Princess Peach (The Super Mario Bros. Movie)

Princess Peach is the deuteragonist of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. She brings herself along for the adventure and assists Mario in a attempt to stop Bowser. She plays a bigger role in the film than just being a typical damsel-in-distress, which is depicted in some of her appearances in the Mario franchise. Bowser claims that Peach is his "true love" and wants to marry her by force, and make her his queen, but only her own true love was the mustachioed human himself.
Peach is depicted as a confident leader who is willing to protect her kingdom from Bowser.
== Profile ==
=== Physical description ===
Princess Peach is based on her video game counterpart. Her dress attire, crown and jewellery are realistic. Also, her eyebrows are distinctly longer than her video game counterpart and she wears leggings that extend to the top of her feet which change color depending on what color of dress she is wearing.
One of Peach's outfits is based on her biker outfit from the Mario Kart series. Her hair is made into a ponytail while in the outfit and a matching helmet is worn.
Her form as Fire Peach retains her outfit and hairstyle, however, the pink dress is replaced with white and red colors.
Peach wore a wedding gown, based on the same outfit from Super Mario Odyssey. However, it has a hint of pink on it.
Her ice form retains her wedding outfit and hairstyle, however, the coloring of the dress is changed to blue with a hint of light blue on it.
Peach is taller than Koopa Troopa, Koopa Paratroopa, Luigi, Mario, Kamek but shorter than Bowser.
=== Personality traits ===
Peach is a charismatic, capable and a confident leader. When a threat to her kingdom such as Bowser arrives, she will stop at nothing to defend it. Despite her qualities of a leader, she relies and helps her allies such as giving Mario the access to Super Bell to beat Donkey Kong. In return, her allies help Peach when needed such as Toad giving Peach the Ice Flower to freeze Bowser. Unlike in the games, Peach didn't seem to have much faith in Mario, most likely due to being a foreigner from another world, until she sees his endless determination, and desire to never give up against the odds. This is shown in when they first met, to the battle against Donkey Kong. Her respect and admiration for the plumber grows over the course of the film. In addition, she is not submissive when Bowser forces her to marry him, instead fighting back the first chance she gets.
=== Powers and abilities ===
==== Powers ====
* Cryokinesis: Peach can access ice powers through using an Ice Flower.
* Floating: Peach can float.
* Pyrokinesis: Peach can access fire powers through using a Fire Flower.
* Superhuman Stamina: Peach can maintain her stamina while completing an obstacle course.
==== Abilities ====
* Fishing: While Peach was new to the Mushroom World, Toads taught her how to fish as a baby.
* Leadership: As a princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, she holds leadership as seen when she requested the Jungle Kingdom to join forces and convincing the Mushroom Kingdom citizens that they can take down Bowser.
* Mentorship: Peach taught Mario how to complete the training course. Despite his fails, he nearly completed the obstacle course but Peach congratulated him and brought him along.
* Vehicular Mastery: Peach can drive on a bike on Rainbow Road.
=== Paraphernalia ===
==== Tools ====
* Fishing rod: Since she was a child Peach used a fishing rod to fish Cheep Cheeps.
==== Weapons ====
* Halberd: Peach held an halberd to prepare against Bowser, however being aware she had to marry Bowser so he does not hurt Toad, it was left unused.
* Power-ups
** Fire Flower: The Fire Flower transforms her into Fire Peach.
** Ice Flower: Toad helped Peach smuggle the Ice Flower in the boquet. She surprised Bowser by using the Ice Flower to transform into Ice Peach.
** Super Bell: Peach gave the Super Bell to help Mario fight Donkey Kong.
==== Transportation ====
* Mach Bike: Peach used a Mach Bike in her biker outfit and a helmet to drive on Rainbow Road.
== Biography ==
After walking through a Warp Pipe as a baby, she was taken in by the residents of Mushroom Kingdom and was raised as one of their own. When the time was right, she was eventually crowned the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom.
