The first trailer for Nintendo’s animated film The Super Mario Bros. was released on 6 October to the delight of the iconic game character’s fans. The trailer release came two days after main lead Chris Pratt, who voices Mario, dropped the film’s first poster.
The film is co-financed by Universal Pictures and Nintendo, and produced by animation studio Illumination Entertainment. It is directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, with Matthew Fogel credited as the screenplay writer.
Created by Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario is considered one of the greatest video game characters ever. The namesake game franchise, which has been on since the early 1980s, has been universally received with critical and commercial acclaim.
What we know about The Super Mario Bros.
Funny trailer shows key characters from the Mario games
The trailer begins with a fiery castle appearing before an ice kingdom populated by penguins. Bowser and his army of Koopa Troopas along with Spike the Magikoopa prepare to invade the kingdom.
There is a hilarious encounter of the penguins throwing tiny snowballs at Bowser. Spike uses his magic powers to scare the penguin army. Bowser then sets fire to the ice castle and captures a star power-up seen in the Mario games.
“I finally found it. Now, who’s gonna stop me?” Bowser yells. At that moment, the trailer cuts to Mario sliding into the Mushroom Kingdom via a green pipe with the instantly recognisable Mario theme music playing in the background.
After landing face first on one of the many red mushrooms, he wonders, “What is this place?”
He then proceeds to touch a blue mushroom when Toad pops out and tells him not to. They then bounce over the mushrooms on their way to Princess Peach’s castle in the distance.
The trailer also has a ‘post-credits’ scene, where Luigi is seen escaping a group of Dry Bones in a forest.
Who voices whom in the film
Apart from Pratt as Mario, the voice cast in the film includes Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike.
Pratt’s voice concerns
There was much controversy over Pratt’s casting as Mario, who is depicted as an Italian plumber in the video games. Acknowledging the questions raised over his casting, Pratt said in June that the character’s voice will be “updated.”
“I worked really closely with the directors and trying out a few things and landed on something that I’m really proud of and can’t wait for people to see and hear,” Pratt told Variety. “It’s an animated voiceover narrative. It’s not a live-action movie. I’m not gonna be wearing a plumber suit running all over. I’m providing a voice for an animated character, and it is updated and unlike anything you’ve heard in the Mario world before.”
Following the release of the trailer, several social media users commented that while the animation looked very promising, Chris Pratt’s Mario voice sounded like “Chris Pratt’s voice.”
The film is set to release on 7 April 2023 in theatres.
(Main and Featured image credit: Screenshot/Universal Pictures Canada/YouTube)
Manas Sen Gupta writes at the intersection of tech, entertainment and history. His works have appeared in publications such as The Statesman, Myanmar Matters, Hindustan Times and News18/ETV. In his spare time, Manas loves studying interactive charts and topographic maps. When not doing either, he prefers reading detective fiction. Spring is his favourite season and he can happily eat a bowl of noodles any time of the day.
