The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (PG)

The paunchy Nintendo mascot Mario (Chris Pratt) and his brother Luigi (Charlie Day) return for another colourful, kid-friendly adventure, this time going beyond the stars.

We meet a princess, Rosalina (Brie Larson), who is the mother of a brood of multi-coloured stars. She’s kidnapped by Bowser Jr (Benny Safdie), who’s out to avenge his imprisoned dad (Jack Black). Meanwhile Mario and Luigi meet and befriend cute dinosaur Yoshi (Donald Glover) and set out to help Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) as she goes off to rescue her fellow royal.

What follows is 90 minutes of pure sugar-rush as we quite literally bounce from one madcap segment to the next, with nary a time to breathe. There’s precious little humanity in the dialogue or performances, yet the joy lies in its sincere affection for the Mario universe; the people who made this, including a great many from Nintendo itself, care enough about the Mario games to ensure that the details are right: that everything looks and sounds as it should, from those spinning star-launchers from the Galaxy games to the cute 2D sequences that are straight out of Super Mario Bros. It’s silly, delightful stuff.