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Tag: Mario

  • Charles Martinet No Longer Voicing Mario and Friends

    Charles Martinet No Longer Voicing Mario and Friends

    In a way, we all knew this day would come eventually. Charles Martinet has been voicing most of the cast of the Super Mario Bros. franchise for over 30 years. Yet, it’s still something none of us really wanted to say is definite. We already had to adjust to the fact that Chris Pratt took over as the character in the major motion picture release earlier this year and now the official statement has been made by Nintendo that Martinet will no longer voice the character moving forward.

    It’s a shame that the announcement arrives in a simple red-tinted image rather than through a Nintendo Direct that highlights his career. Perhaps one is on the horizon that’ll unveil the new voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and many more moving forward. It does seem unlikely that Pratt is going to continue in this story. Most did notice that perhaps the voice teased in Super Mario Bros. Wonder wasn’t the one we are most used to.

    Now, we can only count the days until Martinet passes the torch to the next generation of voice actors to take on these iconic characters. He also isn’t leaving the character behind, as he is set to remain a “Mario Ambassador” moving forward to ensure that whoever takes over is always well prepared. A video message has been teased for the future, so we’ll have to wait just a bit longer for the official statement.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Becomes 2023’s Highest-Grossing Film

    ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Becomes 2023’s Highest-Grossing Film

    Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has been dethroned as The Super Mario Bros. Movie has now become the biggest worldwide release. It’s also the first film to pass the $500M mark which is quite impressive considering it has a budget of $100M, which is quite a bit lower than Pixar or Disney’s overly ambitious $200M animated production costs. It’s currently on track to stick to the top spot in the second weekend with $58M after pulling in $9.4M on Thursday.

    Internationally, the film has pulled in around $248.4M globally and stands at a strong $260.3M domestically, which totals $508.7M. The film dropped around 63% on its second Thursday which is a strong hold and highlights the power of nostalgia and Nintendo. It seems more and more likely that this is the current winning formula as people relive their own memories and bring the family along for the ride, which is perfect for a kid’s film like The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

    Interestingly enough, the other two big releases are currently duking it out as Nicolas Cage’s Renfield and Russell Crowe’s The Pope’s Exorcist are the newest releases with very similar Thursday night releases at the domestic box office. Renfield is currently still leading the pack with $900K while Crowe’s film is behind only by $850M. The action-horror entry is currently set to overtake the other new release with a slightly better Rotten Tomatoes hinting at a better box office run.

    Source: Deadline, Deadline, The Numbers

  • ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ to Dehtrone ‘Frozen 2’ as the Biggest Animated Opening Ever

    ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ to Dehtrone ‘Frozen 2’ as the Biggest Animated Opening Ever

    After that initial critical reception, it seems audiences do not care at all how people viewed The Super Mario Bros. Movie as it is on its path to becoming the biggest animated opening weekend ever. Going by now, its projection is pushing the film towards an impressive $195M domestic opening but what will truly make it the biggest release yet is that it’ll probably end its global bow over a 5-day weekend at $368M.

    The title was previously held by Frozen 2, which opened globally to $358M. It’s an impressive feat for the latest Illumination film that also made quite a bang last year with its Minions sequel almost making a billion and becoming one of the year’s biggest releases. The studio’s approach to animation may not be welcomed by critics, but it certainly works for audiences.

    There’s a lot of discussion surrounding the latest performances by Disney’s animation projects with Super Mario Bros. Movie and recently Puss in Boots: The Last Wish pulling some incredible performances at the box office. While many might go the Internet’s usual route of taking information out of context, there’s a lot at play here that to some degree is Disney’s own fault.

    Dreamworks and Illumination don’t have a “streaming home” per see, which means that there’s no expectation that their projects will eventually be available. Disney, however, spent almost three years building a “streaming first” strategy which has shot their staying power at the box office with even more frontloaded box office performance and even negative critical reception having a bigger impact due to “can always watch it later.”

    Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is one of Marvel Studios’ weakest releases at $467M, which is still a number most would hope to have on their resume. With a weak Chinese market, which elevated its previous entries, and the previous streaming strategy, Disney took away any real need for its core audience, families, to watch it while it is in theaters. Same as we saw with its animated fair that does incredible numbers on Disney+. With the announcement of a digital and physical release ahead of Disney+, we’re seeing the first attempts to make up for that very issue.

    It’ll be essential to ensure their animated projects have a strong showing as families simply aren’t there and Super Mario Bros. Movie has the advantage of nostalgia with boomers and Millenials at its side. Its performance is comparable to Avatar: The Way of Water and Star Wars: The Force Awakens which are both built strongly on nostalgia. Hell, even Top Gun Maverick got that extra boost for the same reason, and we’re seeing a much more noticeable trend that studios are likely going to abuse moving forward.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter, The Number

  • New ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Merch Reveals an Unannounced ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ Character

    New ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Merch Reveals an Unannounced ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ Character

    The upcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie will be the first animated film based on the iconic Nintendo franchise of the same name. The official trailer amassed nearly 15M views with our first look at Donkey Kon, a Mario Kart reference, and so much more. While Chris Pratt as Mario received mixed reactions, the general sentiment was overwhelmingly positive.

    The promotional campaign for The Super Mario Bros. Movie is finally starting to pick up the pace with some merchandise already being spotted for the film. Twitter user @nintendomerch shared a new image of eight plastic Mario collectibles which will be available with McDonald’s’ Happy Meal. The account also mentioned that the McDonald’s promotional campaign for the movie would begin on December 27, 2022, and would last until January 23, 2023. The toys included Mario, Princess Peach, Luigi, Toad, Bowser, Donkey Kong, and one character that has yet to have been confirmed for the movie.

    As you can see in the image above, it seems the film might include a Luma. So far, the character hasn’t been featured in any of the movie’s promotional images or videos. In case you’re unfamiliar with Lumas, they are star-shaped creatures that are prominently featured in 2007’s Super Mario Galaxy. Although the Luma in the image above is blue in color, Mario’s usual companions in the Galaxy series are yellow. If the Lumas do appear in the movie, it wouldn’t be surprising for Rosalina, their adoptive mother, to also an appearance in the film. Speculation will definitely go wild moving forward.

    Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie releases in theaters on April 7, 2023.

    Source: Twitter, ComicBook.com

  • Brian Tyler to Compose Illumination’s ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Movie

    Brian Tyler to Compose Illumination’s ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Movie

    We finally got our first tease of the upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie and it seems that they have dropped a small nugget of information about what we can expect from the film before dropping the trailer at us. As it turns out, it seems that composer Brian Tyler has been hired to bring the movie’s musical landscape to life.

    It also seems like Tyler is going to work closely with composer Koji Kondo to include many iconic songs from the original games. So, if you’ve been worried they’d move away from the soundtrack that made the games stand out, they’re definitely not just creating a new soundtrack ignoring the original songs that made the game’s as classic as they are.

    It’s going to be interesting to see what Tyler brings to the table and how they’ll appraoch the concept. Mario’s soundtrack has evolved quite a bit over teh years with the Odyssey one standing out quite a bit. Of course, he coudl try to reeplicate elements from across the years but still try to give it a unique spin. For now, we’ll have to wait and see what direction they take it once we see more fro mthe film.

    You can watch the Nintendo Direct including the cast and trailer here:

    Source: YouTube

  • Chris Pratt’s Mario Portrayal to be ‘Unlike Anything You’ve Heard in the Mario World’

    Chris Pratt’s Mario Portrayal to be ‘Unlike Anything You’ve Heard in the Mario World’

    Chris Pratt is ready to bring something new to the Mario landscape, whether we’re ready to or not. While talking with Variety during the premiere of his new Amazon Prime series The Terminal List, the actor discussed the direction he will take for the upcoming Illumination Entertainment and Universal film being produced based on the popular Nintendo character.

    I worked really closely with the directors and trying out a few things and landed on something that I’m really proud of and can’t wait for people to see and hear. It’s an animated voiceover narrative. It’s not a live-action movie. I’m not gonna be wearing a plumber suit running all over. I’m providing a voice for an animated character, and it is updated and unlike anything you’ve heard in the Mario world before.

