The Super Mario Bros. Movie

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a 2023 American and Japanese computer-animated adventure film produced by Illumination in association with based on the Mario video game franchise. It was be released in the United States on April 5, 2023, and in Japan on April 28, 2023.

The film is directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and stars the voices of Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Kevin Michael Richardson.

Synopsis
With help from Princess Peach, Mario gets ready to square off against the all-powerful Bowser to stop his plans from conquering the world.

Plot
The movie begins with, accompanied with his army, invading the Snow Kingdom, capturing its penguin inhabitants, burning his way into their palace, and stealing a powerful Super Star. Meanwhile, and, two plumbers in New York City start their own plumbing business, Super Mario Bros. Plumbing, to service Brooklyn and Queens. Despite spending their life savings to produce a commercial for it, the business is struggling.

Mario and Luigi's family, particularly their father, disapproves of the Mario brothers' decision to leave their steady job to start the business, with only Mario's mother approving of his decision. Their antagonistic former boss, Spike, also derides Mario for making this choice. After a routine job at an African-American couple's house becomes a disaster due to the couple's violent dog, Francis, Mario and Luigi see a significant manhole leak reported on the news. The brothers then take it upon themselves to attempt to fix the broken water main. However, Luigi is sucked into a mysterious Warp Pipe and disappears, prompting Mario to go in after him. The two end up being sucked into the Warp Zone and are separated in the process, with Mario finding himself in the magical Mushroom Kingdom.

Upon landing there, Mario meets, who informs him that Luigi landed in the "dark lands", under the control of Bowser, who wants to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom and marry. Toad takes Mario to Peach's Castle, while Luigi is chased by Bowser's forces until he is captured by Shy Guys.

At Peach's Castle, Peach reveals her plan to recruit the Jungle Kingdom in the fight against Bowser. Surprised to run into another human, Peach agrees to take Mario along should he complete an obstacle course. After being shown the ? Blocks and the power-ups within, Mario fails to run the course. Despite repeatedly failing the gauntlet, he eventually gets close enough to the goal for Peach to acknowledge him, with Toad joining them on the trek.

Meanwhile, Bowser rallies the Koopa Troop for his plan to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom, then expresses through song his obsession with the princess, revealing that he wants to take over the kingdom only because he desires to marry her. No sooner does he finish singing this than Kamek comes to inform him about Mario's arrival into the Mushroom Kingdom; however, Bowser says he is not concerned about this. Then some other members of the Koopa Troop alert him to Mario's presence, causing Bowser to see this stranger as a rival for Peach's affections. Afterward, he has Luigi brought before him and interrogates him on Mario's whereabouts.

Luigi resists at first, but spills the beans after Bowser loses his patience; the tyrant subsequently orders his Shy Guy guards to imprison him by placing him in a cage above a sea of lava in order to blackmail Mario, where others, such as Lumalee and the penguins, have also been caged by Bowser's minions. Mario, Peach, and Toad are then seen journeying across an abundance of locales, such as the Desert Area, High Cliffs, the Waterfall Area, and Yoshi's Island. As the trio set camp in a field of Fire Flowers, Peach shares that she does not know her origins. After walking through a Warp Pipe as a baby, she was taken in by the residents of Mushroom Kingdom and eventually crowned their princess; Mario speculates that she may be from the same world he is.

Once in the Jungle Kingdom, Peach consults King Cranky to recruit an army of Kongs to support them. He refuses to join the princess's cause, but later accepts on the condition that Mario defeats his son, Donkey Kong, in a duel. Donkey Kong initially overpowers Mario, but upon remembering what Peach said about power-ups, Mario uses one of the boxes to get a Super Bell and transform into Cat Mario, using the new powers to defeat the ape. Cranky is then willing to help the heroes out. He suggests that Mario, Peach, and Toad (joined by the Kong army) use karts to return to the Mushroom Kingdom, by way of the space-faring Rainbow Road.

Upon their drive back, Bowser's army learns about their plans and decides to ambush the heroes as they traverse Rainbow Road. The Koopa General chases Mario with his bulldozer and fires two Bullet Bills knocking him off his kart, but Mario hijacks one of the Koopa soldiers' karts, crashes the driver's shell into another soldier's armored car, and has it explode on the bulldozer. The General then gets up, locks himself in his winged Blue Shell, and crashes on the two, destroying a part of the road. Mario and Donkey Kong plummet to the ocean below, much to Peach, Toad, and Cranky's despair, and the rest of the Kongs are captured and sent to Bowser's dungeons.

