This April 5th, Nintendo, with the help of Universal Pictures, took us back to our gaming era and released The Super Mario Bros Movie. This film follows the trajectory of our favourite Italian guy, Mario and his plan to stop Browser with the help of Princess Peach. Browser Invades Snow Kingdom steals a powerful “Super Star,” and intends to conquer Mushroom Kingdom. Throughout the movie, we see different landmarks that fans will recognize and remember with awe. Such as the Sand Kingdom, Bob-omb Battlefield, and Yoshi Island; At one point, the Mario Kart fanatics will go feral over the grand presence that the rainbow road makes within the film.
Going back to the plot, the movie, at one point, falls back into Peach being a prisoner and Mario being her only chance at survival. Still, it develops into her being one of the last “pieces” of the puzzle when it comes to defeating Browser. After Mario and Luigi work together to defeat the wannabe ruler as the amazing dynamic duo we all know they are, Peach is the one that, by force-feeding a blue mushroom, turns the villain of the story into a miniature size Browser and is placed in a jar.
Throughout the story of Mario Bross, which was released in 1983, the character of princess peach is defined or rather established as a “damsel in distress”; One of her trade-mark quotes, as established on the second installment of the Paper Mario series, is “I can’t believe I’m kidnapped… again.” I have memories of playing the video games, and princess peach was more of a goal rather than a character; I mean, I knew I had completed a level when Princess Peach was released. I remember choosing her while playing Mario Kart, and my male counterparts would tell me I was basically securing the last place as mine. It was the only character that resembled me in the way that she was a girl. However, I didn’t want to be like that. I didn’t want to be rescued, nor itched to be connected to her. Princess Peach was shown as frail, delicate or inscrutable. All she did was wait for Mario to rescue her, so for me as a little girl, I remember dreading that the only “option” as a character was someone who made me seem weak or not powerful enough.
However, in this new movie, that character takes a redefining turn that is inspiring to the millions of children and adults who love and played or continue to play the game. As mentioned before, she helps Mario defeat Browser and slays and masters all the skills that Mario had to obtain; she is a crucial part of the team now, rather than a goal to achieve.
In this new rendition of this universe, peach not only seems as a strong female character, but she also shows her femininity and the intersectionality between both, rather than having to choose between one or the other as multiple strong leads have shown us in the past, especially her. In this movie, she does not fear Browser; she is eager to bring the battle to him. She is recruiting kingdoms to beat him and teaching Mario how to live in this universe.
I, for one, know that it made me happy to see Princess Peach have this revolutionary storyline, and I also know that if I play the video game right now, Princess Peach would be my first pick, making me feel extremely empowered to be a woman.