The Super Mario Bros Movie has been getting flack ever since the movie’s reveal mainly because of the casting decisions, on October 6, the first teaser trailer of the movie was made available to the public.

Around a year before the first teaser trailer was released, the current CEO of Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, revealed that Nintendo and Illumination would be working together on a Mario Bros movie and many streamers had mixed feelings about the casting. The cast includes; Seth Rogan(Donkey Kong), Keegan Micheal-Key(Toad), Charlie Day(Luigi), and Anya Taylor-Joy(Princess Peach), Although some critics love the casting for some of these characters, the exact opposite can be said for Chris Pratt as Mario and Jack Black as Bowser.

The reveal of Chris Pratt voicing Mario made many gaming streamers including ones like Runeboo and Hungrybox burst into laughter, while others like MissClick Gaming and xQc were in a state of shock. Streamer ‘Retro Ali’ had a unique reaction, screeching “ EW NO”. 

A lot of critics and streamers made fun of the casting, to the point where it became a meme. People would take photos of Chris Pratt’s face and photoshop it so that Chris Pratt would be wearing Mario’s iconic hat and mustache. This meme expanded so much that any and every character that Chris Pratt portrayed was now donning the iconic get-up.

“As much as I love Chris Pratt, I personally don’t think he fits the character for Mario, he has a low soft voice that I don’t think fits the character,” Junior and Esports team member Elijah Howard said. “I’m sure it will be a good movie though. I love the Mario games and love seeing them made into a movie.”

The teaser trailer, which was released on October 6th, changed many opinions, giving critics hope for the video game inspired movie. Streamers were either left speechless or screaming, after the first second of the trailer due to the stunning and beautiful animation. Hungrybox, HMK, and RogersBase were utterly confused after hearing the unrecognizable voice of Jack Black as Bowser, calling the performance “perfect”. Then, later were disappointed to hear Mario’s voice saying, “That’s just Chris Pratt.”

Though Chris Pratt’s voice acting is very underwhelming, I think this movie will be saved by its amazing animation and the chemistry each actor will have with one another. Each actor has amazing skills and they bring a lot to the table. I really love Jack Black and Keegan Micheal-Key and think that they were the stars of the trailer, really showing off what they can do, not just by voice acting, but also by getting into the role of the characters that they’re supposed to portray. 

The Super Mario Bros Movie is set to release on April 7, 2023 in the United States, and with so much talent put into it, this movie is a must-watch for me and I predict that it’s guaranteed to be a box office hit.