The Super Mario Bros. + A Minecraft Movie

2025-05-30

[School of Movies 2025] Two of the most successful films of the 20s, both of them built on the winning formula of bewildered people from the real world being plunged into an alternate dimension which allows them to encounter pleasingly recognisable elements from the video games that general audiences like, on their way towards assisting with deposing a tyrannical warmonger. The problem for us is that Super Mario Bros. is a long-running and beloved series of platformers, kart racers and RPGs,...

[School of Movies 2025]

Two of the most successful films of the 20s, both of them built on the winning formula of bewildered people from the real world being plunged into an alternate dimension which allows them to encounter pleasingly recognisable elements from the video games that general audiences like, on their way towards assisting with deposing a tyrannical warmonger.

The problem for us is that Super Mario Bros. is a long-running and beloved series of platformers, kart racers and RPGs, whereas Minecraft is a creative building block survival indie hit gone corporate phenomenon, that wound up dominating the 2010s to the point of being used as a teaching aid in schools. These are VERY different kinds of games... so why are their movies the same?

This show combines my 2023 first impressions After School Club on the Mario movie, and new recordings where Sharon and especially Willow (the catchment audience) talk about both of them.

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