The much anticipated trailer for the upcoming movie based on everyone’s favorite video game plumber was released this past week. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” will cover the Mario brothers’ first appearance in the Mushroom Kingdom with the plot focusing on Bowser stealing a star from another kingdom. But fans of the Mario video game franchise weren’t too worried about the plot as much as what Mario would sound like with Chris Pratt voicing the character.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was announced in September 2021 with an all-star lineup of actors voicing the iconic characters such as Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong, to name a few. On the first watch of the trailer, the Hollywood star-powered voice acting seems to be paying off. Jack Black’s Bowser voice is fantastic and helps to bring the King of the Koopas to life. Keegan-Michael Key captures Toad in all of Toad’s chaotic personality well too.
Fans were anxiously waiting to hear Chris Pratt’s interpretation of Mario’s voice and towards the end of the trailer, a year after the announcement, the world finally heard Pratt’s Mario voice. Mario, described as a “short, pudgy, Italian plumber” sounds more like someone who moved to Brooklyn for a few months and is trying to fit in. Pratt’s interpretation is nowhere close to that of the video games’ voice, but some were quick to point out that it would be hard to listen to the high-pitched video game voice of Mario with actual dialogue for possibly two hours and that Pratt’s voice can be seen as passable.
Overall, the trailer has a lot of Mario and video game fans excited. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is set to release on April 7, 2023. For the poor unfortunate souls that suffered through the “Super Mario Bros: The Movie” live action 1993 adaptation, rest assured the trailer already seems a thousand times better…even with Chris Pratt’s lackluster Mario voice.
Image from: Nintendo/Illumination
