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Long before the billion dollar success of 2023’s Super Mario Bros. Movie, and well before the notorious 1993 adaptation, there was a bizarre, nearly forgotten anime released only in Japan: Super Mario Bros: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach. A film so strange, so off-model, and so wildly misunderstood, it never even made it to Western audiences… until now.
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0:00
We all know this guy. That's Mario. But do you know this guy? Yeah, that's Mario too. Similar
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but just wrong enough to cause you to look a second time. This footage is from an animated
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film that was released exclusively in Japan in 1986. The project was so bizarre that it never
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made its way stateside. Weirdly, both a direct adaptation and one that misses the point of the
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source material completely, this movie has been an object of obsession, curiosity, and derision
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for close to 40 years. It's hard to overstate just how popular Mario was in the mid-80s
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This brand new artistic medium called a video game was taking over the globe
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and Mario was the mascot for not only the burgeoning Nintendo Corporation
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but also for the very concept of a video game in general. Rarely has a fictional character stood in as the scion of both a company
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and a nascent artistic medium. With the blossoming popularity of both, it was only a matter of time before a feature film adaptation was attempted
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What's with you, bro? You've been like this all day. Princess Peach. Oh
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Feeling like a low-rent DIY attempt at bringing Mario to the big screen
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a film titled Super Mario Bros. The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach was released in the late 80s
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The animation was rough, the color was ugly, and had a budget so visibly small
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that they probably would have had a better time if they put up flyers around the neighborhood
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and just offered people donuts and coffee if they'd help them in between
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The plot follows Mario, a grocery store owner, not a plumber, who's playing video games on a night off when the video game comes to life
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A princess named Peach falls out of a television set and begs him to help as a massive turtle named Koopa, aka Bowser
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kidnaps her and brings her back into the video game world. Then, doing what any upstanding citizen would do
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Mario and his brother Luigi set off on a poorly animated adventure in an attempt to save her
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Also, Luigi isn't wearing his iconic green shirt in this incarnation for some reason
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Originally released in roughly 200 theaters across Japan in July of 1986
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the film would later be released on home video, but never saw international distribution
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But in today's digital age, things don stay region locked forever In 2022 a 4K restoration project was completed by fans and the film was then put out for free right here on YouTube Without this work from the fan community
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this film would have been doomed to be relegated to backroom convention halls and VHS tapes traded on animation fan forums
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It just never would have been seen outside Japan. But thankfully now, we can all enjoy just how insane and janky this project truly is
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This weird Mario adaptation is a fascinating experiment because it feels like a project created by someone who's never actually seen a movie before
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Nintendo, a brand who's notoriously controlling of their IP, appears to have signed on the dotted line and then had nothing to do with the film's production
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The movie is 61 minutes of animation that features a character named Mario in a story that is as surreal as it is difficult to follow
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It feels like a short film, but somehow it's feature length. There's no real acts to speak of, no rising tension, no character introductions or character arcs
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It's just a sprawling morass of sequences. There's barely any scenes. Things just happen
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It feels like a stream of consciousness tone poem only animated by literal children
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Nobody eats us unless we say so. The story follows Mario and Luigi as they get transported to the Mushroom Kingdom through the pipe
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Yes, obviously there are pipes in the game, but the logic of how they're deployed within the film is so paper thin
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It's comical. Why are they going through the pipe, you ask? Well, they are summoned there by a wizard who's clad exclusively in beard
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But wait, didn't Peach get kidnapped into a video game? Yes, and the Mario brothers go to a real place called the Mushroom Kingdom looking for her
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Yes, don't think about it too hard. It doesn't make real world sense. The movie is basically set up as a fetch quest
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where the two brothers have to collect three mystical weapons, the mushroom, the flower, and the star
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to use them to stop Koopa from marrying Princess Peach. Is there a prophecy about two overall-wearing brothers who will bring peace and prosperity to the Mushroom Kingdom
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Yes, you bet. Does any of this really make any sense? No, not really
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But once you accept that, the movie kind of washes over you in an interesting way
