

There is nothing like a bit of controversial casting to get the world riled up - and that is just what has happened with the announcement by Nintendo that there is going to be a new Super Mario Bros movie.
Revealed at Nintendo Direct - and certainly the star of the show, although Knights Of The Old Republic coming to the Nintendo Switch is pretty cool - Shigeru Miyamoto made a surprise appearance on the stage to showcase the new animated movie that has quite the cast list.
First the elephant in the room: Charles Martinet, current Mario voice and has been since the '90s, will not be playing the Italian plumber - instead A-Lister Chris Pratt will take on the role. Yep, Chris Pratt.
While it might seem like strange casting... well, it is strange casting. But he has experience in lending his voice for animated films, having played Emmet in The Lego Movie. Not quite 30 years of experience that Martinet has but, hey.
Other casting decisions aren't quite so controversial, with Anya Taylor-Joy playing Princess Peach, Bowser will be voiced by Jack Black and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. Luigi will be played by Charlie Day and Keegan-Michael Key is Toad.
Nintendo is no stranger to 'interesting' casting. The live action movie decided on Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi and Dennis Hopper as Bowser. But that all turned out okay as the movie is practically perfect and we won't have a bad word said against it.
The directors of the movie will be Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic - this is actually good news as they are the ones that have brought the ace Teen Titans Go! to life.
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The Super Mario Bors movie release date is December, 2022.

As Content Director of Shortlist, Marc likes nothing more than to compile endless lists of an evening by candlelight. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.
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