The Super Mario Bros. Movie

[Brickman | 4,215]

Movie looks amazing with heaps of easter eggs by the looks of it.

Pratt's Mario sounds awful though. Loved him in Parks and The Lego Movie but not feeling it in these trailers. I feel like they are purposely not showing much footage of him talking in these clips compared to the other cast.

I watched the Japanese trailer and the voice acting sounded really good so I may watch that version if Pratt gets on my nerves too much.

 

[Kguillemette | 1,622]

32 minutes ago, RH said:

I'm sure Mickey is widely known from young kids to adults.  Mickey is a staple of the zeitgeist of the past 100 years.  The appreciation and affection for may not be any where as close to Mario, but he is a huge staple to the background of our global culture.

I know kids might see him differently, but Disney seems to always have some form of Mickey IP currently available.  There was Clubhouse Mickey which I guess was popular from around 2005-2015 or so.  Now there's the new/vintage look to Mickey and his friends in cartoons, I think.  I've never seen the show but I've definitely seen the updated Mickey look.

He might not be loved like Mario, but he's definitely pervasive and has been for nearly every generation for almost 100 years.  That's hard to beat.  If Mario hasn't, I'm sure he will in 20 years, tops, but I imagine they are close in popularity.  Especially in Japan where they supposedly have a stronger relationship with Disney brands that maybe even we American's do.

You aren't wrong, but would more kids recognize Mickey or Woody for example right now? I feel like Mickey is turning into this mythological being right now sitting atop Disney's Mount Olympus. 

[ZeldaFreak | 3,740]

26 minutes ago, Brickman said:

Movie looks amazing with heaps of easter eggs by the looks of it.

Pratt's Mario sounds awful though. Loved him in Parks and The Lego Movie but not feeling it in these trailers. I feel like they are purposely not showing much footage of him talking in these clips compared to the other cast.

I watched the Japanese trailer and the voice acting sounded really good so I may watch that version if Pratt gets on my nerves too much.

Yeah a lot of the other VAs for Mario sound great compared to Pratt. I mean, personally I wouldn't go as far as to say he's awful, but I'm definitely not sold on it at all. The French VA in particular sounds really really good:

I mean, that Wahoo is absolutely perfect, haha.

[Brickman | 4,215]

10 minutes ago, ZeldaFreak said:

Yeah a lot of the other VAs for Mario sound great compared to Pratt. I mean, personally I wouldn't go as far as to say he's awful, but I'm definitely not sold on it at all. The French VA in particular sounds really really good:

I mean, that Wahoo is absolutely perfect, haha.

Haha. I agree, that guy nailed the wahoo perfectly.

I checked out the Italian version, which was top notch, but I wasn't really digging Peach.

I loved the Spanish version. Bowser in the Spanish version sounded just as good as Jack Black to me. But that doesn't surprise me, these days I find myself enjoying English made cartoons more in Spanish than the original English version haha.

So far, I think I might watch it in Japanese or Spanish and then do a rewatch in English.

[FireHazard51 | 2,105]

The movie will be a hit with kids and the "younger" generation but for the "hardcore" gamers who grew up with with Mario I feel like we hold a higher standard that Chris Pratt just isn't going to hit.  Will that cause the movie to be bad, not likely.  Even if it does it will be too small of a demographic to tank the movie's rating.  The LOOK of the movie and the overall story will matter much more than a half ass voiced Mario.

What I wonder more is if they have ideas for a potential sequel movie.  I mean with a franchise this big I would think they would make the movie with a story that can lead to sequel movie.  Also what I really want to know is if this movie will break the dreaded curse of video game theme movies sucking or just being OK.  I watch the Uncharted movie recently and I thought that wasn't too bad if not good.  But I want a great movie to be based off a video game franchise.  If books and comic books can do it then why can't video games do it as well.  Once one movie does it great it will pave the way for others to do it too.  Also have my fingers crossed for Last of Us TV series to lead the way too.  

 

[Andy_Bogomil | 862]

Imagine Mario dies at the end and the Game Over screen comes up. 

[ZeldaFreak | 3,740]

3 hours ago, FireHazard51 said:

The movie will be a hit with kids and the "younger" generation but for the "hardcore" gamers who grew up with with Mario I feel like we hold a higher standard that Chris Pratt just isn't going to hit.  Will that cause the movie to be bad, not likely.  Even if it does it will be too small of a demographic to tank the movie's rating.  The LOOK of the movie and the overall story will matter much more than a half ass voiced Mario.

