Nintendo amiibo toys of characters Mario, Peach, and Luigi, the main protagonists of the Super Mario Franchise. Photo by Ryan Quintal.
By Yennifer Ho, Culture Editor
Video games and movies are two of the biggest entertainment industries. The movie industry has adapted popular video games into movies and made some movies into TV series. Recently, we’ve had interesting video game adaptations like “Sonic the Hedgehog” (2020) and PlayStation’s “Uncharted” (2022). Soon Mario will join them with “The Super Mario Bros.” a film that has yet to be released but is already being bashed by critics and fans. But we’ll get into that later.
“Sonic the Hedgehog,” directed by Jeff Fowler, was largely a success in my opinion. It won three awards with a sequel released this year. The characters were detailed and the plot wasn’t too “childish”. I don’t tend to like animated or cartoon movies, but I genuinely enjoyed seeing Sonic navigating through different environments and interacting with humans.
I think this movie is notable because the producers accepted the viewers’ and fans’ feedback on their first trailer and reworked Sonic’s appearance. Originally, Sonic looked like a nightmare version of himself and not as refined. His eyes were ridiculously smaller than they should’ve been. He reminded me of the beat-up animatronics from the horror game “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” definitely not kid-friendly.
The “Uncharted” movie, on the other hand, was horrible. It felt like they put everything in their budget to cast Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg. Even with these star actors, nobody cared about this adaptation. The characters had no chemistry and the plot was a predictable snooze-fest. The “Uncharted” games are all about adventure, mystery and thrill, and the movie did not measure up to those standards.
Now, what is this about a Mario movie? It felt kind of unexpected. Who asked for this? The main stars in this movie are Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi and Jack Black as Bowser. I think Jack Black was a decent pick for this voice-acting role, but casting Chris Pratt as Mario seems like a publicity stunt!
I’m not the only one who hates the idea of Chris Pratt starring in the movie, everyone else on the internet is also criticizing and making memes about it. What makes it worse is that the teaser trailer for the movie didn’t win any hearts when they heard what Mario’s supposed to sound like.
The art style was decent overall and I admire the different settings such as the iconic Mushroom Kingdom. I think the characters look a little odd though, maybe because I’m so used to seeing them two-dimensional.
But, here they went overboard in trying to make things look modern. Their eyes are scary like a doll, especially Toad’s beady black eyes. You are probably thinking I care too much about what eyes look like, but they can make or break a character whether it is in a cartoon movie or a live-action one.
Fellow CSUDH student Francisco Noble-Waters has been a Mario fan since he was introduced to gaming with his favorites being “Super Mario Odyssey,” “Super Mario Galaxy,” and “Super Mario World”. As someone who has not yet been beaten in “Mario Kart,” right from the bat, you can tell he will be a little critical of this movie.
“Chris Pratt is obviously a fake Mario fan, he spent 500% of his brain power to remember what a Koopa is,” he said. “His performance seems like he isn’t trying to sound like Mario, it sounds like his normal voice with a tiny bit of accent.”
Noble-Waters hoped that Pratt was chosen for this movie because it was beneficial, but so far, he thinks it’s due to his popularity and fame.
“Other voice actors that could’ve done better are obviously Mario’s actual voice actor Charles Martinet. He has been voicing Mario for decades, and he is obviously the best choice. If they didn’t want to go that route, I would’ve had Charlie Day voice Mario as well as Luigi or maybe even Jack Black because he can do accents as seen in Nacho Libre,” he added.
However, he thinks the movie looks more promising than expected if you don’t include Mario’s character design and voice. Noble-Waters said, “I like the animation, I think Toad and Bowser look good, and have excellent voice acting, although, I do think Bowser would benefit from voice filters to make it sound deeper and more gravelly.”
The “Super Mario Bros.” movie is expected to jump into theaters next April, but in the meantime, check out their first official trailer that was just released which includes Luigi, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, and Mario Kart. Even if you aren’t familiar with video games, the movie will surely revive some nostalgia.
