The highly anticipated “The Super Mario Bros.” will be the second American film adaptation of the popular Nintendo game. After the disastrous 1993 live-action “Super Mario Bros.” movie, which starred Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario Mario and Luigi Mario (yeah…), a new film version of the video game franchise languished in development hell until reports of the video game developer discussing with Illumination entertainment to do an animated film centering around the popular iconic character gamers grew to know and love.
Chris Pratt and Charlie Day will be voicing Mario and Luigi, while Anya Taylor-Joy plays Princess Peach. With the movie being animated, a video-game-accurate style may be captured, and it has the potential to be a great video game film. Even though Pratt’s casting was initially met with criticism, its supporting cast is stacked, with Jack Black, Keegan Michael-Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Sebastian Maniscalco respectively voicing Bowser, Toad, Donkey Kong, Cranky Kong, Kamek, and Foreman Spike. Additionally, Charles Martinet, who voices Mario in the video games, will appear in various vocal cameos throughout the film.
Its plot synopsis follows the same storyline as the game: “A plumber named Mario travels through an underground labyrinth with his brother, Luigi, trying to save a captured princess.”
Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, who co-wrote “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies” (Horvath also co-directed the movie with Peter Rida Michail), written by Matthew Fogel, and produced by Chris Meledandri and the game’s creator Shigeru Miyamoto, “The Super Mario Bros.” will release exclusively in theatres on April 7, 2023.