What I wonder more is if they have ideas for a potential sequel movie.  I mean with a franchise this big I would think they would make the movie with a story that can lead to sequel movie.  Also what I really want to know is if this movie will break the dreaded curse of video game theme movies sucking or just being OK.  I watch the Uncharted movie recently and I thought that wasn't too bad if not good.  But I want a great movie to be based off a video game franchise.  If books and comic books can do it then why can't video games do it as well.  Once one movie does it great it will pave the way for others to do it too.  Also have my fingers crossed for Last of Us TV series to lead the way too.  

So far, the only video game movie I've watched that I actually thought was very good was the Silent Hill movie from 2006, I thought it captured the core of the franchise very well. I still haven't seen the Sonic movies or Detective Pikachu though, I'm sure those are probably good as well. And yeah, I'm REALLY crossing my fingers on The Last of Us, it looks great so far. I wasn't sold on the casting of Pedro Pascal at first, but actually seeing him in the trailer, I think he is a very good fit. He was just a bit less... scruffy than I imagined for Joel, for lack of a better word, haha.

We're SO close to an era of video game movies and TV shows actually being good, we're almost there!

[Reed Rothchild | 9,963]

*Sonic trailer*

Kids: Hooray!

Adults: The face isn't exactly right!

 

*Mario trailer*

Kids: Hooray!

Adults: The voice doesn't sound Italian McItalianFace enough!

[RH | 5,226]

33 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

*Sonic trailer*

Kids: Hooray!

Adults: The face isn't exactly right!

 

*Mario trailer*

Kids: Hooray!

Adults: The voice doesn't sound Italian McItalianFace enough!

The difference in this situation vs that one is that Nintendo isn't as thirsty as SEGA has been for the past 25 years.

Edited December 1, 2022 by RH

[Brickman | 4,215]

28 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

*Sonic trailer*

Kids: Hooray!

Adults: The face isn't exactly right!

 

*Mario trailer*

Kids: Hooray!

Adults: The voice doesn't sound Italian McItalianFace enough!

Yeah and the Sonic thing helped the movie not look like shit. Sometimes complaining is justified for a good outcome.

Unfortunately I don’t see them replacing Pratt though.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,963]

16 minutes ago, Brickman said:

Yeah and the Sonic thing helped the movie not look like shit. Sometimes complaining is justified for a good outcome.

Unfortunately I don’t see them replacing Pratt though.

But what percent of the gross was children (or parents of the children), and what percent of those children cared about Sonic's appearance or Pratt's voice?

Would Sonic's RottenTomatoes score or box office gross been any different?  It cost Paramount $35 million to redo him.  I'm imagine the cost to replace Pratt would be worse.  

My boys are begging me to take them to Mario,and I guarantee it's 95%+ families that have no idea who's even doing his voice.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,963]

Hell, while we're at it, Sonic and Mario are BOTH voiced by members of the Parks & Rec cast, and both of them are basically doing their regular thing.  Hell, Sonic even uses one of Jean Ralphio's catchphrases...

So, what's the difference?  Or is it that Pratt just has more infamy and familiarity 

[Brickman | 4,215]

5 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

But what percent of the gross was children (or parents of the children), and what percent of those children cared about Sonic's appearance or Pratt's voice?

Would Sonic's RottenTomatoes score or box office gross been any different?  It cost Paramount $35 million to redo him.  I'm imagine the cost to replace Pratt would be worse.  

My boys are begging me to take them to Mario,and I guarantee it's 95%+ families that have no idea who's even doing his voice.

Yeah I don’t disagree that kids don’t care. They won’t even know the majority of the actors.

But these types of movies aren’t just aimed at kids anymore. They’ve realised that nerds and geeks in their 20’s and 30’s also love these movies and a huge part of their revenue comes from those people.

You personally will only see families going to see it because that’s your demographic and kids don’t stay up late. But I guarantee when I go to see it it will be packed full of nerds who grew up on Mario and care about the look and VA. 

Personally I think this looks fantastic and looks like it will have something for everyone. I don’t like Pratt’s Mario but it won’t stop me from seeing it.

4 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Hell, while we're at it, Sonic and Mario are BOTH voiced by members of the Parks & Rec cast, and both of them are basically doing their regular thing.  Hell, Sonic even uses one of Jean Ralphio's catchphrases...

So, what's the difference?  Or is it that Pratt just has more infamy and familiarity 

I personally think that Jean Ralphio’s standard voice matches Sonic’s attitude so it worked perfectly.

