The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) Review – CocoFlix

Three years after Mario's first big-screen outing became an animated juggernaut, the plumber is back — and this time he's leaving the Mushroom Kingdom entirely behind. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie launched in April 2026 with a simple, irresistible pitch: take gaming's most famous hero and throw him into outer space. Audiences have been split on the results, so let's break down whether this cosmic adventure deserves a spot on your watchlist.

The Story So Far

The setup is exactly what the title promises. Mario ventures into space, hopping across strange cosmic worlds and facing galactic challenges far from the familiar comforts of the Mushroom Kingdom. That's the whole premise, and honestly, it's all you need going in — this is a movie built on spectacle and momentum rather than dense plotting.

If the title rings a bell, that's because it borrows its name and its sense of wonder from Super Mario Galaxy, the beloved 2007 Nintendo game widely considered one of the best in the entire series. That game was famous for its gravity-bending planetoids, its dreamlike starscapes, and a sense of scale no Mario adventure had attempted before. The film clearly wants to bottle that same feeling for the big screen: small hero, enormous universe.

Behind the camera, the creative team should be familiar. Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic — the duo who steered Mario's 2023 cinematic debut and previously made their name on irreverent animated comedy — return to direct, this time joined by Pierre Leduc. In the recording booth, the headline names are Brie Larson, an Oscar winner who knows her way around a blockbuster, indie filmmaker-turned-scene-stealing actor Benny Safdie, and newcomer Virginia Dare Jelenic. It's an eclectic lineup, and it signals that the film is aiming for a slightly different flavor than its predecessor rather than a straight rerun.

Highlights: Why Everyone Is Talking About It

First, the obvious: the space setting is a genuine shake-up. The first film leaned hard on nostalgia, parading familiar locations and references past the audience at high speed. By blasting Mario off-world, this sequel gives the animators a blank canvas, and a cosmic playground is about the most visually generous setting an animated adventure can ask for. Galaxy-scale backdrops, alien worlds, zero-gravity slapstick — the genre mix of animation, adventure, and comedy fits this premise like a glove.

Second, the pedigree. Horvath and Jelenic have proven they understand what makes Mario work on screen: keep it fast, keep it funny, keep it colorful. Their comedic instincts — sharpened over years of rapid-fire animated television — are all over this franchise, and the addition of Leduc to the directing team suggests an even bigger emphasis on visual ambition this time around.

Third, the cast is a real conversation starter. Brie Larson brings genuine star power and dramatic chops to an animated family film, while Benny Safdie is one of the most interesting "wait, he's in this?" casting choices of the year. He's spent the last decade earning a reputation as both a daring filmmaker and a magnetic character actor, and hearing what he does with a voice role in a Mario movie is, frankly, half the fun of pressing play.

Finally, there's the runtime. At a tight 1 hour and 38 minutes, the film respects your evening. No bloat, no padding — it gets in, delivers its cosmic adventure, and gets out. For a family movie night, that's a feature, not a bug.

Before You Hit Play

A few things worth knowing before you queue this one up. The audience ratings currently sit at 6.3 out of 10 from more than 58,000 votes, which tells you the reception has been warm but not rapturous. Reading between the lines: fans of the first film and families with kids seem to be having a great time, while viewers hoping for a deeper or more daring sequel have come away wanting a bit more. If you go in expecting a breezy, gorgeous-looking crowd-pleaser rather than a reinvention of animated cinema, you'll be calibrated correctly.

The PG rating means this is firmly all-ages territory. There's nothing here that should worry parents — it's built as a four-quadrant family film, with humor pitched to land for both the kids on the couch and the adults who grew up holding a controller.

Do you need homework before watching? Not really. You don't need to have played Super Mario Galaxy, and you don't strictly need to have seen the 2023 film either — the space setting makes this a fairly self-contained ride. That said, longtime Nintendo fans will inevitably get more out of it; this is a franchise that loves rewarding people who know its history.

One practical note: the film hit screens on April 1, 2026, so it's still fresh. If you missed it theatrically, this is exactly the kind of big, bright animated spectacle that holds up beautifully at home — and you can stream it free on the CocoFlix app whenever movie night calls.

Verdict: Should You Stream It?

The bottom line: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is a fun, fast, visually inventive family adventure that benefits enormously from its change of scenery. The space premise injects real freshness into the franchise, the directing team knows this material cold, and the voice cast — particularly the intriguing pairing of Brie Larson and Benny Safdie — gives it personality. At 98 minutes, it never overstays its welcome.

Is it a masterpiece? The numbers say no, and we won't pretend otherwise. A 6.3 audience score reflects a film that entertains consistently without ever quite reaching the stars it's flying through. But "solidly entertaining Mario movie in space" is a perfectly good thing to be, especially for families, animation fans, and anyone with even a drop of Nintendo nostalgia in their veins.

Our recommendation: stream it. Pick a relaxed evening, grab the family or just your own inner child, and fire it up on CocoFlix. It's a light, colorful ride that asks very little and delivers a reliably good time — sometimes that's exactly what you want from a movie night.

Our rating: 6.3/10