The Super Mario Bros Movie recap: What happened in the first film?

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is arriving in cinemas this week, and if you’re about to go and see it, you might be wondering what happened in the first film.

Even if you saw it at the time, you’d be forgiven for forgetting the original Mario movie’s plot details in the gap between April 2023 and now.

So, if you’re looking for a little refresher, keep on reading and we’ll run through all the major story beats of The Super Mario Bros Movie, bringing you all the way up to speed for the new one’s imminent release.

The Super Mario Bros Movie recap: What happened in the first film?

At the start of the first film, Mario and Luigi are two actual plumbers from real life Brooklyn. Before long, they are trying to save the city, because there's a big plumbing emergency going on.

While they are underground trying to fix the problem, they find a Warp Pipe. They go through it and quickly get separated. Mario ends up in the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi immediately gets captured by Bowser.

The audience mainly with Mario for the next chunk of the story. He meets Toad, who introduces him to Peach, who introduces him to Donkey Kong. And meanwhile, the threat of Bowser is growing.

Mario triumphs in a fight with Donkey Kong to win the support of his gorilla army. But as they leave Donkey Kong’s home on the Rainbow Road in their karts, they are attacked by Bowser’s forces.

Bowser has got his hands on a Super Star, which is gonna make him invincible. And it turns out his ultimate goal is that he wants to marry Princess Peach. And after Bowser threatens the entire population of the Mushroom Kingdom, she pretends to agree to marry him.

We finally get to the wedding day, where Peach has snuck in an Ice Flower. She freezes Bowser at the crucial moment, but there is still danger afoot.

Bowser’s minions are slowly lowering their prisoners, including Luigi, towards a pit of molten lava, and all the goodies are trying to stop it from happening. Thankfully, they do succeed in that.

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Eventually, the fight gets bigger and bigger. All the main characters end up going through pipes and portals back to Brooklyn, where the good guys finally win by using a Blue Mushroom on Bowser to shrink him.

Bowser is now tiny and captured by our valiant heroes. The day is saved. At the end, Mario and Luigi are back in the Mushroom Kingdom, but they've got all their plumbing gear with them. That's where the story wraps up. And there's a post-credits scene of Yoshi cracking out of an egg.

And that’s it, everything you need to remember from the first film! We hope you enjoy the new one, too.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie hits UK cinemas on 1 April 2026.

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