The Super Mario Bros. Movie
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie is an computer-animated fantasy adventure comedy film directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelanic (in the latter's directorial debut) from a screenplay written by Matthew Fogel and produced by Chris Meledandri through Illumination and Shigeru Miyamoto through Nintendo, being a co-production between Illumination, Nintendo and Universal Pictures, the film will be distributed by Universal Pictures and will be released in April 7, 2023 in North America and April 28, 2023 in Japan.
Characters
- Chris Pratt as Mario
- Anya-Taylor Joy as Princess Peach
- Charlie Day as Luigi
- Jack Black as Bowser
- Keegan-Michael Key as Toad
- Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong
- Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong
- Sebastian Maniscalco as Foreman Spike (renamed as Spike)
- Charles Martinet
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek
- Khary Payton as Penguin King
- Eric Bauza
Production
The film was announced in 2017 with Variety reporting that Illumination and Nintendo are partnering for a computer animated film based on the Mario franchise, in January 2018, the film was officially announced by Nintendo through Twitter, thus confirming the partnership with Shigeru Miyamoto being involved as co-producer. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa revealed that Nintendo would own the rights to the film and that Universal was co-funding it with Nintendo and Illumination. In September 2021, through a Nintendo Direct, Nintendo and Illumination unveiled the film's official cast, which included celebrities and various actors and actresses, at the same time, Nintendo confirmed that Teen Titans GO! creators Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelanic will direct the film. In October 2022, on the day of the New York Comic Con, Nintendo released the film's official teaser, revealing the film's animation and the cast's performances, Nintendo released another trailer in November, where the trailer reveals Anya Taylor-Joy's performance as Peach, the majority of the film's characters and cameos and many of the film's scenes such as Mario's training and a fight with Donkey Kong.
At The Game Awards 2022, Toad's voice actor Keegan Michael-Key appeared on stage to present a 30 second trailer and a new clip, featuring Toad touring Mario around the Mushroom Kingdom, in that same month, Happy Meal toys for the film were released by McDonald's which also includes Lumalee from Super Mario Galaxy.
Release
The film will be released in several countries on April 6th and on the US in April 7th a day later, before releasing the film in Japan on the 28th. The film was originally intended to be released in December 21, 2022, but was delayed due to Nintendo wanting to polish the film's quality, with several countries originally intended to release earlier, but were delayed to avoid spoilers.
Trivia
- This is the first of many things in Mario media:
- To be a computer animated film.
- To be animated by Illumination and distributed by Universal Pictures.
- To have Nintendo involved unlike the 1986 and 1993 adaptations.
- To have Koji Kondo work on the film's incorporation of themes onto the soundtrack.
- To receive a dub for many countries such as India.
- To have Charles Martinet, Mario's voice actor, involved as a cast member through cameos.
- The film's directors, Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelanic, worked on other media before the film such as Teen Titans GO!, which included references to Mario.
- This is the first Illumination film to not use the company's traditional style, where the characters in the film are similar to their game counterparts.
- It is also the first Illumination film to be based on a video game.
- Charlie Day, the voice actor for Luigi, played a character in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia named Charlie Kelly, who in one episode of the show, has dressed up in a Luigi costume offscreen.
- Additionally, Charlie Day is of Italian descent, whereas Chris Pratt is mostly American.
- Many parts of the film, especially the development and some of the actors' lines, have become internet memes.
- The inclusion of Charles Martinet as a cameo actor was criticized by fans for being a rip-off due to the former being Mario's voice for over 30 years, despite Mario being voiced by different actors prior to and during Martinet's era.
- Despite not being seen in the film's trailers, Lumalee appears as a Happy Meal toy as part of the McDonald's promotion, likely hinting their appearance.
