SMG4 goes insane and its up to his friends to save him. Little do they know that the events that unfold will change their lives forever.
SMG4 Movie: IT'S GOTTA BE PERFECT is the fourth movie-length episode in the SMG4 series, premiering March 18th 2023.note
Ever since the events of "SMG4... Are You OK?", SMG4 has been toiling away at making the "perfect video" …to a worrying degree. There's something strange going on with him, and his friends are determined to rescue him from his insanity, but are they prepared to learn what's really going on?
Previews: "It's Gotta Be Perfect..."
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"........Announcement??????"note
The Tropes Have To Be Perfect:
- Arc Words: "Perfect". It mostly gets used by SMG4 to highlight his insanity and desperation to make the perfect video and once more at the end to emphasize how he's accepted that not everything needs to be "perfect" to be perfect.
- Artifact of Doom: SMG4 buys a cursed keyboard which could help in making his perfect video. Upon use, it takes control of SMG4 and overruns the castle with an Eldritch Abomination.
- Aspect Ratio Switch: The serious moments in this movie, like many other SMG4 episodes/movies, are presented in "CinemaScope Ratio" (2.35:1), but when particularly comedic moments happen, notably when Meggy pokes fun at SMG3's tsundere nature regarding SMG4, the movie goes back to its usual 16:9 view before things get serious again and the black bars come back.
- Backported Development: Clips from the episodes which feature SMG4 working on his perfect video use his updated model even though it wasn't introduced until after these videos were released.
- Big Bad: Played With for SMG4. While he is the one that caused the events of the movie to happen via overwork and stress causing him to lose his sanity and alienating his friends in the process, it's only after the events of the previous video where he is easily taken advantage of by the Clippy-esque TV to buy the demonic keyboard and let it possess him while hinting that something else was causing the events of the film on purpose.
- Bittersweet Ending: SMG4 is saved from his corruption and learns not to obsess over his videos, but Peach's castle is destroyed by the demon. Not to mention that there's a giant demonic maw where Peach's Castle once stood, and whatever entity was responsible for selling the cursed keyboard to SMG4 and starting the whole mess is presumably still at large. Also, Peach herself is still trapped inside, though this is Played for Laughs.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: At the beginning of the flashback to SMG4's attempt to create his Perfect Video, he brings a bunch of supplies into his room – ramen, potato & corn chips, a bunch of bananas, Bonk! Atomic Punch, and… a gallon of bleach.
- Breaking Old Trends: This is the first movie of the series not to be connected to an arc. Meggy’s Destiny was an epilogue to the Anime Arc while 10 Year Anniversary Special and Revelations were part of the Cosmology Saga.
- Call-Back:
- Mixed with Brick Joke, SMG4's reaction to Bob bothering him during the flashback is to throw a door at him. This is exactly how Bob reacted to Mario's invitation to Mar10 Day in "Mario Steals The Constitution", because Bob lives in a literal garbage dump and didn't have a door to slam in Mario's face so he did the next best thing.
- When first seeing what the castle has become in the wake of SMG4's Sanity Slippage, Tari suspects the return of Zero. SMG3 rejects it on the spot, saying the demonic goo is not meme energy.
- On seeing the paintings replaced with various hate comments from SMG4's thoughts, SMG3 recalls the YouTube Arc, saying that controlling SMG4's channel for a week was the most stressful time in his life.
- Digital Abomination: The Clippy-esque TV that sells the demonic keyboard is implied to be one since it appears right after SMG4 got his wifi working again saying it will make all his videos perfect, and once again after SMG4 finishes his perfect video.
- Dope Slap: When Boopkins is grabbed by the demon's tentacles, everyone screams except for Bob, who remarks, "Do a flip." Meggy responds by slapping him upside the head, sending Bob flipping head over heels before he hits the ground.
- Eldritch Abomination: SMG3 is briefly turned into a rather terrifying amalgamation of himself with Red from NES Godzilla Creepypasta, and Mario and Meggy are forced to Beat the Curse Out of Him.