I feel that Pratt’s Mario sounds boring and lifeless. Personally I would prefer if they got someone else maybe even an Italian American VA.

[RH | 5,226]

I was hoping they'd return to a New York accent.  I'd give Chris a pass on that.  But no.  He's straight up 'Murcan, with a dash of Italian just to remind you he's "Mario".  (Well, that's what it feels like from the trailer.)

[Reed Rothchild | 9,963]

1 hour ago, Brickman said:

huge part of their revenue comes from those people.

I'd wonder...

Anecdotally, my boys got Sonic movie tickets/on demand rentals.  I bought them the UHD discs for Xmas.  They got backpacks and lunch containers for the school year.  If Lego bothered to do a Sonic set, that'd be at the top of the wishlist.  We'll see if the Mario movie captures them the same way.

And they've never even played a Sonic game, incidentally.  I didn't push any of this.

[Tulpa | 3,718]

1 hour ago, Brickman said:

But these types of movies aren’t just aimed at kids anymore. They’ve realised that nerds and geeks in their 20’s and 30’s also love these movies and a huge part of their revenue comes from those people.

But there's a big overlap between those two groups now. Plenty of nerds and geeks manage to reproduce (they don't all stay in their parents' basements.)

I don't think most of them will stand on principle about Mario's voice if their kids are hyped to see it.

Edited December 1, 2022 by Tulpa

[Brickman | 4,215]

39 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I'd wonder...

Anecdotally, my boys got Sonic movie tickets/on demand rentals.  I bought them the UHD discs for Xmas.  They got backpacks and lunch containers for the school year.  If Lego bothered to do a Sonic set, that'd be at the top of the wishlist.  We'll see if the Mario movie captures them the same way.

And they've never even played a Sonic game, incidentally.  I didn't push any of this.

Sonic the Hedgehog™ – Green Hill Zone 21331 | Ideas | Buy online at the Official LEGO® Shop AU

Christmas sorted  

41 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

But there's a big overlap between those two groups now. Plenty of nerds and geeks manage to reproduce (they don't all stay in their parents' basements.)

I don't think most of them will stand on principle about Mario's voice if their kids are hyped to see it.

Yeah of course not, they'd have to be a terrible parent to say "sorry kid, not seeing that because I don't like Pratt's Mario voice" haha. 

I'm not arguing that parents or kids won't want to see this because of Pratt's Mario voice. I'm just saying that there is more than one demographic seeing this movie, so it makes sense why people are positing online that they don't like Pratt's voice. 

At the end of the day, this movie will sell like crazy.

[Tanooki | 5,125]

Kids aside and I'm being salty, it's not always the job of the studio or the in this case game developer to pander and kiss the ring of a small pack of overly entitled grown manchild nerds either.

Stepping away from it for a second, what if they left in Martinet with the existing cast?  Sure the vocal minority of grown babies probably would be happy, but it would be utterly jarring.  You have this perky peppy wee hee wooo hoo borderline racist late 20th century racist italian stereo type voice babbling on and on, everyone else kind of just fits the face and sounds like a solid performance.  It's just weird.  I mean hell, Luigi isn't getting any whining... why?  He doesn't even sound italian really in that clip you get with Bowser, double standard much?  What about the overly cute toads not sounding like they gargled on some overly cute raspy rocks like in the past games or cartoons?

I get some people are just stuck in their ways, and I think it's specifically directed at taking cheap shots at Pratt for whatever the motivation, but it's not bad.  I've see some whine he doesn't specifically do his woohoo or pitch right, funny, that little mario karting hop at the end sure as hell nailed that.  Just because he doesn't sound like someone kicked mickey mouse in the nuts on pasta night doesn't mean it's a bad voice.  I'm both not and am shocked at the utterly disgusting and immature repeated comments I'm seeing on social media about it.  This shouldn't be divisive, this isn't some weird Sonic moment where they basically just slapped some random head on there and thought it was smart.  Mario looks right, reacts right, sounds right too as far as how the accent and tone should be from well... Brooklyn, NY with italian ancestry.

I'm sure I'll catch some flack for this post, but it's not changing, people need to get over it, to re-cast this now would cost a lot of money to appease what... far less people than Sonic ever would have.  And it makes me lean hard against something Nintendo formerly was steadfast against for years, and still partly is so, NOT putting voices to their characters despite a mountain of bitching to do it...ie: LINK.  They always come back that no one will be happy, everyone has expectation, we can't do it because how people will behave.  This, THIS shit..that's validating why he's a mute in a game franchise full of rambling characters.

