Film Theory: Bowser Can NEVER Die (Super Mario Galaxy Movie)

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]The Super Mario Galaxy movie has deep lore. Yes, as shocked as I am to say it, there's a huge amount packed into Mario Galaxy, and we have to talk about it.

[00:00:11]Hello, internet. Welcome to Film Theory, the show that's about to punch the subscribe button to get a power up. Go on, punch it, too. See what you get. Ah, nice. Tookie suit. So, the Super Mario Galaxy movie is finally out, and boy oh boy, it uh it sure was a movie. Yeah, the sequel to one of the biggest animated films ever, adapting probably the biggest video game ever is out there and it was rushed. Like everything happened in this movie at a breakneck pace and it just like kind of ended abruptly. I was surprised in the theater. The characterization and motivations were thinner than tissue paper. The plot was like random ideas strung together with Christmas lights.

[00:00:47]And don't get me started on just how much of the movie was like, "Hey, remember this from Mario?" And straight up saving Daisy for the postredit scene is diabolical. I bet they get Zenaia to voice her in the third movie. Like legitimately, I I would put money on that. And you know what? I kind of loved it. I had rock bottom expectations going into this movie, just like the last one.

[00:01:08]And I have to say, I enjoyed every minute of the movie for as flawed as it was. The animation was legitimately gorgeous. All of the actors seemed like they were having a ton of fun, and the music was just beautiful. They really took the feedback that the first film felt like a Spotify playlist to heart and and I loved the orchestral versions of all of the themes. Oh, and Star Fox.

[00:01:30]OH MY GOD. LISTEN, I played Star Fox 64 Adventures Assault and Command so much and maimed Fox and Melee so long that those sound bites are burned into my cerebellum. Fox, that was one of ours.

[00:01:42]Mission complete. Daddy screamed real good before he died.

[00:01:47]>> You'll never DEFEAT ANDRA.

[00:01:52]So seeing Fox up there on the big screen played by an actor who went out of his way to pitch himself for the part because he loved it so much, man, just music to my ears. But none of that compares to the fact that this movie straight up confirmed one of our theories. We were right. When the first movie came out, Matt and I wrote a series of many theories, and one of them said, >> "Peach is a star." are. Basically, we used strange details about Peach's origins, how powerful she was, her costume design, and her looking longingly up into the night sky while name- dropping the word galaxy to all point towards Peach being a humanoid star, a superstar that had taken human form. And that's literally the plot of this movie. Peach and Rosalina are both stars in human bodies, and their power is the driving force of this film. It just feels so good to be right. To not only have one of our theories be correct, but a main part of a story. It just it feels great, man. Going off of that high though, guys, I have to say so many thoughts about this film. So many theories we could do. Like, what's the deal with Mario and Peach? Are they together or not? Nintendo has insisted for years that they're just friends who support each other, but come on. This movie confirms that Mario is down bad for the princess and she seems to not hate the idea either. Oh, and another thing. But did you guys notice just how weird Toad was acting towards Yoshi?

[00:03:14]Like, he did not like having this dinosaur around. But he respects Mario and Luigi as equals and rever both Princess Peach and Bowser probably because they're like royalty and authority figures. So, is Toad like racist against Yoshi or at the very least trapped in a class cast system where he doesn't respect the animals below him? It It was a weird character trait and and they just straight up needed like 20 more minutes to explore that. Peach and Mario's relationship, Bowser returning to the dark side, anything to do with Roselina, like you get it. I actually had so much to talk about that we couldn't fit it all into one theory. So, today, loyal theorists, you're getting a multi-ackage deal.

[00:03:53]Yeah, you're getting four theories for the price of one. So, let's not wait any further. Jump into that warp pipe and BLAST OFF TO GATEWAY GALAXY. Here are four Mario mini theories. Mini theory number one, Bowser is literally unkillable. So, we talked in a previous theory about how Mario seems to be immortal when he's in the Mushroom Kingdom. But in all seriousness, it looks like Bowser, Bowser Jr., and basically all of the other Koopasar, too. Like, even more than Mario. See, during the climax of the movie, when Mario and Peach are fighting Bowser to get inside the castle to rescue Roselina, they recreate the famous sequence from the original Super Mario Brothers, where you're fighting the King Koopa on a bridge over a moat of lava.

