Fans of the hugely popular Super Mario Bros. video games were baffled and a little irked last year when it was announced that Chris Pratt would be voicing the world’s most famous Italian plumber in a new animated film. But he is confident that The Super Mario Bros. Movie is good enough to prove the critics wrong.
In a recent interview with Extra, Pratt explained that he appreciates how beloved the games are, and how protective fans are of those characters.
“I understand, I’m part of it,” he said. “This is the soundtrack to your youth. You don’t want someone to come along and cynically kind of destroy it as a cash-grab with the movie. I fully understand that. You do not want that to happen. There were so many hearts and souls in mind dedicated to making sure that didn’t happen.”
While he remained adamant that The Super Mario Bros. Movie is not a “cash-grab,” Pratt did go on to say that there are plans to spin this out into “an entire universe of these types of movies” over the next decade. “They’re super nostalgic, they’re really fun,” he added. “And it’s great because, especially for me now that I have kids, I have to see every animated movie whether it’s good or not, so I’m really grateful when a great animated movie comes out. And that’s what this is, thankfully. And hopefully, there’ll be more.”
And as for those naysayers who don’t believe Pratt is right for the role of Mario, he simply said that he thinks they’ll change their minds once they’ve seen the movie: “You know what, in all honestly, I think you probably need to watch it twice.”
Philip Ellis is a freelance writer and journalist from the United Kingdom covering pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV.
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