Okay, so we got a new trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie that dropped this week. There is a lot to love about the trailer, but that isn’t what I will focus on here. Why? It’s because I can’t help but make things more complicated for myself. It is some sort of sickness. Anyway we have gotten more voice acting from the cast members and we have heard almost every main voice that was cast in the movie. So it seems like now is a good time to talk a bit more about the characters and their voices just so I can voice out my feelings on the matter. Not like my feelings will really influence anything. Let’s be honest here, you have already decided whether or not you are going to see this movie already. That won’t stop me from talking though. I think that things might be easier if I break up each character into their own section though. Especially because I have to talk about certain characters more than others. Alright, let’s go.
Kamek
He only had one voice line in the teaser trailer a while back, but the voice seems respectable. Personally I prefer the deep older voice with the design they gave him, instead of his usual high-pitched kind of voice. No problems here.
Toad
Not as high pitched as I was expecting, and I am honestly okay with that. If I am being honest so far, I don’t really know how to feel about it but not in a bad way. I like the energy that the voice gives off though. I feel like he isn’t going to be just a comic relief character though, which was something I worried about. Overall, pretty good.
Bowser
Do I even need to repeat myself? As I have said before, Bowser sounds great in this movie so far. He has a more commanding voice when he needs to and he sounds sinister when he needs to and all while providing a lot of energy into everything that he does. Not to mention, I really do love how cocky he seems to be. Overall, worth watching this movie based on this voice alone.
Luigi
So, he finally got some Luigi action here in this trailer other than just a yell. It seems that he is the one captured this time other than the princess. Based on the trailer and the whole origin story premise, his voice has sold me. He is on edge, nervous, afraid, and in full on panic mode. Considering he has been captured by a giant turtle dragon and has been imprisoned in a lava fortress with no way to resist, he is honestly doing better than I would. Good for him and great levels of panic in the voice.
Princess Peach
Now this was the one we were really waiting for since the last trailer. They could have taken things in different directions but I am glad they decided to go the direction of a competent ruler who isn’t just a liability. She sounds like a competent ruler rather than just a surprised stand-in. I like to think they decided to use the influence of the original Peach voice actor from Super Mario 64 as a basis. After all, they opened up the trailer with that poster showing striking some imagery from that game. Personally, I am glad they decided to give her some depth to her voice.
Alright, now who’s left to talk about. Oh yeah. Okay, let’s get this over with. Let’s talk about the guy who is supposed to be the star of the show.
Mario
Now here is the thing. I have mixed feelings about Mario. For the record, I don’t think that Chris Pratt was a bad casting choice for Mario with respect to this movie. Now I know how that sounds, but hear me out for a second. Notice I said the words “with respect to this movie”. You see the thing is that at the end of the day, despite whatever you believe you know about Mario, this is an origin story and because of that we are in uncharted territory. In other words, this is a Mario that we haven’t seen before and the trailers are heavily indicating now that he was actually doing plumbing prior to this movie’s plot kicking off. The only reason he ends up in The Mushroom Kingdom seems to be that he was trying to save his brother Luigi from an uncertain fate. Before this he was just an ordinary plumber and as far as I know, being a plumber is something Mario hasn’t used once since going to The Mushroom Kingdom. So, with that in mind what kind of Mario would we expect and the only thing I could come up with is generic man. Hello, Chris Pratt.
Now a lot of people say that Chris Pratt doesn’t match Mario, but the thing is Mario himself doesn’t really have a lot of personality. That is somewhat intentional on Nintendo’s part, but I don’t understand how people can expect Mario in this case to think of Mario as anything more than a random guy. So I will not take that excuse anymore. However, if you were to say you didn’t like him because he sounds as though he feels out of place, then there is more merit to that argument. Even though Mario doesn’t have much of a personality, that doesn’t mean you can’t give him one. So far, all I can say is that maybe he is the type to jump in without considering the consequences. That’s all they’ve shown us. Personally speaking, the voice of Mario sounds a bit… out there I guess? It’s hard to describe. I just can’t pin down who this Mario is supposed to be.
The problem is I can’t really pin down Mario because we haven’t seen him interact with anybody. All, of his lines so far have just been statements out loud directed to no one in particular. Everyone else has at least has some sort of conversation with someone else. I can gather from that at least a bit of personality, but I can’t really say anything about Mario. I don’t want to dunk on Mario, I really don’t. I am trying to be as considerate as possible, but I am just not being given much to work off of here. Give me some sort of interaction, preferably more than just getting dominated by an ape in a tie. Also, some Donkey Kong lines would be appreciated too while I’m being greedy and asking for things. At the end of the day, though I am still going to see the movie. Why? I shouldn’t have to answer that. so I won’t. Instead, I’ll sign off for today. See you next week.
That Casual Gamer Guy 