Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyūshutsu Dai Sakusen!

Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyūshutsu Dai Sakusen! (Japanese スーパー マリオ ブラザーズ ピーチ姫! Sūpā Mario Burazāzu Pīchi-hime Kyūshutsu Dai Sakusen!), in English, roughly Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!, is an animated Mario film that was only released in Japan. It is a rough interpretation of the events of the original Super Mario Bros. with several alterations. Directed by Masami Hata, written by Hideo Takayashiki and produced by Masakatsu Suzuki and Tsunemasa Hatano, it was produced by Grouper Studios (in co-operation with Nintendo) and distributed by theatrically and VAP on rental-only VHS tapes. The film's running time is approximately one hour. With only a small number of copies of the film known to exist, it is considered one of the rarest pieces of Mario merchandise. It is notable for being one of the first two film adaptations of video games, the other being ' (based on '), both released on July 20, 1986, as well as for showing Bowser talking for the first time.

Plot
The movie opens with Mario playing a video game on a Family Computer. Luigi goes to bed because it is late, but Mario continues playing the game. Suddenly, the screen changes, and the player character is replaced by a girl in a dress fighting and fleeing various Mario enemies. In a panic, she transports out of the television, to Mario's surprise. After narrowly dodging a mob of enemies, she explains that she is Princess Peach and she wants Mario to protect her. King Koopa then appears on the TV screen, and Peach explains to Mario that he is quite devilish and is causing havoc on her kingdom. Mario, fast in love with the princess, promises to defend her from danger. King Koopa emerges from the television, and he and Mario have a brief confrontation. He knocks Mario through a hole in the floor and transports back into the TV set with Peach.

Before Mario could chase after him, King Koopa and Peach vanish, leaving a "Game Over" screen. Mario cries out for Peach, which awakens Luigi, who asks what is going on. Mario explains what happened, and Luigi deduces that he is just dreaming and dismisses Mario before going back to bed. Mario thinks that might be the case, but then notices an emerald pendant on the floor – the same one that the princess was wearing around her neck. He now knows what he saw was definitely real, but has no idea what he can do about it.

The next day, Mario and Luigi go to work at their grocery store. Mario daydreams about Princess Peach, crying over her sudden disappearance. As a customer unsatisfied with Mario's absentmindedness leaves, Luigi notices the pendant in Mario's hand, greedily recognizing it as a mystical gem passed down from Toad legend that can guide the owner to the Mushroom Kingdom, a land of untold riches. They resolve to seek out the kingdom and Mario calls directory assitance, who immediately knows Mario's name and says he will send for him. Suddenly, a strange blue dog-like creature known as Kibidango enters their store and steals the gem, causing the brothers to chase after it to a field full of pipes. After Mario chases the dog into one of the pipes, the other pipes vanish. Luigi stands on the remaining pipe for a better view, but it falls down, causing him to fall in as well.

They land in a cave, and are greeted by Kinoko Sennin, a wise old man in a white robe. He reveals himself as the one who summoned them, and explains that the evil King Koopa of the Turtle Tribe has conquered the Mushroom Kingdom since Princess Peach rejected his proposal. King Koopa used his magic to turn the realm's mushroom-headed citizens into bricks, horsetails, and other things. Princess Peach believed in the legend of kindhearted, fortune-seeking, funny-faced, mustachioed twin brothers in sailor caps and overalls coming to her help from an eastern kingdom, but when she sought Mario she was kidnapped by King Koopa, who plans on marrying her on. Mario is furious (even putting on a Mexican bandit's outfit to show off his rage in an anime gag) and vows to defeat King Koopa and rescue Peach. The wise man tells Mario to travel directly east to reach the enemy stronghold, but he will require the assistance of three magic power-ups: the mushroom, flower and star, which were scattered and sealed by King Koopa's minions. Mario goes on ahead, with Luigi inquiring about a reward and being told that he may collect any of the many gold coins he will come across. Kibidango also accompanies the brothers, encouraged by Kinoko Sennin to help guide them, who then mysteriously vanishes as he wishes them good luck.

