Regardless of how big a Mario or Nintendo fan you are, it seems like yesterday’s reveal of the first ever trailer for the upcoming Super Mario Bros. film has got everyone in the gaming space talking.
While a lot of the attention was on just how hard Jack Black looks to have nailed the role of Bowser or how cute the movie’s animated version of Toad is, many of those watching couldn’t refrain from continuing a discourse that’s dominated most discussion of the film over the past few months.
The topic at hand is Chris Pratt’s Mario voice, which, having been promised by the actor to be something pretty unique and special, turned out, in the eyes of many fans, not to quite live up to those expectations.
What did you think of the Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer?
Pratt’s Mario only appears in the latter half of the trailer, which you can watch in full below, to bounce off of some mushrooms and get thoroughly pranked by Toad, but, in his limited screen time he does utter a few lines.
These have been enough for some viewers to surmise that the voice Pratt has adopted for the role is too similar to his regular tone, with one Twitter user responding to the official post of the trailer with the scathing words: “Yeah, as figured. Chris Pratt as Mario doesn't sound right at all.” Though, this view wasn’t universally shared, with another user yelling: “Chris Pratt sounds amazing as Mario and Jack Black nailed it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Twitter is going to break!”
This divide in opinion was also shown in the responses to the trailer over on ResetEra, where user Professor Beef questioned: “Chris Pratt couldn't even pretend to have an Italian accent. What kind of actor is he???” while jokkir mused: “I'm in. Looks great so far and the voices work.”
Elsewhere in the thread, a few users suggested that, while his regular voice isn’t ideal, Pratt attempting to read all of the lines in a massively overblown accent wouldn’t have made for a very pleasant experience either.
Meanwhile, some fans on Twitter apparently had excellent hearing, seemingly detecting an almost unnoticeable Brooklyn accent acting as a subtle undercurrent to Pratt’s delivery, accurately reflecting the fictional plumber’s apparent Big Apple roots.
Over on the subreddit r/mario, users were split on whether they thought this element of the voice was actually present, with DaveyBoy1995 saying: “I’m actually glad he went with a New York accent instead of just using his regular voice,” and Bossman1022 admitting: “Honestly I don’t hear it, I just hear Chris Pratt.”
Thankfully, the rest of the trailer received a pretty positive reception, with Jack Black’s portrayal of Bowser getting rave reviews, along with the decision to include the penguins made famous by Super Mario 64.
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