Nintendo shared the first trailer for the highly anticipated “Super Mario Bros. Movie,” an animated adventure featuring a very meme-worthy cast. Starring Chris Pratt as Mario and Jack Black as Bowser, fans were excited to see just how bonkers this movie would be. More than 600,000 viewers tuned in to the premiere on Nintendo of America’s YouTube channel, and the trailer was simulcast at New York Comic Con.
Although the trailer was a bit short, it did not disappoint. We finally got to hear Chris Pratt’s voice come out of Mario’s animated form, and it was deliciously weird. Also, Keegan-Michael Key is already killing it as Toad, admonishing Mario for mistaking him for a mushroom. Toad with attitude? Of course.
The trailer opens with Bowser back on his shit, trying to steal our stars like we’re playing “Mario Party.” The Koopa Troopas, who are literally troops, true to their name, follow Bowser to a snowy castle, where he asks them to open the gates. Some penguins try to throw snowballs at him to defend his dominance, but their efforts are futile.
So far, Black seems to have committed himself seriously to his role as Mario’s terrifying villain.
“Do you have any idea how long it took me to learn to breathe fire?” Black appeared in a pre-recorded video, which played alongside the trailer. “I had to learn from Gene Simmons from Kiss!”
To quote our own Greg Kumparak, “Bowser looks terrifying! Mario is Chris Pratt.
He is right. We’re introduced to Mario as he emerges from a warp tube into a mushroom-filled wonderland, but lands unceremoniously alone in the countryside. So far, Chris Pratt’s Mario looks more like Andy Dwyer than Star-Lord, and we love that about him.
“It’s been my lifelong dream to become Mario,” Pratt said before the trailer aired. He remembers spending hours of his life beating up Koopas in the original Mario arcade game at his local laundromat.
We didn’t get to see other performances from the star-studded cast, including Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, and former TechCrunch Disrupt speaker Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. Maybe we’ll see them in trailer two!
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” will be released on April 7, 2023.