Super Mario Brothers: Peach-hime Kyuushutsu Daisakusen!

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Alternative Titles

English: Super Mario Brothers: Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach

Synonyms: Super Mario Brothers: Peach-hime Kyuushutsu Dai Sakusen

Japanese: スーパーマリオブラザーズ　ピーチ姫救出大作戦!

Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jul 20, 1986

Producers: VAP, Grouper Productions, Nintendo

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: None found, add some

Source: Game

Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Shounen

Duration: 1 hr.

Rating: G - All Ages

Statistics

Score: 5.64¹ (scored by 2,018 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #9252²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #7144

Members: 3,812

Favorites: 16

5.64

Ranked #9252Popularity #7144Members 3,812

Movie

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Episodes: /1

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Synopsis

In the film, Mario and Luigi are the owners of a grocery store. One night, Mario was engrossed in his Famicom game. Suddenly, the picture goes out and Princess Peach appears on the TV screen crying for help from the enemies attacking her and jumps out of the TV. Mario falls in love with her and vows to protect her. Soon after, Koopa appears on the TV screen and starts to come out of the TV. He grabs Princess Peach and takes her into the TV. Mario then discovers a small brooch that Peach left on the floor.

The next day, the brooch that Peach dropped becomes a matter of concern for Mario. Luigi immediately notices the brooch and regards it as the "Visionary Jewel from the Country of Treasure". Soon, Kibidango, a small dog-like being, wanders into the store and notices that Mario has Peach's brooch. He takes it away from Mario, enraging him, thus beginning his (and Luigi's) chase with Kibidango into the Mushroom Kingdom.

(Source: Wikipedia)

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Background

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Related Anime

Alternative setting:	Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Brothers
Character:	Luigi's Toy Adventure, Mario Kirby Meisaku Video

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Mario

Main

Furuya, Toru
Japanese

Luigi

Main

Mizushima, Yuu
Japanese

King Koopa

Main

Wada, Akiko
Japanese

Toadstool, Peach

Main

Yamase, Mami
Japanese

Goomba

Supporting

More staff

Staff

Hata, Masami

Director

Urakami, Yasuo

Sound Director

Takayashiki, Hideo

Script

Miyamoto, Shigeru

Original Creator, Original Character Design

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Opening Theme

"Doki Doki Do it! Bishi to Bashi to Rock'n Roll Gakko Hen" by Mirai Douji

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Ending Theme

No ending themes have been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding an ending theme here.

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Reviews

May 2, 2011

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

Shalameen (All reviews)

13 people found this review helpful

In all honesty this anime is by no means TERRIBLE. The story was awful and the music was 80's awful. But it's Mario, so it gains a few points in key departments!
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Story: While the story was terrible, it remained true to the Mario standards of "save Princess Peach, then we're done!" It also managed to include the power-ups we all remember, such as the Red Mushroom, Fire Flower, and the Star! So it definitely tries hard to please we who played the games. It's very comedic as well, and I actually managed to chuckle a few times. A few scenes were extremely boring, having only read more

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Dec 30, 2012

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

FOXHOUNDER1014 (All reviews)

8 people found this review helpful

When people think of a Mario movie, they immediately look to the horrible live action movie. However, hardcore fans of the series will know of the existence of an obscure anime film from 1986. I'm willing to bet that 95% of Mario fans will wonder what I'm talking about. In 1986, Grouper Productions secured the rights from Nintendo to produce an anime film based upon the immensely successful Super Mario Bros. for Famicom/NES. The anime was called Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen, or literally Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach.
With this being a rather obscure movie, very little is known about what went on during production. To what extent Nintendo and series director Shigeru Miyamoto had to do with this film is not at all clear, but my guess is not much. The film saw a very limited theatrical release in Japan and was quietly distributed on VHS by VAP Video a short time later. VAP made the dumbest mistake possible by only releasing the anime on rental cassette. Because of this, the film is highly sought after by collectors and fetches high prices on Japanese auction sites. And before you ask, no the film was never released outside of Japan. This somewhat surprises me, as Mario is marketable to a worldwide audience. We can only hope that an anime distributor will pick up the rights to this title someday, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Luckily with the age of the internet, the film is available for viewing or download on sites such as YouTube. There's even several fansubs that exist, though they vary in translation quality and character name accuracy. A fandub exists as well, though we all know about the quality of such productions.
Despite poor choices in distribution, the anime actually had a wide variety of tie-in products such as a manga adaptation, an official soundtrack release, wrist-watches, ramen noodles, and phone cards. As expected, these products are even rarer than the film itself so don't bother looking for them unless the planets align or something.
With all this being said, is this film a hidden gem? The short answer is no. Going into this film, it's clear to me that this anime was never a high priority among the studio. The main reason it exists is to make a quick cash grab based upon the Super Mario license. It was directed by Masami Hata. Never heard of him? Me neither because his most well known work is Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. That being said, the movie isn't completely terrible and actually has its share of enjoyable moments.

