Watch: Super Mario Bros Movie's '3D takeover' of Burj Khalifa

The famous Italian plumbing brothers and friends appeared on the world's tallest building on Thursday

Nintendo’s most famous Italian plumbers (and friends) took over the world’s tallest building on Thursday.

Ahead of The Super Mario Bros Movie release in the UAE, popular video game characters Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad and others appeared for a “3D takeover” on Burj Khalifa. In a video lasting a little more than a minute, the characters are introduced before cutting to scenes from the animated film, which will be out in UAE cinemas on Thursday.

Other recent films to have been projected on the attraction include Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan, Shehzada with Kartik Aaryan and Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam.

What is the movie about?

The animated film tells the origin story of Mario (Chris Pratt), a struggling plumber from Brooklyn, New York. He and his younger brother Luigi (Charlie Day) are accidentally transported to the Mushroom Kingdom after they step too close to a large green pipe.

There, Mario has to travel across this bizarre world in order to save Luigi, who has been captured by the fire-breathing turtle creature Bowser (Jack Black). Mario goes on this journey with the help of the Mushroom Kingdom’s ruler Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and a mushroom-human hybrid Toad (Keegan-Michael Key).

Along the way, Mario has to wrestle Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen), the heir to the Jungle Kingdom, in order to gain access to his army, as well as traverse the terrifying Rainbow Road on a kart.

In addition, it also features a special voice appearance from Charles Martinet, who has voiced the characters of the Mario and Luigi in the video games for more than three decades, and voices their father in the film.

A brief history of Mario

The first Super Mario Bros game came out in 1985 for Nintendo's NES console.

The platform game, in which Mario runs and jumps past obstacles to collect coins and save Princess Peach from the evil Koopa turtles, was based on the Mario Bros arcade game released earlier.

Since then, the character has appeared in myriad formats, including games featuring racing, football and golf. There was also a live-action film that was released in 1993 that starred John Leguizamo and Bob Hoskins as the famous brothers.

Scroll the gallery to see stills from the film