Super Mario Bros Directors Say Chris Pratt’s Voice Cast Makes ‘Total Sense’

The directors of Super Mario Bros. came out to defend Chris Pratt’s voice role as the titular plumber. In an interview with Total Film Magazine, co-director Aaron Horvath claimed that the casting “just made sense”, considering it’s an origin story starring plumber brothers Mario and Luigi. – two “blue collar workers… from an immigrant family,” who are active in Brooklyn, New York. Pratt was cast as Mario during a Nintendo Direct event, held in 2021, which was immediately criticized by fans. Some of them carried over to the trailer reveal when it appeared the actor was playing himself while saying certain words in the Italian way. The second trailer’s “let’s-a-go” is a good example of this.

“To us, it just made sense,” Horvath said in the interview. “He’s really good at playing a blue-collar hero with a ton of heart. For the way Mario is characterized in our movie, he’s perfect for that. In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, plumber brothers Mario (Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are notorious for making corny commercials and, at one point, find themselves deformed in the Mushroom Kingdom. It’s here that our titular Italian plumber meets Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), and wages war on the villainous Bowser (Jack Black) – traversing obstacles and traversing the Rainbow Road -animated sky. A trailer from last year revealed that Bowser was holding Luigi captive and trying to extract information about his brother Mario.

“When you play the game, if you don’t give up, Mario will succeed,” added Horvath, elaborating on the immigrant aspect. “So we transferred that player experience from the game to a feature that Mario (in the movie) would have.” Since The Super Mario Bros. Movie is not a direct adaptation of game stories, the filmmakers had to experience its arc differently. Illumination (animation studio) CEO Chris Meledandri responded to fan concerns about Pratt’s voice last year, saying, “Chris was cast because we thought he could give a great voice. performance as Mario. And now that we’ve done about 15 recording sessions and the movie is three-quarters done, I’m sitting here and saying I love his performance as Mario. Plus, Pratt’s name attached is sure to draw more attention to Nintendo’s film.

That said, fans aren’t the only ones unhappy with Pratt’s role in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Last year, actor John Leguizamo (John Wick: Chapter 2) expressed his disappointment with the film, saying it went “backwards” in having two white actors voice the Italian characters. Leguizamo played Luigi in the Super Mario Bros. live-action movie. from 1993.

Meanwhile, Charles Martinet, who voiced Mario in the original video games, will play various supporting characters in the upcoming film. Last week, Nintendo announced a new Direct event to showcase the final Super Mario Bros. movie trailer. The presentation will be streamed live on his official YouTube channels on March 10 at 3:30 a.m. IST / March 9 at 2 p.m. PT in the US.

The release date of the Super Mario Bros. was brought forward two days recently and will now drop April 5 in theaters worldwide.