Peach gets expanded role in Mario movie

Nintendo and Universal Pictures have released the first full trailer for the upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie, and fans are in for a treat.

Nintendo has released a new trailer for the upcoming animatedThe Super Mario Bros. Movie, showing off more of the Mushroom Kingdom and giving us our first proper look at Luigi, Peach, and Donkey Kong.

The trailer opens on Mario (Chris Pratt) entering a battle arena, ready to take down Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen). Of course, Mario’s a newcomer to the Mushroom Kingdom, and Donkey Kong is a gorilla, so naturally it doesn’t go quite as planned for the mustachioed plumber.

After that, we see a glimpse of what the story will be like in Mario’s first major animated feature film. It’s about what you’d expect — Bowser (Jack Black) wants to take over the world, and it’s up to Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and an army of Toads to stop him.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie sees Princess Peach step into a more active role, even suiting up to take place in combat herself. Picture: Universal Pictures

Interestingly, it appears that Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) will be taking a more active role than she often does in the games that inspired the movie. Instead of playing the damsel in distress, kidnapped by Bowser, it seems like Peach will be on the front lines in the war against Bowser’s army, even going so far as to armour up and wield a giant axe.

Peach will also seemingly be responsible for getting Mario into fighting shape for his showdown against the Koopa King. Luigi (Charlie Day) is put on full display in the trailer too, seemingly separated from Mario upon entering the Mushroom Kingdom, showing off his scaredy-cat demeanour when faced with King Bowser himself.

It’s all looking and sounding very good, and the trailer is absolutely packed with little references to Mario and Donkey Kong games from the past 35 years that are sure to make any fan excited. Some have criticised Chris Pratt’s Mario performance as sounding a little bit flat compared to others in the film, but overall it seems to be shaping up to be a must-see film when it releases in cinemas on March 30.

Super Mario Bros. is the latest in a long stretch of video games getting adapted into other media. Classic Ubisoft game Splinter Cell was recently revealed to be getting a surprising adaptation in the form of an eight-part radio drama airing on BBC Radio next month.

In other Nintendo news, the company finally released its golf mode for Nintendo Switch Sports, six months after the game was released. The golfing mode was supposed to launch earlier in the year, a few months after the game came out, but was delayed into the fourth quarter after needing a little more time in the oven.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.