Jack Black could win an Oscar for Peaches from The Super Mario Bros. Movie

The Super Mario Bros. Movie has graced moviegoers with “Peaches,” a love ballad performed by Jack Black. But this love song will do just more than capture princesses. It turns out that it has the potential to capture the hearts, and possibly ears, of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Universal Pictures confirmed to Variety that Bowser’s ballad to Princess Peach meets the eligibility requirements to be nominated by the Academy for Best Original Song. According to the official rules for the 95th Academy Awards, in order for an original song to be eligible for a nomination, the track must have been written specifically for the film. It should have been used either in the movie, whether it’s the intro, end credits, or somewhere in the middle. And it must be clear and easily understandable both lyrically and melodic-wise.

“An original song consists of words and music, both of which are original and written specifically for the motion picture. There must be a clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition (not necessarily visually presented) of both lyric and melody, used in the body of the motion picture or as the first music cue in the end credits.”

1939 was the year when animated films were first nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars. The last animated feature that was nominated for the music category was Encanto back in 2021 with “Dos Oruguitas.” However, the last time an animated film won Best Original Song was in 2017 with Coco‘s “Remember Me.” As for Illumination’s history with the Oscars, Despicable Me 2 was nominated in 2013 with “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, but unfortunately lost to Frozen‘s “Let it Go.”

If Universal Studios, Illumination, and Nintendo plan to send ‘Peaches’ for submission, they need to send the music video for ‘Peaches,’ where it was played in the film. Interestingly, thanks to the song’s new-found popularity, Illumination released an official music video for the song.

For those who have not yet seen The Super Mario Bros. Movie, “Peaches” is a love ballad sung by Bowser, professing his love to Princess Peach. While Bowser is mostly portrayed as this menacing giant turtle, the film showed that he has a softer side. In an interview with IGN, Black revealed that the decision to have Bowser sing was somewhat last minute and that most of it were improvised during the recording session.

“So I said, ‘Let me hear what you got, what do you got?’ They sent over this little song, and I just couldn’t deny that it was funny. I was like, I get it. I see why you want Bowser to do this, tickling the ivories and singing a love song to Peaches. It was undeniable.

“I sent it back to them and they were like, yes, they were over the moon. And then I was super stoked. And then I was also like, is this really going to be in the movie? And then by God, they put it in the movie,”

As of writing, “Peaches” is currently sitting at number 12 on the iTunes Worldwide Song charts. The song also accumulated over 1.3 million streams on Spotify. If you want to hear Black’s performance of “Peaches,” The Super Mario Bros. Movie is now showing in theaters.

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