The Super Mario Bros. Movie's Song Choices Had Fans Groaning In Their Seats

Many fans aren't happy with "The Super Mario Bros. Movie's" inclusion of licensed pop songs, but some have particularly criticized the songs for not being good tonal fits for their respective scenes. In one discussion thread, u/holydiiver singled out a-ha's one-hit wonder "Take On Me" as a particularly awkward choice for the sequence in which Mario and company visit Donkey Kong's home, given how the song's sheen contrasts with the Jungle Kingdom's rougher vibe. Commenters not only agreed with this assessment, but went on to describe the strange placements of licensed music in "The Super Mario Bros." movie as a pervasive issue on the whole. Similarly, u/RandoStonian argued that none of the film's licensed tracks line up well with the scenes that incorporate them, offering up Disney's "Cruella" as an example of a film that accomplished such a task. 

Some fans have even developed theories for why the pop songs were included in "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" in the first place. In an attempt to explain this controversial aspect, u/Jeskid14 suggested that Universal Pictures required Illumination to incorporate licensed music for marketing purposes. If that idea did prove true, it would mean the studio only included pop songs due to a mandate from higher-ups, and not necessarily for artistically fulfilling reasons. Of course, that's all pure speculation at the moment, and there's yet another element to the whole story that partially de-confirms this theory.