Last night, our family went to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie. For those who don't know, I have a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old who are smart, funny, and genuinely good kids. I'm certain the tides will turn on me as they get older because no one is this lucky.
I'm a huge fan of Mario, Nintendo, and the whole ecosystem of kid-friendly fun they've built over the years. So when the trailer for the movie was released, I was thrilled. My kids have started playing Mario games with me, and they even own a few Mario-themed t-shirts (much to the chagrin of my partner). We have a collection of stuffed Mario characters that get played with in the toy room. Basically, my kids have engaged with the Mario universe enough to recognize the characters, so when they saw the trailer, they asked to go immediately. This was a very exciting win for me. We booked the tickets as soon as we could and then proceeded to answer the question, "Is it time for the Mario movie yet?" on a near-daily basis. But, as of last night, the time had finally arrived. We all put on our Mario garb and hit the theater with high hopes.
And it was the most fun I've had at the movies in a very long time.
I'm not writing this for a movie review, and I won't spoil anything. The movie was very enjoyable. But, honestly, any movie could have been playing last night, and I still would have walked away with the biggest smile on my face. That's because for large parts of the movie, I wasn't paying attention to the cartoon action on the screen, but the smiles and excitement on my kids' faces.
Throughout the film, I kept finding myself looking sideways, watching their eyes dart across the screen, soaking up as much action as possible while they sat bathed in the movie screen glow and nearly falling off their seats. Giving them gentle "whisper" reminders as they proudly proclaimed the name while pointing at a new character coming on screen for the first time. They wanted to make sure I knew that they knew.
I wanted to be at the movie to watch it because I was excited, but I left full of wonder and excitement because of my kids and not the fantasy on the screen. We've taken my kids to see movies before, watched plenty of movies at home, but this experience was beyond any other for me. Maybe it's because Mario holds a special place in my childhood (and let's be honest, my adult life too), or maybe it's because I've never seen them engrossed in a film as much as they were last night. Whatever the reason, it was the best time in a movie theater I've had in many years, and I will definitely be bringing my kids to the movies again soon.
I'll do my best to keep them from yelling with excitement for too much of it.
P.S. Go see the movie and take your kids if you have them. It really was a ton of fun for Mario fans like me, and partners of Mario fans like my wife.