It’s been a pretty wild ride, but the Super
Mario Bros. Movie is finally here! So, let’s break down these famous characters
and see where exactly the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom land on the morality scale. I’m Kyle with WickedBinge, and this is
the Super Mario Bros. Movie: Good to Evil. Just a fair warning, this video is going to
contain massive spoilers for the movie. So, if you want to go into the Super
Mario Bros. Movie completely blind, we’d suggest clicking off now and
coming back after a quick trip to the theatre. As always, we’re starting off
with the purest and most noble characters. These characters are the Good. Earning our Gold Medal of Good is Princess Peach.
Being the noble leader of the Mushroom Kingdom, Peach does all she can to protect her
loyal toads. She’s brave and determined, but also shows her kinder side when it
comes to Mario, as we see her comforting and encouraging him when he ends up not being
able to fully complete the obstacle course. Even when she’s focused on her main goal of
stopping Bowser, she’ll still keep the people she cares about as a top priority. We see her
save Toad during the Rainbow Road sequence, and later on she’s willing to play along with
Bowser’s wedding, still putting herself at risk even if she did have a back-up plan. Some might
see her as a bit TOO perfect, but regardless of whether or not we agree with that critique,
she’s still the Most Good character in the film. For our Silver Medal of Good, we’re giving it
to the one and only Mario. Although we’re used to seeing Mario play the hero role, here we get
to also see him be a good older brother. While of course he cares about stopping Bowser and
helping out Peach and the other residents of the Mushroom Kingdom, his main goal is to save his
brother. When it comes to this, he’s willing to do anything - from eating multiple mushrooms, which
ironically happen to be his least favorite food, to getting in a fight with a giant ape. It’s
a tough journey, but he is eventually able to save his brother from certain doom in what is an
incredibly sweet moment. Though he can sometimes be a bit of a hot-head whenever people insult
him or Luigi, Mario’s heroic side easily shines through in both big and small ways - from
helping a toad get their dropped coin back, to saving Donkey Kong’s life after they both fall
in the ocean. A true hero through and through! Getting our Bronze Medal of Good,
it’s going to the original Player 2, Luigi. Although Luigi unfortunately doesn’t
have as much screen time as his older brother, Luigi is still portrayed as an incredibly
nice guy. When Mario ends up leaving dinner early after being frustrated by his
father’s words, Luigi is the one to check up on him and bring him a plate of leftovers.
Later on during the Bowser interrogation scene, while he does eventually reveal that he knows
who Mario is, Luigi still tries to keep his brother a secret for as long as he can. His
true Big Heroic Moment comes during the film’s climax, however, when Luigi ends up grabbing a
manhole cover and protecting Mario from one of Bowser’s fire-breathing attacks, showing both his
big bro and the audience just how brave he can be. Finishing off the Good, we have
Toad. For being such a little guy, Toad sure does have a lot of spirit.
Despite only knowing him for a few seconds, Toad immediately claims Mario as his best friend
and goes out of his way to help him by leading him to the Mushroom Kingdom and then distracting
the castle guards with food so that Mario can go speak with Peach. Later, when Mario and Peach
depart on their quest to the Jungle Kingdom, Toad volunteers to go with them and help out
with the cause. While he’s not much of a fighter, Toad remains loyal to both Mario and Peach,
cheering the former on and continuing to help the latter out even when it looks like
Bowser has an unbeatable advantage. Overall, though he’s not the strongest character around,
he easily sets the bar for all other toads. He’s not the most important character,
but he does have a lot of spirit: next we have The Penguin King. His presence is
important to help establish the danger that is Bowser’s army. And although his efforts were
futile, to say the least… His strong will and leadership ability is quite commendable.
