To celebrate Mario Day (or MAR10 Day), we look back at the special anime film Super Mario Bros: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach.
I think we can all agree that The Super Mario Bros. Movie was an awesome animated film for Nintendo’s Super Mario video game and merchandise franchise. However, one scene would not have been possible without a specific precursor piece of media. Almost 40 years ago, there was an anime film, Super Mario Bros: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach, that paved new ground for the iconic plumbers. As it is Mario Day today, we recognize and delve deeper into how the film was significant for the game series, and more.
The film came out on July 20, 1986, directed by Masami Hata and produced by Masakatsu Suzuki and Tsunemasa Hatano. It was made in partnership between Nintendo and Grouper Productions. The plot focuses on the titular characters of Mario and Luigi, who go on a quest to save Princess Peach from the grips of King Koopa (aka King Bowser). The movie even used music and sound effects from the Super Mario Bros. video game!
While the Mario games were already popular in Japan at that time, they helped to sell a lot of merchandise. There were Mario phone cards, watches, rice containers, ramen noodles, a manga, an art book, three riddle books, a picture book, and an original soundtrack released on vinyl and cassette. Almost everything advertised was Mario-related. Now, the merch has only expanded even more—even more so on Mario Day, no doubt.
While the film was released in over 200 theatres across Japan, it was never released overseas or on DVD or Blu-ray! Retailers only carried the movie on VHS and Betamax. Now, people could probably find them through international collectors. In order to restore this classic anime Super Mario Bros. film, Carnivol released a 16mm film scan on YouTube in July 2021. Then, fan restoration group Kineko Video restored it in 4K on YouTube, which was released on April 16, 2022.
So, how was this film detrimental to the creation of The Super Mario Bros. Movie? If you remember, at the beginning of the movie, Mario was shown playing video games in his apartment room. This was a callback to a similar moment in the anime film! Mario was playing a game on his Famicon late at night. From there, things took a different turn for Mario, but still got sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom world.
Super Mario Bros: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach was also one of the first two films based on a video game, along with Running Boy: Star Soldier’s Secret. Both movies came out on the same day. In addition to that record, it was also the earliest isekai anime to involve a virtual video game world. All those Sword Art Online or No Game No Life fans can thank this ancestral film for birthing the genre!
Be sure to check out the full film on YouTube now and read some more ways Mario Day recognizes the importance of the series. Let us know how you are celebrating Mario Day and we hope you have a great MAR10 Day this year!
