse who serves as Wart’s Second in Command
 * Keegan Micheal Key, Jordan Peele and Ron Funches as Triclyde, A Three Headed Snake who always argues with itself
 * Bill Burr as Fryguy, An Angry Sentient Fireball
 * Rupaul Andre Charles as Birdo, A Transgender Dinosaur (who Wart’s disapproves of) and is Wart’s adoptive daughter
 * Kristen Wiig as The Sprixie Princess, A race of fairies who grant wishes

Development
In May 2019, Furukawa said that Nintendo was interested in producing more animated films based on its intellectual properties if the Mario Bros. film is successful. In a Variety cover story before the film's release, producer Meledandri was asked about potential sequels, or projects adapted from other Nintendo properties, and answered, "Our focus right now is entirely on bringing the film out to the audience, and at this time, we're not prepared to talk about what's coming in the future".

In April 2020, Arnett expressed interest in a sequel featuring several characters from the video games such as Daisy or Rosalina. In August 2020, Lord & Miller acknowledged that the origin story set and completed in the film could create the potential for many different stories to be told from the Mario universe, By the end of November, both Dreamworks and Nintendo had decided to greenlit multiple sequels and a spin-off films due to the "incredible buzz" surrounding it, planning for a holiday 2022 release. It was established that Phil Lord & Chris Miller however would not return for the sequel and would only give advice if needed, instead the film would be directed by Alex Hirch, who headlined the screenplay of the first film would direct the 2nd Film along with creating the story of the film with Matthew Fogel and Jeff Rowe co-writing. The film was said to continue the Mario Bros story as Kingdom-renowned heroes along with exploring a new and unfamiliar world with fan favourite characters and forgotten characters being in the film with it being based on a multitude of Mario Games to create “new exciting story”.

The film was officially revealed in Winter 2020 for a tentative Fall 2023 release window, the film was named Super Mario Bros 2 The Lost Levels, it was said that the film would be a “Crazy, Off the wall Transformative experience” from people who worked on it. In May 2021, a synopsis of the story was released as Universal submitted a copyright registration to the U.S. Copyright Office catalog

Casting
In November of 2020, it was confirmed the most of the cast of the previous film would return along with newcomers such as Jack Black as Wart, Zach Galifianakis as Tatanga and Stephanie Beatriz as Daisy. Jack Black was originally eyed for Bowser and Mario respectively, but Hirsch wanted to have a villain that was both threatening in his own right and played into Black’s strengths as an actor. Additional actors such as Micheal Peña as Mouser, RuPaul as Birdo, Keegan Micheal Key, Jordan Peele and Ron Funches as Triclyde were announced after the release of the first Trailer

Animation
Lord revealed that design work for the film had begun by September 2020. Having learned new animation tools after working on The Mitchells vs. the Machines, The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the team wanted to utilise a similar style for scenes that take place in Subcon. Using new technology, the team at DreamWorks focused more on a painterly style design, to make the film look like a fairy-tale/dream-like world

Theatrical
The film was scheduled for a theatrical holiday 2023 release but was delayed to April 5th 2024 in the United States & Canada and March 29th for European and Asian Countries

Home Media
Super Mario Bros 2 was released on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD on September 13th 2020 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. The DVD release also includes an audio commentary, deleted scenes, in-Universe Bloopers and making of featurettes.

Box Office
Super Mario Bros 2: The Lost Levels has grossed $520.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $745.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.280 billion. It is the highest-grossing film of 2024, and became the highest-grossing film based on a video game after just one week of release, beating the previous movie and Sonic the Hedgehog

Critical Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 289 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads, “Let’sa Go!, The structure may seem familiar to fans of the original, but Super Mario Bros 2: The Lost Levels offers enough action, comedy, emotional depth, nods to the source material and visual sparkle to compensate”. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a 72 out of 100 based on 65 Critics indicating “Generally favourable Reviews”. The film garnered a "near-perfect" audience score once again of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of A+ on an A+ to F scale with 97% saying that they would recommend it