The announcement of the new “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” last October came with much excitement from fans. With the official release date coming soon on April 7, 2023, many Mario fans have something to look forward to in the near future. With production beginning in 2020, directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic set their sights on creating a magical movie for fans to enjoy.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” comes in with an all star cast of actors, led by Chris Pratt playing the role of Mario. Also leading the cast is Jack Black playing Bowser, Anna Taylor Joy playing Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Keegen Michal Key playing Toad, and Seth Rogen playing Donkey Kong.

The revelation of the cast led to much controversy around the actor for the role of Mario. Mario is widely considered to have an Italian accent, therefore many would assume that the actor for this position would have one as well. However, many were stunned and questioned the choice of having Chris Pratt, an American, play the role. Ethical concerns were raised on whether Universal was wrong for choosing an American to play a position of someone who would have an Italian accent. Is Universal depriving other actors of a potential lead role? Also, how will Pratt’s voice sound on the big screen? Many ponder over what it will sound like to have an actor with an American accent play the role of Mario, who is widely known to have an Italian accent. The trailer being released gave us a glimpse of Pratt’s voice, and some continued to be skeptical.

Many believe that the production team made a mistake by choosing Pratt to play the voice of Mario because it has already and will continue to hurt the reviews of the movie. A movie with so many skeptics is unlikely to succeed as these doubters could scare away potential viewers, and may result in the movie bringing in less money than hoped. However, the movie will likely do well with younger fans of Mario and the more old school fans who love the Mario series. The movie will likely  bring in respectable views, but it will lack the opportunity to be a huge hit movie because of the controversy already surrounding the movie prior to the release. All fans should be excited about the new Mario movie, as it is the first Mario movie to hit the big screens in quite a while.