Nintendo Direct streamed the teaser which gave the public its first looks at Mario and some of the other characters in the film, including his archnemesis, Bowser. Does the teaser live up to the hype? Read on for the details.
Bowser, Toad, and the Mushroom Kingdom
At the Nintendo Direct stream, the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto welcomed viewers and introduced Chris Meledandri of Illumination, which is handling the production and animation of the film. We then get Chris Pratt and Jack Black, who will be playing Mario and Bowser respectively. The two stars shared their enthusiasm for voicing such iconic video game characters, before going back to Miyamoto who then unveiled the teaser for The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The teaser opens with Bowser, King of the Koopas leading an invasion of a castle. The location appears to be some ice kingdom, with anthropomorphic penguins as its citizens.
❤️ this tweet to Power-Up with exclusive updates from #SuperMarioMovie ! pic.twitter.com/MnaZAdzDrB — The Super Mario Bros. Movie (@supermariomovie) October 6, 2022 The penguins put up a fight as best they can with snowballs, but Bowser’s forces just laugh at their pathetic defense. The evil turtle dragon finishes the invasion off by blasting the ice castle with his flaming breath. It is then revealed that Bowser was after the familiar Golden Star which gives invincibility in the Super Mario games. We then cut to our first look at the hero, Mario, as he first arrives in the Mushroom Kingdom. It appears the story will be inspired by the lore where Mario gets sucked in by a sewer pipe. Mario then proceeds to gawk and wonder at the giant, fantastical mushrooms, before Toad appears. It then cuts to the two rushing off to head to the castle of the Mushroom Kingdom in the distance. But there’s enough time for a zinger. As The Super Mario Bros. Movie teaser ends and the credits roll, we get a brief scene of Luigi being chased by Dry Bones (the skeletal koopas).
Chris Pratt’s voice
One detail about the teaser that has received a mixed reaction with fans is Chris Pratt’s voice. For the fans of the famous Nintendo plumber, only one voice comes to mind when Mario is concerned. And that is Charles Martinet. The veteran actor has lended his voice to not just Mario, but also his brother Luigi. Martinet has been voicing Mario since the 1990s in trade shows and interestingly, a pinball machine in 1992. Martinet would later voice Mario in the actual games. While the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) could incorporate short digitized voice clips, this never happened during its run. Instead, Martinet’s true official debut as Mario was in Super Mario 64 (1996) for the Nintendo 64. He would later voice Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Metal Mario, Shadow Mario, and a host of other Mario related characters. In fact, Charles Martinet is recognized by the Guinness World Records for providing the voice for a single video game character the most number of times as Mario. When Chris Pratt was cast for the role of the plucky plumber from Brooklyn, it was met with some resistance. After all, why not just have Charles Martinet reprise the role? But now that Chris Pratt has debuted his Mario voice in the teaser, there is little to tell if the Guardians of the Galaxy star is a good fit. Pratt has only two lines in the teaser, saying “What is this place?” and “Mushroom Kingdom, here we come!” And fans say he sounds like… Chris Pratt. While two lines are hard to gauge for the rest of the film’s runtime, it seems they are enough for Nintendo fans to pass judgment. Still, Pratt assured fans it will fit the movie. In an interview with Variety back in June, the actor said: It should be noted that Charles Martinet is going to be part of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but it is unclear which character he will voice. It is likely, though, that it will only be as a cameo. What did you think about The Super Mario Bros. Movie teaser so far? Does it erase any doubt that it would be as big a fail as the 1993 live-action film with Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo? Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel, the film stars Chris Pratt as Mario, 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. The Super Mario Bros. Movie jumps into theaters everywhere on April 7, 2023.
