‘It’s-a Me, Mario!’: Chris Pratt Posts Excited Instagram Video About Being Cast in New Super Mario Bros. Animated Film

Sarah RumpfSep 23rd, 2021, 10:54 pm
 
mario nintendo super mario bros.

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images.

“It’s-a me, Mario!” Chris Pratt was elated to say those words in an Instagram video posted Thursday evening, announcing that he had been cast as the voice of Mario, the hero of Nintendo’s long-running video game franchise, Super Mario Bros., for an animated film scheduled for release in December 2022.

Nintendo announced the voice cast on Twitter earlier in the day. Joining Pratt in exploring the Mushroom Kingdom will be Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike. Charles Martinet, who voiced Mario in the video games since the 1990s, will make “surprise cameos” in the film.

In Pratt’s Instagram video, he told a story about when he was a kid in Lake Stevens, Washington, and there was a coin-operated laundromat near his house where he had played the Super Mario Bros. arcade game.

“Oh, I loved that game,” said Pratt, who then laughed as he recalled how he would usually not have a quarter so he would steal one from a nearby wishing well.

(You see, kids, back in the olden times before everyone had an iPhone in their pocket, people would play video games on these big machines that were operated by quarters. You could also make a phone call with a quarter, but we’ll explain that some other time.)

“That’s wild, it just dawned on me right now,” he said, “the quarter I stole out of the wishing well to play Super Mario Bros. has come true, that I get to be the voice of Mario, but I clearly stole someone else’s wish, so just waiting for that row of karma dominoes to come crashing down on me.”

“But as it is right now, ‘It’s-a me, Mario'” Pratt continued, quickly adding, “That’s not the voice, you’ll have to wait to hear the voice,” promising his fans “we’ve been working hard at it.”

“I’m really excited to announce that I’m gonna be the voice of that video game that I dreamed about playing as a kid, “he concluded. “Dreams come true.”

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.