Walking through a strange field, the team progresses, seeing various new and strange sights. Soon, they are spotted by two Goombas, who sneakily observe them from a distance. Eventually, they find a rest stop, and Mario goes to sleep. Luigi, however, is too hungry to rest, and complains about how famished he is (even thinking Kibidango would make a fine roast). The two Goombas arrive and lead the starving Luigi to a valley of mushrooms. Mario awakes when he hears Luigi laughing hysterically due to the strange mushrooms the Goombas led him to. Luigi then accidentally eats more and starts crying. Mario figures that there are "laughing" and "crying" mushrooms, so he feeds Luigi what he thinks is a "laughing" mushroom in order to cancel out the effect - and Luigi loses his temper and punches him several times, losing control of his emotions. Suddenly, a big Paratroopa parent picks Mario up and takes him to her nest. He throws his mushrooms at the chicks, distracting them with their weird effects. The Paratroopa parent then picks up Luigi and Kibidango, and Mario convinces them they they also taste bad. From their odd position, the brothers spot a mushroom frozen in a block of ice, which Mario believes is the one he is looking for. Mario climbs up some rocks to reach it, and in addition to getting it, uncovers a hidden rock that starts shooting out coins. The sudden surprise, however, causes Mario to lose his footing, and he falls, taking Luigi and Kibidango with him.

Upon landing in the field below thanks to the chicks breaking their rapid descent, Luigi picks up one of the coins, which starts shining brightly. After a flash of light, the coins transform into mushroom people, and a tall, soft-spoken person stands before them. The figure is formally identified as Princess Peach's maid known as Toad, explains that King Koopa turned them into coins, and thanks the brothers for rescuing them. The brothers are presented with the mushroom (calling it the "Super Mushroom") as thanks, and they now have one of the three power-ups. Behind them, the freed citizens wave their goodbyes - even the Paratroopas, who had grown affectionate towards the rag-tag team.

They continue walking onward, meeting challenges such as Bullet Bills and a giant Koopa Troopa, which Mario uses his mushroom's powers to fight against. Finally, they reach a fork in the road. The two Goombas appear again from atop a giant boot. Mario asks for the best path to head eastward, and takes the suggestion of the flower garden course in case they find the flower power-up. While it looks peaceful and has an attractive fragrance, it turns out to be a field of Piranha Plants. Once the plants start attacking, the three struggle to escape, narrowly dodging the attacking flowers. Behind them, the plants tangle themselves together, and they all tumble down.

When they finally do manage to escape, they run into an even greater danger. Lakitu looms overhead, angered that they bullied his so-called cute little flowers, and throws several Spiny's eggs at them. They remain in spiked ball form on the ground, and the brothers laugh at how he "missed" hitting them. Lakitu then pulls a lever on his cloud, thundering rain and sun on them to cause them to grow into full-grown, big-sized Spinies, which begin to surround Mario, Luigi, and Kibidango. Luckily, a beanstalk sprouts under Mario, lifting the three into the air along with it as the Spinies collide. Lakitu thinks he has defeated them for a moment and is pleased to feed them to his plants, but in a delayed reaction flees from Mario, who grabs on to his cloud and manages to tear off a piece before Lakitu escapes into the sky. Mario fiddles with the controls to save Luigi and Kibidango, causing various weather effects, and finally gets it to snow, causing the large Spinies to hibernate and the cloud piece to disappear. When the snow clears, the Spinies are nowhere to be seen, and the field is filled with normal flowers. A fluff of cloud turns into another Toad subject, who rewards Mario with the flower power-up.

They continue walking along, meeting more enemies which Mario defeats with his flower (including a huge Buzzy Beetle). Luigi hits a block and gets a bunch of coins. Mario hits another block, causing a bunch of "Mario Ramen" boxes to pop out. Excited at seeing food for the first time in awhile, the two take a quick lunch break.

Luigi eventually leads the three on a trail of gold coins leading up to a gold mine which they do not find suspicious in the least, much to Kibidango's chagrin. Once inside, rocks fall and block the exit. The Goombas arrive on the other side of a barred window and taunt them, explaining that they have been imprisoned for trespassing. Mario asks for forgiveness and tells them that he has to save Princess Peach, but the Goombas tell him that the wedding is tonight and that they expect King Koopa to reward them for putting a stop to the brothers' quest. They leave them at this point, and a lone Hammer Brother guards the exit to prevent their escape. Meanwhile at the castle, Peach sadly waits on the balcony. King Koopa enters the scene, asking what wedding dress she would prefer and trying to convince Peach to love him. Peach sees this as an opportunity and tries to trick him, saying that she would like King Koopa to transform for her amusement. Peach commands him to transform into nonsense words, which he confusedly interprets as a bizarre scarecrow and a portly ballerina. Then she tells him to transform into something petite and cute like a teddy bear, so he finally appeases her by becoming one. Peach picks him up and locks him in a box, thinking she has succeeded in stopping King Koopa. However, King Koopa reverts into his normal form from the box itself, laughing at Peach for thinking it would be that easy to trick him. After gloating at her with the news he heard that Mario had been captured by one of his troops, King Koopa exits the room locking the door behind him leaving Peach captive in her tower.