[00:04:34]Mario is able to use an axe to cut the bridge, leaving Bowser to tumble in.

[00:04:38]It's actually kind of brutal, and you get a moment where Bowser Jr.

[00:04:42]legitimately thinks his dad is Dunzo.

[00:04:44]But well, Bowser is okay. And he climbs out of the lava, but all of his skin and scales are gone. He's returned as the living skeleton dry Bowser. And he isn't like a mindless zombie or anything like that. He is alive. He's retained his brain. He's sentient. And he keeps all of the mental faculties even after his skeleton is broken apart, and he's just a skull. And not only that, but Bowser isn't even the only Koopa this happens to. Of course, we see some like seemingly mindless dry bones in the first Super Mario movie in the scene that's supposed to be reminiscent of Luigi's Mansion. But in this movie, there's a moment where we first visit Planet Bowser, where we see the daily life of the Koopas in Bowser Jr.'s army, and we see what actually looks like some sort of amusement park for the Koopas covering the planet. Several of them are riding a roller coaster which dips down into a river of lava. Like, they're completely submerged. And when it comes out of that lava, every single one of those Koopas has been turned into a dry bones. And not only that, but they're cheering. They've had the times of their lives on this massochism coaster, or maybe the time of their deaths. See, lava like this can have a bit of a temperature range, anywhere from 700 to,200° C, or 1300 to 2,200° F. Any sort of prolonged contact with that can result in burning, melting, or vaporization where the water within an object will turn into steam depending on what material it's made of. Obviously, that would kill you. And so, all of the organic skin and such getting stripped from these koopas absolutely makes sense. And actually, the fact that the skeletons did survive tells us what temperature this lava would be. At 700° C, the organic soft tissue would be torn away, but the bones would just be calcinated. They'd be bleached and brittle, but still more or less intact.

[00:06:33]Exactly like what we see here with Bowser and the Koopas. Anyway, even if the skeletons would survive, the Koopas should absolutely be dead here if they were anything close to a normal turtle, right? But based on everything we see here in this movie, this just really adds on to the theory that like everyone is immortal in the Mushroom Kingdom. It does make me wonder though, would this be the case for like anyone in the Mario Galaxy at least when they're not like in Brooklyn? Like if Mario fell into a pit of lava in the climax of this movie, would he just like come out as dry Mario, a a Mario themed skeleton? Or is this just exclusively a Koopa ability with their souls sticking to their bones even after their bodies have died? I'd kind of lean towards the latter since Bowser Jr. is all obsessed with killing people. So maybe they just pop out of existence when they take too much damage. Either way, just like Mario seems impossible to injure while in the Mushroom Kingdom, the Koopas seem impossible to actually kill. Silly. Yes, fun also, yes, but not as fun as many theory number two, Yoshi is domesticated. So, the biggest new addition to the film's cast was probably Yoshi. And somehow they got Donald Glover into the studio to make Yoshi noises and then changed his voice so much you couldn't even tell it was him, which I mean, that's kind of sick. I'm not even going to lie. Also, did you catch the small recreation of the childish Gambino music video for This is America when Yoshi was running from the cops? No way. Was that just me noticing that? Loved the little hat and backpack he was wearing in this scene, too.

[00:08:00]Though probably would have looked cooler if it were the film theory 10-year anniversary hoodie and hat available at theory.store. Just saying. Anyway, we briefly get a look into Yoshi's origins in this movie. After the egg from the previous film's postredit scene hatches in the sewers below New York City, Yoshi makes his way up onto the street to explore Brooklyn for a little bit. It's a very cute scene and basically nobody even reacts to Yoshi being there despite being a giant lizard roaming the streets. You know, given that the last movie ended with Bowser attacking and it seems like Donkey Kong just like lives in the city now. Okay, fair. One of our writers actually lives in New York and she also said that she'd be minding her own business if she saw Yoshi walking down the street. And and again, I say fair. But in all seriousness, how would that be the case? How could that be the case? Well, it would make sense based on exactly how adorable Yoshi is, and that's literally because he's been bred that way. Nintendo has said multiple times that Yoshi is a dinosaur.

