Fans are mostly impressed with the new trailer for the “Super Mario Bros.” movie, but many are not happy about Chris Pratt’s voiceover work.
The Universal Pictures film in conjunction with Nintendo has a lot of eager fans excited for the 2023 release. Overall, the trailer is getting high marks for the animation, but viewers piled on to say Pratt did nothing to alter his normal speaking voice to more closely resemble Mario, who is supposed to be an Italian plumber with a noticeable accent.
Pratt only has two lines in the trailer, saying, “What is this place?” and “Mushroom Kingdom, here we come!” However, that was enough to send Twitter into a frenzy.
“You can tell Jack Black put a ton of love and heart into his Bowser voice, while Chris Pratt just uh… spoke? Kinda weird but the visuals are absolutely f***ing stellar, and I love the general vibe of the whole thing,” one person shared. “I’m excited for this dang Mario movie.”
“Good to know that Chris Pratt was hired to voice Mario as Chris Pratt,” another joked.
“Chris Pratt saying he worked so hard on the Mario voice only for it to sound like Chris Pratt is the funniest thing,” another Twitter user wrote.
What makes the backlash even more surprising is that the actor specifically mentioned how much work he had put into getting the voice right.
Pratt told Variety earlier this year that he “worked really closely with the directors” to create the perfect Mario voice, saying, “[We tried] out a few things and landed on something that I’m really proud of.”
“It’s an animated voiceover narrative,” Pratt told the publication at the time. “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.”
Some fans were already annoyed to see Pratt cast as Mario, saying the studio should have opted for an actual Italian voice actor instead. Several of these critics are hoping the studio sees all the backlash and changes the movie before it gets released like they did when “Sonic the Hedgehog” got redesigned after the trailer was mocked.
Pratt’s co-stars include 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 Foreman Spike.
The “Super Mario Bros.” film is slated to hit theaters in April 2023.