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Image via Nintendo/Illumination/Universal
It’s been over a week now since The Super Mario Bros. Movie wahoo-ed its way into theaters, already managing to snag a potential Oscar nomination for original song “Peaches” (performed by Jack Black as Bowser), and even smashing records with finesse. Still, just as Jack Black and Anya Taylor-Joy have earned the respect of life-long Super Mario fanatics, Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt (the voice of Mario) continues to lose it.
We’ll be the first ones to admit that Pratt has made a long-lasting impact on the community for all the wrong reasons, originally facing severe backlash for being a congregant of Hillsong Church, a notoriously anti-LGBTQ gathering. Since then, even the slightest sneeze has come under scrutiny.
But that won’t stop Pratt from promoting the role of a lifetime as Nintendo’s mascot. Originally, Charles Martinet, who has voiced both Mario and Luigi countless times in the Super Mario series, expressed an interest in reprising his role as Mario, but in September 2021, Nintendo game director Shigeru Miyamoto announced that Chris Pratt — among others — would be headlining the ensemble voice cast. Although the authenticity and accuracy of Pratt’s Mario voice are neither here nor there, he’s taken the role seriously enough to promote it every chance he gets, so clearly it must have meant more than a paycheck.
In what we’re assuming to be a gesture of goodwill from Nintendo, the Super Mario Bros. Movie cast has received complimentary gold coin replicas as exclusive merchandise and proof of their participation in what is proving to be nothing short of a spectacular feat in gaming history.
After reminiscing about how he used to steal coins from the wishing well near his laundromat to do laundry, Pratt unboxes the coveted coin, mistaking it (for the purpose of comedy) for a chocolate coin, commonly gifted around Easter or Christmas. He bites into it, not expecting it to be made of metal. And there’s a one-way trip to the dentist in his crystal ball.
And just like Mario, Chris Pratt too can be air-headed at times. Maybe it was a match made in heaven after all.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is currently playing in theaters everywhere.