After what feels like an incredibly long wait to get our first look at the Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo has finally revealed what Nintendo’s 2023 film will actually look like in its first trailer. We first heard the reveal was happening earlier this week in a Nintendo Direct presentation that was happening in tandem with the film’s New York Comic-Con panel.
As the Super Mario Bros. Movie Direct finally started, we got to see a familiar face in Shigeru Miyamoto who hosted the direct this time around and even said hello to the New York Comic-Con crowd in the video. The presentation was later thrown to Illumination CEO, Chris Meledrandri who is in charge of the studio animating the film plus Chris Pratt and Jack Black made an appearance while giving their thoughts on what the game series meant to them and working on the film. All the waiting time was a bit too milked for my tastes but without any further time wasted, we finally got a look at the film’s trailer which you can see below.
The two-minute trailer does a fantastic job showcasing Illumination’s adaptation of the 40-year-old series to the big screen, so far already doing a better job than the original live-action Super Mario Bros. Movie. We get a look at Bowser’s flying castle – which reminded me a bit of the one from Paper Mario – landing near a snowy kingdom. We get to hear him for a bit with Jack Black doing a fantastic job portraying an intimidating yet charismatic Bowser as he invades the Penguins (Mario 64 shoutout).
The scene transition to Mario seemingly falling down into the Mushroom Kingdom in an Isekai-like fashion, where we do hear him talk a bit with Toad and that Mario is definitely a Chris Pratt-sounding plumber with only a hint of Italian in the accent. Before the end of the trailer, we do get a small taste of Charlie Day’s Luigi as he is seen running from Dry Bones but we only hear grunts from him running.
Chris Pratt complaints aside, overall the trailer was really good – I’m definitely more excited for the Super Mario Bros. Movie now. The film is set to star Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike, and Charles Martinet in a mysterious cameo role.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is being animated by the Despicable Me animation studio, Illumination and is set to hit theatres on April 7th, 2023.