Story and Characters: 6/10
The mentality of the Mario series has always been gameplay over story. Rescue Princess Peach from the evil Bowser. That's it. To accommodate this paper-thin story into a watchable movie, much had to be added to the script. The film opens with Mario playing a Famicom game late at night. You heard me right. The Italian plumber, from Brooklyn, created by a Japanese guy that symbolizes the video game genre itself, is playing a video game in an obscure Japanese anime based upon a video game. Wrap your head around that one. Mario's brother Luigi asks him if he wants tea, but is curtly ignored. Ah, social commentary on the current state of modern-day video gamers. Suddenly, Princess Peach jumps out of the screen being chased by Bowser. After introducing herself to Mario and her current situation, Mario vows to defend her. Bowser then grabs Peach and takes her back into the TV. What surprised me the most is how Mario handles the whole situation. Although he's surprised at first, he just seems to go with the whole thing shortly after. Seriously? If I were him, I'd question what drugs I had just been smoking to see such an intense hallucination. When Mario tells Luigi of what just happened, his response is the same as mine. (Okay it's not exactly the same. He tells Mario that the whole thing was a dream.) Mario then sees that Peach left her necklace on the floor, and realizes that what he just experienced was all too real. The next day, Mario constantly daydreams about Peach and is distracted from his job. By the way, in this film Mario and Luigi are grocery store workers and not plumbers. A strange looking dog named Kibedango (a pun upon Japanese millet dumplings called dango) rushes in and steal the Peach's necklace from Mario's hand. The two brothers chase after the dog and who leads them down a warp pipe. They are greeted by the most stereotypical old man/wizard who tells them that they must rescue Peach from Bowser, who intends to marry her on the upcoming Friday the 13th. They must procure the mushroom of strength, the flower of courage, and the star of invincibility (this is Mario we're talking about) to stand a chance against Bowser.
And that's the setup for the story. In order to fill the huge gaps in storytelling that Nintendo left, much emphasis is put on slapstick humor and longer chase/fight scenes. Is the story still pretty basic? Yes. Is it at all entertaining? For the most part, yes. Even though its clear that this film was meant for children, I still found myself smiling at some of the film's comedic scenes. Despite the efforts to inject substance in the script, by the end of the day it's still a save the princess story. One thing that kind of annoyed me is the shameless plugs for ramen noodles that appear throughout the film. Gotta love those noodles, right? Surprisingly, some of the actions that Mario performs appeared in later Mario games like Jjumping on a Lakitu and riding its cloud (Super Mario World), eating a mushroom and growing humongous (New Super Mario Bros.), and spinning Bowser by the tail and throwing him (Super Mario 64). Coincidence? I guess that's left for the viewers to decide. Overall, the film really hasn't aged well in terms of story or animation (more on that in a bit) but the nostalgia factor will probably make up for this.
The personalities of the characters in this film are completely different from what the series would later portray. Keep in mind that games were still limited in what they could accomplish in 1986 and Super Mario Bros. had no character development. The anime fills in the void by creating its own versions of the characters. Mario is still the humble and typical hero who wants to save the girl. While this is okay, he is dreadfully boring as a character offering nothing interesting to the table. Luigi steals the show by being a greedy and selfish miser. Sound familiar? He's pretty much Wario. While Mario is the boy scout who wants to save Peach, Luigi is only in it for the promised gold along the way. If you're wondering why his color scheme seems different from the games, that's because he had no set color pattern at the time. As for the rest of the cast, they're exactly what you'd expect. Peach is the stereotypical damsel-in-distress, just like her in-game counterpart and Bowser is the evil villain. With the running time only 60 minutes, there's really not that much room for character development. Not that there was ever character development in the Mario series.
The cast consists of somewhat well known and somewhat obscure Japanese seiyuu. There's really not much else to say, because I won't call this film the high point of any of their careers. The voices aren't bad in the slightest, (Japanese voice acting rarely is) but noting really stands out as notable expect for the fact that Bowser is played by a female Japanese pop singer. I'm dead serious.