- Fish Eyes: In a rare move, characters other than Mario show this. Saiko has a mild one after her showdown with Swag is interrupted by Boopkins declaring the answer to the conflict is The Power of Friendship. Swag probably would have too except for the low quality of his model – his face stretches instead. Later, Meggy goes full-derp when forced by Beeg-SMG4 to react to memes.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Near the end of the video, SMG4 is forced to choose between saving the USB drive containing his perfect video or saving SMG3 from the maw of an Eldritch Abomination. He chooses SMG3.
- Foreshadowing: Mr. Puzzle's adware avatar asks SMG3 and 4 to rate their experience with the keyboard once they are done.....guess what is Puzzles ultimate end goal at the end of this saga?
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: As Mario, Meggy, and SMG3 traverse the castle, they find the second floor paintings replaced with various hateful comments such as "YOU WILL NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH" and "NOBODY LIKES YOUR VIDEOS". SMG3 is quick to identify these as SMG4's inner thoughts, stating that he felt the same pressures during the events of the YouTube Arc.
- Hijacked by Ganon: Immediately subverted right out the gate. The moment Tari finishes her question about the possibility of Niles being behind SMG4’s insanity, SMG3 shoots down her suspicion by pointing out the Eldritch Goop isn’t meme energy, and is instead something completely different.
- How We Got Here: After picking up from where the trailer left off, we’re shown the events of the last few episodes from SMG4’s perspective, as well the start of his possession by the demonic keyboard, before returning to the present.
- Ironic Echo: A rare positive example. "It's gotta be perfect" serves as SMG4's Madness Mantra and the Arc Words in his Sanity Slippage. Come the castle's destruction, he says that the new castle he's going to rebuild in atonement is "going to be perfect" in a much more relaxed tone.
- Laughing Mad: SMG4's reaction when his internet goes out during the events of "Mar10 Day". This wasn't shown in the actual episode, but there was a gap in between when Wario took out the router and SMG4 leaving his room to (literally) break up the party.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After being snapped out of his Demonic Possession, SMG4 feels terrible for all the trouble his insanity has caused, and solemnly apologizes in the wake of Peach's Castle being destroyed.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: After almost a dozen years of videos taking place in and around Peach's Castle, which would always come back no matter how many times it was destroyed, the castle is finally taken down in a way that renders it unable to simply come back at the start of the next video (the gaping maw of an Eldritch Abomination now sitting where it stood before). SMG4, Mario, and the others accept that the castle will not be coming back this time and set out to build a newer, better castle.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Upon seeing that the paintings on the castle's second floor have turned to hate comments, SMG3 realizes that they're SMG4's thoughts, and says that he felt the same way during the events of the YouTube Arc.SMG3: "SMG4 wrote these. These are all his thoughts."
Meggy: "What?! No way... how do you know?"
SMG3: (choked up) "Because I felt the same way... Do you know what it's like? To live with the kind of expectations he has? Well I had his channel for just a week and it was the most stressful thing in my life. Having millions of eyes on you... being worried you'll make one mistake and lose everything... always having to try and be perfect... it can make you go... kinda crazy." - Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The final shot of the movie is Mario and the others setting off to build a new castle... or it would have been the last shot of the movie if it didn't occur to Meggy right then that they completely forgot about Peach.
- Perspective Flip: The movie opens with scenes from the past several episodes, but this time from SMG4's perspective. From his POV, the Secret Slide room isn't nearly as junky, whereas the views of it we get in the episodes themselves plus the livestream depict SMG4 as a sort of hikikomori. Also, his rampage at the end of "Mar10 Day" is heavily condensed here.
- The Power of Friendship: Decon-Recon Switch
- Deconstruction: Boopkins attempts to invoke the power of friendship to make the demonic entity go away and stop Swag blowing up the castle, but his surface level blather doesn't accomplish anything. In the end, he's forced to accept that they need to sacrifice the castle with their friends still inside to save the rest of the Kingdom.
