THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE Defends Casting Chris Pratt as Mario Saying "He's Perfect For It"

When it was first announced that Chris Pratt had been cast to voice Mario in Nintendo’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, fans were very curious about what his voice was going to sound like. For years, the only voice fans has known was that fun Italian accent from the games.

Not long after that announcement, Pratt said that the voice he had given to the character is “unlike anything you’ve heard.” The producer also teased: "All I can tell you is the voice that he's doing for us, and Mario, is phenomenal. Yeah, I can't wait for people to hear it."

Then when the first trailer was released, people heard the voice and it sounded exactly like Chris Pratt! There was nothing different, special, or unique about it. Chris Pratt’s voice is Mario.

Well, now the director of the film, Aaron Horvath, is defending the casting of Pratt and says that he’s perfect for the role. In an interview with GamesRadar, he said:

"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 characterized in our film, he's perfect for it."

I’m sure Pratt will give a fine performance, he always does a great job when he voices characters in animated films like The LEGO Movie. But, it’s just not the voice that the fans were expecting for Mario. Producer Chris Meledandri previously said:

"When people hear Chris Pratt's performance, the criticism will evaporate, maybe not entirely — people love to voice opinions, as they should, I'm not sure this is the smartest defense, but as a person who has Italian-American heritage, I feel I can make that decision without worrying about offending Italians or Italian-Americans... I think we're going to be just fine."

Well, the criticism is still coming, but maybe when the movie comes out it will evaporate. The movie actually does look like a lot of fun!

When talking about incorporating the gaming experience from the game into the film, Horvath said: “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."

The movie also stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike. 

It was directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (Teen Titans Go!, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies) from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel (The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, Minions: The Rise of Gru).

The movie will be released on April 7th, 2023.