    Chris Pratt

    This quote from Chris Pratt certainly piques interest into what exactly is planned for this film adaptation of the Super Mario Bros franchise. Many questions and concerns have been raised about Pratt’s casting and the risk of him providing a needlessly stereotypical performance. Though having a wildly different interpretation of the character also runs the risk of alienating audiences familiar with the source material for the sake of fitting a square peg in a round hole with Chris Pratt as Mario. His involvement with the film also has come with a large amount of fatigue based on the actor being cast in a large swath of animated projects portraying the main protagonist. 

    Pratt’s analysis of his performance also comes off of Illumination’s CEO Chris Menedandri giving high praise for what the actor is bringing to the role. It will be interesting to see whether these quotes end up holding actual merit, or are simply a means to draw empty good-will and early marketing towards the project.

    Along with Pratt, the untitled film is set to co-star with the likes of Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, and Seth Rogen. The film is being directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic of Teen Titan Go! fame and is scheduled to release on April 7, 2023.


    Source: Variety

  • Illumination’s President Praises Chris Pratt’s Performance as Mario

    Illumination’s President Praises Chris Pratt’s Performance as Mario

    When the news hit that Chris Pratt was going to voice Mario, many were a bit surprised by the choice. The cast generally led to quite a few reactions with a stacked cast including Jack Black as Bowser and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. It didn’t help matters that Pratt was cast for an upcoming animated Garfield film, which added to the jokes that any animated character could be voiced by the Guardians of the Galaxy actor.

    In an interview with Animation Magazine, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri had a lot of praise for his performance, as he went on to highlight that many of the criticism will be mute once they get to see his performance in action.

    When people hear Chris Pratt’s performance, the criticism will evaporate, maybe not entirely — people love to voice opinions, as they should. I’m not sure this is the smartest defense, but as a person who has Italian-American heritage, I feel I can make that decision without worrying about offending Italians or Italian-Americans… I think we’re going to be just fine.

    Chris Pratt

    It definitely is still a curious casting, especially when the character of Mario has such an iconic voice. Charles Martinet voiced the character since 1992 and is confirmed to appear in the upcoming animated film. Yet, it simply seems odd not to use the man who defined the character all those years ago if they’re going for an animated project, to begin with. We’ll have to wait and see what the project has to offer once the first trailer arrives.

    Source: Animation Magazine

  • Don’t Expect an Italian Accent from Chris Pratt’s Mario in ‘Super Mario’ Film

    Don’t Expect an Italian Accent from Chris Pratt’s Mario in ‘Super Mario’ Film

    It looks like the upcoming Super Mario film will change something quite iconic about the popular Nintendo mascot. Throughout the games, the character famously was brought to life by Charles Martinet, who gave the character an iconic Italian accent. He’s also voiced most of the supporting cast including his brother Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi. That all will change when Chris Pratt takes over the voice role for the gaming icons grand return to the silver screen, but it looks like he’ll have a very different approach.

    In an interview with toofab, Illumination Entertainment producer Chris Meledandri revealed that we shouldn’t expect his iconic Italian accent for the film. He added that Pratt will add his own spin of the character’s voice, which will be greatly different from what fans are used to. Though, he does highlight that there will be a reason given for the character’s new voice in the film. Meledandri goes on to highlight that:

    All I can tell you is the voice that he’s doing for us, and Mario, is phenomenal,” the 62-year-old insisted upon a recent return to LAX. “Yeah I can’t wait for people to hear it

    He does highlight that there will be some representation of their Italian heritage in the film, but that’ll be in the form of Charlie Day as Luigi.

    Charlie Day, who’s playing Luigi, actually comes from Italian heritage. Yeah so that’s our nod

    It’s certainly a strange decision to move completely away from the voice that made the character iconic. Even when the film SCOOB! replaced the franchise’s iconic voice cast, the voice of Shaggy copied that of the original character. It’s a recurring theme that animated projects hire non-voice actors to add as a selling point to its advertising, but we’ll see what Pratt brings to the table.

    Source: toofab