Super Mario Bros. anime The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach is available to stream or download right now in 4k for the very first time.
A new restoration of the classic 1986 Super Mario Bros. anime is available now on YouTube, with a download available at the Internet Archive.
“This comes from a 16mm reduction print likely used for small, local screenings back in the day when it was released,” says the video description. “It’s likely one of the, if not THE only surviving print in the world, and fellow fan Carnivol was able to get his hands on it back in 2016.”
Although the film has been available to watch online for years, this is the best version yet. This new restoration is clean, color corrected, and newly subtitled for the best possible experience.
“We were able to clean it up super nicely (although some scratches were unable to be completely removed),” the team explained. They spent months removing dirt, dust, and scratches. “Thousands of individual pieces of debris were manually removed for this restoration.”
Additionally, the audio has been recaptured using the VHS as a source.
“The VHS was originally released with 2-channel Dolby Surround, which is preserved in the audio capture here,” says Femboy Films. “This reflects most accurately how the film would have sounded in cinemas, as it was released with 4-channel Dolby Stereo there.”
There’s even a brand-new scan of the film’s original art books.
The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach is an animated comedy adventure from 1986 that loosely follows the events of Super Mario Bros.
After escaping the video game world and finding herself in Mario’s world, Princess Peach seeks refuge from the famous plumbers. However, King Koopa (aka Bowser) is hot on her heels – desperately dragging her back to the Mushroom Kingdom. The Mario Bros – now working in a grocery store for some reason – are lured into the Kingdom by Dumpling Dog (!?!) to rescue the princess and save the day.
And it’s about as crazy as it sounds. The film was written by Hideo Takayashiki and directed by Masami Hata.
Although it’s unlikely that we’ll be getting a reworking of this particular film, there are currently a record number of video game adaptations in the works. The upcoming Mario movie will star Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario alongside Jack Black as Bowser.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.