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

Super Mario Bros.: Pīchi-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! (Japanese スーパー マリオ ブラザーズ ピーチ姫救出大作戦! Sūpā Mario Burazāzu Pīchi-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen!), in English, roughly Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!, was a Mario anime movie that was only released in Japan. 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 Toei Company/VAP Video. The film's running time is approximately one hour.

Plot synopsis
The movie opens with Mario playing a videogame that appears similar to Super Mario Bros., though it has a few notable differences, such as the hero using a bat. Luigi goes to bed because it's late, but Mario continues playing the game. Suddenly, the screen changes and Princess Peach is seen fleeing various Mario game enemies. In a panic, she leaps out of the television, to Mario's great surprise. After narrowly dodging a mob of enemies, Peach explains that she is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. King Koopa then appears on the TV screen, and Peach explains to Mario that he's evil, and trying to take over her kingdom. Mario was fast in love with the princess, and promises to protect 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 escapes back into the TV 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's going on. Mario explains what happened, and Luigi laughs and dismisses Mario before going back to bed. Mario thinks that might be the case, but then notices a Brooch 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, the Mario Bros. go to work at their grocery store. Mario daydreams about Princess Peach, feeling very distressed over her sudden disappearance. As a customer unsatisfied with Mario's absentmindedness leaves, Luigi noticed the Brooch in Mario's hand, greedily recognizing it as a gem that can guide the owner to the Mushroom Kingdom to find untold riches. They resolve to seek out the kingdom and Mario calls the author, who immediately knows Mario's name and says he'll send for him. Suddenly, a strange blue dog known as "Kibidango" enters their store and steals the Brooch, causing the Bros. to chase after it to a field full of pipes. Chasing the dog into the pipes, they vanish along with the pipes (which then fall down) themselves.

They land in a cave, and are greeted by Kinoko Sennin, a wise old man in a white robe. He reveals himself as the writer of the book and explains that the evil King Koopa has attacked the Mushroom Kingdom since Princess Peach rejected his proposal. King Koopa used his magic to turn the citizens into bricks and plants. Princess Peach believed in the prophecy of faraway twins in overalls coming to her rescue, but she was kidnapped by King Koopa, who plans on marrying her on Friday the 13th. 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 he will require the assistance of three powerful items: the mushroom, flower and star, which were scattered throughout the world by the Koopa. Mario goes on ahead, with Luigi inquiring about a reward and being told that he may collect any of the many Coins and treasure he will come across. Kibidango also accompanies the brothers, encouraged by Kinoko Sennin to keep a watchful eye on their progress.

Walking through a strange field, the team progresses, seeing various new and strange sights. Soon, they're 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 hungry he is. The two Goombas arrive, claiming to be mushrooms, and lead Luigi to a field of strange mushrooms before departing. Mario awakes, and hears Luigi laughing hysterically due to the strange mushrooms the Goombas led him to. Luigi then starts crying, and finally gets angry, but then calms down when, suddenly, a giant Koopa Paratroopa picks Mario up and takes him to her nest, followed by Luigi and Kibidango. From their odd position, the Bros. spot a mushroom frozen in a block of ice. 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 with him.

Upon landing in a nearby field, Luigi picks up one of the coins, which starts shining brightly. After a flash of light, a Toad stands before him. Soon, other coins turn into Toads. One of the Toads explains that King Koopa turned them into coins, and thanks the Mario Bros. for rescuing them. The Bros. are presented with a mushroom as thanks, and they now have one of the three powerful items.

They continue walking onward, meeting challenges such as Bullet Bills and a giant Koopa Troopa, which Mario uses the Mushroom to fight against. Finally, they reach a fork in the road. The two Goombas appear again, and give the Bros. directions– the wrong directions, leading them into a field of Piranha Plants. Once the plants start attacking, the Mario Bros. struggle to escape, narrowly dodging the attacking flowers.

When they finally do manage to escape, they run into an even greater danger. Lakitu looms overhead, and throws several Spiny Eggs at them. They remain in spiked ball form on the ground, and the Bros. laugh at how he "missed" hitting them. Lakitu then presses a lever on his cloud, raining on them and causing them to grow into full-grown Spinies, which begin to surround Mario, Luigi, and Kibidango and attack them. Luckily, Mario stumbles upon a Magic Vine and is shot into the air along with it. He grabs on to Lakitu's Cloud and manages to tear off a piece before Lakitu escapes into the sky. Mario fiddles with the controls, causing various weather effects, and finally gets it to snow, freezing the Spinies. When the snow clears, the Spinies are nowhere to be seen. The Lakitu's Cloud that Mario used turns into another Toad, who rewards Mario with a flower.

They continue walking along, meeting more enemies, such as giant Buzzy Beetles, which Mario defeats with his flower (despite them being one of the few enemies who couldn't be defeated with fireballs in the games, though it is possible that it was hit on the skin). Luigi hits a block and gets a bunch of coins. Mario hits another box, causing a bunch of ramen boxes (labeled with the Mario Brothers' faces) to pop out. Excited at seeing food for the first time in awhile, the two take a quick lunch break.

The Goombas realize the Mario Bros. are getting dangerously close to Koopa Castle, so they attempt to trap them by planting a trail of coins leading up to a cave. 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're trapped. They leave them at this point, and a lone Hammer Bro. guards the exit to prevent their escape.

