{"id":67494,"date":"2026-06-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=67494"},"modified":"2026-06-01T18:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T09:20:15","slug":"the-super-mario-galaxy-movies-reception-is-a-result-of-nintendo-fully-prioritizing-audiences-over-critics-and-accolades-japanese-film-studies-professor-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-super-mario-galaxy-movies-reception-is-a-result-of-nintendo-fully-prioritizing-audiences-over-critics-and-accolades-japanese-film-studies-professor-says\/","title":{"rendered":"The Super Mario\u00a0Galaxy Movie\u2019s reception is a result of Nintendo fully prioritizing audiences over critics and accolades,\u00a0Japanese film studies professor\u00a0says\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>With a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 42% and an audience score of 88%,&nbsp;<strong>The Super Mario Galaxy Movie<\/strong>&nbsp;shows a noticeable divide between film&nbsp;critics&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;general&nbsp;public.&nbsp;The film has also become the highest-grossing title of 2026,&nbsp;making&nbsp;it&nbsp;an undeniable success for Nintendo.&nbsp;In an interview with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sankei.com\/article\/20260530-YUVP62F6BFPGXIFRUZAYGJLIJE\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Sankei News<\/a>, Kumamoto University Film Studies associate professor Hiroaki Ito states that, in addition to differences in&nbsp;evaluation criteria,&nbsp;the&nbsp;disparity&nbsp;in reception&nbsp;may&nbsp;result from&nbsp;the very nature of the&nbsp;film\u2019s&nbsp;production, and&nbsp;is&nbsp;likely a&nbsp;deliberate strategy by Nintendo.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Super Mario Galaxy Movie \u2013 Final Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LX9kXRRJlPw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Ito, both The Super Mario Bros. Movie and its sequel give the impression&nbsp;of being&nbsp;\u201ccrafted with meticulous care to avoid damaging the image of Mario,\u201d resulting in a&nbsp;narrative that&nbsp;feels&nbsp;\u201csafe\u201d or innocuous. While&nbsp;going for&nbsp;riskier storytelling and character development arcs might&nbsp;have&nbsp;made the movies appeal more to critics&nbsp;who value artistic expression, Nintendo&nbsp;would have risked&nbsp;alienating&nbsp;fans&nbsp;by doing so, he argues.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ito&nbsp;cites&nbsp;the 1993 Super Mario Bros. live-action film as an example&nbsp;(<a href=\"https:\/\/brothers%20mario%20mario%20and%20luigi%20mario,%20who%20work%20as%20plumbers%20in%20brooklyn,%20as%20they%20venture%20into%20a%20post-apocalyptic%20lizard-man-ridden%20parallel%20universe%20called%20dinohattan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">albeit a rather extreme one<\/a>), as the movie was&nbsp;heavily&nbsp;criticized&nbsp;for straying too far from the source material.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During&nbsp;the production of the film, Nintendo famously gave&nbsp;the producers&nbsp;nearly full&nbsp;creative liberty, but&nbsp;Ito thinks the company has&nbsp;since&nbsp;\u201clearned&nbsp;from this failure,\u201d&nbsp;coming to prioritize audience satisfaction&nbsp;above all else.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of&nbsp;trying something&nbsp;artistic&nbsp;and&nbsp;potentially putting the Mario IP at risk, Nintendo appears to have focused solely&nbsp;on&nbsp;appeasing fans.&nbsp;From the colorful and whimsical tone to the various&nbsp;Easter eggs and guest character appearances,&nbsp;the two animated movies are cute enough to appeal to children&nbsp;and&nbsp;newcomers&nbsp;while&nbsp;remaining&nbsp;true to the&nbsp;games so that adults who played them feel represented.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRather than focusing on film award accolades, Nintendo\u2019s primary objective seems to be enhancing brand value as part of an intellectual property (IP) strategy and rekindling interest in its core business of games and&nbsp;merchandise,\u201d Ito says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-super-mario-galaxy-movie-wasnt-localized-from-english-to-japanese-but-rebuilt-shigeru-miyamoto-explains-new-approach-to-script\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Super Mario Galaxy Movie wasn\u2019t \u201clocalized\u201d from English to Japanese, but rebuilt. Shigeru Miyamoto explains new approach to script<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/mario-kart-worlds-controls-were-fine-tuned-by-devs-who-literally-spend-their-lunch-breaks-skateboarding-at-the-office\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Mario Kart World\u2019s controls were fine-tuned by devs who literally spend their lunch breaks skateboarding at the office<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While The Super Mario Galaxy Movie received harsh reviews from critics, the film has been far more successful among regular audiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":67503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,33],"class_list":["post-67494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-nintendo"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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