Disney’s Wish Borrows The Best Thing From The Super Mario Brothers Movie

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Disney’s Wish!

Disney’s Wish borrows the best thing from The Super Mario Brothers Movie with one of its main characters. The House of Mouse celebrates 100 years of creating movie magic with a film filled with nostalgic callbacks to all of its fairytale classics, catchy new songs, and colorful characters. When a young girl named Asha (Ariana DeBose) makes a wish on a star, it comes to Earth and helps her lead a revolt against King Magnifico (Chris Pine) who has selfishly taken all the wishes in the Kingdom of Rosas for himself without any thought to how it’s going to affect them long term.

The Super Mario Brothers Movie lead 2023 in animation and was a blockbuster hit, leaving Disney with some fierce competition. Fortunately, one of Wish’s best new characters is an homage to one of the best parts about Mario and Luigi’s adventures. The Super Mario Brothers Movie succeeded by taking existing characters and cleverly working them into a fun plot, whereas Wish is full of Easter eggs but managed to find unique ways to rework common tropes centered around fairytales and magic wishing stars.

Star Is Similar To Lumalee In The Super Mario Brothers Movie

Small, cute, and very expressive, Star is very similar to Lumalee, the blue star trapped in Bower’s castle in The Super Mario Brothers Movie. Lumalee appears when Luigi is kidnapped by Bowser and put into his dungeon, and the little celestial captive has a very nihilistic worldview that contrasts sharply with his adorable appearance and high voice. Star doesn’t exactly grant Asha powers when it appears, but acts as a helpful guide for her, similar to what Lumalee does for Mario in the Super Mario Brothers games.

Both characters benefit from their ironic sense of humor and express themselves in unexpected ways. Lumalee’s outrageously doom-filled lines juxtaposed with its cheerful disposition subverted audience expectations. At times, Star often behaved in a way that contradicted his cute appearance, like when he violently threatened Magnifico, or made fun of Valentino. Even though both films were developed at the same time, Wish benefits from Lumalee already being firmly planted in the recent zeitgeist and a surprising breakout “star” of The Super Mario Brothers Movie.

Star’s Popularity Suggests Lumalee Should Have a Much Bigger Role In Super Mario Brothers 2

Based on how fun Star’s character is in Wish, it proves that Lumalee should be a bigger part of The Super Mario Brothers Movie sequel. Lumalee only had what amounted to a cameo, but despite such limited screen time, he managed to make a big impression. Lumalee was able to escape Bowser’s castle at the end of the movie, so it’s possible that he could return in the sequel, perhaps with Princess Celestia who was responsible for protecting all the other Lumalees and keeping them safe.

With The Super Mario Brothers Movie 2 currently in production, there are a variety of other characters from the popular gaming franchise to incorporate, but Lumalee should return. In many ways, Star was the best part about Wish because its character was so unexpected and spontaneous, meaning fans never knew what it would do next. Star couldn’t speak and so didn’t have the benefit of Lumalee’s hilarious lines, but Lumalee could benefit from being a main character in the next Super Mario Brothers film.