[00:08:59]Something confirmed again in this movie.

[00:09:01]>> So, some dinosaur just shows up and he's now part of the group.

[00:09:04]>> And I found it really interesting that we see Yoshi come face to face with another classic style dinosaur in this film.

[00:09:13]Obviously, this is a more traditional Jurassic Park inspired dinosaur, but the fact that both of these creatures exist in the same universe implies something very interesting about Yoshi and how he evolved. See, to be clear, just because a realistic T-Rex exists doesn't mean that a Yoshi can't. They could be different species or different offshoots of the same species. But the fact that they do look radically different despite both being dinosaurs like this is a little weird. See, evolution doesn't happen by accident. For example, polar bears have been proven to originate from brown bears, but evolved the white colorless fur 500,000 years ago because it helped them camouflage into their surroundings. More white polar bears survived in the area than dark brown bears. So, they passed on those genes.

[00:10:00]That's a very, very simplified explanation of evolution, but you get it. That is what they mean by survival of the fittest. Well, you can probably figure out how a T-Rex would evolve the way it did. It's a big predator. It has good eyes for spotting prey, strong legs for chasing them, sharp teeth for munching on them. They are the carnivore apex predator of the dinosaur kingdom.

[00:10:22]But how on earth would something like a Yoshi evolve? Well, fun fact, but we wrote a whole script about this before realizing that getting into the nitty-gritty of Yoshi DNA, diet habits, and such might not make for the best 20inute video. But hey, let me know in the comments if you think I'm wrong and you do want to see that. The long and short of it, Yoshi evolved to be cute.

[00:10:42]Like hella cute. Compare it to the T-Rex and look at their main differences.

[00:10:47]Yoshi is rounder. He is big. Cartoon eyes. He smiles. He laughs. He makes humanlike noises. Well, all of that would be the result of a type of evolution called domestication.

[00:10:59]Basically, this is a process where certain qualities that are beneficial to humans are chosen in an animal and then specifically bred into that animal. A great example of this is actually dogs.

[00:11:10]They used to be wolves, wild and dangerous creatures that were eventually tamed and bred into like corgis and chihuahua. Animals that are way more docile and less threatening. So, all those cute parts of Yoshi that make him so likable, those were bred into him, as were some other qualities. Seriously, have you ever noticed that Yoshi's feet look like shoes or that he straight up just has a saddle on his back? Both very human-like qualities, perfect for a running creature that would be ridden into battle. And fun fact, but domestication like this can actually happen naturally within animals. A recent study of urban raccoons found that raccoons living in dense cities have shorter snouts than rural raccoons.

[00:11:51]Why? Well, it made them look cuter and therefore more appealing to humans. So, the raccoons were less likely to be considered dangerous or pests by the humans in the city. And therefore, the raccoons could eat out of the trash. So, yeah, it is entirely possible that Yoshi's species domesticated themselves like this when they were in contact with early humans or something like that. Or they were domesticated by something else. I mean, there are a bunch of ruins that we see in the desert kingdom that could potentially have been some ancient race that controlled all of the Yoshis.

[00:12:22]Again, we talked about that in that really long script. Let me let me know if you actually want us to make that video. Many theory number three, the dark forces are bigger than you think.

[00:12:31]Probably the biggest thread left dangling by this movie was who exactly was after Peach and Roselina. If you need a refresher, we get a flashback to Peach's childhood with her older sister Roselina when they lived together on a small world. Using their star magic, they terraformed the planet and were living happily until something arrived.

[00:12:51]Roselina describes them as dark forces.

[00:12:54]They have an ominous purple glow, and they scared Roselina enough that she sent Peach away to live with the people of the Mushroom Kingdom. They were probably after the sisters because of their star power and just how much stronger they are when they're together.

