By: Rhett Seitz
Everyone has a defining object from their childhood: something that instantly transports them back to a simpler time. For my generation, and likely most of Southern’s current student population, one of the most universal touchstones was a little white box called the Nintendo Wii, a staple of that era. Almost everyone I knew either had or knew of the console.
While growing up, I had a wide variety of interests, from writing comics to going outside. I was first introduced to one of my hobbies when my father handed me a copy of Super Mario Galaxy.
I had never played a video game before, but the moment the cinematic title screen booted up and Mario screamed “SUPER MARIOOOO GALAXXYYY!” I was instantly hooked.
The premise was that Mario, a character nearly as universally recognizable as Mickey Mouse, was on another adventure to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser. The twist? This time it was all in outer space!
The game turned out to be a massive success upon release, with critical acclaim from gamers, critics and everyday people alike. Super Mario Galaxy turned out to be not just one of the best games on the Wii, but one of the best games of all time. It was so good that they even made a sequel with Super Mario Galaxy 2 in 2010, a rarity for 3D Mario Games.
On April 1, Illumination Studios and Nintendo are bringing that exact adventure to the big screen with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Gamers and non-gamers alike are projecting it to be the first massive blockbuster of 2026, following the billion-dollar success of the first Super Mario Bros. Movie, with this new movie likely to surpass the success of its 2023 predecessor.
I never thought that a movie would be based on one of my favorite video games, especially since the video game movie industry is still fairly young in Hollywood. It was as if my childhood and the late 2000s were resurrected again.
But the fact that the studio specifically chose to adopt Galaxy next in the movie series speaks volumes not only about how impactful the game was, but also about the world we live in today. Our culture has a profound obsession with nostalgia.
We live in an era that is fueled by looking backward. Whether it be Marvel or Star Wars, we constantly crave reboots, remakes and throwbacks to escape the complexities of modern life. Some of the biggest moneymakers at the box offices are not new original films, but sentimental machines from years past.
But the fond memories surrounding Super Mario Galaxy are different. We aren’t yearning just for the intuitive Wii remote controls or the fun platforming. We are nostalgic for the profound emotions the game made us feel before we were even old enough to fully understand them.
What made Galaxy a masterpiece was not its gameplay, but its soul. Unlike any Mario game before or since, it had a distinctly beautiful, almost melancholic atmosphere. The soundtrack was fully orchestrated, replacing the typical synthesized beeps of previous Mario entries with soaring violins and lonely pianos that made the vacuum of space feel incredibly vast, empty—and alone.
Then, hidden within this colorful kids game was a quietly devastating, deeply emotional backstory about a cosmic princess dealing with grief, the loss of her mother and the journey to build a new family out in the stars. Rosalina’s Storybook introduced a generation of kids to themes of existentialism and the bittersweet passage of time, all disguised behind a cartoon Italian plumber screaming, “Wahoo!”
When I entered high school, I put gaming aside to focus on my classes and my future. Mario Galaxy became a distant memory. It wasn’t until I was deep into my college years that I found myself looking back at the game again.
I realized that my love for it wasn’t just about wanting to be a kid again. It was an appreciation for a piece of art that treated its young audience with emotional respect. Nostalgia had taken hold of me.
Perhaps because it can sometimes be a trap that keeps us stuck in the past, nostalgia can prevent us from moving forward. It can distort reality, painting a rosy-eyed picture of a past that never actually existed, causing people to hate their present or dread the future.
The grass is not always greener on the other side—or in this case, the other planet.
Entertainment is a great gift, but it becomes dangerous when it is used solely as an escape from our present realities. At its best, nostalgia is a reminder of the things that originally shaped our capacity for wonder. It takes us back to a time when things were slower and life was not as confusing.
Thankfully, as good as Galaxy is as a game, we don’t have to rely on the drug of nostalgia to find hope. We can look beyond the digital stars of Mario Galaxy to the One who created the actual galaxies in the first place.
Psalm 147:4 reminds us, “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.”
Mario, Bowser, and Rosalina’s cosmic adventures are fun to watch and play, but they pale in comparison to the Almighty God who anchors our present reality. We don’t have to keep escaping to the past when we can look forward to today and the future.
Whether you are a hardcore gamer who has collected all the 121 Power Stars, or someone who has never touched a controller in your life, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is worth your time. Go see it for the stunning animation and the laughs, but pay attention to the emotional core underneath. You might just find yourself transported back to a time when the universe felt a little more magical.
