Nintendo announces A-list cast for upcoming Super Mario animated movie

Nintendo has announced an all star voice cast for their upcoming The Super Mario Movie while discussing the project during today’s online expo Nintendo Direct.

The cast will be led by Chris Pratt as Mario. Pratt’s portfolio of work includes action movies Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, as well as TV sitcom Parks & Recreation. While he previously voiced the lead character in The Lego Movie, it will be interesting to see how Pratt handles the challenge of voicing an already iconic character like Mario.

Comedy A-listers Jack Black (School of Rock, Kung Fu Panda) and Seth Rogan (Superbad, Sausage Party) will be lending their voices to iconic villains Bowser and Donkey Kong respectively. The cast will also include Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Monster's University) as Mario’s brother/sidekick Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) as Princes Peach and Keegan Michael-Key (Key & Peele, Toy Story 4) as Toad.

Additionally the film will feature the voice work of Charles Martinet. Martinet has been the actor behind Mario’s iconic voice since the 1990s, voicing the character in numerous video games. While he won’t be playing Mario this time around, he will be voicing a number of yet to be revealed smaller characters throughout the film.

As many fans will know this won’t be the first Mario movie adaptation. Nintendo’s previous attempt to bring Mario and friends to the silver screen in 1993’s live action Super Mario Bros was critically panned and remains a fixture on many worst movies of all time lists. Video game movie adaptations in general have a poor track record, with only three films (The Angry Birds Movie 2, Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog) holding positive scores on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. Here’s to hoping that The Super Mario Movie can join that list and erase the 1993 disaster from our memories.

Nintendo has partnered with animation studio Illumination, best known for their work on the Despicable Me movies, to produce the film. The film is set for release on December 21st 2022.