Crucial Podcast "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" (2023‪)‬ Crucial Podcast

Sometimes you just have to draw a line. Yeah, ain't that the way these days.
I just gotta say some stuff on "The Super Mario Bros. Movie".
My issue going into this movie was pure fatigue. It wasn't fatigue from over saturation of blockbusters, I actually don't watch that many blockbusters these days. I just had this sinking feeling every time I saw an ad for this movie. Everyone is going to be talking about this. No one has any reason to like this over anything else. Everyone is going to ask me about this movie a hundred times because they know I like Mario games, and animated features. This may be strange to hear from a guy that does a podcast discussing movies... but I just didn't want to formulate an opinion. I didn't want to watch it. I didn't want to discuss it. I didn't want to have to disagree with people or not be excited for it when they wanted me to be.
 
You may have picked up along the way that I am a fan of animation. I was the kind of kid at age ten to twelve that wasn't quite ready
for "Predator". Instead I was hip deep in "The Simpsons", "Earthworm Jim", and "Ren and Stimpy" cartoons. Looking back I think it was less that I only enjoyed comedy and more that I resonated hard with the raw emotional expression of the cartoons that were around in the 90's. I also believe this is what attracted me to anime. A wild array of emotional expression all pulled off with what was at the time, a beautifully minimalist art style. To put that another way. Very few lines in the face that get across specific emotions. Not just angry, or crying, but pensive, nervous or vulnerable, hanging on someones words. That kind of stuff.
 
NUANCE: THERES NO ROOM FOR NUANCE ANYMORE!!!
 
There is nuance in "The Super Mario Bros. Movie". Executed in a way that I have not seen in a hot minute. Family movies or what we used to call "PG-13" type adventure movies are in a very bad place right now. While I'd like to just blame Marvel or Disney while I point and stare holes through them that would not only be too easy, but also wouldn't get to the root issue. The problem is that kids entertainment has to be so strongly separated from adult entertainment by style and tone that they have no room for any real emotional tension. You can have a character say out loud they are frightened... scared, but you cant portray the scene with visceral tension. You cant ever make the kids, or more importantly their hyper vigilant parents, actually feel bad. That is the first issue.
 
The second issue is that blockbusters have slowly consumed the PG-13 space entirely. To the point that when "Deadpool" was announced most of the discussion revolved around it being rated "R". In my opinion "Deadpool" could have easily been every bit as edgy as it was and be a PG-13 movie. Just shoot around the blood a little bit, and bleep a couple of "Fucks" like they did in "The Dark Knight". Tell me "Deadpool" is more emotionally intense than "The Dark Knight". Not on paper. Don't describe to me what happens during Deadpool's origin events, deal with whats on screen. That is how how movies are rated. Not by concept, but by what is shown on camera and how the rater feels about it. No, "Deadpool" was rated "R" because it broke to drastically from the Marvel formula, so it needed to be marketed that way. They anticipated a push back and leaned into it, and it worked. The audience had been too strongly conditioned on tone, and "Deadpool" straight up kills people on camera. Not just crazy villainous space creatures from beyond the moon, but average people. See blockbusters don't destroy cities because they have gone mad with CGI power, they do it because it has a big visual impact, increases the threat of an enemy, and avoids killing individual people on camera. You know people are dying, but you don't have to watch it.
 
Characters die on camera in "The Super Mario Bros. Movie". It isn't grotesque, but its there. Bowser actually destroys things, he actually wants to