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'The Super Mario Bros Movie' Official Trailer Makes Us Ask: 'They Really Couldn't Get Anyone Else To Voice Mario? Really?'

By Petr Navovy | Film | November 30, 2022 |

By Petr Navovy | Film | November 30, 2022 |


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What’s the opposite of a drum roll?

The slow, grinding procession of marketing that has been leading up to the release of The Super Mario Bros Movie (due to hit cinemas in the US on April 7, 2023, and in Japan on April 28) has not actually been that slow, or grinding—it’s only seemed that way because of one element of the film’s production:

The Chris Prattness of it all.

There’s a number of reasons to dislike Chris Pratt’s behaviour in recent years, but even ignoring those, it’s been frustrating to see him building quite a prolific voice acting careeer on the back of… Well, no discernible aptitude for the job at all. Seeing the trend of professional voice actors getting squeezed out of roles in favour of big name screen actors is already bad enough when some of those screen actors are actually half decent at the job—but when it’s people like Pratt doing it?

Come on, man.

Who’s clamouring for this?

We had the first little taste of Pratt’s oddly disinterested delivery in the earlier trailer released a little while ago, and we now get to feast on a whole lot more of that thin gruel, as the official trailer has now dropped. Look:

Just, what is that?

Jack Black, the anti-Chris Pratt, is predictably delightful there, his titanic charisma and character exploding out of every one of Bowser’s lines. Charlie Day is always wonderful. As is Keegan-Michael, and Seth Rogen. Professional voice actors would’ve been nice, but okay.

But Pratt?

You heard the trailer.

Who is asking for that?