The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026)

[Mike Blakesley]

I'll never see this movie, because my interest in "Mario" began and ended with the original Donkey Kong video game, about 45 years ago. How Mario has managed to sustain such raging popularity over the past several decades is a mystery to me.

But the kids sure dig him. One kid came out of the theatre on Friday night crying.....my wife asked, "what's the matter?" And his mom said "Oh, he's just sad because the movie is over."

We had two kids in full Mario and Luigi costumes the other night, complete with mustaches. Their mom said they pretty much refuse to wear anything that isn't Mario related lately.

So if it's getting that kind of reaction from the target audience, Ill give it a definite thumbs up, It's putting a lot of big and little butts in the seats too, so that's worth a kudo or two as well.

I do wonder what they'll do for the next sequel though. " The Super Mario Universe Movie?"

[Leo Enticknap]

Took my son to it last week. I maybe reacted to it a little differently to most of the others present, thanks to, in the aftermath of the last movie, some nutty professor coming up with the claim that Princess Peach is supposed to be lesbian, the Mario Bros are suffering from gender dysphoria, and Bowser is so evil because he's frustrated at being in the closet. So while my son was simply absorbing the movie as a straightforward spinoff from the video game, I found myself looking for evidence to support or undermine this, err, theory. At least it helped to pass the time.

This was the first time my wife and son had experienced an Atmos presentation: both complained that the sound was too loud and that the top surrounds were unnerving, and wanted to avoid the PLF house in future, and stick to regular 7.1. Being told that Daddy installed and tuned these systems for a living did not do any persuading! I wonder how common that is, and if there are a significant number of moviegoers who actually don't like and avoid immersive audio, in the same way that there are some who refuse to go to 3-D shows because they find the glasses uncomfortable?

[Mike Blakesley]

I used to get the occasional comment like "we don't hear the surround speakers very much." I would always say "They are almost always making sound, but they're tuned to blend seamlessly with the stage speakers so it's all one big sound; the surrounds aren't always calling attention to themselves." I suuppose with Atmos that thinking is out of date?

[Marcel Birgelen]

In general, I hear very little difference between Atmos and 7.1 mixes. In general, a good 7.1 mix already envelops you with sound and it's easy enough to pan asound between speakers to give it a more specific location on a 360 degree field. What Dolby Atmos primarily adds are the overhead speakers and there is just generally not a whole lot of use cases for them. Maybe rain, if you're supposed to be sitting in a shack, maybe thunder, maybe literally the voice of god? A helicopter or a UFO flying in from exactly above? Most effects are also just in the spur of the moment.

I guess one of the best demonstrations of the systems is the Dolby Cinema "house music" loop, that features slow panning sounds that seem to creep alongside the wall... also a bit unnerving, but still cool . We have Atmos in our screening room, but most people don't hear the difference between Atmos and 7.1, even if I play them an Atmos trailer. If you know what to hear for, then it's quite obvious, but it's certainly not a night and day difference, unless someone made the Atmos mix sound different on purpose.