Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!

The world’s most famous video game hero had a movie not many people know about. Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! was an anime released on July 20, 1986, based on the 1985 video game Super Mario Bros. Starring Tōru Furuya, Yū Mizushima, and Akiko Wada, it was only released in Japan.

Brothers Mario and Luigi find themselves in the Mushroom Kingdom. After getting there, they learn that they must rescue Princess Peach from the evil Bowser, who wants to force her to marry him. They must get by, defeating enemies and gaining the use of power-ups. Can our heroes save the day?

Before I start talking about this, it is important to note that no English version was released. I did manage to see an English version thanks to a fan restoration on YouTube. I found several of the voice acting to feel broken and odd, but seeing as how it is a fan restoration, I don’t think it’s fair to complain about that. Now, since that is out of the way, it is time for my thoughts.

Seeing as how the new Mario movie is coming out in a few days, I feel this is the right time to talk about this movie. I already talked about the horrible Mario movie from the 90s, which you can see by clicking this link, but I feel that I cannot go into the new movie without talking about this. My first thoughts will be on how this movie represents the game. There is so much from the game adapted into this film. It has several of the enemies, power-ups, and background locations straight from the Nintendo Entertainment System. As such, it gives off a much more authentic experience than what fans got from the live-action movie. However, there are some random changes, like not giving Luigi green clothes or making the Mario brothers grocery store clerks instead of plumbers. Regardless, the representation of the game is one of the film’s strongest points.

Next, I will talk about the story. Seeing as how the game had little to no story, it makes sense that the movie would feel like it did not have that impressive of a story. It is fine for what it is, but it doesn’t suck you in like most plots would. There is also the fact that the ending pointlessly becomes bittersweet for no reason, when they had the potential to end on a happier note. I would say that the story just is not that interesting.

Finally, how are the characters? Mario and Luigi show off how heroic they are, but I feel they do not have that much personality otherwise. Bowser does not feel as intimidating as he does in the games, as they introduced him acting super calm and pleasant. Princess Peach is just the stereotypically kindhearted damsel in distress character, nothing more. Like the story, the characters are fine for what they are, but they also have the disadvantage of not leaving as big an impression on you as they could have.

Overall, I feel this movie is okay. It lacks proper story development to be great, or even good, but for fans of the games, I think it is worth a watch. It at least represents the game much better than the 1993 film did. Let us hope the new movie can finally give us a great Mario movie.