With the opening of The Super Mario Bros. Movie in theaters, gamings most iconic character is coming to the big screen for the first time in 30 years. And if the movie meets box office expectations, Universal Pictures, Illumination and Nintendo will surely hope to launch a brand new animated movie franchise.
Chris Pratt endured backlash the moment his Mario voice was first heard in the trailers, but he assured fans in this weeks Variety cover story, “My hope is that people will come into the movie with an open mind and that once they see the film, any criticism around Mario’s accent will disappear.”
Produced by Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the film adaptation also stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Seth Rogen, Charlie Day and Jack Black.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is now playing in theaters nationwide. Check out a rundown of the voice cast in the list below.
Chris Pratt as Mario
Image Credit: Getty Images/Universal Pictures Chris Pratt’s casting as Mario has proven controversial given the actor’s non-Italian roots. PratttoldVarietylast yearthat he “worked really closely with the directors” to find the Mario voice that made sense for the story. “I tried 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 added. “It’s an animated voiceover narrative. It’s not a live-action movie. I’m not going 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.”
“To develop the voice, I sampled various Italian and New York accents,” Pratt later told Variety ahead of the film’s release. “As the directors and I developed the character, we came to land on a voice that is different than Charles Martinet’s version of Mario, but also different from my own voice… My hope is that people will come into the movie with an open mind and that once they see the film, any criticism around Mario’s accent will disappear.”
Directors Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath defended casting Pratt in an interview with Total Film magazine, saying, “It’s a bit of an origin tale. It’s the story of Mario becoming Super Mario.” Horvath added that finding the perfect Mario voice meant finding an actor who could believably portray a plumber from Brooklyn who is “a blue-collar guy from a family of Italian immigrants… For us, it made total sense. [Chris is] really good at playing a blue-collar hero with a ton of heart. For the way that Mario is characterized in our film, he’s perfect for it.”
Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach
Image Credit: Getty Images/Universal Pictures How do you get into character in order to voice Princess Peach? Anya Taylor-Joy went full gamer. She told Digital Spy that she “1,000%” played the Mario video games in order to prep for voicing Peach in the movie. “I was like, Please dont call me. Its a Sunday, and I have to go do research gaming,’” Taylor-Joy said. It was a wonderful excuse. I dont think Im allowed to use it again for a while, but I definitely took advantage of it.
From the very first meeting that the creators and I had about her, I was really impressed and excited by the fact that we were all on the same page as to who Peach should be in this new era, Taylor-Joy told Total Film magazine about putting a contemporary spin on the Mario character. When I first saw the film, I came out so unbelievably excited and quite moved that this is now somebody that kids could have as a role model, and that this is what female leadership is Peach is an empowered woman.
Mario creator and movie producer Shigeru Miyamoto told Variety of the characters evolution, “In the games, we kept Peach as a damsel in distress who is rescued by Mario for a while, but we wanted to make her a playable character and a more powerful princess. We pushed that even further for the movie.”
Charlie Day as Luigi
Image Credit: Getty Images/Universal Pictures “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star Charlie Day takes on the role of Mario’s brother, Luigi, but his attraction to the character was something of a process of elimination. “My older sister would always go first, and she would inevitably get to be Mario,” he told Variety of playing the Super Mario games as a child. “So, because of that, Luigi kind of became my favorite.” When it came to crafting the Luigi voice, Day added, “The one note they kept giving me was: this is ‘Super Mario’ not ‘Goodfellas.’ But it’s always a process. And when you do these kinds of voice roles you need to approach them with a child-like sense of ‘let’s try anything.’”
Jack Black as Bowser
Image Credit: Getty Images/Universal Pictures Jack Black is the big, gravelly voice of Bowser. “Bowser is a romantic,” Black told BeyondTV about his antagonistic voice role. “But the way he goes about trying to get his love and control his love is very villainous. He taps into the darkest part of all of us. A lot of our darkness as humans beings on this earth comes from jealousy, comes from greed. He has love, unrequited love, but it also has to do with control. He wants to dominate.”
Keegan-Michael Key as Toad
Image Credit: Getty Images/Universal Pictures Keegan-Michael Key’s Toad becomes Mario’s friend and guide through the Mushroom Kingdom when he’s transported into the magical universe. He absolutely, positively loves where hes from, and when he encounters Mario, he wants to show Mario everything about this wonderful place where he lives, Key said about Toad in the press notes for the film. Ive done several animated films where Ive done voiceover, and this one is really special because I had the opportunity to really do a voice thats so completely different from my voice. You will not be able to recognize its me in this movie, and that to me is a proud accomplishment.
Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong
Image Credit: Getty Images/Universal Pictures Seth Rogen takes on the role of Donkey Kong, which could hopefully result in Rogen leading his own spinoff movie should “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” be a huge success at the box office. As Rogen told Collider, “I mean, there’s a lot of opportunity there. I think the family unit of the Kongs seems to be — and if the ‘Fast and Furious’ films have taught us anything it’s that it’s all about family.”
Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek
Image Credit: Getty Images/Universal Pictures Kevin Michael Richardson, a voice actor with roles in the “Mortal Kombat” video game series and “Lilo Stitch” franchise, takes on the role of Kamek, a Koopa sorcerer who serves as Bowser’s closest assistant and informant.
Khary Payton as Penguin King
Image Credit: Getty Images/Universal Pictures “The Walking Dead” actor Khary Payton voices the Penguin King, one of the early victims of Bowser’s rule. The villain imprisons the Penguin King and his snowball-throwing followers during his quest to obtain the Power Star.
Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong
Image Credit: Getty Images “Saturday Night Live” veteran and “Portlandia” co-creator Fred Armisen voices Cranky Kong, the father of Rogen’s Donkey Kongs who rules the Jungle Kingdom and leads the Kong Army. As Mario and Peach visit the Jungle Kingdom to recruit the Kongs in their fight against Bowser, its Cranky who they must win over.
Sebastian Maniscalco as Foreman Spike
Image Credit: Getty Images Sebastian Maniscalco has a small voice role as Foreman Spike, Mario and Luigi’s former boss at a plumbing company. The character appears early on in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” before the characters are transported to the Mushroom Kingdom. Foreman Spike runs into Mario and Luigi in their local pizza joint and berates them for quitting his company to start their own.
Charles Martinet in a Cameo Role
Image Credit: Getty Images “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” recruited original Mario and Luigi voice actor Charles Martinet for a cameo role in the movie. As Mario and Luigi discuss playing up their Italian accents in a commercial for their plumbing business, Martinets character chimes in with the beloved, over-the-top Mario voice fans of the games grew up with. Martinet voiced Mario in various games starting in 1991, and he even contributed to voice parts for characters such as Waluigi and Wario.