One of the most content-clean major animated films of 2023 — a joyful celebration of brotherhood, perseverance, and video game nostalgia with zero content concerns for Christian families.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie succeeds at the simple but increasingly rare task of being a genuinely joyful family film with no content concerns whatsoever. No sexual content, no spiritual darkness, no profanity, no LGBT content, no moral complexity requiring parental explanation. It is a film designed to be fun for everyone from age 5 to 55.
Its central relationship is brothers — Mario's relentless commitment to find and rescue Luigi is the film's emotional engine. Mario faces failure, humiliation, and genuine danger, and keeps going. This persistence maps onto Galatians 6:9's instruction to "not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
The Mario Movie's greatest achievement is its world-building — the Mushroom Kingdom is realized with genuine love of the source material, packed with Nintendo references that delight fans of all ages without excluding those unfamiliar with the games. The animation is visually stunning. Jack Black's Bowser is a comic highlight — a villain whose menace is undercut by his genuine lovelorn attachment to Princess Peach, played entirely for laughs.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie contains cartoon action violence — battle sequences and Bowser's attacks — no sexual content, no profanity, and no spiritual content beyond the fantastical Mushroom Kingdom setting. Appropriate for all ages from 4 and up. One of the clearest family film recommendations we can make. The Mario Movie scores 80/100 — Spiritually Safe, comparable to How to Train Your Dragon and The Incredibles.
Children's media shapes formation in ways adult media does not — children are not yet equipped with the critical distance to evaluate what they're consuming. The question is not just "is this harmful?" but "what is this teaching?" GodlyScore evaluates children's content with heightened sensitivity to family depiction, LGBT normalization, spiritual content, and whether the overall tone encourages virtue or passivity. Score: 65/100 Mixed.
See our Christian TV Reviews hub for similar content evaluated with the same framework. Common Sense Media provides detailed age-by-age content guidance.
For the 2026 sequel, see our guide Is The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Appropriate for Christians?