‘Super Mario’ producer defends casting Chris Pratt, won’t offend Italians

nypost.com:

reports Entertainment Weekly. “When people hear Chris Pratt’s performance, the criticism will evaporate, maybe not entirely — people love to voice opinions, as they should,” says Meledandri. “I’m not sure this is the smartest defense, but as a person who has Italian-American heritage, I feel I can make that decision without worrying about offending Italians or Italian-Americans… I think we’re going to be just fine.”Fans of the iconic video game saga were angered after Pratt was announced as the voice of the titular character.“Chris Pratt playing Mario is italiaphobia and i’m tired of acting like it isn’t,” said one disgruntled Twitter user.“F – – k this casting celebrities as video game characters in their movies thing … No one wants to see them reinvent Mario to act like Chris Pratt,” said another.

Meledandri said that the partnership between the production company Illumination and Nintendo is “the fulfillment of a really important objective,” and that Nintendo “is one of the companies we respect and hold in high esteem; this collaboration I think is unprecedented in its closeness.”The film was initially set to jump into theaters on December 1, 2022 however, Nintendo’s head designer, Shigeru Miyamoto said the film will now open in Spring 2023.“After consulting with [Meledandri], my partner at Illumination on the Super Mario Bros.

film, we decided to move the global release to Spring 2023 — April 28 in Japan and April 7 in North America,” said Miyamoto.  “My deepest apologies but I promise it will be well worth the wait.”Chris Pratt is joined by Anya Taylor-Joy who will voice Princess Peach — Mario’s love and consistent damsel in distress — and Charlie Day as Mario’s brother, Luigi. .