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It's the closest thing to a stone-sober acid trip one can partake in
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Sorry about that but that was my only option He The humor and childlike dream logic of the film are kind of hypnotizing From Mario shapeshifting into a sombrero cowboy guy to strange run montages
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the movie is unlike any other Mario adaptation ever made. In fact, it's almost not an adaptation at all
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It's a film that's closer to Mamoru Oshi's Angel's Egg than any other Mario property
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Now, does the finale of the movie end like you think it will? Yes, absolutely
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But also, not exactly. Mario saves the day, rescues Peach, and is about to ride off into the sunset
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only to discover that Peach has a fiancé. Yep, the dog creature that's been following him around the whole movie
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was actually Prince Haru, Princess Peach's betrothed. I'm so happy that you're a happy princess
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They really swung for the fences on this one. But the strangest fact of this adaptation is that no one really knew
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what to do with a video game movie. They didn't know how to imbue the structure of a game with logic
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They didn't know how to treat the characters. They didn't have a roadmap of what the audience was even expecting
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The movie combines key aspects of the first game, while also neglecting any basic level of character development
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To be fair, the live-action department of Mario Adaptation Industries LLC also didn't fare that well either
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While this anime version is both too literal and too surreal, the live-action version is too logical and too dark
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Or at least that's what the audiences of the 90s thought. Whose idea was it to name them Luigi Mario and Mario Mario
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Not gonna lie, though, those rocket boots are pretty awesome. If this movie wasn't an adaptation of Super Mario Bros.
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it probably would have achieved a cult classic status just by the merits of its own unique and quirky aesthetics
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It would take another 30 years before the 2023 Super Mario Bros. movie was released in theaters
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and pull in well over $1 billion. This version, directed by Michael Jelinek and Aaron Horvath
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it's exactly what this anime thinks it's doing. It's showing visual callbacks to the game
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bringing you to familiar locations and presenting a story that showcases not only Mario and Luigi
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but also Bowser, Peach, and the rest of the cast. It has the zany sense of humor and the lush visuals that you can feel the anime version is striving for but lacked a crew with the talent resources and ability to deliver In hindsight Mario actually makes a pretty wise selection in
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terms of a video game character to try and adapt into an anime. His world is larger than life
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and he has multiple key visual ideas that would make for interesting set pieces. He also has a
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world that could easily turn into a franchise if the anime were successful. Unfortunately
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that's not the timeline we live in. We live in a world where Mario was adapted into one of the
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strangest animated films ever made, where the crew and tireless animators seem to miss every bit of
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joy and excitement buried in the original games while still somehow slavishly recreating them
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Today we live in a golden age of video game adaptations and of video game creation. The
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surreal game of telephone that created the circumstances of Super Mario Bros. The Great
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mission to rescue Princess Peach are so anathema to the modern eye, they almost seem laughable
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In some ways, this movie feels like it's being produced in advocacy of the existence of video
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games and their wider appeal to the public, but it's so clumsy in the execution that it has the
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exact opposite effect. It calls into question the artistic vitality of both mediums at hand
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What do you think? Ah! I look like a clown! Mario, Luigi, Peach, and the rest of the Nintendo characters on display
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in mangled form in this film have gone on to be household names
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But judging from this film, you'd never know that. If anything, this feels like the type of adaptation that kills a franchise
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not one that is survivable. The harsh reality is, the fact that subsequent adaptations were produced
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and the games were financial and critical successes is likely due to the fact that this film never escaped Japan
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There's a harsh truth that every franchise that stays around long enough
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has cultural oddities or entries of lesser qualities associated with it. And is this film the worst of such installments
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No, probably not. The film neglects to even possess that demarcation of interest
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Its bizarreness is woven through its own lack of ambition and bity
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There's a sense of recognition and esteem that is achieved with a complete and total belly flop
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because that swing and a miss at least started with a grand sense of ambition
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The only great desire motivating this project was for Grouper Productions to line their bank account and then move on as quickly as possible