While making our way to the cinema within walking distance of my house, my girlfriend and I listened to the Good Friday edition of the Hallow app’s Pray40: The Return challenge.  There is some irony in this opening statement.  Throughout Lent, specifically on Fridays, Chris Pratt and Mark Wahlberg have been giving their reflections on Scripture and providing inspiration to guide our prayers during the weeks.  The irony lies in the fact that we were on our way to see Pratt voice everyone’s favorite plumber, Mario, in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.  Like the famous actor, the movie is not Catholic.  If you had access to my notepad, the dearth of thoughts I jotted down bout it would also indicate its lack of insights into Faith.  As such, I will do my best to make this colorful mess into something meaningful.

The first colorful things you see in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie are a race on humanoid, though infantile stars, mothered(?) by Princess Rosalina (voiced by Brie Larson).  She is putting the pack to bed (somehow) when they are attacked by a giant, three-legged machine.  Princess Rosalina calmly strides out to confront the intruder, summoning magical forces at will and seemingly handling the situation with ease.  The machine is piloted by Bowser Jr. (voiced by Benny Safdie), who is a miniature version of his father, Bowser (voiced by Jack Black), king of the Koopas and Mario’s arch enemy.  Bowser Jr. is on a revenge quest to get even for his father, who had been defeated in the previous movie and is now imprisoned in Princess Peach’s (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy) castle.  I suppose I will get it out of the way now that Princesses Peach and Rosalina are long-lost sisters.  As we later learn, they had been created from cosmic energy, or something, which gave them god-like powers to make just about anything out of thin air.  As one might guess, evil forces want to control these abilities, so Princess Rosalina sends her younger sibling away to the Mushroom Kingdom.  Being a toddler at the time of separation, Princess Peach has no memory of the event, though she has always felt like something is missing.  Getting back to the attack, eventually Bowser Jr. overwhelms Princess Rosalina and takes her to a new planet of his making from where he plans to destroy the universe.  Before any of this can happen, Princess Rosalina manages to send one of her star children to warn Princess Peach.  The desperate act is necessary because Bowser Jr. has also made it his mission to free his father.  Prior to the star’s arrival, Luigi (voiced by Charlie Day) and Mario had been called to a distant part of the Mushroom Kingdom to deal with some sort of disturbance.  It turns out to be Yoshi (voiced by Donald Glover), the diminutive dinosaur who becomes an instant ally of Luigi and Mario.  They make their way back to the castle where Princess Peach’s subjects are gathering to celebrate her birthday.  It is a big day for Mario, too, as he is working up the courage to give her a special gift.  It is an umbrella, by the way, and do not bother trying to figure out the logic of how it works.  During the giving, the star gets to the Mushroom Kingdom.  Its introduction is marked by magical dust, but it brings news of Princess Rosalina’s capture.  Because Mario and the other anthropomorphic toadstools had been eavesdropping, they are keen to not let Princess Peach go on some kind of rescue mission.  Mario shoos everyone away, going with them, and then Princess Peach takes off with her assistant, Toad (voiced Keegan-Michael Key).  Their destination is the Gateway Galaxy, which is a supposedly logical place to go to find somebody in outer space.  Once there, though, Toad’s backpack, containing coins and powerups, is stolen by a monkey that they have to now chase into an area crawling with Koopas.  They are watched over by Wart (voiced by Luis Guzmán), who only gives up the location of Bowser Jr. reluctantly and with a lot of effort.  From there, Princess Peach and Toad must find a ride to that location.  Once in the spaceport, they meet Fox McCloud (voiced by Glen Powell), the main character from the Star Fox franchise of games.  At the same time, Luigi, Mario, and Yoshi arrive at that spot.  How they get there is a separate story.  After Princess Peach’s departure, Bowser Jr. comes to collect his father by physically lifting the castle with his spaceship.  Bowser, Luigi, and Mario manage to get away when the building is accidentally dropped on a planet ruled by bees.  Because Bowser has supposedly reformed, Luigi and Mario allow their former enemy to return to his true size.  In return, Bowser volunteers to stay there as a prisoner while Luigi and Mario continue their quest.  However, Bowser Jr. finds his dad and convinces Bowser to return to his former conquering ways.  At Gateway Galaxy, our reunited team depart with Fox, but their first attempt rescuing Princess Rosalina sends them crashing into a planet full of dinosaurs after Bowser Jr. turns the plumbers into babies.  It is a needless distraction that ends as quickly as it begins when Luigi randomly radios into space and the star babies hear his call.  They pilot their own vessel to Luigi’s location, and now they have a new way of getting to Bowser.  Somewhere along the way, Mario and Princess Peach become separated from Luigi and Yoshi.  Mario eventually sends Princess Peach ahead to save her sister, while he takes on father and son.  Before he can be completely crushed, he is joined by Luigi and Yoshi, which leads to their victory.  Still, Bowser and Junior realize the error of their ways, particularly after the princesses reunite and turn their planet into a paradise.  The film concludes with the star kids being shown the hole where Princess Peach’s castle used to be, but they all volunteer to help rebuild.

Forgive me because the castle rebuilding is not the final moment in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.  I did not practice Catholic patience with the movie, thankfully getting up and heading for the exit as soon as the end credits rolled.  As such, my girlfriend and I missed a mid- and post-credits scene.  I looked them up, and you can do so for yourself if you do not plan on seeing this second entry in what I guess is becoming a franchise.  If I may add a little Catholic insight into the next iteration in the series, I suggest that they take their time with the writing.  For major decisions in our lives, the Church asks that we discern our actions.  The same applies to small things as well, though we seldom think of a need for being careful when it comes to choosing what to put on our sub.  Still, everything is an opportunity for mindfulness, which is not solely a new age-y concept.  Whatever you want to call it, mindfulness is something sorely lacking from today’s entry.  The actions of our main characters are done with little forethought.  I understand that I am talking about a video game movie, and a cartoon aimed at children to boot.  At the same time, is it ever too early to teach our young ones the value of taking a beat?  Metaphorically speaking, watching this one is a bit like playing a Nintendo.  At different points while sitting in the theater, I pretended I had classic console’s controller in my hand and I was moving the people on the screen.  Of course, you can throw out all these critiques since I am not the target audience.

Speaking of that target audience for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and getting them the right message, there are some good ones to be gleaned.  The most obvious is the friendship that develops between Bowser and Mario, even if it is short lived.  Christianity teaches us to love our enemies and to forgive them.  Right now, perhaps more than any other in our lifetimes, is when we need to remember this principle.  One expects this sort of behavior from a protagonist like Mario.  He is the hero of the story, and he displays a sacrificial love towards Princess Peach when he volunteers to stop Bowser and his son at the climactic moment.  To use that oft quoted bit of Scripture, John 15:13: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  What is unexpected is how Bowser incorporates this ideal.  Granted, he has his outbursts, and he lets down his new friends when he does nothing to stop Bowser Jr.’s attempt at galactic conquest.  Though nobody is perfect, a committed follower of Christ would stand up to wrong no matter who is doing it.  Making such a stand can be accomplished in more ways than what we see in the final battle.  Martyrdom is an option, and that, too, does not automatically mean death.  One of the best ways of being a martyr is to die to self.  In other words, to put others before yourself.  It feels bizarre to say this, but that is what Bowser does when he volunteers to be imprisoned on the bee planet.

If only Bowser could have maintained such moral uprightness throughout The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.  Then again, had he done so, there probably would not have been a film.  I also hesitate to call this a “film.”  It is not horrible, but it embodies the attention deficit disorder (ADD) culture against which I so often rail.