Late last night, news broke that the upcoming animated Super Mario Bros. movie has found its voice cast. Chris Pratt will play Mario, while Charlie Day is lending his voice to Luigi.
Rounding out the ensemble are Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike. That's one heck of a lineup, but there's been a surprising amount of backlash online since the announcement was made.
To be fair, when you think of Mario, Pratt's voice isn't exactly the first that comes to mind.
However, in a post shared on his Instagram account, the Guardians of the Galaxy star has made it clear that he's been working on Mario's voice and hopes to reveal it soon. The actor does do a half-hearted "It's a-me, Mario," but quickly points out that's not what we'll hear in the movie itself.
We find it hard to imagine Mario will be walking around with an American accent in the movie, and that likely means Pratt plans to use an Italian inflection. It probably won't be quite as over-the-top as in the games, but it's inevitable that some will be offended regardless of the decisions made.
Keep checking back here as we're bound to have more to share with you about Super Mario Bros. soon (aside from the voice cast, very little has been revealed about the animated project).
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