Nathaniel Clark – A&E Editor

nuc5002@psu.edu

Photo Credit: Illumination

On October 6, after over a year of speculation and memes, Nintendo of America and Illumination finally released the trailer for their collaborative effort: “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” 

Since the announcement of Nintendo and Illumination’s partnership in 2018, Nintendo and movie fans alike have wondered how the partnership between these two companies would work exactly. It is heavily known that Nintendo is very strict on how their properties are used, likely spurred upon by the atrocious “Super Mario Bros.” movie released in 1993. Seeing that Nintendo had given full license to Illumination to make films based on their games and announced a theme park partnership with Universal Studio, it seems that the video game giant was dipping its toes back into the movie industry once again. 

In September 2021, Nintendo announced that the first film in the partnership would be “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” While the announcement was met with discussion, almost all of it was around the voice cast. Many of the choices were heavily criticized by publications, noting that it seemed as if Illumination was picking famous talent rather than anyone with experience. The vocal choice that was most criticized though was the casting of Chris Pratt as the titular plumber himself. As many people pointed out, Pratt would likely not be playing the character with his iconic thick Italian accent which longtime voice actor Charles Martinet had adopted when playing Mario. Many people wondered why Martinet would not just reprise his role, noting that he would be providing his voice to other characters for the film already.

The following year was filled with a variety of memes and internet jokes around Chris Pratt as Mario. Very little was known about the film’s development or release until last Thursday when the trailer finally dropped. While less than three minutes long, the audience is given a clear view of the designs for Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Penguin King, and Toad. Seemingly sticking with the source material of the video games, the overall design of these characters seems to be up to par. The overall highlight of the trailer though is Bowser. Voiced by comedian Jack Black, it seems like the actor knew the importance of his role, doing his best to channel a voice fit for the Koopa King himself. Unsurprisingly, Chris Pratt’s vocal talent is quite lacking, seeming to keep with his standard vocal cadence with a light tinge of an Italian accent. 

With the first trailer finally released and a release date of April 7 set, we can now either wait in anticipation or mild worry for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”