I am in the camp that I couldn’t really do a whole movie of Charles Martinet’s Mario voice. That’s not to say that I hate it or think it’s wrong or want it changed, I love his Mario voice. But mainly in the small doses we get in games. I know he got his start
as the floating Mario head where he would banter with guests at E3 for hours, but I think that’s different than movie dialog. I stand by my thought that Chris Pratt only got the job because he’s the “hot” actor of the moment. He probably won’t be terrible, but he’s a deeply uninteresting choice.
I wonder if a movie could be written around the joke that Mario and Luigi don’t actually talk very much and still mainly communicate in little quips. Like, keep Jack Black as Bowser, keep Anya-Taylor Joy as Peach, etc. but have Mario and Luigi be directly analogous to how they deliver dialog in games, where it’s mostly short little “oh yeah!” “mama-mia!” “I’m-a tired!” barks. But, I mean, the thing to keep in mind about things like that is if it’s something obvious, then of course
they thought of it and decided it wasn’t working. I’m sure they pitched a version of that movie where Martinet stayed the voice of Mario and this is what we got.
Like I said back when Idris Elba was cast as Knuckles, that’s just Hollywood. Names put butts in seats. I wonder about Pratt, though. His star is falling hard and fast among a certain set of people, and every time he turns up in interviews or whatever lately he seems absolutely miserable. I think the fact that people are sniffing out his politics even though he isn’t doing anything wrong is really starting to bother him. I’d almost feel bad for him except, y'know, he’s barely doing anything to prove anyone wrong besides just saying “Nuh-uh! I’m nice!!!!”
