Image: Universal Pictures
The Super Mario Bros. Movie looks surprisingly awesome, but Chris Pratt isn’t even trying with that accent.
Today’s Nintendo Direct revealed the first teaser trailer for Nintendo and Universal Pictures’ animated Super Mario movie, first announced all the way back in 2018. Last year, we saw the movie reveal a confusingly star-studded cast, ranging from the more promising likes of Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach and Jack Black as Bowser to Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong and… Chris Pratt as Mario.
Before you check out the trailer below, a friendly reminder that Chris Pratt said very confidently this year that his Mario voice will be, “updated and unlike anything you’ve heard in the Mario world before.” Okay? Okay. Watch the trailer:
Before we freak out, it’s worth pointing out just how spectacular this movie looks in every other aspect besides its leading star. Jack Black is putting on a pretty fearsome performance as the king of the koopas himself, Bowser, as he annihilates a kingdom of penguins - which incidentally, hail from Super Mario 64 and are as pathetic here as they were there. We also see Bowser’s magical minion Kamek lead the koopa army before his master gets his hands on a Power Star.
The trailer then shifts to Mario (Chris Pratt), seemingly a stranger in the Mushroom Kingdom now, as he is flung into Toad town with the unhelpful guidance of Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) leading him into the kingdom. The movie’s plot follows Mario and his brother Luigi (Charlie Day, later seen fleeing from a horde of Dry Bones) as the duo go to the rescue of Princess Peach while Bowser lays siege on the Mushroom Kingdom using the Power Stars.
Nods to the Mario franchise are in abundance in this trailer, and that’s no surprise considering that animation studio Illumination has been working closely with Nintendo on this project for the last few years. Nintendo has been understandably reluctant to loan out its IP ever since the failure of the 1993 Super Mario movie, so it probably wants to get this one done right.
The original casting announcement of Chris Pratt as the titular plumber went down in controversy, seeing as Mario's original actor Charles Martinet has proven to be irreplaceable in the role with his whimsical and extremely exaggerated Italian accent. Many argued that Pratt couldn’t possibly mimic that accent for the movie very well, and guess what? He didn’t! Though Mario himself makes a minimal appearance in this trailer, it really just sounds like Chris Pratt with a slight Brooklyn accent whenever the character speaks up.
We’re not getting an atrociously bad Mario voice, at the very least - just the most basic, barebones performance Pratt could give here. Also in the cast but not featured in this trailer are Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike. Charles Martinet will also make voice cameos in the movie, though Nintendo and Illumination are keeping his exact roles a mystery for now.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie hits theaters on April 7, 2023.
