Mario Movie Producer Discusses Chris Pratt’s ‘Mario’ Voice

Entertainment outlet TooFab shared a brief interview with Illumination CEO and Founder and Mario movie Producer Christopher Meledandri about Chris Pratt’s depiction of Mario in the film. In it, he referred to Pratt’s take on Mario as “phenomenal.” He also claimed the movie will explain why Mario doesn’t have the same Italian accent he does in the games. [Thanks, TooFab!]

The video began with Meledandri praising Pratt’s performance. He noted, “All I can tell you is the voice that he’s doing for us and Mario is phenomenal.” When the person interviewing him brought up someone who isn’t Italian being cast in the part, Meledandri pointed to Charlie Day. He noted that actor comes from “an Italian heritage.” He also said that Day being cast as Luigi is the “nod” to the Mario brothers’ roots.

As for the famous “It’s me, Mario” and the changes, Meledandri said, “We cover it in the movie. So you’ll see that we definitely nod to that. But that’s not the tenor of the performance throughout the film.“

Here is the full TooFab video in which Meledandri talks about Chris Pratt’s performance in the Mario movie.

In addition to Chris Pratt as Mario and Charlie Day as Luigi, the Mario movie will star Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach and Jack Black as Bowser.

The Mario movie will appear on December 21, 2022 in North America.