Meanwhile at Koopa Castle, Peach sadly waits on the balcony. King Koopa enters the scene, trying to convince Peach to love him. Peach sees this as an opportunity and tries to trick him, saying that she'd like King Koopa if he was cute. King Koopa uses his magic to turn into a bizarre scarecrow, a dancer, and finally a teddy bear. Peach picks it up and locks it in a box, thinking she's succeeded in defeating King Koopa. However, King Koopa simply reverts back to his normal form and destroys the box, laughing at Peach for thinking it would be that easy to defeat him. King Koopa then leaves, locking Peach in her room.

Back in their cave prison, Mario thinks about Peach 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's found a way to escape. They leave, initiating a brief battle with the Hammer Bro. Once they get away, Luigi sees that the gold he got from the cave was fake and angrily throws it into the ocean. Mario notices that among the fake coins was a star, which also falls into the water. He quickly jumps in after it.

Underwater, they get attacked by a giant Cheep Cheep and finally find the star in a big clam. They manage to get it back and then escape from the pursuing fish by going to an old sunken ship. The ship is home to a giant Blooper, however, and they frantically try to pilot the ship up to the surface to escape.

They escape the ocean and take to the skies in their ship, managing to shake off the Blooper and drop it back into the ocean. They press onward to Koopa Castle.

Back at the castle, King Koopa has his wedding ceremony planned. Shisai begins the ceremony, but it gets interrupted by the Mario Bros. arriving in the flying ship, which crashes into the castle. King Koopa grabs Peach and escapes, with the minister following them. The Mario Bros. and Kibidango give chase, and Mario soon arrives in a room filled with lava, Podoboos, and elevator platforms. The two Goombas rest on a control panel, explaining that in order to clear the area, Mario must jump across the dangerous platforms. Mario jumps onto one and is almost burned, but Luigi, who was mining for coins, accidentally causes a water leak in one of the walls, which floods the entire room.

They finally reach King Koopa and the movie's climactic battle begins. Mario doesn't stand a chance at first, but then thinks to use the star. Though the item would seem to have worked had he used it, he accidentally drops it, sending it falling into a hole in the floor. Mario takes a severe beating and Peach begs King Koopa to stop, saying that she'll marry him if he spares Mario's life. However, Luigi digs up through the ground, retrieving the star, and gives it to Mario. Mario, now with super strength, begins pummeling King Koopa, finally grabbing him by the tail and tossing him into the horizon. With Bowser's evil magic broken, the Koopa Castle reverts to Mushroom Castle and the dark landscape turns into a green lush field. Upon putting on her Brooch, a light emits from it and turns Kibidango into a human. He is wearing the gem's twin, revealing himself to be Haru-ōji, a prince of a land known as the Flower-koku - and Peach's arranged fiancé. (Upon hearing this connection to Princess Peach, Mario faints out of jealousy.) Peach thanks Mario and Luigi for saving them, and the two heroes go home. The movie ends with a scene in their grocery store, where King Koopa and some Koopa Troopas now work as employees of the Mario bros. and another Game Over screen appears.

Cast

 * Tōru Furuya &mdash; Mario
 * Yū Mizushima &mdash; Luigi
 * Junko Hori &mdash; Lakitu, Miss Endless
 * Masami Kikuchi &mdash; Haru-ōji
 * Shigeru Chiba &mdash; Kibidango
 * Kōhei Miyauchi &mdash; Kinoko Sennin
 * Keaton Yamada &mdash; Hammer Brother
 * Yuriko Yamamoto/Hiroko Emori &mdash; Toads
 * Hiroko Maruyama/Kazue Komiya &mdash; Goombas
 * Testsuo Mizutori/Masaharu Satō &mdash; Koopa Troopas
 * Reiko Nakano &mdash; Adult Paratroopa
 * Hiromi Ōnishi/Chiemi Matsumoto/Maki Itō (Berries) &mdash; Young Paratroopas
 * Jōji Yanami &mdash; Shisai
 * Mami Yamase &mdash; Princess Peach
 * Akiko Wada &mdash; King Koopa

Production
Peach-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! was a production of Grouper Studios as tie-in to the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 (later known as The Lost Levels). 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 Lost Levels. Merchandises were released such as phone cards, rice containers, Nagatien-brand ramen noodles and a soundtrack. 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 Toei Company, the company that distributed this film, does not operate outside Japan.

Trivia

 * This anime predates The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, making it the first Mario series cartoon.
 * Mario is seen holding a Famicom controller in the beginning of the film.
 * Kinoko Sennin explains that King Koopa plans to marry Peach the next Friday the 13th, a reference to the original release of Super Mario Bros. in Japan.
 * There are two instances of product placement in this movie. One scene shows Mario hitting a block and Mario-brand ramen noodles come out. Mario even breaks the fourth wall by saying "This is very yummy stuff, folks." Later, right before Mario can use the star, he gets distracted by Mario-brand Furikake.
 * At one point, the two Goomba characters are seen atop a giant shoe. This may be a precurser to Kuribo's Shoe.
 * This is the first appearance of a ship that sails the skies, although later appearances show such vehicles in the hands of the Koopa.
 * Mario's method of battling King Koopa, by picking him up by the tail and throwing him, was later used in Super Mario 64.
 * This is the only time in Mario series history so far that Peach has a relationship with someone other than Mario.
 * A few commercials done by the same animation company and cast were done for Mario-brand Furikake, watches, cameras, and phone cards.
 * This is one of the few animations to show Princess Peach with blonde hair (reflecting her concept art); The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and related cartoon shows depict her as a redhead like how she appeared in-game.