[00:13:07]So, who was this? Well, based on everything we know, they have to be evil and purple. Not a ton to work with, but we can make some educated guesses. And to find it, we have to dig into some deep Mario lore. The first option could be the shrews from the Mario and Luigi RPGs. They're definitely evil, definitely purple, and also fit in the whole space aesthetic of galaxy very well. They have ray guns and UFOs and also like to invade planets looking for resources to save their own dying planet. They're very war of the worlds in that regard and would absolutely want the star-powered Peach and Roselina.

[00:13:43]They'd also be a nice thematic and visual parallel to the toads. On the one hand, you have the evil mushroom people and the good mushroom people on the other. I mean, it would just fit, you know. Second, it could be the dark star from Mario and Luigi Bowser's inside story. This is like an ancient evil that's searching for power. So, it would make sense that it would want Peach and Roselina. It also very much fits the purple energy and dark forces angle.

[00:14:06]Though, I will say both these and the shrews are a bit obscure and and I think the shrews are more interesting than this one would be personally. And our third option is also a bit obscure, but I actually feel really good about this one. These dark forces could be Tatanga from Super Mario Land. Tatanga is an alien who is also entirely purple. He has a spaceship, fits with the galaxy theme, and most importantly, he has a direct connection to Princess Daisy. As we mentioned at the top of the video, the postredit scene in this movie sets up Daisy as a brand new character for the sequel, completing our princess trifecta. and she first appeared in the Super Mario Land games. Titango was actually trying to kidnap Daisy and make her his bride. Opening the door for all of the lore from the Super Mario Land games would also let us get Wario into these movies finally since he also first appeared in Super Mario Land 2 and they could get like man I I don't know Pedro Pascal to voice him because why the hell not. No Waluigi though. He He never gets love. Or or or or final option for our evil forces here. And the one that I think is most interesting, maybe not the most likely, but most interesting, those evil forces could be Taboo. If you're saying, "Huh, who?" Fair. Taboo was the main villain in the Subspace Emissary story mode in Super Smash Brothers Brawl. He had vast power. His energy was bluish purple. and he'd absolutely want the power of characters like Roselina and Peach. And not only that, but it fits with mini theory number four, the Nintendo cinematic universe. And okay, I mean, here's the big one, right?

[00:15:44]Everyone's been talking about this, but I don't think people have really nailed down how Nintendo is planning to do this. Yeah, if you've somehow been able to avoid this spoiler and haven't seen the movie yet, the Super Mario Galaxy movie is packed with tons of Nintendo properties. And I don't just mean as little references or Easter egg. Sock Mloud from the Star Fox series is basically a main character in this film, helping Mario, Peach, and the others travel through the galaxy on his Arwing Starship. But that was just one character. Rob the robot had a huge part in the Gateway Galaxy sequence. The Pikmin also had a pretty big cameo, front and center, and the focus of a shot in the spaceport scene. Peach and Toad even interact with them. And of course, Luigi draws Mr. Game and Watch using Bowser Jr.'s magic paintbrush, and he helps them briefly in the final battle. Got to say, loved that moment as a Game and Watch enjoyer. But bro, even beyond this, the cameos. During Yoshi's origin flashback, while he's hanging out in Brooklyn, we can see a man ride by on a bike while another smaller guy runs behind him in a pink jumpsuit. We can't really see either of their faces, but this was obviously meant to be Doc Lewis and Little Mac from the Punch Out series, recreating the iconic training scene from the original NES game. They'd already alluded to Little Mac with the Punchout Pizzeria in the first film, and this is just doubling down on it. And in a blinking moment, you can also see Samus Aaron's spaceship in the same scene where Peach and Toad meet Fox.

[00:17:11]That right there creates a bit of a fun problem because Samus is from a future where Earth still exists. So, like, did she get thrown back in time? Kind of similar to what happened here with Fox.

[00:17:21]I am excited to see where that goes.

[00:17:23]Listen, what Nintendo is doing here is two-pronged and honestly, very smart.

