Credit: Universal Studios / Nintendo / Illumination
5 Comments
Steve
You can’t criticize casting entirely different races, though. You don’t like the guy’s accent, but if it was a New York ghetto accent, you would be silent. No, you would be calling anyone complaining bad words.
People need to understand that movies cost a lot of money to make. Thus, the actors need to be well known. Pratt is very well known hence why Pratt has the lead.
I would have liked to see Pratt try and get his Italian on. With today’s tech they should be able to alter Pratts voice.
You are such a tool. Mario is more famous than Chris Pratt could ever hope to be. So no, it could have been voiced by a walmart employee as long as they could get close to his iconic voice and no one would care, it would still be a hit. Please go back to school. You are about as sharp as a bouncy ball.
Moron writer of the article doesn’t realize that there were early cartoons which had live action segments where the actors used Brooklyn accents for the mario Brothers. Also that Hoskins is an English actor, so was told to have the accent he did. Did you even do any research? Idiot.
And for the guy who comments on this film needing a recognized actor, you are an idiot as well. Mario is more famous than Chris Pratt could ever hope to be.
Do you people think before you wrote?
What really took me back was the whole “hypocritical” argument. You may be too young to know what things were like back when the first ever Mario voice acting happened and/or you didn’t research enough. Maybe you should try to interview some super fans so that you can get a balanced perspective as well as information that you are clearly lacking.
Reasons the lack of backlash against Hoskins’s portrayal of NYC-style Mario isn’t hypocritical:
1. The 1993 movie was considered a commercial failure. The Guardian wrote a great article on what a disaster the filming was. There were many things wrong with the movie and Hoskins’s accent was one of those many things. Clearly fans were not impressed with his portrayal enough for the movie to be sufficiently profitable, which was a disaster anyway.
2. How would a backlash about a movie even get reported back in 1993? The only way to voice a complaint would have been for a multitude of news outlets to echo it. Most people hadn’t even heard of the internet at the time, smart phones were not yet invented, there were probably zero websites where fans could complain, and even if there were – the news media at this time in history was highly unlikely to pay attention. Most news companies probably didn’t have internet at this time either, at least not local newspapers, radio stations, and local tv news stations.
3. The fan base for console video games at this time in history was mostly under 18’s, which is also the audience the 1993 movie essentially targeted. Kids were not going to complain about getting Mario movie at that time, per this quote from Vulture:
“In the three decades since the release of the first game-to-screen movie, 1993’s Super Mario Bros., there have been precious few good entries in the genre (in a critical sense).”
As a kid at this time in history who was a big fan of Mario, I would say no, I did not like Hoskins’s accent, but it was such an adult interpretation of the game world (as in, absolutely nothing like the game really at all), that I was just grateful having something Mario-themed at all. Again, Mario’s accent was the least of the disappointments I was concerned about and even if I had written letters to news outlets, I’m certain that no one would have stopped to report it.
4. We had a vague idea of what Mario should sound like, but not entirely. Lou Albano’s portrayal on the Super Mario Super Show (1989 – 1991), was the closest we got. He did both the live action and animated voice over segments. IMO I thought he was great. Very entertaining and I enjoyed his take on the character.
Fast forward to 1996 when Mario’s voice first appeared in a home console video game which was Mario 64 performed by Charles Martinet (he also performed Mario’s voice in 1992 for a pinball game that hardly anyone got the chance to play). Martinet’s performance is a lot “heavier” of an Italian/Italian-American accent than Albano’s, but they are definitely in the same ballpark.
So the Albano-Martinet accent range has been established as cannon by 1996 onward. The 1993 movie was just a blip, no one thought it was good, and there was no backlash at the time because (1) the movie was terrible (2) no one had a good way to report on or share a backlash and (3) the fan base was too young to know better and too young to cause a real “backlash” phenomenon and (4) it was not fully canon yet as this was pre-1996.
Now that you know more about the history, perhaps you can also appreciate more why people who are 30+ are unhappy about the Chris Pratt portrayal. While I’m not a fan of his, I ultimately don’t care who the actor is. I just want it to sound within the ballpark of the Mario I grew up with. He’s our Mickey Mouse.
