Photo: thestroudcourier.com
By: Nick Gambino
The much-anticipated Super Mario Bros. movie starring Chris Pratt was expected to hit theaters this December, but it looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer for the little Italian plumber to get himself together.
Nintendo announced they would delay the film until spring 2023 with no real explanation as to why. I’m assuming because it’s an animated film they’re retooling some things to avoid the Sonic fiasco that occurred when they unveiled the original trailer for the Sega movie.
If you recall, when the first Sonic trailer dropped, it was roasted pretty heavily by the online community. They took particular offense to the total design of the little blue hedgehog who came off more frightening than lovable. The creators promised to go back to the drawing board, which they did, returning with a classic-looking Sonic.
If that is what Nintendo is doing it’s a smart move. Sonic the Hedgehog was both a success at the box office and beloved by critics and audience members. It even spawned a sequel that’s doing just as well.
“After consulting with Chris-san, my partner at Illumination on the Super Mario Bros. film, we decided to move the global release to Spring 2023 – April 28 in Japan and April 7 in North America,” Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, tweeted from the official Nintendo of America Twitter page. “My deepest apologies but I promise it will be well worth the wait.”
The animated project was originally announced back in 2018 with Chris Pratt attached three years later. Since then, we’ve had very little in the way of details on the creative aspect of the movie. We haven’t even seen leaked images to give us a sense of the aesthetics.
One thing we do know is that a ton of other big names have come on board since the movie was announced. Anya Taylor-Joy will be Princess Peach, Charlie Day is Luigi (perfect), Jack Black is Bowser, Seth Rogen is Donkey Kong, Keegan-Michael Key is Toad and Fred Armisen is Cranky Kong.
Chris Pratt of course will play the titular Mario character which I’m assuming he’s going to play Italian despite announcements to the contrary. If not, they can just delay this thing indefinitely.
