The announcement that Chris Pratt will voice Mario in an upcoming Mario Bros. animated movie is one that some saw coming, but most strongly hated. However, recent comments from the film’s co-producer Chris Meledandri imply that fans and critics shouldn’t fret.
“I can’t wait for people to hear it.”
Talking to TooFab to address concerns around how Chris Pratt would voice Movie Mario, Meledandri insists that the voice Pratt is doing for Mario is “phenomenal” and that he “can’t wait for people to hear it”.
Meledandri also acknowledges worries around Pratt potentially doing a very over-the-top and on-the-nose Italian accent. “Well, as an Italian American myself, I understand the comments,” he said, and pointed out that Charlie Day, who will be voicing Luigi, also has “Italian heritage”.
One theory confirmed
There are plenty of theories around what Pratt’s Mario will be like, and how they will utilise Mario’s original voice actor, Charles Martinet, who is also cast in the film as a “special guest character”.
what if the super mario movie is like who framed roger rabbit where mario is an actor who sounds like charles martinet while the game is being played but then clocks out from work and sounds like chris pratt
— TAHK0 ☕️ (@TAHK0) September 30, 2021
i am POSITIVE they will do a joke where some side character voiced by charles martinet will do his “mario impression” and he’ll do the game mario voice and then chris pratt mario will be like “i dont sound like that”.
— Mike (@MikePanoots) September 24, 2021
That last tweet is also my personal theory. If they’re going to have the original voice of Mario in the film, I can’t imagine it being anything but a meta gag. This theory is somewhat confirmed by Meledandri, who hints that the original “Italian” accent created by Martinet may be a self-referential joke in the film. “We cover it in the movie, so you’ll see we definitely nod to that,” he said.
At the end of the day, I’m not sure what people are expecting from Illumination, the studio that brought us hits like Despicable Me and Minions. It’s forever a case of we’ll just have to wait and see, but I feel like it’s actually a win-win either way. If it’s good, we’ll all celebrate our funny little friend Mario for his great achievement. If it’s bad, we’ll have something to dunk on for however long before it becomes a dead meme.
Leave a Reply