Back in the cave, Mario leans against the bars and has a brief daydream in which he (dressed in a suit) dances with Peach in a garden. Luigi interrupts this by digging through the floor, explaining that he has found a way to escape. Kibidango tries to snap Mario out of it, but Mario turns his head and sleepily kisses the unamused Hammer Brother. They quickly leave, initiating a brief chase with the agitated Hammer Brother. Once they get away, Luigi sees that the gold he got from the cave turned into ordinary rocks and frustratedly throws it into the nearby body of water. Mario notices that among the rocks was the star, which also falls into the water. He and Kibidango quickly jump in after it, with Luigi splashing and exclaiming that he cannot swim.

Underwater, they get threatened by an angler fish and attacked by a large flat fish, which puffs into a giant Cheep-cheep before forcefully splitting into multiple smaller ones, and finally find the star in a big clam. Mario and Kibidango try distracting the clam to open, but it closes down on Mario. Kibidango manages to get Mario and the star out of there, and they escape from another pursuing giant Cheep-cheep by going to an old sunken ship. Like the other fish, it explodes into multiple copies when it rams the ship, but for the moment they are safe. The ship begins to move to the surface, revealing an enormous Bloober underneath that tries to pull it back down. Mario and Kibidango frantically blow on the sail to steer the ship upwards and shake off the Bloober. They escape the waters in the floating ship and reunite with Luigi (who was sitting under a palm tree on a tiny island). Now having all three power-ups, they proceed to King Koopa's castle. When they spot it against the moonlight, Mario remarks that he thought it was supposed to be a full moon tonight, so it inflates into a round blood-red moon to fix its mistake. In a hurry, Mario attempts to dock their ship, only to cause them to lose control and spin out multiple times.

Back at the castle, King Koopa has his wedding ceremony planned, much to Peach's distress. Shisai begins the ceremony and King Koopa waits with bated breath over Peach's affirmation, and she finally says she is happy and that she feels like she was waiting a long time for this moment. King Koopa thinks that she is giving her oath, but then hearing her say that Mario has come to the rescue snaps him out of it as he and his minions look in the direction Peach is gazing to spot the heroes rowing the floating ship outside. It soon crumbles onto the cannon that was being readied, taking it out. King Koopa yells at the Goombas and grabs Peach, telling Shisai that they will continue the wedding uninterrupted in a backroom. The entrance seals behind them, so Mario, Luigi and Kibidango hurry to find a way around. Mario and Kibidango go through a hole in the wall and catch a glimpse of King Koopa, so they give chase as they dodge traps such as a vanishing row of flames while Luigi digs for more treasure. After moving through some gears, the two arrive in a chamber with a fiery pit and a few doorways on the other side. The two Goombas rest on a control panel, explaining that in order to pass the area, Mario must jump across dangerous elevator-like lifts. They pull a stick (with their arm) on the mechanism they are sitting on, and rising fireball obstacles are added to the mix. Mario is almost burned as things heat up, but Luigi, who was mining for more coins, accidentally causes a water leak in one of the walls, which flushes him out and floods the entire chamber. While this stops the moving platforms, Mario expresses worry for his fallen brother - who is comically shown to be relaxing in the steaming liquid as a hot spring.

The castle starts to collapse due to the flooding, which is observed in the private room where King Koopa is presenting his oversized ring to Peach in front of Shisai. Mario and Kibidango see Peach pushing some rubble over her, but King Koopa also rises from the wreckage and grasps Peach, initiating the climactic battle. Princess Peach knows that Mario does not stand a chance against King Koopa's strength and firepower and pleads for him to flee, but Kibidango barks at Mario, somehow reminding him to use the power-ups. Mario eats the mushroom and flower, but drops the star when he becomes distracted by spontaneously appearing "Mario " and a bowl of hot rice, sending it falling into a hole in the ground. Mario falls back and King Koopa says that he will take down Mario, but Peach begs King Koopa to stop and tells him that she will do anything if he spares Mario's life - even willingly marry him. This makes King Koopa slow down and ponder for a moment, but he replies that Mario already ate the mushroom and flower, so he has to put an end to the hero before he takes the star someday and becomes a liability to him. Just then, Luigi digs up through the ground, wondering why Mario's laying down on the job as his brother tells him to hurry up and put the star in his mouth. King Koopa seemingly squishes the heroes, but Mario rises from under his foot and begins pummeling King Koopa with his newfound invincibility, finally grabbing him by the tail and throwing him into the horizon. King Koopa is seen waving a white flag on a parachute from far away.

