#yes they wear yellow and both like money but wario is greedy out of selfishness. this version of luigi is greedy out of practicality

[bulgariansumo]

My brain wants to ramble about Mario movies, so I will do that. There will be bias, and there will be spoilers, but I think I'm going to at least put the section about the 2023 movie under a read more. Let's begin.

Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! (1986)

My love, my light, my heart.

Making a movie based on the Mario origin story(?) of "guys stumble into fantasy world, save princess from monster" is difficult if you don't add something to it, but adding things comes with the risk of deviating from the source material’s vibe, since it’s so simple. It’s the same problem with movies based on Dr. Seuss books.

Something a lot of people don't realize when watching this one is that Super Mario Bros. only came out a year prior. The people tasked with making this movie had very little to work with. Luigi didn't even have a consistent color scheme (though prior to this, he was always depicted with green somewhere.)

This movie’s solution to these problems? Keep it simple. Mario and Luigi spend the movie collecting "the three legendary powerups" with a dog and then go fight Koopa. They have misadventures on the way, and Mario eats Mario-branded ramen. It's fun, it's silly, it's goofy!

This is all accompanied with a charming art style that really takes advantage of the ability to push character expressions. For the cast, we have:

Mario - He’s not the smartest, the strongest, or most fearless, but he’s determined, and sometimes that’s all you need. This movie depicts him as a lovestruck dreamer, so a good chunk of his lines involve him calling out to “Piichi-hime~” Also, he’s a gamer. His character is nothing unique, but it sets the tone of this movie, something that I feel like Mario’s character does in all three.

Luigi - Pickaxe in hand, his number one priority is getting his coins. He and Mario share about three brain cells total, but he lacks the idealism of his brother, trying to keep him grounded in the things that really matter: money, food, and their business as…grocers? He’s there for his brother when it counts, though. Most of the cast has their fair share of goofy moments, but he is the designated comic relief, and Yuu Mizushima’s performance serves that well. He sounds unhinged half the time, it’s great! Fun fact: This is the first time Luigi is depicted as thinner and taller than Mario.

Peach - She spends most of the time wishing that Mario would save her, as one might expect, but even this early on, she has a little bit of agency. Her first introduction is her fighting off the enemies after her, and she manages to pull a clever trick on Koopa midway through, though it doesn’t help her much.

Koopa - Very doting on Peach and willing to accommodate her whatever way he can, except for letting her go. His portrayal by singer Akiko Wada combined with the rounded artstyle makes him more adorable than menacing.

Kibidango - The dog that tags along with Mario and Luigi. He tries to be their voice of reason, but he can’t talk, and they don’t listen. He’s mostly there to help the plot along and provide a twist at the end. 

For the most part, this movie sticks to using material from the game. There’s some deviations, like the dog and a wizard, but they don’t feel too out of place and, if anything, lend to the movie’s fairy tale-like quality.

Mario games generally try to maintain a whimsical, timeless vibe, and this movie captures that best. It’s not perfect, but it's a fun little romp that I highly recommend watching at least once, only an hour long. Please watch it!

Next are my thoughts on Super Mario Bros. (1993).

I also finished my thoughts on Super Mario Bros. (2023) if you're interested.