[Andy_Bogomil | 862]

I'm just disappointed Steven Tyler wasn't cast for Toad.. missed opportunity there for everyone. 

 

 

[Mega Tank | 1,101]

On 12/1/2022 at 7:23 PM, Tanooki said:

Kids aside and I'm being salty, it's not always the job of the studio or the in this case game developer to pander and kiss the ring of a small pack of overly entitled grown manchild nerds either.

Stepping away from it for a second, what if they left in Martinet with the existing cast?  Sure the vocal minority of grown babies probably would be happy, but it would be utterly jarring.  You have this perky peppy wee hee wooo hoo borderline racist late 20th century racist italian stereo type voice babbling on and on, everyone else kind of just fits the face and sounds like a solid performance.  It's just weird.  I mean hell, Luigi isn't getting any whining... why?  He doesn't even sound italian really in that clip you get with Bowser, double standard much?  What about the overly cute toads not sounding like they gargled on some overly cute raspy rocks like in the past games or cartoons?

I get some people are just stuck in their ways, and I think it's specifically directed at taking cheap shots at Pratt for whatever the motivation, but it's not bad.  I've see some whine he doesn't specifically do his woohoo or pitch right, funny, that little mario karting hop at the end sure as hell nailed that.  Just because he doesn't sound like someone kicked mickey mouse in the nuts on pasta night doesn't mean it's a bad voice.  I'm both not and am shocked at the utterly disgusting and immature repeated comments I'm seeing on social media about it.  This shouldn't be divisive, this isn't some weird Sonic moment where they basically just slapped some random head on there and thought it was smart.  Mario looks right, reacts right, sounds right too as far as how the accent and tone should be from well... Brooklyn, NY with italian ancestry.

I'm sure I'll catch some flack for this post, but it's not changing, people need to get over it, to re-cast this now would cost a lot of money to appease what... far less people than Sonic ever would have.  And it makes me lean hard against something Nintendo formerly was steadfast against for years, and still partly is so, NOT putting voices to their characters despite a mountain of bitching to do it...ie: LINK.  They always come back that no one will be happy, everyone has expectation, we can't do it because how people will behave.  This, THIS shit..that's validating why he's a mute in a game franchise full of rambling characters.

It's an animated movie with a main character that doesn't sound animated. That's what the fuss is about.

[guitarzombie | 936]

Looks great.  Everything else like the writing, voicing, jokes, soundtrack, big nah.  I feel like this is the same exact type of comedy that gets made every time, just with a Mario skin.  If kids dig it, cool, I guess.

[Andy_Bogomil | 862]

2 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

Looks great.  Everything else like the writing, voicing, jokes, soundtrack, big nah.  I feel like this is the same exact type of comedy that gets made every time, just with a Mario skin.  If kids dig it, cool, I guess.

But did you hear the piano *tink* in the trailer? A parody of itself at this point.

*not knocking the movie, just the cliché preview setup.  

[fcgamer | 5,015]

On 12/1/2022 at 8:00 AM, FireHazard51 said:

The movie will be a hit with kids and the "younger" generation but for the "hardcore" gamers who grew up with with Mario I feel like we hold a higher standard that Chris Pratt just isn't going to hit. 

Yup, this 100%. 

On 12/2/2022 at 3:27 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

My boys are begging me to take them to Mario,and I guarantee it's 95%+ families that have no idea who's even doing his voice.

This would be making the assumption that the vast majority of families going have parents that are not active gamers, who would be interested in the movie themselves. If we were talking about the original Mario movie from the early nineties, I would agree with you, but things have changed. 

I work with closely with children from the ages 3 to 11 or so for my job, so their parents are right around my age. A ton of my students' (primarily fathers, though also some of the mothers) are the active gamers in the house.

On 12/2/2022 at 3:48 AM, Brickman said:

Yeah I don’t disagree that kids don’t care. They won’t even know the majority of the actors.

But these types of movies aren’t just aimed at kids anymore. They’ve realised that nerds and geeks in their 20’s and 30’s also love these movies and a huge part of their revenue comes from those people.

You personally will only see families going to see it because that’s your demographic and kids don’t stay up late. But I guarantee when I go to see it it will be packed full of nerds who grew up on Mario and care about the look and VA. 

Personally I think this looks fantastic and looks like it will have something for everyone. I don’t like Pratt’s Mario but it won’t stop me from seeing it.

