Bowser

*“Not sure if you know who I am... But I'm about to marry a princess and rule the world. But there is one problem, Luigi. There is a human traveling with my fiancée, has a mustache just like you... Do you know him?”*
— Bowser when interrogating Luigi

## Bowser

### Aliases

King Koopa (other media)
King Bowser (technically)
That Monster
Little Guy

### Relatives

Bowser Jr (in the games, son)
Koopalings (in the games, Super Mario Bros. 3 only)

### Affiliation

Kamek (father/advisor)
Koopa Troop (leader)

## Appearances

### Portrayed by

Jack Black
Kenny James (various grunts and roars; archive recordings)

**Bowser** is the main antagonist in *The Super Mario Bros. Movie. H*e goes to find the legendary Super Star that will make him more powerful than ever in an attempt marry Princess Peach and take over the world. He also has a musical side in the movie.

## Personality & Description

Bowser is a brash and arrogant tyrant, who is feared by many and lusts for power to take over the world. He also has an obsession for Princess Peach, dedicating an entire musical of hoping to rule the world with her. Despite that, it could be shown that Bowser may not truly love or care for Peach, instances where he uses coercion on her to marry him or attempting to scorch Peach when she refuses at their wedding. A notable flaw about his personality is his wrath, where he unleashes his rage on Mario and others by attempting to batter them if angered, and is what leads to his downfall at the end of the movie.

## History

Bowser is seen first raiding the Snow Kingdom to retrieve a Super Star, taking all of its inhabitants hostage in the process. Back at his fortress he announces that he will propose to the monarch of the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Peach, otherwise he will destroy the entire kingdom. As he sings a song about his love for Peach and his desire to rule the world, he gets alerted by his right hand man, Kamek that a mustachioed human as arrived in the Mushroom Kingdom, which he dismisses, but soon demands to find him and what he is up to.

He also gets another hostage from his Shy Guys, that being Luigi. He then interrogates the green plumber on his brother's whereabouts, assuming that Mario and Peach are in a relationship, and that Mario is trying to steal his love from him. After intimidating him where Mario is, Bowser has Luigi locked up with various other prisoners.

Bowser is then later seen practicing his proposal to marry Peach, but is then alerted again by the Koopa General, that they have found Mario and friends, taking the secret passage back to the Mushroom Kingdom, as he then orders them to ambush them along with the Kong Army. After Mario and Donkey Kong are blown up by the general, Bowser laughs in pride, with the assumption that the two have died.

He then proceeds to infiltrate the Mushroom Kingdom, as all the Toads there evacuate, he lands his fortress right at Princess Peach's castle, where he then attempts to propose to the monarch. When Peach refuses, he has Kamek torture Toad as coercion into doing so.

Later at their wedding, Bowser also has all of his prisoners be dipped into the lava as a ritual sacrifice for them. Upon rejected by Peach, he attempts to kill her, before the latter uses her ice powers to freeze and temporarily subduing him. Later, Mario and Donkey Kong crash the wedding, and upon seeing a glance of his enemy sharing company with his crush, he angerly orders a Bomber Bill be launched on the Mushroom Kingdom.

Mario, however, is able to redirect in into the Warp pipe he entered through, causing it to suck everyone, including Bowser into it. He, his army, and his fortress soon crash through Brooklyn, terrorizing all the citizens in the process, where he stops Mario from obtaining his stolen star from earlier. He then goes on a chaotic meltdown, while ranting on Mario for ruining his plans and attempts to kill the plumber, soon knocking him into the Punch-Out Pizzeria. Upon finding that Mario has given up, he smiles in satisfaction. However, Peach, Donkey Kong, and Toad attempt to fend off the evil king, while Mario watches his commercial in the pizzeria to have the courage to stand up to him.

As Bowser is about to kill Donkey Kong in cold blood, Mario calls out to him and once again the king aims his sights at him. Bowser then attempts to scorch Mario with his fire breath, before Luigi stepped in and fended him off by shielding his attack with a nearby manhole. The two brothers then are able to get the star, and with invincibility, easily take him and his army down, also destroying his fortress in the process. A now defeated Bowser then begs the heroes for mercy, before Peach rejects and forces down a Mini Mushroom in his mouth, shrinking him. Toad then process to imprison the Koopa King in a glass jar, before he mouths Mario line, when the plumber comments to the princess of getting her a pet turtle.

In a mid-credits scene, Bowser is seen singing Peaches once again, only to be interrupted by a guard in Peach's castle, much to his anger.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Fire Breath:** One of Bowser's main abilities is his fire breath, where he weaponizes it as a flame thrower against others and can be shown to cause mass destruction on objects or building.
* **Superhuman strength:** Bowser's other ability besides his fire breath is his strength. As shown several times in the film, Bowser was able to easily break open a ? Block with his bare fist, to picking up several cars and toss them without trouble. His strength also can brutally injure those of his victims, where he tossed Luigi aside if the plumber was a stuffed doll, to beating up Mario and Donkey Kong down to a bloody pulp in Brooklyn. Even at its lowest, Bowser kicking his foot forward was able to damage the road pavement around Mario and Luigi, who were both powered up by the Super Star at the time.
* **Superhuman durability:** Bowser surprisingly has a lot of durability, owing it to his massive size and strength. In the wedding scene, even though he was fully frozen from Peach (who had Ice abilities) for a brief moment, he was able to easily thaw himself out. Another instance happened again in the climax, where he endured several attacks from an invincible Mario and Luigi, and was able to survive being thrown downwards onto his fortress from midair, and quickly recover. He also manages to survive a kick blow from the brothers, as opposed to his fortress, which collapses in the process.
* **Jumping:** In the climax of the movie, Bowser is able to leap several feet into the air and land without injury.
* **Leadership:** Although callous sometimes, Bowser takes incredible leadership of his army.
* **Piano-playing:** In addition to all of his powers, one of his talents in his free time is playing the piano. This is demonstrated when playing the tune for both Peaches and the Underground theme.

## Origins

Bowser was introduced as Mario's nemesis in the 1985 NES video game *Super Mario Bros.* He serves as the last boss of World 8-4, and it is here where he blows his trademark fire breath and hammers towards Mario. Much like his identical clones that preceded him, he is fought on a bridge over lava, and Mario subsequently defeats Bowser by touching the axe behind him and sending him plummeting into the lava (or by defeating him as Fire Mario).

After *Super Mario Bros.*, Bowser also began to branch off to different genres. These include role-playing games such as *Paper Mario* and *Mario & Luigi*, and sports games such as *Mario Kart* and *Mario Tennis*. He has appeared in other Nintendo properties, such as in the *Super Smash Bros.* series of crossover fighting games. Bowser has also appeared in various animations, including three series produced by DIC Entertainment (all voiced by Harvey Atkin), and was portrayed by Dennis Hopper in the 1993 *Super Mario Bros.* film.

He was originally envisioned as an ox based on the Ox-King from the Toei Animation film *Alakazam the Great*, but Nintendo Designer Takashi Tezuka remarked that the character looked a lot more like a turtle than an ox, and the two collaborated to define Bowser's appearance, leading to the character becoming the leader of the turtle-like Koopas.

Bowser’s current voice actor is Kenneth W. James. His previous voice actors include Scott Burns, who gave Bowser his first spoken dialogue in the GameCube video game *Super Mario Sunshine*; Eric Newsome, who voiced him in *Super Paper Mario*; and Charles Martinet, who provided vocal effects for Bowser in *Super Mario 64* and the Nintendo DS remake of the game.

Bowser has received a mostly positive reception, with several critics noting that he is one of the most iconic and most recognizable video game villains ever.