Animation: 7/10
I'm probably being generous here, but the animation in Mario isn't half-bad most of the time. Backgrounds pop out with various colors, and I enjoyed the cartoonish looks of the characters. That being said, I can't deny the significant age this anime shows. But like the crude graphics of the NES days, I can look past this for the most part. I should note though, that the Hayao Miyazaki film Castle in the Sky came out a mere two weeks later. Yeah...

Sound: 6/10
The BGMs used in the game is directly taken from Super Mario Bros., and is slightly enhanced by the NES synth. This isn't really a bad thing, because I can't imagine a Mario film being accompanied by anything else. Like every single anime ever created, Mario includes several vocal songs. Nothing really stands out here as the songs are pretty forgettable.

Overal: 7/10
Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach is a mixed bag overall. It has its moments, but it isn't a masterpiece buy any means. I'm sure that one could give it a quick look for curiosity's sake, but is no way worth the high prices its going for right now. The anime won't even take too much of your time, seeing as it's only an hour long. Despite its short length, it surprisingly does not feel rushed at all. I'd say watch it once, but don't bother again after that.

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Aug 24, 2012

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

powerpuffz (All reviews)

6 people found this review helpful

It was pretty poor and pathetic, but you can't really hate this movie. You could even be watching the best movie ever and you wouldn't facepalm (or the classic anime faint) yourself out of major stupidity. You'd only do that if you were over-upset in the ending. It's a terrible suprise. Luigi sets off a lot of humor.

"We're gonna be SOOOOOOOO RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICH!" Mario is trying to get across lava to save the princess once and Luigi looks for gold.

"Gold! Gold!! WHEEEEHEEEE!" He literally says that.
You can't NOT enjoy Luigi... LOL.

You can try to hate it or you can just hate it. read more

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Aug 26, 2020

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

a-m-ho (All reviews)

1 people found this review helpful

When you look at the movie from a critical stand-point, yeah. This anime isn't that good.
But when you forget all about logical thinking and normal anime-watching standards, the anime becomes pretty fun

I think it should be clear that the target audience of this anime are fans of the Super Mario series by Nintendo, or at least know enough about it to want to watch this short, 1 hour long movie. Fans either grew up playing the video games and have lots of nostalgia, causing often biased looks on the movie, or recently got into the games and are cramming information about it into their brain. The audience consists mostly of these 2 kinds of people, casual anime watchers, and few other occurrences.
The film is also clearly targeted towards a younger audience with it being completely family friendly, and overall aesthetically and story wisely remaining simple.
Considering the audience, the film may receive often very positive responses due to the nostalgia factor. Though, here on MAL where the audience has watched several animes and is able to judge the work critically, the score drops down by a lot.

So is the anime good or not? Here on MAL, the rating is very average, and the reviews go all the way from 1 to higher scores, mostly averaging somewhere around 4, 5, or 6 depending on personal opinion and bias. I myself give this anime a 5 for mediocre. It's not terrible, by no means, but it fails to become anything amazing. I am a person who grew up very closely with Nintendo games, especially those from the Super Mario series, and so I was a bit biased going in.
On critical levels -
The story is decent, but nothing great. It is an average quest story, which quickly becomes lacking in interest, but it works fine with the intent of the anime and stays loyal to the source material, which was nice only for those who watch the movie as already existing fans. The one thing they ruined awfully were the characters; whom all felt like bland, uninteresting and annoying versions of themselves, with the exception of maybe Luigi and Bowser. Luigi was very comedic and fun, and Bowser was surprisingly one of the most tolerable characters, totally different from the source material.
The art isn't special. It looks like something out of old, lower-budget animation films but considering this movie was made in the 80s, I give it a pass on my account. At times, it could look very aesthetic, such as with the flying boat on the starry sky and with the shot of the castle towards the ending, but most of the time it remained simplistic, rough, and colorful, clearly aimed towards children.
The sound is, well, again nothing special. There are a few original tracks created for this movie but none of them really stand out as good. They are all very average songs. At a few points the film uses soundtracks from the original game series, which is a nice touch for nostalgia, but doesn't add anything new to the table.

Overall, the show is hard to enjoy if you are a person who can't let go of critical thinking at times and easily judges shows while watching them. I see the film as a fun, quick watch which leaves the watcher with nothing new, but entertains them for a brief moment.

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