Peach planned to recruit the Jungle Kingdom to fight Bowser. Peach first met Mario as Toad brought Mario over to Princess Peach's Castle. Meeting another human, she took Mario along to complete the training course. Peach demonstrated how Mario can complete the training course but Mario failed repeatedly. However, Mario reached close to the goal for Peach to acknowledge him. Mario, Peach and Toad went on a trek.
The trio set a camp in the Fire Flower Fields where Peach harnessed her power into her fire form. Peach talked about her origins and how she ended up in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Peach, Mario and Toad went to the Jungle Kingdom the following morning. Peach consulted Cranky Kong to recruit the army of Kongs to support her kingdom. He refused but accepted the request if Mario can beat his son, Donkey Kong in a duel. After Mario beat Donkey Kong, Cranky accepted Peach's invitation and suggested that they use the karts to return to the Mushroom Kingdom through Rainbow Road. However, Bowser's army ambushed the heroes on Rainbow Road. Much to Peach and Toad's despair of losing Mario and the Kongs, they made it back to the kingdom.
Peach warned the kingdom citizens about Bowser's arrival announcing Mario is gone and told them to evacuate. Peach and Toad both head towards Bowser's kingdom. As Bowser summoned his castle in front of Mushroom Kingdom, Bowser proposed to Peach to marry him despite her refusing. After seeing Kamek torture Toad, Peach reluctantly agreed.
At the wedding reception, Bowser intended to burn the prisoners publicly in the lava, in honor of his new queen. Toad smuggled an Ice Flower in the bouquet and gave it to Peach. As Peach walked towards Bowser, she saw the prisoners above the lava; Bowser commanded the cages to be lowered. As Kamek acted as the marriage officiant, Peach punched Kamek causing a shock to the audience and Bowser. Peach questioned Bowser for assuming she would marry him, and transformed into her ice form and froze Bowser solid, then froze the lever to prevent the prisoners from sinking into the lava. Peach fought the wedding guests. After exploding King Bob-omb, Peach reverted back to her normal form and the lever broke free from the ice. Mario and Donkey Kong completed the rescue for the prisoners.
Reuniting with the group, Bowser broke free from the ice out of envy, commanding the Banzai Bill to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario diverted the Banzai Bill to the pipe; it led Mushroom Kingdom and Bowser Castle elements transported back to Brooklyn. Bowser and his minions fought Peach and her allies. Mario and Luigi eventually used a Super Star where they managed to defeat Bowser. As Peach showed up with a Mini Mushroom, Bowser begged her to give a second chance. Peach refused and shoved the Mini Mushroom to Bowser's mouth and trapped him in a bottle. With all Brooklyn citizens celebrating the Mario Bros. victory, Peach was photographed in the news for saving Brooklyn.
Peach returned to the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi has a home built in the Mushroom Kingdom; they can use the pipe to return to Brooklyn whenever they wanted.
== Behind the scenes ==
=== Creation and development ===
In Super Mario Bros., Princess Peach was supposed to be a playable character and a "more powerful princess". This was changed for Princess Peach to be the damsel-in-distress rescued by Mario. One of the conversations with Peach involved was to make her have her own story and to be a more powerful princess which the developers tried to push further into the movie.
=== Voice ===
Anya Taylor-Joy portrayed Princess Peach. In an interview, Taylor-Joy praised how cool Peach is and the fact she is going to be a "role-model that kids can have" and she left Taylor-Joy inspired. She was impressed and excited by the fact the filmmakers, Nintendo, Illumination "were all on the same page about where [they] wanted Princess Peach's direction to go".
== Real-world influences ==
=== In pop culture ===
When Peach made her appearance in the second trailer, viewers expressed positive views of Peach being portrayed as a strong character such as praising her for being a princess who defends her people instead of being a helpless woman, and complimenting Peach's plot relevance which gave them Super Princess Peach vibes, a game where Peach and Mario's roles were reversed; in addition, viewers also expressed how Peach showed the same qualities in Super Mario Bros. 2. However, Peach has also received negative opinions being considered that she is too "woke" while people defended the fact Peach had her hero roles in Super Princess Peach and other Mario games where Peach was always depicted as a strong and brave heroine.
