After its release in 2023, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” grabbed more than its fair share of coins, earning more than $1.3 billion and ranking among the highest-grossing animated flicks of all time.

The people behind the movie — the result of a partnership of video game giant Nintendo and Illumination, the studio behind the beloved Minions and more — obviously know what they’re doing.

No doubt the megahit’s sequel, “The Super Mario Bros. Galaxy Movie” — in theaters this week and coming for your family’s spring break dollars — will do well, pleasing the younger viewers with its nonstop visual wonders and sugar-like highs.

However, there is less time around here for adults, save, perhaps, for Nintendo superfans, with “Galaxy Movie” peddling a largely incoherent story with little in the way of emotional payoffs.

About a third of the way through it, we wished there were a reset button.

Based on 2007’s “Super Mario Galaxy,” the third video game release in the decades-long franchise’s 3D era and a huge hit itself, and its 2010 follow-up, “Super Mario Galaxy 2,” “Galaxy Movie” is directed by the returning tandem of Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (“Teen Titans Go!”) and penned by returning scribe Matthew Fogel (“Minions: The Rise of Gru”).

Likewise, the key voice actors are back, with Chris Pratt as Mario; Charlie Day as his brother and partner in plumbing, Luigi; Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, princess of the fantastical Mushroom Kingdom; Keegan-Michael Key as her loyal servant, Toad; and Jack Black as the villainous Bowser, who may be in the process of figurative growth after having been literally shrunken down and imprisoned by Peach.

The story begins on another planet and with another princess, Rosalina (Brie Larson), who cares for myriad Lumas, adorbs star-like creatures who float around and speak in child-like voices. When this mother of stars tries to tell them a bedtime story about a princess named Peach, they instead insist on hearing the one about the plumbers.

“The plumbers!” they chant, and she relents — even though she’d told them that one the night before.

She gets only so far into the tale, however, before realizing a thunderous sound is approaching the castle. Bowser’s son, Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), has come to collect her to make use of her powers and, after a little skirmish, his Magikoopa adviser, Kamek (Kevin Michael Richardson), proudly congratulates him on his first princess-napping.

A Luma visits Peach, telling her that Rosalina had said that if anything happened to her, Peach would help. And help she does, with Toad in tow, leaving the boys — along with new pal Yoshi (Donald Glover), a cute and friendly dinosaur they picked up on a recent plumbing job — to mind the kingdom. Soon, though, that trio is off to try to help Peach.

And they all get help from an outsider, a high-flying visitor from another Nintendo series.

“Galaxy Movie” borrows more than story from the “Super Mario” games, the filmmakers again getting mileage from the characters, say, jumping from moving platform to moving platform, using power-ups to defeat an enemy and employing top-level problem solving. Sure, it all seems less fresh this time, but it’s fine.

Plus, as is the case with many a modern animated film, the visuals are incredibly impressive. Even the way the camera moves throughout this bright and punchy digitally created world can be a wonder to behold.

The voice work is, as you’d guess, solid across the board. The real standout, though, is Black (“A Minecraft Movie”), whose voice is modulated early on in the tale when he’s a diminished version of himself, which is fun. The actor helps give something approaching actual depth to Bowser, regardless of whether he's big or small at the time.

In fact, the closest “Galaxy Movie” comes to having an emotional anchor for the film is Bowser’s inner conflict when it comes to wanting to stand by his son, who’s become an ambitious chip off the ol’ block, and his newfound fondness for Mario and Luigi — he’s in a book club with the latter, while the former has kept him at a distrustful distance. Disappointingly, though, Fogel’s screenplay drops that particular ball, presumably in the name of setting up a third movie.

Other plot elements could have been expanded upon — Mario’s crush on Peach or Peach’s mysterious background — but the bare minimum is done.

With its fast-paced, planet-hopping antics, “Galaxy Movie” is likely to keep the kids occupied for an hour and a half, which may alone be worth the price of the tickets. Just know, Mom and Dad, that you’ll likely want to unplug afterward.

———

'THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE'

2 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG (for action, mild violence and rude humor)

Running time: 1:38

How to watch: In theaters April 1

———

©2026 The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio). Visit The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio) at www.news-herald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.