He did his best to defend his kingdom, but… you know… snowballs maybe
aren’t the best weapon of choice. Stepping down one tier, we’ve
come to those who land right in-between good and evil. This is the Grey Area. Starting off this tier, we’d like to give one
quick mention to a rarely seen member of the Mario family, Mario’s father. Although he only
gets a couple scenes, it’s still kind of cool to see both him and the rest of the brothers’
extended family. Unfortunately, Mario’s father is a bit on the gruff side and comes off as somewhat
unsupportive at first, calling his son “nuts” for leaving a steady job to start their plumbing
business. We’re sure he was just trying to look out for his boys in his own way, but telling
Mario that he was “dragging his brother down with him” was pretty harsh. Thankfully, by the end of
the movie, their father is amazed by what both his sons are able to do and lets Mario know how proud
he is of him. Which makes us very happy to see. Following him, we have King of the Apes,
Cranky Kong. Not exactly a noble king, Cranky is about what you’d expect from
someone with a name like that. In spite of Peach being pretty respectful
towards him when they first meet, Cranky in turn is dismissive and rude
regarding her request. He also goes out of his way to taunt Mario and forces him to
fight his son, Donkey, in order to earn access to his kong army. But, first impressions aside,
Cranky proves to be a strong ally once Mario and Peach truly earn his respect. Not only does
he agree to grant them the use of his army, but he also provides Mario, Peach and
Toad with go-karts to use. We can’t place him much higher as he ends up not
doing much to help in the final battle, but we do still appreciate what he was
able to do for our heroes prior to it, as well as his willingness to happily give
his own son some praise when it's due. Last in the Grey tier is the
enemy-turned-ape-ally, Donkey Kong. Being the Jungle Kingdom’s strongest fighter, Donkey Kong
is a brute, a show-boater and an incredibly sore loser. He doesn’t take things too seriously at
first, taunting Mario before threatening to kill him during their big fight. But even after Mario
beats him fair and square in the arena and they officially become allies, Donkey Kong still goes
out of his way to antagonize and threaten him. He does soften up to the plumber a bit after Mario
saves his life and he also tries to help fight off Bowser in the final battle, so we know that
he’s by no means selfish. He just also happens to be more than a little crude and can sometimes let
his ego and his rivalries get the better of him. Finally, we have the truly dastardly and
wicked. These characters are the Bad to Evil. Though not your traditional bad guy, we’d like
to give a quick mention to Foreman Spike. Spike is the former boss of the Mario Bros. When
the brothers leave him to start a plumbing business of their own, Spike makes it clear
that he has absolutely no faith in them. He even goes out of his way to both verbally
insult them and physically threaten Mario when Mario gets up in his face. Spike also
seems like he just cares very little about the brothers in general, given that he
nearly hits Mario but only cares about whether or not his car was dented. But
eventually, he does cheer on the brothers alongside everyone else after they defeat
Bowser, so we suppose he’s not ALL bad. For our Silver Medal of Evil, we’re giving it
to Kamek. Being Bowser’s right-hand wizard, Kamek’s only role seems to be to support
Bowser in any way that he can - whether that’s providing some extra defensive magic
during an attack, or helping build his king’s confidence when it comes to his proposal
to Peach. He very much enables Bowser’s evil behavior and doesn’t seem to mind all the
destruction at all, looking almost amused as he watches the ice penguin’s castle get melted
away and being more than happy to tell Luigi and the other prisoners that they’re going
to be sacrificed during his king’s wedding. There’s very little that’s redeemable about
Kamek, but at the very least you could argue that he was just following orders. With our
last entry, you can’t really make that excuse… Finally, our Gold Medal of Evil is going to none
other than Bowser, king of the Koopas. Naturally, Bowser is in classic form throughout this
movie. He’s threatening, intimidating, hostile, aggressive and, when it comes to his crush on
Peach, actually kind of adorkable? But don’t let his lovestruck nature and charming Jack Black
voice fool you, this guy is a villain through and through. His main goal throughout the film is to
force Princess Peach into marrying him, either by impressing her with the Power Star or threatening
to use it to destroy her kingdom. With this being the only thing he wants, Bowser lets nothing
stand in his way and makes it VERY clear that he is willing to kill whoever tries to stop him. For
as funny as he may be, Bowser still proves to be incredibly dangerous as well as, unsurprisingly,
the most evil character in the movie. But let us know in the comment
section if you agree with our ranking, and tell us what we should cover next!
Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Good to Evil playlist,
where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons, shows
and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked!
