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| Image: Illumination/Nintendo |
There was much anticipation from Nintendo fans for October 6th, in particular, fans of the Big N's mascot, Mario. This afternoon Nintendo graced us with a teaser trailer for the Super Mario Bros. Movie with a short Nintendo Direct. After some words from from some of the folks involved with the movie including Shigeru Miyamoto and voice cast Chris Pratt and Jack Black, the moment we were all waiting for had finally arrived. And it did not disappoint. Mostly.
That opening scene where Bowser rolls up with a whole friggin' island to take a Power Star was AWESOME. That Bowser slow walk, the delivery of "OPEN THE GATES!" to Bowser displaying his fire breath had the perfect blend of action and comedy, topped off with some great facial expressions from Bowser, and the penguins. Say what you want about Illumination but they put in serious work on this flick and it really shows.
I think the biggest criticism people have about this teaser is how Mario sounds. Granted, we heard very little of Chris Pratt Mario but the little we heard was enough to have fans fuming. I think I heard a tiny bit of an accent in the line "Mushroom Kingdom, here we come." I personally wasn't expecting a full on Charles Martines but I was hoping to hear, well more than what we did from him. I'm willing to give this the benefit of the doubt as Mario, the star of the movie, got some of the fewest lines in this teaser. Perhaps Nintendo doesn't want to show too much of Mario speaking just yet.
Can we talk about Toad? Duuuuuuude, I LOVE HIM! Keegan-Michael Key was born to voice Toad. His Toad voice isn't a one-to-one of the Toad we get from the games (that would probably be grating on the ears after two hours) but I am all about the voice he's given us. He had me cracking up and every time I see that scene with Toad in the teaser, I'm laughing out loud. I cannot wait to see more scenes with Toad.
Seeing as how this trailer was a teaser, we didn't get to hear wat Donkey Kong, Peach and others will sound like, but in time, more trailers will come. What I've seen was enough to get me excited for this film. Whatever the outcome, it can't be any worse than the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie.
*Shudder*
