Chris Pratt Has Some Eyebrow-Raising Comments About His Mario Voice
In April 2023, Chris Pratt's much-talked-about portrayal of the world's most famous plumber in Nintendo's animated "Super Mario Bros." movie will finally be on full display. If what Pratt recently said in a new interview is true, this won't be your momma and daddy's Mario.
"I worked really closely with the directors and trying out a few things and landed on something that I'm really proud of and can't wait for people to see and hear," Pratt told Variety at the June 22 premiere of his new Amazon Prime Video series "The Terminal List."
Right off the bat, when people start to think about Pratt, aka the MCU's Starlord, voicing someone as cartoonish as Mario — Nintendo's long-time video game poster boy — it's hard not to raise an eyebrow or two. Fans were divided over the casting of Pratt in "Super Mario Bros." after it was first announced in September 2021. "Chris Pratt is the most disappointing part of this cast honestly," blasted Redditor u/Three_Froggy_Problem. "He doesn't exactly have the most distinctive voice." Then you have producers working on the adaptation claiming Pratt's portrayal will be different but epic. "All I can tell you is the voice that he's doing for us, and Mario, is phenomenal," said producer Chris Meledandri in an interview with TooFab.
Now, we have telling moviegoers would ultimately be treated to a performance that they had never experienced — or heard — before. Here are his most recent comments.
Pratt's Mario voice will be 'updated and unlike anything you've heard' in the video games
According to the "Guardians of the Galaxy" star, there will be some glaring differences between his Mario voice and the character's famously over-the-top Italian accent from Nintendo's video game series. However, Pratt knows not to take himself too seriously in the role, which he explains is bringing the Mario character into the future.
"It's an animated voiceover narrative. It's not a live-action movie," he told Variety. "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."
As with the video games, many people have taken aim at Pratt and the "Super Mario Bros." movie itself — which doesn't have an official title as of this writing — because they disapprove of Mario's exaggerated accent, which they believe mocks Italians. The biggest criticism of Pratt is that people fear he could either lay the accent on too thick or just be too different for the fans' tastes. However, as producer Chris Meledandri told TooFab, this is all something that was taken into account by Nintendo and everyone else involved in the "Super Mario Bros." movie. Apparently, this includes references to the negative connotations surrounding the accent. "We cover it in the movie," Meledandri explained. "That's not the tenor of the performance throughout the film."