| April 3, 2026 
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Hi, movie fans! “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is taking over theaters this weekend (kudos to the headline writer on the movie critic Alissa Wilkinson’s review: “It’s-a Meh”), and my colleague Zachary Small has a fascinating look at Nintendo’s princess problem. The Japanese gaming giant is going head-to-head with Disney in many respects. But the American studio has long addressed concerns about the depiction of female characters in its animated films, and Nintendo had some catching up to do. “Enter, on a shooting star, Rosalina,” Small writes, referring to a princess introduced in a 2007 game who’s now a key figure in the new movie. The film is expected to rake in about $350 million worldwide at the box office this weekend, so Nintendo will be just fine, complex female characters or not. But it’s an interesting development for the franchise and worth keeping an eye on. Also worth keeping an eye on this weekend is “The Drama,” the rom-com-of-sorts starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as a couple dealing with a huge secret on their way to the altar. I won’t spoil it but the chief film critic Manohla Dargis was not won over, writing in her review that the stars’ “beauty and natural charisma go a long way toward selling all kinds of nonsense. Their charm does a great deal of work here; it’s also the most believable thing in the movie.” Whatever you end up watching, enjoy the movies! | STREAMING RECOMMENDATIONS | |
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