Is Chris Pratt’s Mario voice in The Super Mario Bros. Movie “unlike anything you’ve ever heard”? I mean, I’ve never heard Andy Dwyer say the word “mushroom” with a cartoonishly exaggerted Italian accent before, so, yes, technically. But there’s still a lot of skepticism over whether Pratt was the right choice to play Nintendo’s most popular character.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie filmmakers do not share that concern, however. “For us, it made total sense,” co-director Aaron Horvath told Total Film. “He’s really good at playing a blue-collar hero with a ton of heart. For the way that Mario is characterized in our film, he’s perfect for it.”
Horvath described The Super Mario Bros. Movie as “a bit of an origin tale. It’s the story of Mario becoming Super Mario.” He continued, “When you play the game, if you don’t give up, Mario will succeed. So we transferred that player experience from the game to a characteristic that [movie] Mario would have.” Unless you’re like me and rage-quit Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, in which case Mario will not succeed. He’s still out there somewhere, trying to advance past world seven. Poor pixelated guy.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which also features the less controversial casting of Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, and Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, comes out on April 5th, two days earlier than expected.
(Via Total Film)