The first trailer for the Super Mario Bros. Movie has finally dropped, and while the animation is nothing short of impressive, the voice of one half of the titular siblings?
Not so much.
Actor Chris Pratt's voicing of Mario himself has fallen far short of fans' expectations, and they're roasting him pretty hard about it on social media.
Particularly after Pratt gushed to the entertainment media about his process for the role earlier this year, fans were pretty surprised that his take on the iconic Italian plumber sounds neither Italian nor particularly distinct from Pratt's own voice.
See for yourself in the trailer below.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie | Official Teaser Traileryoutu.be
Yeah that's... basically just Chris Pratt coming out of Mario's mouth.
Which really is odd. In a lengthy Variety profile about the film earlier this year, the film's co-producer, Illumination Entertainment's Chris Meledandri, really gassed up Pratt's voice work in the film, calling it "phenomenal" and an "updated" take on the character.
And Pratt spoke quite rhapsodically about his artistic process.
He told Variety:
“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."
He went on to speak about the uniqueness of his take on Mario.
"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.”
Well that last part certainly seems to be true, since what we're hearing in this rendition of "the Mario world" is just plain old Chris Pratt.
On Twitter, people were definitely unimpressed and the dunks came hard and fast.
\u201cWow Mario did a really good Chris Pratt impression!\u201d— Aleks Le \ud83e\udd1c\ud83d\udca5\ud83e\udd4a (@Aleks Le \ud83e\udd1c\ud83d\udca5\ud83e\udd4a) 1665087274
\u201cme listening to chris pratt's voice come out of mario's mouth\u201d— allegra frank (@allegra frank) 1665087918
\u201ci do think chris pratt\u2019s take on mario has given us a pretty good idea of what his take on garfield is gonna sound like\u201d— Andrew Cunningham (@Andrew Cunningham) 1665095669
\u201cincredible, Chris Pratt really did his best Chris Pratt voice\u201d— Mat \ud83e\udd86\u30fb\ud83d\udc9b\ud83e\udd0d\ud83d\udc9c\ud83d\udda4 (@Mat \ud83e\udd86\u30fb\ud83d\udc9b\ud83e\udd0d\ud83d\udc9c\ud83d\udda4) 1665087188
\u201cI mean it when I say that the new Super Mario Brothers movie should be a borderline silent film and tell the story with no dialogue whatsoever. I am 35 and wish I did not have an opinion on this either.\u201d— Dan Wilbur (@Dan Wilbur) 1665091910
\u201cChris Pratt saying he worked so hard on the Mario voice only for it to sound like Chris Pratt is the funniest thing\u201d— Comet \ud83d\udc11\ud83c\udf1f | Lumi Pilot | Workin' on comms (@Comet \ud83d\udc11\ud83c\udf1f | Lumi Pilot | Workin' on comms) 1665087540
\u201cChris Pratt's voice is still jarring to hear coming out of Mario but everything else in the Mario trailer looked amazing. I'm genuinely excited to see this thing\u201d— Saberspark (@Saberspark) 1665087338
\u201cChris Pratt at the recording studio for the Mario movie:\u201d— \ud83c\udd33\ud83c\udd30\ud83c\udd41\ud83c\udd3b\ud83c\udd38\ud83c\udd3d\ud83c\udd36 \u2764\ufe0f (@\ud83c\udd33\ud83c\udd30\ud83c\udd41\ud83c\udd3b\ud83c\udd38\ud83c\udd3d\ud83c\udd36 \u2764\ufe0f) 1665087801
\u201cChris Pratt as Mario is a prime example of why you should hire voice actors for voice acting roles because what the hell is this \u201d— yehu (@yehu) 1665088430
\u201cThe problem with Chris Pratt voicing Mario is that there's nothing interesting about Pratt's voice\n\nHe just sounds like Some Dude and there's a million voice actors out there that could be a much better job\u201d— Terence Wiggins, King of Videogames (@Terence Wiggins, King of Videogames) 1665435695
The Super Mario Bros. Movie comes out next April and also stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen and Fred Armisen.
No word on whether they'll also be using their normal voices.
