When Illumination’s Super Mario Bros. Movie cast Chris Pratt in the title role, fans were skeptical, to say the least. That feeling was arguably amplified by the Mario movie’s first trailer, which revealed Pratt’s accent of choice. Over the past several months, many have continued to share their brutally honest thoughts across social media. Though many have been blunt, they apparently don't match the level of scrutiny exhibited by none other than Pratt's own son. As the actor explained, his kid showed no mercy when reacting to his casting.
If a kid were to find out their father’s playing one of the most popular video game characters ever created, you'd think that would make him the coolest dad on the planet in their eyes. However, when ET Online spoke to Chris Pratt, he shared that his ten-year-old son, Jack, was less than impressed with him voicing the lead plumber in The Super Mario Bros. Movie:
Like he plays Smash Brothers and he's like, 'Dad, I own at Smash, I own everybody at Smash. And I'm Luigi. I think Luigi is a better player. So he's always kind of leaning against the characters that I play!
This isn't the first time that the younger Pratt's honesty has been on display. Jack once admitted he likes Spider-Man better than his Guardian of the Galaxy character Star-Lord. Ouch. But that doesn’t mean the lucky kid didn’t have a great time when he visited the set of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and got to see the Guardians spaceship set for himself. I guess if there's anyone who you'd want to be honest with you, it would be your family. (And given this response, I'd assume that Jack wasn't phased by the perfect Mario mustache his pop grew, either.)
Not only does Jack “own” at Super Smash Brothers, but Chris Pratt was a pretty heavy gamer back in the day as well. All the more reason why it meant so much to him that he was given the opportunity to voice Mario:
I spent hundreds of hours, literally, that's not hyperbole, maybe thousands of hours, playing Super Mario Bros. and playing Nintendo as a kid. So it taps that nostalgic vein, in everyone.
I can imagine a number of fans waiting in line to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie for that exact reason. An entire generation of gamers will be living out their nostalgic fantasies when seeing their favorite video game being on the big screen for the first time in close to 30 years. Fortunately, Jack and many other devotees will get to see this video game-adapted movie two days earlier than expected, as the film was moved up recently.
Jack Pratt may be more of a Luigi fan than one of Mario's, but not everyone can say they’ve got a cool dad who’ll be voicing one of the most prominent video game heroes. You can see Chris Pratt's work for yourself when the 2023 movie release The Super Mario Bros. Movie hits theaters on April 5th, and it'll eventually be available to stream with a Peacock subscription.
