Culture

Mamma Mia: The Internet Reacts To Chris Pratt’s Mario Voice

"Who would have thought that Chris Pratt's big secret voice in the Mario movie would be his normal speaking voice?"

by Charles Rushforth  7 October 2022

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Be it Silent Hill (2006), Uncharted (2022), or Tomb Raider (2018), cinematic adaptations of video games have failed us over and over again.

Even the most recognisable videogame character in the world’s first foray into film was no different. The 1993 production of Super Mario Bros. was famously a nightmare, with filming running twelve weeks over schedule leading the actors playing the titular Italian plumbers Mario and Luigi to drink heavily before shooting their scenes.

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But if the prior live action Mario movie was damned by its directors completely misunderstanding the game’s ability to be transplanted into a cyberpunk setting (yes you read that right), the fly in the ointment this time is the lead voice actor playing Mario is Chris Pratt.

After fans of the game and anti-Italian discrimination activists alike panned the announcement that everybody’s least favourite Parks and Rec character would be voicing Mario, fans are now reacting to just how bad that voice actual sounds, after the official trailer for The Super Mario Bros Movie dropped on Friday. Just, hear it for yourself.

It’s probably not the place for this lowly journalist to question the production schedule of a multi-million dollar film, but surely there were hours of Chris Pratt’s dialogue to choose from, so why on earth is Pratt seemingly using his speaking voice in one shot, and a highschool theatresports-level Italian accent in another?

Elsewhere in the casting department, everyone appears to be praising Jack Black’s role voicing the perennial Mario antagonist Bowser, with users reacting that the School Of Rock star is perfectly suited to voice the scaly villain.

As complaints about Pratt continue to roll in, it appears that people watching the trailer in a language other than English may have received a better deal, with users noticing that the voice actor playing Mario in the French and Portuguese versions of the trailer are much more authentic.

Complaints about Pratt’s delivery aside, the trailer actually looks pretty good! If Pratt gets some voice acting coaching done, perhaps this is the film that breaks the cinema-videogame adaptation curse. Fingers crossed.