THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (2023)

Yes — and gladly. This is the rare video-game movie that actually earns its fun: dazzling animation, real jokes, and a story that cares as much about brotherhood as it does about spectacle. Mario and Luigi's love for each other is the engine of the whole plot, and that's worth your family's time.

The one caution is practical, not moral. Bowser is a genuinely menacing villain, he threatens to kill Luigi more than once, and the action gets intense in spots — nothing worse than you'd expect from a PG adventure, but enough that very young or easily scared kids might need a hand to hold.

Take the family. Just know your youngest viewers, and you'll be fine.

Mario and Luigi are plumber brothers in Brooklyn, chasing a dream their own family doubts. A shot at proving themselves sends them into the sewers — and through a mysterious green pipe into another universe entirely. The brothers are separated on arrival, with Mario landing in the Mushroom Kingdom and a new ally in a creature named Toad. Meanwhile, King Bowser has seized a powerful Super Star and set his sights on Princess Peach's kingdom — and on ruling everything beyond it. Finding Luigi again, before it's too late, becomes Mario's whole mission.

Four stars means this one delivers on every front. The animation is breathtaking and clearly built with real love for the source material, packed with nods and easter eggs for longtime Nintendo fans without losing anyone new to the world. The pacing balances comedy and peril well, so intense moments never linger too long before the movie lightens back up.

What elevates it further is the story underneath the spectacle: Mario and Luigi's bond isn't decoration, it's the reason the plot works at all. Their fear only gives way once they choose each other. That's a well-built adventure and a well-built message, working together rather than competing.

This film's worldview is refreshingly clear-eyed: good conquers evil, family loyalty matters, and sacrifice for someone you love is worth celebrating. Mario and Luigi don't overcome Bowser through individual bravado — they overcome him together, and their courage is explicitly tied to their love for one another. That's a message Scripture affirms without qualification: brothers who stand by each other, and a hero who lays down comfort for someone else's sake, echo something true about how love is meant to work.

The film does include some brief fantasy magic in keeping with its video-game roots — nothing occult or dark, just the kind of power-up spectacle longtime players will recognize. It's a minor note in an otherwise clean, encouraging story.

Underneath the jokes and set pieces is a simple, good truth: real love casts out fear, and it's often love for someone else — a brother, a friend — that gives us the courage we can't find alone. Scripture says it plainly: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear" (1 John 4:18, KJV as rendered by the source's own tradition; ESV: "perfect love casts out fear").

This is exactly what a family adventure movie should be: funny, gorgeous to look at, and quietly serious about love, courage, and brothers who choose each other. A little intensity for the youngest viewers is the only real caution here. Our answer stands: worth the trip.