Credit: Marvel StudiosActor Chris Pratt has seen his fair share of controversy over the last few months.
Pratt has been involved in many controversies over the years, in particular with fans who do not like his religious or political views. Though these controversies have been unfounded, they have continued to follow the actor. Still, he’s remained a popular actor and celebrity in the public light.
The latest controversy involving Chris Pratt, however, came with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The new movie, which was released this past weekend, has already garnered more than $225 million domestically and impressively broke the record set by Disney’s Frozen II (2019) for an opening weekend, and the film ended up grossing more than $1.4 billion.
However, there were a significant number of fans who wanted to avoid Chris Pratt being the voice of Mario. As a matter of fact, there were many who said they’d boycott the movie unless the voice of the actor was changed. A petition was even started to replace Chris Pratt with Danny DeVito.
Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri spoke out about the casting when the controversy first came up.
“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,” Meledandri said.
He also said that, as he has Italian American heritage, he could make that decision without worrying about offending Italians or Italian-Americans. “I think we’re gonna be just fine, especially because [Pratt] he’s given such a strong performance.”
With the wide success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and the expectation that a sequel could be announced in the near future, it’s clear that Pratt got the last laugh. He even poked fun about the voice of the character prior to the movie’s release.
TOP SECRET EXCLUSIVE hear the real, raw, unfiltered, and 100% authentic voices of Mario and Luigi like never before! #SuperMarioMovie 🍄 pic.twitter.com/ZqrDe6HWCf
— Chris Pratt (@prattprattpratt) February 24, 2023
The original 1993 live-action movie of the same name, which starred the late Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as the titular brothers, was both a critical and financial disaster and is considered one of the worst movie adaptations of a video game ever.
What do you think of Chris Pratt getting the last laugh? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments!