Why the Super Mario movie’s cutest character yearns for death

The best gag in running Super Mario Bros. Movie is also an extremely disconcerting one — and a pointed reference to a specific Mario game, like so much in the movie.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for one recurring cameo/recurring joke in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.]

Deep in Bowser’s dungeon, there’s a little blue glowing star-shaped creature who cheerfully, vocally yearns for death, nothingness, and the void.

Luma is the Nintendo Wii’s little creature. Super Mario Galaxy. Lumas can be reincarnated as stars and other celestial bodies. So, as Polygon’s own Michael McWhertor noted when the Luma first appeared in a trailer for It Super Mario Bros. MovieThis gag is 100% accurate to lore:

Luma’s references to “the sweet relief” of death are more than just comic relief, they’re accurate to the Luma species. The end of Super Mario GalaxyAn enthusiastic group of Luma sacrificed themselves to save our galaxy and were sucked into the black hole that Bowser created. These men are absolutely amazing In love dying!

The Luma is never named in the movie, but credited as “Lumalee,” and voiced by Juliet Jelenic, the daughter of co-director Michael Jelenic. This makes it even more hilarious, as does the fact that This backstory is not mentioned in the movie.. Lumalee is just there, in Bowser’s dungeon, with a cadre of other prisoners, spouting nihilistic bon mots. To the uninitiated, it’s a highly idiosyncratic joke. To Mario die-hards, it’s an extremely good deep cut.

But Lumalee’s non sequiturs about oblivion also serve to highlight just how safe the rest of Super Mario Bros. MovieIts gags are hilarious. While the movie is eager to please, with references galore, it’s surprisingly light on jokes. The action is largely straight-faced, and most of the humor comes from silly pranks. Many of the jokes in this movie could be used in other contexts and not all of them are derived from individual characters. The exception to this rule is Donkey Kong’s open contempt for Mario.

A desire to be creative could explain some of it. Super Mario Bros. Movie extra-accessible to Mario first-timers, but as the Luma gag shows, writers can get plenty weird with their jokes, and they’ll land just fine — for another example, consider Jack Black’s performance as Bowser. Any Jack Black performance really.

Luma is a status-quo-bucking, like the game from which it was born. Super Mario Bros. Movie is a risk — a cute character that craves death (in a fun way!) in a kids’ movie — that shows off the potential range you can experience in a Mario story. Which is ultimately the biggest barrier in the public consciousness about Mario — How much?People unfamiliar with the source material might think that they are able to read it. What can you do with someone who jumps all over the place?Yes, there are many! And it’d be nice if there were more things like the Luma in this movie to show that off.

Super Mario Bros. Movie This film is playing now in cinemas