Galaxy has its own problems (it’s shoving the premise of at least three different Mario games and also a Star Fox game into one overstuffed movie, and it shows), but at least its creators took feedback on the first movie’s soundtrack to heart. There is really only one needle drop in the whole movie, and it’s somewhat excusable. When Yoshi first meets the Bros. and recounts his brief misadventures in Brooklyn before he escaped through a Warp Pipe, a bit of “Hypnotize” by The Notorious B.I.G. plays. Biggie Smalls’ whole vibe doesn’t fit within the Mushroom Kingdom, but it does fit, famously, in Brooklyn. The first film’s use of the Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” during the Brooklyn-set opening is similarly easier to swallow. Real-world songs make a certain amount of sense in the real world; they’re jarring in the video game fantasy land. (There is an additional pop song in Galaxy but it’s minor; the credits list a sampling of The Bar-Kay’s 1976 funk song “Too Hot to Stop,” which plays during an early party scene as some penguins and Yoshi dance. It’s subtler than any needle drop in the first movie while still not totally matching the vibe.)
Read the full article here
