You may have heard there’s a new Super Mario Bros movie on the way. It’s an animated movie from Nintendo and Illumination, and the announcement of the Chris Pratt-led cast has many revisiting the 1993 live-action family movie.
At time of writing, Super Mario Bros is sitting in sixth on Amazon’s best sellers list. This is ahead of horror movies Halloween and Halloween 2, which are enjoying increased popularity since Halloween Kills is now imminent, DCEU movie Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and a collection of the Harry Potter movies. According to Business Insider, it had the number one position for a brief period.
Commonly referred to in poor light, it appears people might be re-evaluating Mario’s cinematic debut. Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo play the titular brothers, a pair of New York plumbers who are warped into the Mushroom Kingdom. Dennis Hopper is Bowser, and this kingdom is less green hills and castles, and more quasi-futuristic dystopia. It’s weird, and famously at disaster when it came out in the early ’90s. Time hadn’t been kind to it either, until now, since a new one has fans checking it out again.
Much of this is because of the voice cast, particularly the choice of Pratt as Mario. The Marvel Cinematic Universe star is obviously a draw, but the choice seemed to many to be stunt-casting, where he was chosen because of his name value rather than what he brings to the role.
Charlie Day is voicing Luigi, Anya-Taylor Joy is lending her pipes to Peach, Jack Black is providing Bowser’s voice, and Seth Rogen is Donkey Kong. Speaking on the reboot, Leguizamo complained about a lack of diversity in the main cast, and says he has some script ideas for the flick.
Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic are directing the still untitled new Mario film, with a script by Matthew Fogel. The kids movie is out in theatres December 21, 2022.