=== Reception ===
With the positive reception of the The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Megan Williams praised the idea of Princess Peach kidnapped removed from the plot, since "it gives [her] time to shine as well as properly develop a relationship with Mario". Adam Graham pointed out Peach being given an origin story that takes up 30 seconds of screentime speaks the film's sense of story-telling. Christian Holub pointed out that Peach's characterization is "clearly influenced by modern archetypes of strong female protagonists", which fits perfectly for people who grew up playing her in Super Smash Bros., where she is "more than capable of beating up Bowser or Donkey Kong."
Omar Holman pointed out that Peach was show to be a "great leader an ambassador for her people", praising Peach as a strong character—" a leader that rolls up her sleeves and gets to work for her kingdom". Terrence Toad praised Taylor-Joy's portrayal of Princess Peach where she steps up to having a lot of fun with Peach.
== Trivia ==
* In video games, Princess Peach's fire form has her hair tied up into a ponytail as depicted in Super Mario 3D World. However, in this movie and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Peach retains her normal hairstyle when she transforms into her fire version.
* Princess Peach has not yet used the Ice Flower in her playable appearances, making this movie her first time using it.
** Donkey Kong also didn't use an Ice Flower once in the film, unlike Peach.
* Peach's wedding gown is based on the same wedding gown she wore in Super Mario Odyssey; however, rather than wearing Tiara on her head, Peach wears her golden crown. Also, she wears her hair down and instead of wearing her hair up.
* Peach's biker outfit is based on the same biker outfit in Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8: Deluxe. The only difference is that she doesn't wear her earrings.
*Unlike her game counterpart, Peach was not a princess by birth, instead taking on the title after being found and adopted by the Toads and does not have a damsel in-distress role as that role is taken by Luigi in the movie.
* Peach along with Toad, Donkey Kong, Kamek and Bowser are the only five characters in the first film to ever visit Brooklyn.
=== References to video games and other media ===
* Her appearance as a child strongly resembles Baby Peach.
* Similarly to Super Mario Bros. 2, Peach has the ability to float.
* Peach rides a bike at one point which strongly resembles her Mach Bike.
**She even wears her biker outfit from that game.
* Bowser wanting Peach to marry her while she is not interested also occurs in Super Paper Mario and Super Mario Odyssey.
* Although it is not confirmed, she seems to enjoy using her feet, especially in battle. This is evident by how often she does so.
**After she walks down from her throne during her introduction, the first parts of her body that was shown were her feet.
**As she throws Mario to the floor when they first met, she can be shown lifting her foot.
**As she runs across the obstacle course, she kicks the fake Bowser to pieces.
**During her conversation with Mario after he failed to complete the obstacle course, she can be shown swinging her feet.
**While not in the final cut, she pushes Mario with her foot as she tries to pull a Cheep Cheep off of him and given that a Cheep Cheep was shown sucking Mario's face in the final cut, it possibly proves she did it offscreen. Additionally, after she does pull it off of him, the Cheep Cheep then sucks Toad's face, so it's possible Peach stepped on Toad to push him down and pull the Cheep Cheep off of him too.
**During one of her flashbacks, she can be shown being fully barefoot.
**During Bowser's ambush on Rainbow Road, she can be shown kicking one of Bowser's troops off their kart.
**When preparing to fight Bowser, she picks up a halberd by stepping on the edge of it.
**After walking up to the balcony as soon as Bowser arrived, the camera starts at her feet before scanning up to the rest of her body.
**After catching the spear that one of Bowser's troops threw, she can shown stepping on the wall just before she lights the spear on fire with lava to explode King Bob-Omb.
**During the final battle in Brooklyn, she kicks Bowser to protect Mario, a Koopa Troopa to break free and a shell to knock the Super Star closer to Mario.
**Overall, if someone asked her to use her feet on them, it might be more than likely she'd do it. If this is true, it would prove her potential love for footwork even further.
== Gallery ==
==Quotes==
== See also: ==
* Princess Peach
* The Super Mario Bros. Movie
== References ==
es:Princesa Peach (película 3D)
fr:Peach (Illumination)
Category:Characters in The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Category:Royalty
Category:Princesses
Category:Heroes