Super Mario Bros. : La Grande Mission pour sauver la princesse Peach !

English: Such a cute movie! I remember the first time I heard about this is was in a Princess Peach evolution video then I saw it again on a clip and I'm surprised my dad hasn't heard of this because he basically was born during Mario's timeline but every time I see this I'm like "This is so cute!" And I can't watch it in the English dub because it's just not my childhood, my childhood is the Japanese one with the English Subtitles, It's such a cute movie!

While the 1993 Mario Bros movie has garnered a cult fanbase and the upcoming Illumination movie has drawn polarizing feedback, another Mario movie remains in obscurity. Released in 1986, one year after the original Super Mario Bros NES game, Nintendo and Shochiku presented a feature length Japanese animated movie entitled Super Mario Bros: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach. Despite never having an official international release outside of the internet, the film has often been regarded as a personal favorite in the Mario community. So being the first ever movie based on a video game, how does it hold up today?

The main story centers on Mario and Luigi, who embark on an alternate dimensional quest to save Princess Peach from the villainous King Koopa. As cliche as that premise sounds, it's all that is needed for an adventure like this, since the original video game was a straightforward rescue journey to save a hostage princess. Similarly to the original game as well, the obstacles that Mario and Luigi face along their journey range from frightening monsters to surrealistic landscapes, commonplace in all sorts of hero journeys. The film opts for a more lighthearted comedic tone to fit with the video game's upbeat gameplay, even in lieu of the occasional dramatic obstacle or scary opponent. It does work in its favor for the most part, although some scenes do drag to the point of losing focus from the main plot. The film is usually at its most emotionally resonative whenever it revolves around Mario mourning over Peach, and even those moments are often leftover for the brother's crazy foes and chapters along their way. It's a good thing the story feels like a video game, if not for detracting reasons.

In terms of other notable qualities, the animation direction of Masami Hata goes in a more cartoony format reminiscent of 40s Western cartoons, which also works for the comedic hijinks that ensue on Mario and Luigi's quest. This direction also suits Luigi's hammy persona that contrasts with his greed, not unlike many of the original Looney Tunes shorts. Perhaps the most creative of all visual spectacle in the film would have to be the many worlds throughout our hero's journey, varying in dynamic colors, set pieces and imaginative landscapes. The animators, layout artists and background painters managed to bring creatures from the original game into animation by distinguishing their appearances just enough to work on their own. As for the voice cast, they manage to bring their own spin to the characters through emotive performances, especially Akiko Wada as the diluted King Koopa. It's still bizarre that this never had a proper English release, because one would imagine the game's huge popularity would have made that inevitable. That being said, subtitles never hurt.

As a film adaptation of the original Mario Bros game, this feature works just enough on its own for what it's going for. It might not work as an introduction to newcomers due to its heavily specific plotline, but for Mario fans, it's a solid tribute to the games with just enough wacky obstacles and fun animation to go around. I would recommend this with a grain of salt due to its limited availability and general appeal remaining amongst a niche audience. Thanks to a lot of hard work from fans and historians, the film could get even more attention than ever before.

Here's a strange one. An early and oddly obscure, animated adaptation of the adventures of the Super Mario Brothers, Mario and Luigi.

While this movie's rendition of the Mushroom Kingdom is actually pretty faithful to the original games, featuring almost all the classic enemies, sound effects, tunes and even level elements, it disappoints in all other respects. The quality of the animation is even below that of the already dreadful "Super Mario Bros. Super Show", the characters, rather than acting in accordance with some sort of personality, or at least a few consistent quirks, just keep throwing random emotional fits, the humor annoys with a blend of nonsensical (not to be mistaken with creative) silliness and utterly generic slapstick, and the songs that play throughout the entire thing have brain-meltingly dumb lyrics.

All in all, I cannot understand why people are commenting positively on this one. As much as I consider the western Mario cartoons to be nothing but quick and lazy attempts to capitalize on the popularity of the character, I fail to see how this is any better, if not worse.

Well, I honestly didn't know this existed to begin with. Obviously because of it only airing in Japan, but also because I didn't think they'd actually make an anime movie based on Super Mario Bros. But when I did find out and saw it, I was pleasantly surprised. While it's weird and strange, it's honestly pretty enjoyable with nice animation which looks a lot like the games, humorous (but weird) moments, and a decent plot (despite the rushed and out-of-nowhere ending). Overall, I think this movie is still pretty enjoyable. Definitely more enjoyable than the later 1993 movie. If you like anime and Mario, then this film is for you.

After the original video game achieved great popularity in a short time, the decision was made to make this adaptation just a year after the video game was born. It can be seen that this film was made to learn more about the lore of the Mario universe when it was still in its early stages. This film takes all the characteristic elements of the original game and you can even notice that it has some ideas that would be reused in the video games that would come later. The film gives the opportunity to know the personality of the characters and what they are like. What it offers is a fun cartoon that knew how to materialize the video game universe, making it clear what was behind the pixels. The soundtrack is the same as the video game, but adding original songs that are quite good. There is no doubt that this film is a gem that has remained anonymous for a long time until it was discovered by the magic of the internet. This Super Mario Bros. Movie was the franchise's worthy big break on the big screen before the 1993 version put the franchise to sleep for 30 years and was then resurrected by the Illumination version. My final rating for this movie is a 9/10.