When the people at Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment announced that Chris Pratt would be in charge of lending his voice to the leading mustachioed plumber in ‘Super Mario Bros: The Movie’, the first collective thought was a wry “weird…” followed by a growing curiosity after the actor promised a vocal performance job that was nothing short of revolutionary.
Luigi Mario thinks about Mario Mario
The release of the trailer for the long-awaited animated film made two things clear: that the film has a really beautiful visual finish and that Pratt was bluffing because his Mario sounds exactly like Chris Pratt voicing Mario. But beware, because among the many detractors of the signing is the former Luigi.
John Leguizamo, who played Luigi Mario in the ‘Super Mario Bros.’ from 1993 he is not at all happy with the choice of one of the three “Chrises” of Hollywood to star in the projectand the main reason why he considers the casting “unlucky” has to do mainly with a racial issue.
This is how he explained it in an interview with Indiewire:
“The directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton fought very hard for me to be the lead because I am a Latino man and [el estudio] He didn’t want me to star in it. They fought a lot and it was a breakthrough. That they have gone backwards and have not chosen another [actor racializado] stinks”.
In addition, Leguizamo assures that people do not connect with this new version because the one that has really permeated the collective imagination is the nineties.
“A lot of people love the original. I did Comic-Con in New York and Baltimore and everyone was like, ‘No, no, we like the old, the original.’ It doesn’t connect with the new. I’m not bitter. It’s unfortunate “.
‘Super Mario Bros: The Movie’whose cast also includes stars such as Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key or Seth Rogen will arrive in our cinemas on March 31, 2023.