With King Koopa's evil magic broken, the light of dawn pierces the dark landscape, turning it into a lush green field and restoring the ruins of the castle into Peach's castle. Mario returns Peach's pendant, which Peach says is a sentimental Brooch she has had her entire life, and she kisses him on the nose. She puts it on while reciting a legend that she will meet a wonderful prince one day who wears the same thing. When Mario declares that he will find the matching half, Kibidango reacts to it and is turned into a human. He is wearing the Brooch's twin, and reveals himself to be Haru, a prince of the neighboring Flower-koku land. He came to the Mushroom Kingdom to visit the princess, but was cursed by King Koopa's spell, and thanks Mario and Luigi. Heartbroken upon hearing this connection to Princess Peach, Mario nearly faints out of exasperation. Mario cries but is pleased regardless that Peach has found happiness, and Peach tearfully thanks Mario. The two heroes go home after promising that they would gladly come back to the rescue if their services are ever needed. After they leave, Kinoko Sennin reappears and muses that the true power-up is symbolized by Mario finding his heroic courage from true love. Mario and Luigi travel a long way home as the credits roll, and the movie ends with a scene in the grocery store, where King Koopa and at least three other members of the Turtle Tribe now work as employees of Mario and Luigi's store. "Game Over" then appears on the screen, thus concluding the film.

Voice cast

 * Tōru Furuya &mdash; Mario
 * &mdash; Luigi
 * &mdash; Lakitu, Miss Endless
 * &mdash; Kibidango
 * &mdash; Haru-ōji
 * &mdash; Kinoko Sennin
 * &mdash; Hammer Brother
 * &mdash; Toad 1
 * &mdash; Toad 2
 * &mdash; Goomba A
 * &mdash; Goomba B
 * Reiko Nakano &mdash; Paratroopa parent
 * Berries ( / / ) &mdash; Paratroopa children
 * / &mdash; Koopa Troopas
 * &mdash; Shisai
 * &mdash; Princess Peach
 * &mdash; King Koopa

Soundtrack
The movie's soundtrack consists of the following songs:

SIDE A SIDE B The soundtrack was produced in very limited quantity with only 50 copies. Both a 12" LP vinyl record and a 7" 45 RPM single were produced. The 7" featured two variations of "Doki Doki Do it!", whilst the 12" LP featured the entire film soundtrack. Also packaged in with the LP was a picture book titled Mario's Fantastic World Picture Book. The book consists of lyrics, director interviews and promotional art. It was not included with the 7" 45, as it was instead bundled with a much smaller book featuring lyrics. Songs were produced by both Mami Yamase (voice of Peach, who was also a relatively famous pop singer at the time), and another famous Japanese band. The record was produced by King Records.
 * Mario the Great (マリオ・ザ・グレート)
 * Doki-Doki Do it ～Dizzy in Love Romance Version～ (ドキ・ドキDo it ～スキスキクラクラ恋愛編～)
 * Dream, Dream, Dream... (夢・夢・夢・・・)
 * Doki-Doki Do it, ～Snap Smack Rock'n Roll School Version～ Instrumental (ドキ・ドキDo it ～ビシっとバシっとRock'n Roll学校編～ インスト)
 * The Koopas' Scheme (カメ・一族の陰謀)
 * Adieu, My Love ～Grand Theme: My Feelings～ (アデュ・マイラブ ～グランドテーマ 僕の気持ち)
 * Doki-Doki Do it ～Snap Smack Rock'n Roll School Version～ (ドキ・ドキDo it ～ビシっとバシっとRock'n Roll学校編～)
 * Mario the Great: Dancing with Mario (マリオ・ザ・グレート ～マリオとダンシング)
 * Crystal Ball (水晶球)
 * The Mario Walk (マリオ ウォーク)
 * The Light Blue Waltz (水色のワルツ)
 * Adieu, My Love (アデュ・マイラブ)

Production
Peach-hime Kyūshutsu Dai Sakusen! was a production of Grouper Studios as a tie-in to the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 (later known as Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels). The mushrooms that cause ill effects in the film may even be a reference to the Poison Mushroom. It is believed that a song in the movie went unused (VS. Super Mario Bros. name selection); however, this is incorrect. It is heard at the scene when Luigi is eating mushrooms. In the soundtrack, it appears as the beginning of the instrumental version of Doki-Doki Do it found on Side A.

