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Super Mario Galaxy Spoiler Free Review
If you're walking in with kids, reset your expectations and you'll walk out fine. They will lose their minds. You'll eat popcorn. Everyone goes home happy. That's a legitimate win.
If you're walking in as a Nintendo fan hoping this is the movie the franchise deserves, you will be sad.
The plot is eight storylines crammed into one film with no real connective tissue. Things happen. Then more things happen. Then it ends. The simplicity that makes Mario games work, a clean premise that gets you exploring the world, is exactly what they abandoned here. They looked at everything Mario has ever been and decided to do all of it at once.
Here's what saves it: the music and the animation are both elite. Brian Taylor's score is the best character in the film. It has more of a throughline than the actual story. And the animation is the kind of thing where you have to remind yourself to pay attention to it because the plot keeps getting in the way. The world looks extraordinary.
Worth seeing for the animation and music. Worth skipping if you were hoping for a franchise.
Eric Tries Reese’s PB+J and Marshmallow
Reese's is doing what candy brands do in the spring, launching limited flavors nobody asked for and daring you to try them anyway. I tried both so you don't have to.
The Strawberry PB&J: don't. The peanut butter is doing heroic work trying to cover up the artificial strawberry flavoring, and it almost gets away with it. Almost. The jelly wins in the end, and not in a good way. I've never once looked at a Reese's cup and thought what this needs is jelly. Turns out I was right.
The Marshmallow: different story. There's a better ratio, better flavor, and immediately I could see exactly where this belongs, not eaten standing in a parking lot like I did, but wedged between two graham crackers over a fire. This is a s'more component that ships pre-assembled. It was designed for a fire pit, a summer night, and people you like. Don't eat it alone. Do buy it now and keep it in the rotation through fall.
Verdict: skip the PB&J, stock the marshmallow.