[00:17:28]Firstly, they're setting up these characters for spin-offs, right? Like, there have been whispers of a Donkey Kong spin-off, a Luigi spin-off. I'm I'm actually surprised we haven't heard more about those yet. There's also a series of Pikmin short films that Nintendo's been making, which they advertised by having them front and center in this movie, too. But most obviously, they just set up Fox like perfectly for his own spin-off movie or series. He's being voiced by an in- demand A-lister, Glenn Powell, who actually begged Illumination to make a Star Fox movie so he could voice Fox. Man, he's a legit fan. He has an awesome anime inspired intro sequence explaining his origin story, and a mid-credit sequence that basically sets up a new Star Fox spin-off with Fox returning home for more Interstellar adventures. He is straight up the cool guy in this movie. Nintendo and Universal were doing everything they could to make Fox the breakout star of this film, leaving viewers wanting for more. And for all intents and purposes, it worked. Everyone suddenly super interested in Star Fox. They might even get another game soon. And given the fact that he's also one of Mario Mastermind Shagir Miamoto's other creations, a movie might already be in development. But secondly, they're absolutely setting up for either a series of mini crossovers or a Super Smash Brothers film. But the twist is it won't be a Super Smash Brothers movie.

[00:18:50]Probably. See, the way they've handled these cameos really reminds me of how Marvel's handled their crossovers where they're basically like a series of teamups, right? We get a Thor movie with Hulk as a main character, a Spider-Man movie with Iron Man as a main character, a Captain America movie with, well, everybody. Mario is going to continue to be a vehicle to do that. I I fully expect that the Super Mario Movie 3 is going to be doing this exact same thing.

[00:19:16]I'm just throwing this one out there, but if there's a movie that leans into any of the themes of like Mario Sunshine, fully expect characters from Splatoon to show up just like Fox did here in Mario Galaxy or like Kirby if they're going for more of an Odyssey route or I don't know, Captain Falcon if they randomly decide to make an F1 inspired full-on Mario Kart movie. I could see that being the strategy of these Nintendo films moving forward. The duck hunt dog is Yoshi's rival in the next film. We get Samus as a supporting character in Star Fox. The Pikmin go on an adventure in the Animal Crossing town. Somehow Marth from Fire Emblem appears in a Zelda feature setting up his own series there. You get the idea.

[00:19:55]All of that could lead up to a big Civil War style event Mario film where all of these characters show up to fight Masterand or Taboo or whatever those evil forces Roselina referenced actually are. But wait, I hear you saying, why wouldn't they just go ham and straight up make a Super Smash Brothers movie then at that point? Well, part of me still thinks that they could, but there are a couple of things standing in the way there. First off, Nintendo's Shagiru Miiamoto said that they probably won't do a crossover film like Super Smash Brothers and instead let characters just show up where they'd be the most fun or make the most sense. Basically, exactly how we saw Fox in this movie. But secondly, and sadly more importantly, there's probably some legal shenanigans they'd have to jump through. Yeah, here's everyone's favorite topic, complicated film rights. Notice how basically the only major Nintendo characters who didn't show up in Mario Galaxy in some form at all were like Link, Kirby, and Pikachu. Well, Sony's doing the Zelda movie with Nintendo, while Legendary and Warner Brothers did Detective Pikachu. And it seems like Netflix might be working on their own Pokémon thing now. Plus, there's like the anime that's been running for forever. And just it's crazy, man. I actually wouldn't be surprised if Illumination and Universal wanted all of these characters like Fox and Samus in here just so they could plant a flag and say, "Hey, we want to do these, please."

[00:21:13]Anyway, because those rights are tied up with other studios, maybe they couldn't appear in these movies. Those boring rights issues could prevent us from getting a legit Smash Brothers movie, and Nintendo and Miyamoto are just trying to calm expectations because of it. It would also be silly for like a liveaction Link to show up with all of these animated characters like Spiderverse style. Though, I guess they could do like a Toon Link instead. Okay.

[00:21:37]Yeah, they need to figure out the rights thing and and just make that Smash Brothers movie because that would be sick. But hey, that's just a theory. A film theory and cut. Up next on Film Theory, the Mario Galaxy is doomed.