The film was released theatrically on July 20, 1986, and screened exclusively at Sochiku theaters, where it was shown as part of a double feature alongside a video guide for Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. A few commercials done by the same animation company and cast were done for tie-in merchandise for Mario-brand Furikake (rice topping) watches, cameras and phone cards, and there were two instances of product placement in the film itself. One scene shows Mario hitting a block and Mario-brand ramen noodles come out. The brothers even break the fourth wall, as Luigi says it's delicious and Mario winks at the camera. Later, right before Mario can use the star, he gets distracted by Mario-brand furikake. Mario is also shown playing a Family Computer in the beginning of the film.

The VHS release was distributed by VAP Video sometime after its theatrical release. However, the movie has never been republished since then, not even in newer home video formats such as DVD or Blu-ray, causing the official VHS tapes to become sought-after collector's items, with prices reaching as high as US$600 on auction sites. Moreover, the movie has never released internationally, remaining a rare production that has never been released outside Japan or in any language besides Japanese. This is because, the company that distributed this film, does not operate outside of Japan.

Merchandise
In addition to the aforementioned merchandise, there was much more merchandise produced based on the film, all of which are rare. The following are photos of all the Mario anime merchandise.

Similarities in later games

 * Many giant versions of common enemies debut here, later appearing in the games starting with Super Mario Bros. 3 onwards.
 * At one point, the two Goomba characters are seen atop a giant shoe, which has a similar appearance to the Goomba's Shoe from Super Mario Bros. 3.
 * The floating ship that the Mario bros. fly to Bowser's castle has an appearance very similar to the wooden pirate style airships from Super Mario Bros. 3.
 * During Mario's encounter with Lakitu, he hijacks their cloud. This idea was eventually implemented as a mechanic in Super Mario World.
 * The anime is the first depiction of female Toads, which appeared in the games as of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.
 * In the anime, Mario picks Bowser up by the tail and throws him, which is extremely similar to his boss fights in Super Mario 64.
 * This is the first medium where Bowser is known to have a romantic interest in Peach, which would not be shown in the games until Paper Mario.
 * By extension, this is the first medium in which Bowser ever tries to initiate, or at least got involved in, a marriage between himself and Peach, which would later happen in the "Do You Princess Toadstool Take This Koopa...?" episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, Super Paper Mario, the Super Mario Adventures comic, and in the plot for Super Mario Odyssey.

Notable errors

 * The cover artwork has some deviant character designs, notably Haru, the Mushroom People, and Luigi's shirt being red instead of yellow, which makes his outfit resemble Mario's outfit from Mario Bros.
 * Luigi's outfit is considerably different from how he appears in Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, being depicted with a blue hat and overalls and a yellow shirt. His in-game sprites, by comparison, depict him with a white hat and overalls and a green shirt, while official artwork for The Lost Levels depicts Luigi with a green hat and overalls and a blue shirt.
 * When Mario and Luigi are resting at a campfire, Kibidango appears to be sleeping near Mario in the establishing shot. When it cuts closer, Kibidango is missing from the shot, but when Luigi hits Mario's thought bubble with his shovel, Kibidango is shown asleep back in position.
 * When Mario is seeing Luigi laughing because of the "laughing" mushrooms, in one frame, Luigi's hair is not painted.
 * During the scene where Mario and Luigi look up while in the Koopa Paratroopa nest, their colors have switched.
 * Mario demonstrates the fire flower power-up by defeating one of the Buzzy Beetles with a fireball, but they are immune to fire in the games.
 * When Luigi gets off the palmtree island and hangs on to the floating ship's rope, but before the colossal Bloober scares him and makes him climb up onto the ship faster, there is a second Luigi with Kibidango instead of Mario.
 * When the Goombas are first seen on the control panel, their normally yellow parts are miscolored, as their bodies are brown and their arm-like appendages share the machine's purple color. Additionally, the momentarily still lift that Mario tries to land on disappears for several frames before it rises.
 * When Mario gives Peach's necklace back, the brooch on her dress is absent.

Trivia

 * This is one of the few animated works to show Princess Peach with blonde hair (reflecting her concept art and her current appearance). The cartoon shows by DIC Entertainment depicted Princess Toadstool as a redhead, like how she appeared in the original game due to the NES/Famicom only being able to handle four colors (counting transparency) per sprite due to the Picture Processing Unit (PPU)'s limitation.