- Reconstruction: SMG3, SMG4's former sworn enemy, is the one who's able to reach through to the possessed SMG4 by empathizing with his struggles and letting him know that no matter the pressures, SMG4's friends – including SMG3 himself – will always be there for him. Thus, in a way, Boopkins still ended up being right all along; even if friendship wouldn't and ultimately couldn't control the fate of the castle by that point, it was still what ultimately saved the lives of SMG3 and SMG4 (which is obviously the most important thing) in the end.
- Riddle for the Ages:
- The identity of the one responsible for selling SMG4 the demonic keyboard and causing the whole mess goes unrevealed, at least for the time being. At the very least, SMG3 confirms that it's not Zero again, since the energy given off by the Meat Moss isn't meme energy.
- Just what would have SMG4's "perfect video" looked like? The only clues about it are redesigning characters, utilizing his and SMG3's old Mario recolor designs, and Kermit the Frog fighting the Pope.
- Room Full of Crazy: When Meggy and SMG3 barge into SMG4's room, they see that it has "it's gotta be perfect" scribbled all over every possible wall.
- Running Gagged: Outright stated to be the case with the frequent destruction of Peach's castle, which given the circumstances is likely permanent this time.Mario: "Wait...but guys...Mario blows up the castle all the time...can't we just rebuild it again?"
Meggy: "Something tells me...the castle won't be returning any time soon..." - Slept Through the Apocalypse:
- The reason for Melony's absence? She's fast asleep in her apartment while everything goes down at Peach's Castle, so she doesn't hear Bob phoning her for help. This is very in-character for Melony.
- Also revealed to be the case for Peach. She somehow slept through the demonic consumption of her castle, and as a result, she ends up getting trapped inside when the castle sinks underground.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The TV-headed salesman only appears twice in the whole episode (each appearance only being a few seconds long), but kicks off the conflict by selling SMG4 the demonic keyboard.
- Something We Forgot: Just as the gang leaves to build a new castle, Meggy realizes Peach is nowhere to be seen. Turns out she's still inside the castle, which is now swallowed by the demon.
- Sunk Cost Fallacy: The main reason why SMG4 is so obsessed with his perfect video. He feels that if he leaves it unfinished, all that time and all that effort spent will have been all for nothing. And even if he quits, the demon keyboard won't let him quit until he finishes it.
- Swapped Roles: When an obstacle can only be passed by reacting to internet memes, for once it's Mario who's acing the challenge while Meggy is left in derp-eyed cluelessness.Meggy: (with fish eyes) "I don't get it."
- Trash the Set: Peach's castle is taken by the demon, forcing the gang to leave to build a new one.
- Transformation of the Possessed: The longer SMG4 works on his perfect video, the more Meat Moss from the keyboard starts to cover him.
- Tsundere: SMG3. When relating to the stress that drove SMG4 crazy, he sounds close to tears throughout his entire speech. But when Meggy says that SMG4 is lucky to have someone who understands him, SMG3 switches to vehement denial. He repeats the routine throughout the video, even tossing in the classic "Baka" the last time.SMG3: What?! No! I don't care about him! I only feel like this because I'm cosmically linked to the idiot!
- Uncertain Doom: Played with. Peach slept through her castle's consumption by SMG4's keyboard. She's shown still alive in the final scene (and it's Played for Laughs) but otherwise her fate was left ambiguous. It isn't until "The Stupid Mario Movie" that we get confirmation Peach is still alive and steadily building her way back out of the demon's maw.
- The Unsolved Mystery: The origin of the Clippy-like TV demon that sold SMG4 the demonic keyboard isn't revealed, nor is it revealed who made/sent the keyboard or who made the TV demon.
- Wham Episode: Peach's Castle is destroyed, and the nature of its destruction means that it is unable to come back like it has in every other episode up to now.
