Yesterday the cast of the upcoming Super Mario Bros. animated film was announced with Chris Pratt in the lead role. The actor took time to reflect on the announcement and explained why the casting was personal to him.
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“When I was a kid, I lived in Lake Stevens, Washington, and there’s this coin-operated laundromat near my house and it had Super Mario Bros. The original arcade game. Oh, I love that game. I never had a quarter it felt like,” Pratt said on Instagram. “I’d either steal them from the wishing well [laughs]. That’s wild. It just dawned on me right now the quarter I stole out of the wishing well to play Super Mario Bros. has come true that I get to be the voice of Mario. Clearly, I stole someone else’s wish, so I’m just waiting for that row of karma dominoes to come crashing down. But for now, it’s a me, Mario. That’s not the voice. You’ll have to wait to hear the voice, but we’ve been working really hard on it and I’m really excited to announce that I’m going to voice the video game I dreamed of playing as a kid. Dreams come true.”
The rest of the cast includes Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike (which was previously announced). Mario’s traditional voice actor, Charles Martinet, will also be involved and have “surprise cameos in the movie.”
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The creator of Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, will be producing the film alongside Illumination’s Chris Meledandri.
The Super Mario Bros. Animated Film movie is heading to theaters in North America on 12/21/22!
Check out the voice cast for the upcoming movie below ? pic.twitter.com/Xj31P6hk6y
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 23, 2021