The Internet collectively broke when it was announced that Chris Pratt will voice Mario in an upcoming Super Mario Bros. film. The animated project, hailing from Illumination and Nintendo, sees an all-star voice cast headed by Pratt, and no one is more shocked by that than the man himself.
Following the announcement, the actor has opened up about the role in a new video posted to his Instagram account. Pratt took to the social media platform to address his fans and filmgoers about tackling this iconic video game character. In the video, Pratt recalls playing the Super Mario video game growing up and how the quarter he used to play the game is now used to make this dream come true.
“When I was a kid, I lived in Lake Stevens, Washington, and there’s this coin-operated laundromat near my house, and it had Super Mario Bros. The original arcade game. Oh, I love that game. I never had a quarter it felt like. I’d either steal them from the wishing well [laughs]. That’s wild,” says Pratt in the Instagram video. “It just dawned on me right now the quarter I stole out of the wishing well to play Super Mario Bros. has come true that I get to be the voice of Mario. Clearly, I stole someone else’s wish, so I’m just waiting for that row of karma dominoes to come crashing down.”
He closes the video by giving a little hint at his Mario voice before declaring that it’s not the real thing and fans will have to await the final product: “But as it is right now, it’s a me, Mario. That’s not the voice. You’ll have to wait to hear the voice, but we’ve been working really hard on it, and I’m really excited to announce that I’m going to voice the video game I dreamed of playing as a kid. Dreams come true.”
Check out the full video below:
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Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic are set to direct Super Mario Bros, a new animated film from Illumination and Nintendo. Chris Pratt and Charlie Day will voice the titular video game siblings Mario and Luigi alongside Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike.
Super Mario Bros. is scheduled to hit theaters on December 21st, 2022.
