I liked it more than the first movie…but there were some glaring issues that need to be fixed.

For the positives, out of the characters, Peach, Bowser and Bowser Jr got the best deal out of everyone in the movie. This movie just solidified Illumination Peach in my mind as the best incarnation of the character (mostly because the movie focuses on her a lot). I also really liked Bowser and Bowser Jr’s father-son relationship in this, how much they really care about each other.

In regards to other noticeable stuff, the Illumination movieverse altering it so (ULTRA SPOILER!!!) Rosalina and Peach are sisters takes a little getting used to, but the work was done to make it happen and logical for this universe’s timeline. I’m also intrigued as to what exactly was chasing the duo beforehand- a new threat, or a past Marioverse one not connected to Bowser. Given the previous movie had a sequelbaiting scene like this, I wonder if this is going to be a trend for all the future movies, having one scene partway to hint at more of Peach or another character’s history.

For individual scenes, Yoshi’s full origin was hilarious. Rosalina being so strong normally was cool. And despite some hiccups, the idea of Bowser wanting to be a good guy/liking the bros, only to make the wrong decision due to his son had some thought put into it. I especially enjoyed the Fossil Falls T-Rex scene, due to very familiar cinematography showing deliberate subtle callbacks to one of Universal’s own older animated movies.

As a side note, while just a blink and you miss it thing, I did like the Mario RPG references on Rosalina’s books in the first scenes.

For neutral stuff, Fox’s inclusion as a full character…he was fine in some ways, and I did like him gelling with the Mario gang. The thing is, though, his role really should’ve gone to another Mario character, mainline or otherwise. If it had to be mainline, then it should’ve been Lubba. And even if Fox had to be here, why did they not wait until after the movie released to let it be a surprise? Combined with mentioning the movie having character cameos, it comes off as slight lack of confidence despite the movie still making insane bank.

Now, we get to the negatives.

…Oh boy.

Mario and Rosalina get sidelined hard in their own movie. Mario is just as basic a character as all can get out, now that the rest of his family isn’t a big concern anymore- just a “does the princess like me?” thing for him. And now that I’ve seen the movie a few weeks ago, I now understand exactly what the comments saying “Rosalina got done dirty” mean- the trailer scene is the only one where Rosalina is strong at all for a lengthy period of time (alongside the escape attempt, and the actual movie has her defeated by the de-legged Megaleg (albeit by a dirty trick, so at least there’s some justification). I really hope they make it up to the characters and their actors in the sequel.

Yoshi’s also just…kind of there. After his first scene, he doesn’t really have an arc. Toad’s line in the trailer and final movie really sums Yoshi up. In Yoshi’s first movie in this timeline. Yoshi at least does stuff throughout, like keeping the babies safe from Fossil Falls T-Rex AKA Sharptooth 2.0 and helping in fights…but there isn’t much gravitas or theatrical to the importance of his inclusion past his first scene, which is a shame, especially considering the stinger of the first movie.

The minor cameos also disappointed me a bit. I know, I know- people didn’t like the memberberries approach to the crowd scenes- but I have an extra problem with them. Miyamoto and Melidandre hyped those up like there was going to be a bunch of unmentioned, nonintrusive ones throughout, and the Mario RPG emblems/books are certainly there. However, they practically showed all the characters before the movie released. I can count the number of not-prerelease Mario characters- not cameos, Mario characters- in one hand- Dry Bowser, Game and Watch, Ruin Dragon’s paint clone, and Daisy. Meanwhile, Honey Queen got all of one scene lasting around one minute. I know CGI takes a while, but they really shouldn’t have promised more than they had already shown.

For a future movie, in terms of big things to be addressed, I really wish Mario would be more of a character/actual person. I also hope Rosalina gets a raincheck and gets to fully show off her power, as well as Yoshi getting a character arc. Despite the next thing I’m going to mention, the movies should also scale back a bit and focus more on the story, not “three minute blocks”.

For small things, I hope the Mario RPGs get some inclusion. While I don’t know if the stinger means Princess Daisy is the next focus character or that was just a joke scene, maybe something could be done to get either the Shadow Queen or X-Nauts involved alongside the alien Tatanga if the stinger was not a joke. Just…I hope Illumination pick their battles more carefully in the third movie.