Nintendo and Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie brings Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and dozens of Toads and Kongs to the big screen in a highly referential, kid-friendly action movie where the breakout star is Jack Black’s Bowser. Mario and Luigi’s colorful cinematic adventure runs the approximate length of a child’s attention span — roughly 92 minutes — and after the climactic battle, viewers may be wondering, “Do I need to sit through The Super Mario Bros. Movie credits with my kid to find out what happens next?”
Regardless of who you’re seeing the movie with, the short answer is yes, The Super Mario Bros. Movie does have a post-credits scene. And a mid-credits scene. The good news is that since this is an animated movie and not a CGI/live-action hybrid blockbuster from Marvel Studios, pieced together by dozens of FX studios, the credits are pretty short compared to what modern moviegoers are used to.
Here’s what happens.
[Ed. note: The following contains spoilers for the ending of The Super Mario Bros. Movie.]
After Mario and Luigi handily defeat Bowser in Brooklyn, the King of the Koopas is safely sequestered in a glass prison. Following a short credits sequence, the film cuts back to Bowser, well after the battle in New York. He is once again singing his ode to the princess, “Peaches.” It’s revealed that this reprise performance is played by a shrunken Bowser on a shrunken grand piano. It’s a funny sight gag, and a chance to get another shot of Jack Black for the road, but it’s also an inconsequential mid-credits stinger.
What happens after the credits is a clear setup for a Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel or spinoff. Once the credits have rolled, the film heads back into the Brooklyn underground, where Mario and Luigi first discovered the pipeworks that lead to the Mushroom Kingdom. There, we see a familiar object: a Yoshi egg, which is shaking and about to hatch. The film cuts to black, and we hear the familiar cry of a Yoshi. (Which is “Yoshi!”)
The reveal of Yoshi as a character in The Super Mario Bros. Movie is not a surprise; we see dozens of them moving in herds earlier in the film, as Mario, Peach, and Toad journey to the Kong Kingdom. The surprise might come when a Yoshi is loose in Brooklyn, sending Mario and Luigi on an adventure across New York to track down this runaway dinosaur. Whether that’s actually part of the plot of the next Super Mario movie remains to be seen. But after a full-on Koopa Troopa invasion of Brooklyn at the end of the film, a cute dinosaur running amok through the Big Apple won’t make its residents blink. Surely, Nintendo and Illumination have bigger plans for Mario and Luigi’s next adventure, but it seems all but guaranteed to include Yoshi.