Excitement for The Super Mario Bros. Movie has definitely started to build, but there are many fans who remain unsure about Chris Pratt's take on the iconic video game character.
When the Guardians of the Galaxy star was cast as the title hero, a lot of eyebrows were raised, and while we've only heard bits and pieces of his performance in trailers, it didn't take people long to switch that out for the "real" (video game) Mario! Whether Pratt can win his doubters over remains to be seen, but the movie's directors seem more than confident in his abilities.
Talking to Games Radar+ (via Toonado.com), filmmakers Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath said they said out to "make this movie a very authentic Nintendo Super Mario experience," with the latter explaining, "It's a bit of an origin tale. It's the story of Mario becoming Super Mario."
Apparently, when we first meet Mario and Luigi, they're plumbers in Brooklyn, New York who are "blue-collar guys from a family of Italian immigrants."
That would explain why Mario sounds a little different from what we're used to in the games, but Horvath says of Pratt's casting, "For us, it made total sense. He's really good at playing a blue-collar hero with a ton of heart. For the way that Mario is characterised in our film, he’s perfect for it."
We're definitely intrigued by this approach to Mario, but everything we've seen from the movie thus far looks like a total blast.
From Nintendo and Illumination comes a new animated film based on the world of Super Mario Bros.
Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (Teen Titans Go!, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies) from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel (Minions: The Rise of Gru), the film stars Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Jack Black as Bowser, as Toad, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is set to be released in theaters on April 5, 2023.