Nailed it on all aspects! Kids won't be fussed about the actors, but unmarried nerds and family nerds are also going to be wanting to see this film.

On 12/2/2022 at 4:59 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

I'd wonder...

Anecdotally, my boys got Sonic movie tickets/on demand rentals.  I bought them the UHD discs for Xmas.  They got backpacks and lunch containers for the school year.  If Lego bothered to do a Sonic set, that'd be at the top of the wishlist.  We'll see if the Mario movie captures them the same way.

And they've never even played a Sonic game, incidentally.  I didn't push any of this.

As their father, your choices and interests directly or indirectly influence them, especially if they are young. The rest comes from peers, whose parents would be influencing their children. It's not about you forcing or pushing them into it like a parent might do with piano lessons, they likely just see your gaming shit lying around and as they see you as Super Dad, want to be like you and have an interest in things that you enjoy.

On 12/2/2022 at 3:39 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

Hell, while we're at it, Sonic and Mario are BOTH voiced by members of the Parks & Rec cast, and both of them are basically doing their regular thing.  Hell, Sonic even uses one of Jean Ralphio's catchphrases...

So, what's the difference?  Or is it that Pratt just has more infamy and familiarity 

No idea, somehow quoted this part but didn't mean to.

On 12/2/2022 at 5:02 AM, Tulpa said:

But there's a big overlap between those two groups now. Plenty of nerds and geeks manage to reproduce (they don't all stay in their parents' basements.)

I don't think most of them will stand on principle about Mario's voice if their kids are hyped to see it.

While I agree with the statement, usage of the word "manage" is inappropriate and insulting. You should get with the times.

On 12/2/2022 at 5:56 AM, Brickman said:

Yeah of course not, they'd have to be a terrible parent to say "sorry kid, not seeing that because I don't like Pratt's Mario voice" haha. 

I'm not arguing that parents or kids won't want to see this because of Pratt's Mario voice. I'm just saying that there is more than one demographic seeing this movie, so it makes sense why people are positing online that they don't like Pratt's voice. 

Yeah, I agree with this as well. For the parents that aren't feeling it, yet are also in the target demograph, they will still be seeing it for the sake of their childen. Those that don't due to the voice, well that's just shitty, parents should be making sacrifices for their kids.

On 12/2/2022 at 8:23 AM, Tanooki said:

Kids aside and I'm being salty, it's not always the job of the studio or the in this case game developer to pander and kiss the ring of a small pack of overly entitled grown manchild nerds either.

Well at the end of the day we live in a world where familes > couples > single by choice > single not by choice. That's how the world runs. It's easy to spread one's seed, easy to marry, but just as easy to get divorced and have children to several different partners. 

I'd personally throw it back and say that so often it's the entitled parents that cause these situations, with any backlash coming as a result. 

Nintendo cares about their family-friendly image, that's fine, but suppose they didn't and decided to release a Mario movie with a much darker atmosphere? Could even do cartoony and the core, but a dark, deep underbelly. The so-called "entitled grown manchild nerds" might love it, but they'd be receiving so much flack from the parents, whose kids would be begging them to see the R rated Mario movie or whatever. So to please the parents and their kids, everything ultimately gets watered down to the most neutral, least spicy version possible. Ugh. 

[G-type | 2,816]

On 11/30/2022 at 3:37 PM, ZeldaFreak said:

Honestly, the only thing I'm still not really sold on is Pratt's Mario voice. What he's going for could work in theory, but the problem is it really just sounds like he's not putting that much effort in to it, he doesn't sound particularly enthusiastic, unlike some of the others like Jack Black who really sound like they're giving it their all. I know some other people already came to this conclusion after the first teaser, but he only had a couple lines in that so I wanted to give his performance a fair chance, and so far it just isn't really working that well for me. Other than that though, it actually looks very good, about as good as you could possibly ask for a Mario movie. I probably won't see it in theaters, but I'll definitely be watching it at some point. And even if Pratt's voice isn't great, it's not gonna ruin the whole movie for me or anything, I'm just not sure he was the right choice for the role.

Pratt’s Mario voice is like that friend who thinks he does a great impression and is always busting it out and you’re all just humoring him.

[Brickman | 4,215]

34 minutes ago, G-type said:

Pratt’s Mario voice is like that friend who thinks he does a great impression and is always busting it out and you’re all just humoring him.

 

I actually really laughed out at this comment. So true.