Charles Martinet has been the voice of Mario since the ‘90s, so you can imagine fans’ disappointment when it was announced that Chris Pratt was going to be the voice of everyone’s favorite plumber in the Super Mario movie.
While there are certainly a lot of doubts about the voice behind Emmet from the LEGO Movie, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri has spoken up about hiring Pratt and says that he’s doing such amazing work on the film. Talking to Variety, Meledandri says:
“Chris was cast because we felt he could give a great performance as Mario. And now that we’ve done about 15 recording sessions, and the movie is three-quarters done, I sit here and say that I love his performance as Mario.”
When it comes to casting Pratt to play an infamously Italian character, Meledandri mentioned that Pratt also had Italian-American heritage, and he adds, “I think we’re gonna be just fine. Especially because (Pratt) he’s given such a strong performance.”
Though Pratt had become a rising A-lister since Guardians of the Galaxy, he has since become the ‘worst MCU Chris’ on Twitter after he was accused of being a member of a homophobic church. If anything, a lot of people have voiced out their defense of Pratt as a good co-worker, and besides the church thing, he hasn’t really been called out for doing anything offensive.
For now, things look to be going smoothly with Super Mario the movie, and hopefully we get a look at the film before the year ends.
For now, the Super Mario Bros. movie is set to release in theaters on April 7.
