The group of those speaking out against the upcoming reboot is increasingly original Super Mario Bros. Movie star John Leguizamo criticizes the animated film’s non-inclusive cast. Leguizamo starred in the 1993 adaptation of Nintendo’s game franchise as Luigi Mario, an Italian-American plumber and brother of the titular character who finds himself transported to the bizarre alternate dimension of Dinohattan, ruled by King Koopa of Dennis Hopper. The movie Super Mario Bros. will serve as the launch point for an interconnected cinematic universe of Nintendo characters, with Chris Pratt leading the ensemble cast of Mario, though not all are on board for the cast.
In a recent interview with IndieWireLeguizamo reflects on his time making the original Super Mario Bros. movie adaptation. Looking towards the upcoming animated film, the former Luigi actor slammed the decision to cast a white actor in the lead role, saying it was a step “backwardin the POC representation for the film. See what Leguizamo had to say below:
I’m OG A lot of people love the original. I’ve done Comic-Con in New York and Baltimore, and everyone’s like, “No, no, we like the old, the original.” They don’t smell new. I am not bitter. It’s unfortunate. The directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton fought very hard to get me the lead because I was a Latino, and they [the studio] didn’t want me to be the leader. They fought very hard, and it was such a breakthrough. So they go back and don’t start another [actor of color] kind of sucks.
Leguizamo is right about Mario’s upside-down casting
Casting Pratt as Mario Super Mario Bros movie was criticized for a variety of reasons, ranging from the lack of an actual Italian-American in the role to the lackluster performance heard in the recently released trailer. Prolific voice actor Tara Strong has spoken out against the casting, believing that longtime Mario game actor Charles Martinet should have taken over the role from the animated film instead of the jurassic world star. On the other hand, Khary Payton, who voices the Penguin King, came to the defense of Pratt’s work in The movie Super Mario Bros.indicating that the actor brings a Sopranostyle approach to the character instead of the voice that audiences have come to know and love.
Regardless of the side of the public argument regarding Pratt’s work, many are sure to believe that Leguizamo is ultimately right in his Super Mario Bros movie. launch criticism. Even if Pratt’s full work in the role doesn’t turn out to be as terrible as the trailer suggests, casting an all-white actor in the role instead of someone with genuine Italian roots creates a disappointing lack of inclusivity in the film’s slate. While Leguizamo may not have Italian heritage, he at least brought a sense of diversity to the character in the terrible Super Mario Bros.while the decision to cast Keegan Michael-Key as Toad shows that the producers were open to the idea of an inclusive cast, but failed to leverage it properly.
The aftermath of the movie Super Mario Bros. will it hurt its box office?
Given the division towards the film with less than a year remaining, the question now is whether The movie Super Mario Bros. will suffer at the box office due to casting backlash. Contrary to sonic the hedgehog before that, Nintendo’s animated film doesn’t have the advantage of completely redesigning its main character to better meet audience expectations, and with the weeks leading up to the releases of John Wick: Chapter 4, Shazam! Fury of the gods and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Thieves, it will have a lot of competition to overcome to prove to the game’s publisher that a new film adaptation was a good idea. Only time will tell when The movie Super Mario Bros. in theaters April 7, 2023.
Source: IndieWire