Mario Anime Movie Review

"Super Mario Bros. The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach" was a 1986 theatrical feature that was only ever shown in Japan. This little gem was Mario's second venture into the world of animation (his first being the 1983 American Donkey Kong cartoon produced by Ruby-Spears and shown as part of the "Saturday Supercade" block on CBS), and not many people even seem to know of its existence, even in its native Japan.

The aforementioned Donkey Kong cartoon.

As you might guess, it's based on the first SMB game (in fact, the first SMB game was released only a year before this movie). It's actually kind of interesting to note that the character designs for Peach and Koopa (Bowser to us American fans) resemble their modern looks a lot more than they did in the 1989 American "Super Mario Bros. Super Show"... and by the time that show came out, SMB3 had already been released for a whole year in Japan.

"Fear not, my friends! It's Princess P to the rescue!"

It's a bit of an oddity, you might say, but hey... when you remember that it was DiC that made the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, then remember that DiC also made Captain N, which featured a green Mega Man and a Simon Belmont that looked more like a plane pilot than a vampire hunting barbarian, it suddenly all makes sense, doesn't it?

But, I won't dwell too much on that, as this is a review of the animated Japanese film, not any of DiC's cartoons. I do still find this to be an interesting thing to point out.

"He who Koops and runs away, lives to Koop another day!"

While on the topic of designs, though, it's also interesting to note that this is the FIRST instance of Luigi looking less like Mario in different colored clothes. True, the two are twin brothers, but while they may have started off being identical twins, over time they've come to be fraternal twins.

Of course, an interesting thing to note is the inconsistency of the colors that Luigi wears... though the same could be said for Mario, it's more noticeable here with Luigi since the colors he wears don't match anything he's worn before or since.

In the artwork for his debut game, "Mario Bros.", Luigi wore a green hat/overalls with a brown shirt, while in the game itself he wore a green hat/overalls and a dark blue shirt. Then in the Famicom/NES port of the game, he wore a white hat/shirt, and green overalls. Then in Super Mario Bros., the color of his shirt and overalls were switched. Then in promotional material for the Mario anime movie, Luigi wore a blue hat/overalls and a red shirt (similar to Mario's outfit in the arcade version of "Mario Bros.", interestingly enough), but then in the actual movie itself he wears a blue hat/overalls and a yellow shirt. Oh, those crazy 80s and their constantly changing of the Mario Bros.' wardrobe colors.

Whatever the case, though, I should get back to how this movie was the first time that Luigi ever had more variation in his appearance to set him apart from his brother. He was taller and had a leaner looking face. His sideburns and mustache were still identical to Mario's, however, but this was still the starting point for Luigi's evolution from identical twin to fraternal twin. There's a lot in this movie that influenced the Mario series as a whole. Afterall, besides having a more diverse looking Luigi, it also had a flying pirate ship (like in the later SMB3), and Mario swinging Koopa by his tail (like in the MUCH later SM64).

Mario finds the Super Mushroom

The personalities of the characters are pretty interesting in this movie, as well. Mario is more or less how you'd expect: an unlikely hero setting out to do the right thing (though the fact that he's completely smitten with the beautiful Princess Peach helps motivate him, too), and Luigi... well, Luigi is very different here from any modern interpretation. Nowadays, Luigi is a cowardly, lovable loser, while in this movie, he's somewhat selfish (though still loyal to his brother) and quite greedy. Almost like a less evil version of Wario.

Princess Peach is DEFINITELY one of the most radically different characters in personality here, though. Today, she's a bit of a ditzy airhead who spends most of her time baking cakes, but here, despite being a damsel-in-distress, she's got quite a bit of spunk to her. She even tries to outsmart the Koopa King... and succeeds in doing so, but unfortunately, Koopa's black magic makes it so that even being outsmarted is much less than a minor setback. Speaking of Koopa, he's actually more or less how he is now, but probably a bit more on the soft side considering how infatuated he is with Peach (the main reason he kidnapped her in this movie was to force her to marry him).

Having said all that... how is the plot to this movie? Well, it's pretty interesting, albeit basic. It sticks pretty close to the game that it's based off of (Mario has to rescue Peach and save the Mushroom Kingdom), but the most engaging thing about it is Mario's affections for Peach, and how you really empathize with him. Though... that's what makes the ending to the movie all the more heartbreaking.

Mario and Peach share a romantic dance.

Feel free to skip this paragraph if you don't want any spoilers, but here goes. Essentially, the ending of the movie has Peach, Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, find her fiance, Haru, the Prince of the Flower Kingdom... and breaking Mario's heart in the process. As Peach shows her concern over how obviously devastated Mario is about his shattered hopes of hooking up with her, Mario simply tells her that he's happy for her, which causes Peach to tear up a little. As much as I don't like this outcome, being the diehard Mario/Peach shipper that I am, I'll admit that I can see where the filmmakers were coming from. They probably didn't think Peach would become a central character in Mario's continuing adventures (afterall, each game that featured Mario had been radically different from the last, up to this point), and who goes best with a Princess if not a Prince? Still, even taking that into consideration, it's a bittersweet ending since you can really feel for Mario and how sad he must feel about Peach being betrothed to another, considering how strongly he seemed to have fallen for her in this movie. But, hey, Haru's not canon, so all is well, at the end of the day.

So, anywho, despite my own personal feelings about the ending, I think this movie is actually pretty good. And it's quite a historical piece in the world of Mario. It's a shame it hasn't been dubbed and brought over here, but considering that it seems the reason it hasn't been released on DVD in Japan is because of some sort of disputes over who holds the rights to it, we might never see it get an American release anytime soon.

The soundtrack is superb, and full of catchy tunes throughout! Most of the music is just "upgraded" versions of songs found in SMB1 (and even the obscure "Vs. Super Mario Bros" for the arcade), but there's also the amazingly catchy "Doki Doki Do It", which serves as both the opening credits theme, and a recurring insert song. There's also another insert song that could be considered a bit of a love song for Mario and Peach, and a song that I actually feel a little teary-eyed whenever I listen to it. The music in this movie always fits the mood of whatever's happening onscreen, and comes in quite a bit of variety.

It's a wonderful movie with a cast that includes every character found in SMB1 (and a few movie-exclusive characters, as well), and an emotionally-driven plot that makes you care about the characters (most of all Mario and Peach). Even Koopa/Bowser himself has a bit of a human side to him (personality-wise, I mean... not Dennis Hopper-wise). While it's still obviously a kid's movie, I don't feel it talks down to its audience, and has a nice mix of comedy, action, drama, and romance, but most of all, a great sense of adventure while exploring a world of fantasy. The only real fault is that the product placement for "Super Mario Furikake" is a little too blatant, but at least the scene with that was played for laughs, it seems. Speaking of which, here's a commercial for said product that actually features exclusive animation for it by the same people that animated this movie (and it even has the voice actors from the film!).

And with that, all I can say is that this was a great movie, and although it's relatively obscure, it had a greater impact on Mario history than you'd think. And so, I'm now concluding this review. I don't usually do reviews, so hopefully this was an informative review? Whatever the case, this ends my first ever post on this blog. Ciao, paisanos!