After months of speculation about Chris Pratt’s interpretation of Mario and what Peach will look like, Nintendo finally answers all these questions with the release of a second trailer for The Super Mario Bros movie. This new video offers a first look at several characters like Princess Peach and Donkey Kong while featuring several references to iconic moments from the Mario game series.
The second trailer for The Super Mario Bros movie shows more action than its predecessor. The video opens with Mario taking deep breaths before facing a mighty opponent in a large arena, Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong. While the entire audience is cheering for Mario, the plumber gets destroyed by Donkey Kong, who smashes him to the ground and beat him over and over again.
As his brother is getting spanked by a giant monkey, Luigi is in no better position. Bowser is torturing him for information on his brother, slowly pulling on Luigi’s mustache to make him suffer. At the same time, we can see glimpses of Mario in his everyday job as a plumber, looking at a leaky faucet. Despite getting tortured by King Koopa, Luigi doesn’t share any information about his brother.
After plucking out Luigi’s mustache, Bowser heads to Peach’s castle in the Mushroom Kingdom. This shot offers a first look at Anya Taylor-Joy’s Peach, who is setting up a war plan to defend her castle with her army of Toads. The Princess doesn’t look like a damsel in distress, trading her usual robe for a battle outfit and grabbing a halberd as she heads to Bowser’s floating island.
While Princess Peach looks like a fighter who knows what she is doing, we cannot say the same about Mario. The plumber repeatedly fails his missions throughout the trailer, from his beat-up by Donkey Kong to his failure on platformer elements. Peach herself has to save Mario from the attack of a Cheep Cheep, the chubby pufferfish featured in 1985’s Super Mario Bros.
The second trailer for The Super Mario Bros movie references several elements from the game series, from the Chain Chomps to the original platformer Super Mario Bros. The video also shows a glimpse of Mario riding a kart on the rainbow circuit, as well as a shot similar to Mario Galaxy.
The Super Mario Bros movie will come to theaters on April 7, 2023. According to a recent stream hosted by games journalist Jeff Gerstmann, The Super Mario Bros movie would be 86 minutes long – a little shorter than most similar films.