As “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” dominates the box office, some conservative moviegoers are performing a victory dance for anti-woke entertainment. But are they celebrating a hollow victory?
It’s true that the film adaptation of one of the most beloved video games of all time is blissfully free of same-sex kiss scenes and subtly placed “protect trans kids” posters, unlike other children’s movies of the day. But the lack of blatant leftist propaganda doesn’t automatically make “The Super Mario Movie” anti-woke.
Some Twitter users are pointing out how conservative moviegoers are so desperate for agenda-free entertainment that they’re willing to overlook some obvious flaws in the storyline.
“Unpopular opinion but it’s a bit cringe for conservatives to be championing Super Mario as some kind of anti-woke manifesto,” Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh observed.
“Some are confusing anti-woke with the absence of so-called ‘woke propaganda.’ These things are not the same,” another person agreed.
“I don’t think the Super Mario Bros movie is ‘anti-woke.’ It’s decided unwoke and apolitical, like the video games it’s based on. That alone makes it anti-woke in today’s world, I suppose,” Ian Miles Cheong shared.
Spencer Klavan, son of Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan, had a similar take.
“The idea that conservatives would celebrate ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ or ‘Mario’ as un- or even anti-woke is in fact a total victory for wokeness. It shows how thoroughly they’ve managed to set the terms of the debate,” he wrote at the beginning of a lengthy Twitter thread on the topic.
“… Mario re-writes the damsel in distress as a warrior princess at the helm of vast armies,” he said, referring to changes made to the character of Princess Peach in the movie.
“Ten years ago conservatives would have pointed to both of these movies as standout examples of obnoxiously preachy, in your face feminism. Now they’re celebrating because Luigi isn’t trans. We’re begging for scraps at this point.”
Klavan added, “A real conservative movement in this realm, though, would mean demanding and creating stories in which damsels really are in distress, and men really are inspired to save them by performing feats of heroism. … Anything else is just temporary concession on the part of a movement that does not really intend to compromise or to grant us even small victories in anything but the shortest possible term, as long as it takes for us not to recognize while the rest of the territory is captured.”
“Super Mario” brought in $377 million in global box office sales and $204.6 million in domestic sales between Wednesday and Sunday. That also makes the movie the highest-grossing film of the year so far, and the most lucrative opening weekend at the box office ever for an animated film.
It’s easy to compare these incredible numbers to big releases like Disney’s “Lightyear,” which majorly flopped after publicizing a kiss between two female characters, and “Strange World,” which also underperformed expectations. The latter proudly advertised an openly gay teen character. Poor theater attendance was blamed on the lingering effects of COVID and on film writers asking “too much of the audience.” Now, “Super Mario” proves that families are still willing to take their kids out to the movies.
But critics say “Super Mario” would have been considered progressive just a few years ago solely based on changes they made to Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), effectively turning her into a “girlboss” who didn’t really need saving.
Film directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic discussed the changes they made to the canon to achieve these feminist ideals.
“It’s Mario’s goal to save his brother from Bowser’s clutches. He has to go on this epic adventure to do that. So Luigi, who’s a famously nervous, anxious character, finds himself in the worst possible predicament: having to survive interrogations with Bowser, and make it through that gauntlet,” the duo told Direct Film ahead of the movie release.
As for Peach, they said, “She’s the monarch who leads this kingdom of hapless, adorable Toads. We were thinking how strong that person would need to be to protect those people. All that informed the idea for Peach’s character in our movie.”
Game fans argued that the Princess became more strong-willed, independent, and powerful in future game iterations, and that the movie accurately reflects this evolution of her character. They also argued that she and Mario saved Luigi and defeated Bowser as a team, not that Peach just saves herself.
The movie features Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, and Jack Black as Bowser, which also led to some controversy as John Leguizamo blasted the movie because it doesn’t include any Latino actors voicing the Italian main characters.
“No, I will not be watching ‘Super Mario Bros,’” Leguizamo told TMZ. “They could have included a Latin character — like, I was groundbreaking, and they stopped the groundbreaking. They messed up! They messed up the inclusion, they dis-included.”
No pandering inclusivity, no trans agenda, no LGBT propaganda – is this the best conservatives can expect from Hollywood kids movies? Maybe. At the very least, the huge earnings may be enough to make Disney rethink their strategy.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” currently has a 56% critic rating and 96% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s currently showing in theaters nationwide.