Super Mario Galaxy Movie: A Biblical Worldview Movie Review for Parents

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Hello, friends! Today on the podcast, we're discussing the Super Mario Galaxy movie. We'll cover what it's about, the positive and negative elements, and three worldview-based discussion questions you can work through with your kids if you choose to take them to see it.

Before we dive in, I want to be upfront about who this review is for: intentional Christian parents who are deciding whether to take their child to see this movie and who want biblically grounded discussion questions to use if they do. I mention this because, from some of our other movie reviews on YouTube, it's clear in the comments that the target audience isn't always understood, so I just want to name that upfront.

This is the Foundation Worldview Podcast, where we seek to answer your questions so you can equip the children God has placed in your care to carefully evaluate every idea they encounter and understand the truth of the Christian worldview. I'm your host, Elizabeth Urbanowicz, and I'm so glad you joined me today.

As I say at the beginning of every Foundation Worldview movie review: I am never going to tell you to take your child to see a specific film. That's a matter of conscience. While I will occasionally recommend against a particular movie, I will probably never recommend for one. That's not my role here. Equipping you to make that call wisely is.

Movie Overview (Spoilers Ahead)

The film opens with Princess Rosalina putting her star children to bed. In that opening scene, she is kidnapped by Bowser Jr., who plans to steal her powers in order to take over the galaxy. One of her star children escapes and travels to Princess Peach to ask for her help in rescuing their mother. Princess Peach and Toad then set out on a rescue mission.

Meanwhile, Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi stay behind to run the Mushroom Kingdom. During this time, Bowser Jr. shows up at Princess Peach's castle, attempting to free his father, who is being held prisoner there, but he fails.

After that failed attempt, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Bowser all set out together to rescue Princess Rosalina. At first it appears Bowser is helping Mario and Luigi, but eventually he turns on them and sides with his son. The movie is filled with adventures and battles throughout. It's a fairly whimsical film, as you'd expect with Mario.

A note on age-appropriateness: I wouldn't recommend taking children under seven to see it. Some of the battles feel more intense on the big screen. And toward the end of the movie (spoiler), Bowser falls into the lava surrounding his son's castle. Everyone thinks he's dead, but he emerges as a skeleton, all his flesh burned off. You don't see burning flesh, but watching a skeleton talk, fight, and breathe fire is genuinely scary for young children.

On a personal note: I wasn't very familiar with the Mario universe before seeing this film, but I found it to be a really fun combination of the old-school Super Mario Brothers game, Mario Kart, and (oddly enough) Rogue One (minus the part where almost everyone dies). It had that Star Wars-esque feel of traveling to different planets, and it was genuinely enjoyable.

Positive Elements

1. It's a very clean movie. I reviewed Zootopia 2 within the past few months, and compared to that film, Super Mario Galaxy is remarkably clean. The only phrases I'd flag at all were Bowser calling Mario and Luigi "lame" and "dorks in overalls," and those were the only moments that gave me pause. For the most part, the movie is engaging and fun.

For those who've played the Mario video games, it's a treat to see those worlds come to life on the big screen. Even with my limited experience (playing Mario in the mid-'90s at my cousins' house and a few rounds of Mario Kart), I enjoyed seeing those environments rendered so vividly.

2. Beautiful themes of family and self-sacrifice. Woven throughout the movie is the theme of loving your family, longing to be known and accepted by them, and the beauty of self-sacrifice. These are rich themes to explore with your kids, and I'll come back to them in the discussion questions below.

3. Male and female characters worked together as equals. This was something I genuinely appreciated. In so many movies over the past 20–30 years, female characters do all the rescuing while male characters are portrayed as bumbling, ignorant, or weak. That wasn't the case here. Yes, Princess Rosalina and Princess Peach were strong characters who fought against Bowser and Bowser Jr., but Mario and Luigi were equally involved and equally capable. I was glad to see the men portrayed with strength and dignity.

