Sophia Michaels
Bow down to Princess Peach. On Tuesday, Illumination released the second trailer for the Super Mario Bros. Movie and gave a first look at both Mario’s silly, long journey to face Bowser, along with Anya-Taylor Joy slaying her role as Peach and Seth Rogen taking on Donkey Kong.
“There’s a huge universe out there. With a lot of galaxies,” Peach tells Mario to end the trailer, referencing the 2007 Wii game Super Mario Galaxy. “They’re all counting on us. No pressure!”
The two-minute clip follows the titular character (voiced by Chris Pratt) walking into a stadium where he faces off against Donkey Kong (voiced by Rogen, though we don’t get to hear him here) before he gets absolutely beaten-up by the ape-inspired character. The camera pans to Princess Peach and Toad, who both show a look of concern.
The trailer then transitions to a scene led by Bowser (Jack Black) speaking down to Luigi (Charlie Day) as Bowser proclaims, “Not sure you know who I am, but I’m about to rule the world… But there’s one problem: There’s a human, who has a mustache just like you.”
While showing clips of Mario as a plumber, Luigi hilariously explains how he doesn’t know “every human being with a mustache wearing an identical outfit with a hat with a letter of his first name on it,” before Bowser plucks his facial hair. (Perhaps Bowser will try to turn Luigi against his mustachioed bestie?)
The trailer also captures Peach telling her army of Toads, “Bowser is coming. Together, we are going to stop that monster.” A Toad responds, “How? Look at us? We’re adorable!”
The rest of the video follows Mario as he begins his adventure to try to defeat Bowser as fans get to see Mario in the Super Mario Bros. 3-referencing Tanooki suit, the film’s characters driving Mario Karts on the uber-difficult Rainbow Road and, of course, the film’s leading woman Princess Peach being the real hero.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie, out April 7 in theaters, boasts an all-star voice cast that also includes Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike.
As part of the Nintendo Direct presentation before the first trailer’s unveiling, Pratt and Black discussed their roles.
“Growing up, I spent hours of my life stomping koopa troopas,” Pratt said, adding that he used to play the Mario arcade game before it came to Nintendo. Black added that he learned to fire-breath like Bowser by taking lessons from Gene Simmons from Kiss.
