Original Super Mario Bros. Movie Star Shares Strong Words for Chris Pratt Casting

One of the stars of the original Super Mario Bros. movie has some strong words about Chris Pratt’s casting and the new upcoming animated film. Video game adaptations are all the rage these days. Sony kicked off 2022 with the long-awaited movie adaptation of Uncharted, the studio has a great-looking TV series based on The Last of Us coming in 2023, and much more. However, it used to be much harder for a video game adaptation to come out and actually be good. Hollywood studios would take an IP and mess with it too much, try to find a way to make it marketable to everyone, and it would go down as history as something astonishingly bad. That’s exactly what happened with the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie that was released in 1993.

As we approach the release of the much more accurate-looking animated film starring Chris Pratt, John Leguizamo (who played Luigi in the 1993 movie) had some choice words. When speaking with IndieWire, he expressed displeasure for the new Mario Brothers, noting it as a step backwards as he believes it should be another actor of color. He also stated that he’s been told that people loved the Mario film that he was in and that people are “not feeling” the new animated one. Given that original movie has a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes and is widely regarded as one of the worst video game movies out there, we’re not sure who is telling him that, but that’s what he claims!

“I’m O.G. A lot of people love the original. I did Comic-Con in New York and in Baltimore, and everyone’s like, ‘No, no, we love the old one, the original.’ They’re not feeling the new one,” said Leguizamo. “I’m not bitter. It’s unfortunate. […] The directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton fought really hard for me to be the lead because I was a Latin man, and they [the studio] didn’t want me to be the lead. They fought really hard, and it was such a breakthrough. For them to go backwards and not cast another [actor of color] kind of sucks.”

As of right now, the jury is still out on the new Mario movie. It looks much more faithful to the source material, even if Chris Pratt’s casting as the Italian plumber has caused some feverish discourse. Nevertheless, Pratt is supported by a really talented cast with the likes of Jack Black, Charlie Day, and Seth Rogen. 

What do you think of the previous Mario movie and are you excited for the new one? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.