In a recent announcement in last Friday’s Nintendo Direct, the iconic Japanese video game company will be releasing a feature-length animated Mario movie on December 21, 2022.
Nintendo will be teaming up with Illumination Studios to make the animated film, a Super Mario Bros movie, to be exact. Nintendo also announced the somewhat odd star-studded cast who will voice our legendary main characters.
Mario, the most recognizable plumber on the planet, will be voiced by Chris Pratt. Charlie Day will play his timid brother Luigi. It also features characters like Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), Toad (Keegan-Micheal Key), Bowser (Jack Black), and even Donkey Kong (Seth Rogan)
The main voice cast for the 'Super Mario' animated movie has been revealed:
Chris Pratt – Mario
Anya Taylor-Joy – Peach
Charlie Day – Luigi
Jack Black – Bowser
Keegan Michael Key – Toad
Seth Rogen – Donkey KongIn theaters December 21, 2022. pic.twitter.com/iuqlvK0fVh
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) September 23, 2021
After Nintendo’s announcement, the keywords “Chris Pratt” and “Mario” immediately trended on Twitter. Almost all Twitter users who were involved in the topics criticized the somewhat odd casting choice.
Some users joked around with the fact that Nintendo cast no Italian voice actors, despite our main characters having a famous Italian accent.
chris pratt is playing mario pic.twitter.com/KiWVoVkY5z
— Vincent Martella (@vince_martella) September 23, 2021
chris pratt playing mario is italiaphobia and i'm tired of acting like it isn't
— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) September 23, 2021
Many more users memed Chris Pratt’s voicing Mario, a choice that seems unfounded and just plain weird.
Imagine surviving two recessions and a pandemic only to have to endure Chris Pratt as Mario
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) September 24, 2021
https://twitter.com/Campbell__duo/status/1441237175631110150?s=20
https://twitter.com/PunishedUltima/status/1441265753915740160?s=20
Other users found it disappointing that Charles Martinet was not cast as Mario in the upcoming animated movie. Martinet is a legend who has been voice acting as Mario and Luigi in hundreds of video games, films, and series for more than 30 years. He will have a Cameo appearance in the movie, though.
I wish I could have listened in on the phone call of Nintendo asking Charles Martinet, who's been voicing Mario for nearly 30 YEARS if he'd like to cameo in the Chris Pratt Mario movie. 😭😭
— Connor (@CDawgVA) September 24, 2021
Yeah sure let's get Chris Pratt to do an imitation of Mario for the animated Mario movie instead of getting, you know, the literal authentic voice of Mario who's been the character for 3 decades to play the real deal. Let's relegate Charles Martinet to "special cameos" instead.
— Yong Yea (@YongYea) September 24, 2021
This tweet shows Charles Martinet showing off his classic Mario voice.
imagine Chris Pratt doing this pic.twitter.com/Uo8xqHvLDI
— wisalallen @ Dallas Comedy Club 5/30 (@wisalallen) September 23, 2021
Despite the mass criticism, there are still a few hopefuls for Chris Pratt out there.
https://twitter.com/beanzaru/status/1441259610267029515?s=20
Other POP! stories you might like:
Chris Pratt voted as Worst Chris in Hollywood: Here’s Why
This robot made a Super Mario Bros mural out of dominoes in just one day
Brendan Fraser misses start of a video call playing his Nintendo Switch