Princess Peach may have been designed as a damsel-in-distress-type of character in most Super Mario Bros. video games of the past, but in the upcoming animated movie, the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom doesn’t have time to wait around for a white knight (or plumber) to save her. She’s got it.
In the official trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) teams up with Mario (Chris Pratt), Luigi (Charlie Day), and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) to defeat their evil arch-nemesis Bowser (Jack Black).
At the beginning of the trailer, Peach and Toad are sitting in a Roman coliseum watching Mario go to battle against Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) — a matchup that doesn’t turn out too well for the movie’s mustached title character. Peach winces as Mario gets pummeled by Donkey Kong.
Later, Peach warns Toad and the other toadstools in the Mushroom Kingdom that Bowser is on his way to their land to start trouble. “Together, we are going to stop that monster,” Peach says. The scene cuts to Peach dressed in a pink bodysuit (that looks like her motorcycle suit from the game) and spinning a large ax in her hand. Toad is armed with a frying pan.
While Mario is usually the leading man in these quests, he seems to be having trouble getting through some of the basic video game pitfalls. Peach is a bit frustrated with his missteps. At one point, she even saves Mario from a Cheep Chomp that attaches itself to his face.
When Peach gets the fireball power from a Fire Flower, while wearing her Fire Peach dress, it’s evident that she’s not the same character from the Nintendo games. “There’s a huge universe out there with a lot of galaxies,” she says. “They’re all counting on us.”
And we’re counting on Princess Peach to make this a nostalgic adventure to remember.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie premieres at theaters on April 7, 2023.