The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach

Because of how obscure this movie is, this video cover is a definite Spoiler.

Before The Super Mario Bros Super Show, but after his run on The Saturday Supercade, Mario starred in this obscure Japanese film, titled Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! (translated: The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach!), a loose Animated Adaptation of Super Mario Bros.

One night, while playing his Famicom, Mario gets an unexpected visit from the lovely Princess Peach, who is on the run from evil tyrant Bowser Koopa. Bowser then shows up and kidnaps her, leaving behind the pendant that she always wears. The next day, a little dog called Kibidango shows up at the grocery store owned by Mario and his brother Luigi (yes, they're grocers in this movie) and takes the jewel. The Mario Bros. give chase after him and wind up in the Mushroom Kingdom, where they meet the wise old Mushroom Hermit. The Hermit tells them that they've been brought to the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue Princess Peach, whom Bowser intends to marry on Friday the 13th, and save the people whom Bowser has turned into useless objects. The Mario Bros. embark on this journey, along the way gathering the three powerful items of the Super Mushroom, the Fire Flower, and the Starman, which help them in their quest. They make it to Bowser's castle just in time to crash Bowser's wedding to Peach, Mario defeats Bowser, and it turns out that Kibidango is actually Prince Hal, Peach's previously unmentioned fiancé, much to the disappointment of Mario, who had fallen in love with the Princess himself.

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Tropes used in the movie:

• Affably Evil: Bowser seemed a pretty nice guy, albeit a bit too jealous when it came to Peach. Heck, at the end, he is seen working with Mario and liking it.
• Art Evolution: Luigi is designed with the taller and slimmer look he sported in the games since the U.S. version of Super Mario Bros 2, but his color scheme is a bit different from his later look (he wears blue overalls and a hat with a yellow shirt in the actual film).
• Bittersweet Ending: The fact that Kibidango/Prince Hal is actually Peach's fiancé upsets not only Mario, but also the Mario/Peach fans. Needless to say, the fact that Prince Hal was never incorporated into the games should speak volumes about how many fans were upset by that revelation even back then, it could also explain why the movie has become so obscure, that it never had an overseas release.
  • Masami Hata was the director. Trust me, the ending could've been much, much worse.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Amazingly, not Kibidango, but Bowser. The two Goombas and the Laikatu are also voiced by female actresses.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Bowser at the end
• Did Not Do the Research: Mario defeats some Buzzy Beetles using fireballs. In the Mario games, they're pretty much always immune to fire.
• Did Not Get the Girl
• Guess Who I'm Marrying: See Bittersweet Ending above.
• Product Placement: Besides Mario playing with his Famicom, we see the brothers smash some blocks later in the movie, and obtaining some Mario ramen cups out of them.
• The Stinger: One of Mario and Luigi's regular customers walks up to the counter and is shocked to find Bowser working there.
• Those Two Bad Guys: A pair of Goombas who continually try to impede on Mario and Luigi's progress.
• Tohru Furuya: The voice of Mario.
• Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Despite being dressed like plumbers, Mario and Luigi run a grocery store.