While oxygen doesn’t seem to be a problem with this space-bound adventure, there is no breathing room for a movie this bloated with the Nintendo stuff. Rather than further develop the characters of the previous film, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie doubles down on its referential high, choking the viewer with its branding. This is the inverse of a movie with Easter eggs for the fans, where those not immediately dazzled by the abundance of theatrically animated Nintendo characters must peer into the background for any semblance of a movie more than an advert.

There is a family dynamic in this sequel that just never feels explored, with characters busy in action scenes that appeal more to the games they replicate than to the stakes they face. Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) finally has the mystery of her origins revealed, but in a manner so rushed as to make room for more important scenes, like the origin of her weaponized umbrella. A romance between her and the plucky Mario (Chris Pratt) is teased, but again, no time for love. Mario has too much on his plate for a film where he and his still-scared brother Luigi (Charlie Day) must team up with the dinosaur Yoshi (Donald Glover), a character whose personality doesn’t extend beyond eating matter and pooping eggs.

The villain Mario and company must defeat this time is a tired excuse for a universe-destroying threat. The returning Bowser (Jack Black) had his moments of being obsessed with marrying Princess Peach, going so far as to compose obnoxious songs about her. But Bowser Junior (Benny Safdie) has little in the way of personality or motivation, aiming to conquer the galaxy with a giant gun because that’s just what bad guys do. For a villain who possesses a magical paintbrush that can bring any illustration to life, he is only painted in broad strokes. From that staging of the two villains, it would seem like a chance for Bowser to learn from his mistakes as a parent. The first half of the film seems to be setting that up, but any possible redemption arc peters out amid Junior’s generic quest for power. It’s baffling that the film spends so much time on the wasted potential of a father-son dynamic, while the motherly bond between Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) and her cute star babies is kicked to the galactic curb.

Mario and Luigi feel more like passengers in a story with absolutely no development or stakes beyond saving the Mushroom Kingdom again. The crush Mario has for Peach is a whole lot of nothing that squanders nearly every opportunity for chemistry. There’s an entire montage of Mario and Luigi skimming through recognizable levels, but more for the purposes of housekeeping than saving the galaxy from the big gun or bringing about some new development in their brotherly connection. Peach’s origins are so watered down that she’s literally handed a manual on her backstory. Even the crossover inclusion of Nintendo’s Star Fox (Glen Powell) has so little room for growth that he has to rattle off his entire story in a brief, stylized introduction that does not play a role in the rest of the story or even make for fun banter. No time. No breathing room. The characters must race to the next planet, loaded with references for Nintendo fans to spot.

This rushed and underdeveloped story is especially frustrating when considering how nice the film looks, with its colorful displays of outer space bathed in blues and purples and starships of varied designs soaring across the stars. I even dug the design of how one stop on this adventure is a casino of shifting gravity. But after the third action scene meant to duplicate a Mario level, and the fourth sequence of Mario and Luigi narrowly escaping danger as the camera swings around them, I longed for something more to care about than how many detailed environments crowded the screen. There’s a scene where Mario and Luigi turn into babies, forcing Yoshi to protect the de-aged brothers from being gobbled up by bigger dinosaurs. This should be exciting, but I just don’t care. I know there won’t be enough time to do anything more with this development than merely reference Yoshi’s Island before moving on to the next inclusion of video game nostalgia. Even the references are exhausting in their onslaught of logos, characters, accessories, and music plucked from the games, turning the film into a version of Where’s Waldo where Waldo is cloned and in the foreground.

The egregious insertion of intellectual properties is agonizingly tiresome as the film progresses, even becoming jarring when a scene meant to be sad feels off with the inclusion of the classic sound of a warp pipe. I’m sure this must be a dream come true for lifelong Nintendo fans who only desire a deluge of their favorite console’s iconography, mashed together on the big screen with theatrical animation. But when is it too much? There’s a scene where one of the planets visited features a vast skyline of Nintendo ads, with hundreds of Mario characters milling about in every shot. There is no cleverness in these inclusions or in the charming use of the recognizable. There’s an emptiness to how these scenes, meant to be thrilling and wondrous, have a cold, corporate touch. When everything is a cameo or reference, none of it means anything. So what if another Nintendo character pops up? What will they add to this movie? Based on Star Fox, nothing much, aside from giving video game fans another box to check as they furiously scribble all the game connections for their Wiki page or “Things You Missed” YouTube video.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is less an exciting space adventure and more an extended Nintendo commercial with the slimmest of narratives. What a depressing feeling to know this film teases entire worlds to explore with colorful characters, and none of it feels curious, dazzling, or even fun. Every character has been reduced to a lifeless husk, robbed of any arc and built for little more than scenes of running, soaring, and fighting off hordes of enemies. Every joke has been forced through the four-quadrant meat grinder to be as safe and respectful of family audiences and Nintendo’s precious identity. Every reference has been drained of any unique inclusion, served with as much enthusiasm as a cafeteria cook would dump another ladleful of cold Sloppy Joe onto your tray. Considering the colorful closing credits list roughly 15 people under “Nintendo Team,” there were clearly too many cooks in the kitchen, with the special being “Oops, All Nintendo References.” My low expectations for these movies have shrunk further, as I felt my heart make the power-down sound that plays when Mario gets hit. I still find the Mario games fun, but the Mario movies are so far from that level of entertainment that they might as well be in another galaxy, with this sequel pushing that distance even further.

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