4. Evil was presented as evil. What's popular in film right now is the villain backstory that makes you feel sorry for the villain and subtly suggests their evil behavior is understandable. The underlying message becomes: of course they turned out this way given what happened to them. Now, the things that happen to us do affect us, but everyone is still accountable for their own actions. This movie didn't fall into that trap. When Bowser did evil things, they were presented as evil. There was no therapeutic backstory that invited us to excuse his behavior.

Negative Elements

Honestly, I didn't find many.

The one thing I'd flag (and this is somewhat subjective) is that the ending felt abrupt and the plot felt unfinished. When the credits started rolling, I genuinely looked around and thought, Wait, that's it? I waited through all the credits, and there was one brief scene at the end, but it still felt incomplete.

Specifically, there's a thread involving Bowser and his relationship with his son that never gets resolved. At one point, after Bowser has spent time working alongside Mario and Luigi, Bowser Jr. says to his father: "Nothing is more dangerous than a friend. When your armor is down, they'll stab you in the back." Bowser asks where he heard that, and Bowser Jr. tells him, "You told me that, dad."

It's a meaningful moment. Bowser was friendly with Mario and Luigi for a time and then turned on them. But the movie never circles back to address it. Did friends really stab Bowser in the back? Was Bowser right to turn on them? None of these questions are answered or even acknowledged. That unresolved thread was my one real disappointment with the film.

Worldview Discussion Questions

Question 1: Where in the movie do we see the beauty of self-sacrifice?

This theme is woven throughout the film, and it's worth exploring intentionally with your kids.

• Princess Rosalina willingly sacrifices herself for her star children in one of the opening scenes. When one of them is captured along with her, she doesn't focus on rescuing herself. She sends the star child to safety while she remains in captivity.
• Bowser, surprisingly, shows self-sacrificial love during the part of the story when he's making good choices. When he and Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi land on a planet with honeybees and accidentally squash some flowers, the queen bee demands that Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi work in the honey fields as payment. Bowser steps in and says, "No, let them go. I'll take their punishment." And he does.
• Mario closes the gate to Bowser's castle with Princess Peach safely inside and himself left on the outside, alone to face Bowser and Bowser Jr., so that Peach can go in and rescue Rosalina without being in danger.

In each of these moments, a character willingly gives up their safety, and potentially their life, to protect someone else.

After walking through these scenes with your kids, you can discuss how this theme appears again and again in movies. Then bring it back to the greatest story of all: the gospel. Take them to John 15:12–13, where Jesus says:

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

Talk about how these movie moments reflect the ultimate beauty of what Jesus has done, laying down his life so that we might receive eternal life through his sacrifice.

Question 2: Why do we long to be known and loved by our families?

This is probably the strongest theme in the entire movie. Bowser Jr. longs to please his father. Princess Peach longs to know her family. The star children long to have Princess Rosalina — their mother — back.

Why do humans have this deep longing to be known and loved by their families?

For families who have gone through our God's Good Design curriculum, this question will be easy to work through together. I'd recommend revisiting Unit 3, Lessons 1–3 and Lesson 7. The big truths covered there are:

• God is relational, so He designed us to be relational.
• God is love, so He designed us to love.
• God designed different kinds of love for different relationships.
• Families are a picture of the one eternal family.

Review those four truths, return to those lessons, go through the videos, print off the games and Scripture passages, and then connect those truths to what your kids saw in this movie. I have to say, preparing notes for this review made me think, Wow, this movie really exemplifies one of our core goals at Foundation Worldview: training children to think critically and biblically through every idea they encounter. A child who has been through one of our curriculums should be equipped to filter every movie, show, song, book, or conversation through the lens of the truths they've studied. That's the goal.

If you have children ages 8 and under and haven't yet gone through God's Good Design, I highly recommend it. Use the link in the show notes to visit the curriculum page, and use the code MARIO at checkout for $10 off a family license.