Peach and Toad, however, survive and make it back to the Mushroom Kingdom, where Peach warns the citizens of Bowser's imminent arrival and orders them to evacuate. Mario and DK are later revealed to be alive in the ocean depths, but a Maw-Ray quickly appears and consumes them both. Bowser drops his castle in front of Peach's castle and proposes to Peach. She initially refuses, but when Kamek begins torturing Toad, she reluctantly agrees.

Meanwhile, Mario and Donkey Kong, having bonded over their issues with their respective fathers, escape the Maw-Ray through the rocket from DK's kart and hurry to Bowser and Peach's wedding. In the process, Mario exploits multiple power-ups, including the Super Mushroom and the Super Leaf. DK also makes use of power-ups himself, such as the Fire Flower.

At the wedding reception, Bowser reveals that he intends to execute all his prisoners publicly by burning them in lava. Toad smuggles in an Ice Flower and gives it to Peach, who freezes Bowser and battles his wedding guests. Despite her best efforts, she fails to save the prisoners, but Mario and DK arrive in time to complete the rescue. The Mario Brothers are reunited, but Bowser breaks free of his ice prison and calls for a Bomber Bill to be launched.

Peach, Toad, and DK fight off the Koopas while Mario diverts the Bomber Bill away from Peach's Castle and into the pipe that he initially fell through. However, this causes elements from the Mushroom Kingdom to be transported back to Brooklyn, including Bowser's Castle. An enraged Bowser fights Mario over the Super Star, with Peach and Donkey Kong stepping in to protect him. Discouraged, Mario hides behind cover, but thanks to a dying television playing the brothers' commercial one last time, he regains his resolve and makes a dash for the Super Star.

Seeing his brother fighting, Luigi saves Mario from Bowser's fire breath with a manhole cover, and the two barely reach the Super Star just as the flames reach them. They are thought to be scorched to death, but it is revealed that they have possessed the Super Star's power at the last second. Using its invincibility, they plow through Bowser's army and pummel the Koopa king. After he is defeated, Peach forces a Mini Mushroom into his mouth, shrinking him, and Toad places him in a bottle.

In the end, the residents of Brooklyn celebrate the victorious Mario brothers, including Spike, the African-American couple, Francis the Dog, Giuseppe, and the brother's father, who says he is proud of him. Mario and Luigi move into a new house in Mushroom Kingdom, using a pipe to return to Brooklyn whenever needed.

In a mid-credits scene, Bowser is shown playing the piano while in a cage. A Toad Guard suddenly shows up and tells Bowser to keep quiet, leading the latter to complain before the guard closes the door, interrupting his sentence. In a post-credits scene, a Yoshi's Egg can be seen sitting in the Brooklyn sewers. The egg suddenly begins to hatch as the film cuts to black, followed by itself shouting, "Yoshi!"

Cast

 * Chris Pratt as
 * Anya Taylor-Joy as
 * Charlie Day as
 * Jack Black as
 * Keegan-Michael Key as
 * Seth Rogen as
 * Fred Armisen as
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as
 * Sebastian Maniscalco as
 * Juliet Jelenic as
 * Yuya Takezawa provides his sound effects (archival, uncredited).
 * Eric Bauza as Toad General,, Koopa Troopa soldiers and Dry Bones
 * Khary Payton as the Penguin King
 * Jessica DiCicco as Mario and Luigi's mother, a yellow Toad, the woman from the Super Mario Bros. Plumbing commercial, Baby Peach, Pauline, and the baby who bullies Baby Luigi
 * Charles Martinet as Mario and Luigi's father and Giuseppe
 * Rino Romano as Uncle Tony
 * John DiMaggio as Uncle Arthur
 * Scott Menville as Koopa General
 * Nate Bihldorff as (archival, uncredited)
 * Kazumi Totaka as Yoshi (archival, uncredited)

Production
In September 2021, the cast was revealed.

Release
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was originally scheduled to be released in the United States on December 21, 2022. However, in April 2022, it was announced that the release date was moved to April 7, 2023, with the film's original release date being occupied by Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. But on February 28, 2023, it was announced that the release date has been moved earlier to April 5.

The film had its world premiere on April 1, 2023 in Los Angeles.