Super Mario movie fans are being won over by foreign language dubs, not Chris Pratt

A close-up of Mario from the Super Mario movie poster
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Illumination's Super Mario Movie got its first trailer yesterday and a lot of people had plenty to say about the film, as well as actor Chris Pratt's performance as Mario.

In case you missed it, yesterday the first trailer for the Super Mario Movie debuted at New York Comic Con and in it we got our first glimpse of Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Chris Pratt as Mario, and even a very brief look as Charlie Day as Luigi. 

As you'd expect, a lot of people have been anticipating this first look at Pratt as the iconic Nintendo character, with many wondering if the American actor would be putting on an Italian accent or try to sound vaguely like the video game character at all. As we now know, Mario kind of just sounds like how Pratt does in a lot of his other movies. But to be fair, we only got a few lines of dialogue from Mario in the trailer, so we haven't got the full picture just yet. 

That isn't to say that fans don't already have opinions though, as can be clearly seen on the likes of Twitter. The general consensus seems to be that Pratt isn't diabolical as Mario, but many feel they'd prefer more of a Mario-sounding performance from Pratt. A lot of people have also pointed out that the non-English dubs of the trailer seem to fit Mario's character better - with the French, Italian, and Brazilian dubs getting most of the praise.  

There's also been a lot of pushback when it comes to the recasting of Mario, especially since voice actor Charles Martinet has provided the voice for Nintendo's plumber protagonist for the last 30 years. 

In fact, shortly after the trailer debuted, fellow voice actor Tara Strong took to Twitter and said: "It should be Charles." Before shortly following up with another tweet that reads: "Voice actors: I’m gonna put my heart & soul in this for at least 20 years, help sell billions in merch, make the studios millions of dollars & make generations around the world happy. Hollywood: We don’t care."

As expected, there was also a lot of hilarious reactions to the Super Mario Movie - a few of which we've included below. The majority of fans though were super impressed with Jack Black's performance as the Koopa King Bowser and wished that we could see more of Charlie Day's performance as Luigi, who only briefly appeared right at the end of the trailer. We're still yet to hear actor Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach or Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong but there's still plenty of time before the film officially releases on April 7, 2023. 

Just can't wait to see more of the upcoming Mario movie? Find out what happened when Jack Black made a surprise appearance at NYCC dressed as Bowser.  

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at 12DOVE before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.