When Mario Kart meets Mad Max, Charlize Theron makes the best Princess Peach ever

A new parody video reimagines the movie Mad Max: Fury Road, currently showing in theaters, as one of my favorite video games: "Mario Kart." I thought I knew everything I needed to know about the Mad Max movie series. I was so, so wrong.

As you may (or may not) remember, "Mario Kart" is made up of a variety of characters who race endlessly around whimsical tracks in speeding cars and boats and other vehicles, crashing into each other as often as possible, and speeding dragnet-style across sand dunes, beach shores, industrial zones, mystery golf courses, lakes, lagoons, and anywhere else that looks empty or abandoned to pedestrian life. In other words, "Mario Kart" is set in a very similar environment to that of Mad Max: Fury Road.

The film's expansive desert habitat — whose varied curves define the hurried paths of dueling villains — pretty much looks like a darker, scarier version of the video game.

Instead of vehicles flying into the air for melodramatic affect, they now collect adorable points:

In the parody video, cute and familiar villains are added into scenes to make sure we don't forget this is a game:

The parody also recasts the film's actors as characters in "Mario Kart." While the video game had no actors, per se, it's funny to imagine how the game might play out if we replaced the actors in Fury Road with its primary characters.

Mario, played by Tom Hardy, has changed his look quite dramatically:

Princess Peach, played by Charlize Theron, is less peach and more badass:

Koopa Troopa, played by actor Nicholas Hoult, has dramatically changed his look, too:

Watch the full video above.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via