On October 6, at New York Comic Con 2022, Universal Studios released the highly anticipated trailer for the first Super Mario Bros. film in decades. Until this trailer dropped, the main thing we knew about the film was that it continues the trend in which the cast is mostly made up of box office stars rather than voice actors, as many animated features have been since the ‘90s.
Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (peers on Teen Titans Go! projects), Super Mario Bros. was written by Matthew Fogel (Minions: The Rise of Gru). The film also marks a major partnership between Nintendo and Illumination, and it will be released by Universal Pictures—which has just given the animated movie a new release date.
The Super Marios Bros. Movie cast has its ups and downs
The movie’s casting didn’t come without controversy, as everyone’s least favorite Chris—Chris Pratt—was announced to star as the working-class Italian plumber, Mario. (Even though he still sounds just like … never mind.) Still, with Jack Black as Bowser and Charlie Day as Luigi, there’s a lot to look forward to. Other cast members include Anya Taylor-Joy as the royal Princess Peach, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and—the best casting choice of the lot—Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. The news of Rogen’s attachment has sparked various fan animations of Rogen as Donkey Kong in Pineapple Express and Knocked Up.
If you don’t mind spoiling the trailer, we can get into the additional casting. The supporting cast includes Fred Armisen (Cranky Kong), Khary Payton (Penguin King), Kevin Michael Richardson (Kamek), and Sebastian Maniscalco (Spike). While Juliet Jelenic, Eric Bauza, and Charles Martinet are in the film, I don’t think it’s official official. Bauza and Martinet are legendary Super Mario voice actors. Their voices appear in many of the games, with each portraying a number of characters.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer
Unless something catastrophic happens and this film bombs, this Super Mario Bros. will likely kick off a film franchise spanning a decade (or decades) to accompany the games and other merchandise. From a financial perspective, there is just so much good outweighing the bad.
Also, for the past few years, video game movies on the whole have gotten better. Sure, there’s The Angry Birds Movie (and others), but we also got Detective Pikachu and Sonic. Regardless, the target audience for The Super Mario Bros. Movie is also families, and Nintendo has kept the characters of this world in pop culture relevance for decades. If that weren’t enough, the animation was handled by Illumination, which runs the Minions empire.
What is the release date for The Super Mario Bros. Movie?
The film was originally supposed to be released for a Christmastime box office crowd on December 21, 2022, but was pushed back to April 7, 2023. However, the final release date for The Super Mario Bros. Movie is now two days earlier, on April 5, 2023. It will be released in Japan just three weeks later, on April 28.
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
