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Does the Super Mario Movie Really Need a Voice Cast?

The Godfather of Gaming is getting another crack at Hollywood stardom after thirty years, but as its casting choices draw fire, there might be another way for the film to succeed.

Mickey Desruisseaux
6 min readSep 24, 2021
If Rosalina isn’t in the sequel, we riot. (Nintendo)

Nintendo held one of their much-vaunted digital Directs today, and its biggest announcement wasn’t about a game at all. Industry titan Shigeru Miyamoto announced that the animated Super Mario movie produced by Illumination Studios (now with the simple official title Mario) will be premiering during next year’s holiday season, alongside a reveal of the film’s principal cast. It’s a fairly star-studded lineup, featuring the likes of Anya Taylor-Joy* as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong.

(Boy howdy, artists are going to have a field day with drawing Taylor-Joy as Peach.)

(Nintendo)

But no member of the cast sparked as much instant confusion and controversy than the main man himself, as it was revealed that Mario will be voiced by none other than Chris Pratt. Part of that…

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Mickey Desruisseaux
Mickey Desruisseaux

Written by Mickey Desruisseaux

Scribbling at the nexus of race, law, politics, and pop culture. A monster of many words, a man of all of them. (Opinions my own, not those of my employers.)

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