If you haven't yet done the curriculum, you can still have this conversation. Open to Genesis 1:27:

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

Ask your child what truths this verse reveals. Help them see that we are created in God's image as either male or female, and that being image bearers means we reflect who God is to others. Because God is three-in-one (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), He has always existed in perfect, loving relationship within the Trinity. As His image bearers, we desire relationship with others because we reflect this relational God.

Then continue to verse 28:

"And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'"

Talk through how God designed the family: one man and one woman, as with Adam and Eve, brought together in marriage and commanded to have children. God designed the family as the place where children are loved, grow, and learn to faithfully bear His image. That's why we all long to be known and loved by our families.

A word for parents of adopted children or children navigating divorce: You may want to use this movie as an opportunity to speak gently into your child's own experience.

For parents of adopted children: most adoptive children, even in wonderful and loving homes, still carry a longing to know their biological parents. That longing is real, and it's there because God designed it that way. There is real loss when children are not raised by their biological parents, no matter how loving their adoptive home is.

For parents navigating divorce: this theme can help explain why your children miss their other parent, and why that grief is legitimate.

These are conversations you'll need to discern carefully based on your child's age, maturity, and where they are emotionally. You may choose not to have them at all. But if you do, bring it to completion with these three truths we also cover in God's Good Design:

• Sin corrupts God's good design.
• Jesus defeated the power and punishment of sin.
• When Jesus returns, God's good design for us will last forever.

The broken relationships we experience in this world exist because sin is in the world, not necessarily because of our own sin, but because sin has touched everything. And yet God did not leave us here. Jesus defeated sin's power and punishment. And when He returns, there will be no more crying, no more weeping, no more pain or mourning. God's good design for us will last forever.

Question 3: Does turning from evil just require a change of mind?

Near the end of the film, as Bowser is fighting Mario and Luigi, Mario says to him: "Bowser, it doesn't have to be this way. I know there is still some good in you." The implication is clear: if Bowser just changes his mind and decides to be good, he can. He just needs to choose it.

Ask your child: If Bowser were human, would truly turning from evil mean changing his mind and finding the good inside of him?

This is such an important question. Now, repentance does involve a change of mind. The Greek word metanoia, which we translate as "repentance" in our English New Testaments, literally means a change of mind. So Mario isn't entirely wrong. But what we want to help our kids see is that the Bible is clear: salvation isn't only about changing our minds, and it's definitely not about finding some good deep down within us.

We have inherent value as God's image bearers. That's true. But no one is morally good on their own. Take your children to Psalm 14:2–3:

"The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one."

Ask them what this passage reveals: that we have all turned from God, and that no one on their own does what is truly good.

Then turn to Ezekiel 36:26–27, where God speaks:

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules."

Ask your children: What does this passage reveal about how God rescues and redeems us? It's not just about us changing our minds. It requires a new heart. God has to give us a heart that actually desires to do what is good.

That's why 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." It's not simply a matter of deciding, You know what? I'm going to stop doing that now. It's about truly turning from sin and being made a completely new creation.

So what Mario said to Bowser? That's not the full picture. It's not about changing your mind and finding some hidden goodness within yourself. It's about recognizing that, on our own, we are not good, and that we need the transforming power of Jesus. We need God to give us a new heart that actually desires to follow Him.

Conclusion

If this kind of content is helpful to you, biblically grounded worldview tools you can use with your kids after a movie, a show, a song, or a conversation, I'd love to stay in touch. Sign up for our email list to be the first to know when new podcast episodes, movie reviews, and resources like this one are published. It's the best way to make sure nothing gets missed as we work together to raise children who think carefully and biblically in every area of life.

And if you have children ages 8 and under, don't forget to check out our God's Good Design curriculum. Use code MARIO at checkout for $10 off a family license.

As we wrap up today, my prayer for you is this: that no matter the situation in which you and the children God has placed in your care find yourselves, you would trust that God is working all things together for your good, using all things to conform you more into the image of His Son.

I'll see you next time.