Nintendo used its Nintendo Direct presentation to announce a new
Super Mario Bros. Movie in September of 2021. With a star-studded cast, the first trailer dropped in October of 2022, and upon hearing Chris Pratt's voice for Mario, fans were not particularly happy. While Pratt's Mario voice has
drawn ire, the majority of the voice actor choices and their performances we've heard in trailers so far have been met with positive responses. Keegan-Michael Key's admittedly modified voice for Toad works well, as does Anya Taylor-Joy's seemingly non-modified Princess Peach.
Within the last day, however, Nintendo and Illumination, the production company behind the film, released a 30-second trailer containing yet another voice. That voice is Seth Rogen's speaking for one of Nintendo's oldest named characters, Donkey Kong (DK).
The Latest Super Mario Bros. Movie Trailer with Donkey Kong and Cat Suit Mario
The trailer opens on what appears to be a combat stadium, invoking a sense of the
Smash Brothers series of games. So far, we've seen many other well-known Mario environments and aspects of the Mushroom Kingdom, such as
Mario Kart, jump platforms, jump moves, pipes, elevators, and even
piranha plants. Including a nod to the classic brawler only seems to make sense.
Mario being pinned by Donkey Kong in Super Mario Bros. Movie
We also see the first instance of Mario gaining a power-up, the
Super Mario 3D World-introduced catsuit. DK finds this hilarious, and we get to hear Seth Rogen's unmistakable laugh. To be quite honest, we think Rogen's voice works well for Donkey Kong. Very few titles give Donkey Kong any audible dialogue, leaving his voice more open to interpretation.
Despite
the delays and
some spoiler-related strife, the
Super Mario Bros. Movie is set to release on April 7, 2023. We are looking forward to it overall and hope it does far better than 1993's Super Mario Bros, a film so bad that most of its actors ignore that it was part of their careers and refuse to talk about it in interviews. Based on what we've seen, though, Nintendo and Illumination might have a long partnership in the making here.