Shigeru Miyamoto dropped a bomb on Nintendo fans watching today's Nintendo Direct stream when he announced new details for the upcoming Mario animated movie. The flick is set to release December 21, 2022, and Chris Pratt will voice the platforming plumber himself.
Joining Pratt is a frankly ridiculous cast of joke-makin' folk that you've probably seen in other animated movies before:
- Mario — Chris Pratt
- Luigi — Charlie Day
- Peach — Anya Taylor-Joy
- Bowser — Jack Black
- Donkey Kong — Seth Rogen
- Toad — Keegan-Michael Key
- Cranky Kong — Fred Armisen
- Kamek — Kevin Michael Richardson
- Spike — Sebastian Maniscalco
This many A-listers signing on for a Nintendo movie comes as a surprise to many fans, especially considering the dubious legacy of the last Mario movie. Though to be fair, videogame movies are something of a hot commodity right now. Heck, this isn't even the only videogame movie that Jack Black is lending his voice to right now—he's also playing Claptrap in the upcoming Borderlands film.
If you're asking yourself, "Hold the phone, Mario already has a voice actor, and his name is Charles freaking Martinet," it may or may not comfort you that Nintendo said Martinet will appear in "surprise cameos" in the movie.
The Mario movie is a collaboration between Nintendo and the animation house Illumination, the folks best known for the Despicable Me films. Directing the movie are Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, the pair behind the Teen Titans Go! show and its movie, Teen Titans Go! To The Movies.
It would be weird to hear Martinet's Mario talk a bunch in a full-length movie, but I suspect it'll be even weirder to hear Starlord's voice come out of Mario's mouth. (We also acknowledge that Mario isn't exactly a storied PC gaming franchise, but this is a pretty big deal and there technically was a Mario game on the PC that time forgot.)
