Hey, all, it’s been a minute. After about a month of not being able to get to the movies, I finally was able to see something new. Thanks to the privilege of having a young teenager, I was able to treat myself to the height of cinema that is The Super Mario Bros. Movie. And…it was good?

So, if you have lived on planet Earth for anytime in the last 40 years or so, you know that Mario is the hero of Nintendo’s long-lived video game franchise. The little Italian plumber (sans official name “Mario”) first appeared in the arcade classic Donkey Kong, a game I never had the privilege of getting past the fourth level on. But it wasn’t until 1985’s Nintendo Entertainment System game “Super Mario Bros.” that Mario came into his own. His adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom saving Princess Toadstool from a band of warlike turtles led to many, many, many hours played across the world. As consoles got better, so did Mario games, which, as of 2019, accounted for $32 billion profit for Nintendo. With such a beloved character, it was only fair that it was time for a sincere attempt at a Mario movie (sorry, fans of the 1993 live-action movie, but that movie is terrible). And so here we are.

The plot (yes, there’s a plot) is that Mario (Chris Pratt) and his brother Luigi (Charlie Day) are having trouble getting their new plumbing business started. As they try to take advantage of a plumbing emergency that threatens Brooklyn (because that happens), they get sucked through the plumbing into different parts of the aforementioned Mushroom Kingdom. Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), a particularly game resident of the land, takes Mario to see the ruler of the kingdom, Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), to get help finding his brother. Instead, he winds up taking part in an epic war against the Koopas (those are the turtles) and their burly leader, Bowser (Jack Black), to save the Mushroom people. The resulting adventures are a trip down Mario memory lane, including a battle on the girders with Donkey Kong (Seth Rogan) and a really fun Mario Kart battle sequence, and a return to Brooklyn, where Mario, Luigi, and Peach have their final showdown with Bowser.

One watches The Super Mario Bros. Movie and contemplates the important message of how to pursue your dreams. Or maybe how to work together to overcome evil. Or to make the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good. Or, as one of the best characters in the movie puts it, maybe the message is, “There is no escape. The only hope is the sweet relief of death.” Or…no, not really. While it’s primarily a kids’ movie and several simple lessons could be drawn, the real point is the sweet, sweet draw of Mario nostalgia. The film respects its source material and draws on the video game empire to give a similarly tactile feel to the very CGI-driven eye candy of the film. This movie feels like playing the video games and winds up drawing you into it much like a game does. The voice cast all does respectable work; Black especially gets to have a lot of fun playing Bowser as a lovesick puppy (including performing a wonderfully overwrought ballad in Peach’s honor) who really just wants to be loved in return. Even the massive score is a delight, adapting the familiar music from the videogames into something big, brassy, and surprisingly wonderful.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie certainly doesn’t need critical acclaim to be a success. The first real family movie of the year, its first two weeks have shattered multiple box office records, already nearing $700 million globally in less than two weeks. And it certainly isn’t a great film about big ideas or anything like that. But it’s colorful, sufficiently creative, competently made, and–most importantly–fun. And that’s-a more than enough for Mario to win this round.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is currently in theaters.

(Photo credit: Nintendo and Universal Studios)