Comments for Marvel Star Throws Shade at Chris Pratt Casting In New ‘Mario’ Movie
Steve
You can’t criticize casting entirely different races, though. You don’t like the guy’s accent, but if it was a New York ghetto accent, you would be silent. No, you would be calling anyone complaining bad words.
Joseph Kurt Weydemann
People need to understand that movies cost a lot of money to make. Thus, the actors need to be well known. Pratt is very well known hence why Pratt has the lead.
I would have liked to see Pratt try and get his Italian on. With today’s tech they should be able to alter Pratts voice.
Richard
You are such a tool. Mario is more famous than Chris Pratt could ever hope to be. So no, it could have been voiced by a walmart employee as long as they could get close to his iconic voice and no one would care, it would still be a hit. Please go back to school. You are about as sharp as a bouncy ball.
Richard
Moron writer of the article doesn’t realize that there were early cartoons which had live action segments where the actors used Brooklyn accents for the mario Brothers. Also that Hoskins is an English actor, so was told to have the accent he did. Did you even do any research? Idiot.
And for the guy who comments on this film needing a recognized actor, you are an idiot as well. Mario is more famous than Chris Pratt could ever hope to be.
Do you people think before you wrote?
Fox Valorguard
What really took me back was the whole “hypocritical” argument. You may be too young to know what things were like back when the first ever Mario voice acting happened and/or you didn’t research enough. Maybe you should try to interview some super fans so that you can get a balanced perspective as well as information that you are clearly lacking.
Reasons the lack of backlash against Hoskins’s portrayal of NYC-style Mario isn’t hypocritical:
1. The 1993 movie was considered a commercial failure. The Guardian wrote a great article on what a disaster the filming was. There were many things wrong with the movie and Hoskins’s accent was one of those many things. Clearly fans were not impressed with his portrayal enough for the movie to be sufficiently profitable, which was a disaster anyway.
2. How would a backlash about a movie even get reported back in 1993? The only way to voice a complaint would have been for a multitude of news outlets to echo it. Most people hadn’t even heard of the internet at the time, smart phones were not yet invented, there were probably zero websites where fans could complain, and even if there were – the news media at this time in history was highly unlikely to pay attention. Most news companies probably didn’t have internet at this time either, at least not local newspapers, radio stations, and local tv news stations.
3. The fan base for console video games at this time in history was mostly under 18’s, which is also the audience the 1993 movie essentially targeted. Kids were not going to complain about getting Mario movie at that time, per this quote from Vulture:
“In the three decades since the release of the first game-to-screen movie, 1993’s Super Mario Bros., there have been precious few good entries in the genre (in a critical sense).”
As a kid at this time in history who was a big fan of Mario, I would say no, I did not like Hoskins’s accent, but it was such an adult interpretation of the game world (as in, absolutely nothing like the game really at all), that I was just grateful having something Mario-themed at all. Again, Mario’s accent was the least of the disappointments I was concerned about and even if I had written letters to news outlets, I’m certain that no one would have stopped to report it.
4. We had a vague idea of what Mario should sound like, but not entirely. Lou Albano’s portrayal on the Super Mario Super Show (1989 – 1991), was the closest we got. He did both the live action and animated voice over segments. IMO I thought he was great. Very entertaining and I enjoyed his take on the character.
Fast forward to 1996 when Mario’s voice first appeared in a home console video game which was Mario 64 performed by Charles Martinet (he also performed Mario’s voice in 1992 for a pinball game that hardly anyone got the chance to play). Martinet’s performance is a lot “heavier” of an Italian/Italian-American accent than Albano’s, but they are definitely in the same ballpark.
So the Albano-Martinet accent range has been established as cannon by 1996 onward. The 1993 movie was just a blip, no one thought it was good, and there was no backlash at the time because (1) the movie was terrible (2) no one had a good way to report on or share a backlash and (3) the fan base was too young to know better and too young to cause a real “backlash” phenomenon and (4) it was not fully canon yet as this was pre-1996.
Now that you know more about the history, perhaps you can also appreciate more why people who are 30+ are unhappy about the Chris Pratt portrayal. While I’m not a fan of his, I ultimately don’t care who the actor is. I just want it to sound within the ballpark of the Mario I grew up with. He’s our Mickey Mouse.
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