Film

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

The sequel piles Mario, Luigi and Peach into a rocket and sends them chasing Bowser Jr. across a cosmos of star-shaped worlds, gravity-bending platforms and impossibly cute Lumas. It's brighter, weirder and more visually ambitious than the first film, trading Bowser's wedding plot for a scrappier, more sentimental father-son story. Pure candy-colored spectacle for kids and nostalgic adults alike.

TMDb rating8.2

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie2023

The direct predecessor, and honestly required homework — same voice cast, same visual language, same gleeful commitment to fan service. If you haven't seen it, start here.

But You've probably already seen it, given you're watching the sequel — there's not much new here for returning fans.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie poster

Sonic the Hedgehog 22022

The other big video-game franchise doing the same trick: colourful chase-adventure, a villain's loyal sidekick causing chaos, and a genuine affection for the source material that shows in every frame.

But Live-action/CGI hybrid rather than full animation, so the texture feels quite different even though the energy matches.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 poster

The Lego Movie2014

Same manic, toy-box joy and rapid-fire jokes-per-minute, but with more genuine wit underneath the sugar rush. One of the smartest kids' films of the last two decades.

But Its self-aware, meta humour aims as much at adults as children, which can make it feel a touch less pure fun for the very young.

The Lego Movie poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Chicken Run2000

Bowser Jr.'s whole crusade is a liberation plot — freeing a captured family member from confinement. Chicken Run is that exact structure, played completely straight, in a wildly different medium and with the stakes of actual death rather than cartoon peril.

Stop-motion claymation chickens plotting an elaborate jailbreak to save their flock — it's a full-blown heist movie disguised as a kids' film, with real tension and cracking craftsmanship.

But The tactile, handmade stop-motion look is a world away from Mario's glossy CGI, and some kids find the texture strange at first.

Chicken Run poster
More like this (8)

Wreck-It Ralph2012

A love letter to arcade games with the same sense of hopping between wildly different worlds, plus a sneakily emotional core about loyalty and belonging.

But Slower and more character-driven than Mario's non-stop spectacle; the pacing may feel gentle if you're chasing pure adrenaline.

Wreck-It Ralph poster

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish2022

Gorgeous, stylised animation and a surprisingly moving story about legacy and mortality tucked inside a swashbuckling adventure — proof family animation can go deeper without losing the fun.

But Its themes of death and fear run darker than Mario's breezy tone, which might catch younger viewers off guard.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish poster

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse2018

If it's dazzling, kinetic animation you're after, this is the gold standard — every frame overflowing with colour and invention, much like Mario's starscape does at its best.

But More narratively ambitious and emotionally weighty than Mario aims to be; it's a superhero story with real stakes and grief.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse poster

PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie2023no page yet

Bright, simple, purpose-built for the youngest viewers in the room — a good pick if Mario Galaxy's crowd is skewing toward toddlers rather than nostalgic grown-ups.

But Thin on jokes for adults and much less visually inventive; it's comfort food, not craft.

Minions: The Rise of Gru2022

Same anarchic, gadget-filled energy and villain-origin backstory angle, with slapstick pitched at a similar frequency to Bowser Jr.'s scheming.

But Leans harder into pure chaos-comedy with less emotional throughline than Mario's family-legacy hook.

Minions: The Rise of Gru poster

Trolls Band Together2023no page yet

A family-legacy plot about siblings and a captured relative, wrapped in candy-bright musical numbers — surprisingly close in structure to what Bowser Jr. is doing here.

But The constant pop soundtrack and jukebox-musical format is a very different flavour of noisy than Mario's.

Explorers1985

Mario Galaxy sells itself on kids blasting into a fantastical cosmos. Explorers did the exact same premise four decades earlier with cardboard, wonder, and practical effects — the era-appropriate version of the same dream.

Three kids build a homemade spaceship and get pulled into a genuinely strange, funny, occasionally melancholy encounter with alien life. A charming relic of pre-CGI space adventure for kids.

But Dated effects and a slower, more meandering 80s pace will test viewers used to modern animation's constant motion.

Explorers poster

The Iron Giant1999

Both stories hinge on a child figure wrestling with a father's legacy and whether to follow in his footsteps. The Iron Giant plays that idea in a far more serious, elegiac register — same animated medium, wholly different emotional pitch.

A boy and a giant robot form an unlikely bond in a story about identity, choice and what you inherit from those who raised you — animated, but aimed squarely at the heart.

But Considerably quieter and sadder than Mario's constant slapstick; there's real grief and moral weight here, not just spectacle.

The Iron Giant poster

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