Leguizamo’s sour grapes aside, there’s nothing anti-woke in the movie. YouTuber Steven Jay Williams, better known by his screen name Boogie, has it right when he says Mario Bros. is neither woke nor anti-woke.
“This movie is average popcorn fare,” Boogie says. “You are to go in and forget the world exists for 90 minutes. You’re going to remember your childhood playing these games, and then you’re going to leave the theater minus twenty bucks and covered in popcorn grease.”
Like Boogie, I consider myself pretty “culturally sensitive” to identity politics. And I agree there’s no subtle political messaging in Mario Bros. It’s just fun.
[That’s all I’m looking for in entertainment, especially these days. Leguizamo’s griping that they didn’t have a Latino voice one of the brothers (he played Luigi in the live-action version years ago), but the game characters aren’t Latino. They’re Italian. If that’s Latino, then so am I, on my mother’s side. — Ed]
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