Unlike Chris Pratt’s Mario voice, Seth Rogen’s portrayal of Donkey Kong in the upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie has seemingly been met with approval from most fans after being debuted in a new teaser for the animated film. While the initial storm over Pratt’s casting as Mario has finally started to become nothing more than a little background noise, the new trailer has brought mostly praise for Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong, with one notable exception.
The latest teaser for the Illumination produced movie revealed the movie’s inclusion of the “Cat Mario” power-up, which leads to the first lines of Donkey Kong to have been aired so far. After bellowing laughter at the sight of Mario’s feline form, Donkey Kong brings his game face and tells the intrepid plumber, “Now you die.”
While many have reacted positively to Rogen’s interpretation of Donkey Kong, there are a few who have made similar complaints to those seen around his vocal performance as Pumbaa in Disney’s live-action remake of The Lion King, in that the character essentially just sounds like Seth Rogen. Unlike Mario, Donkey Kong’s speaking roles in his game form have been very few, but he has been seen in his own animated series, Donkey Kong Country, as well as the ‘80s Saturday Supercade show. However, everyone has their own idea of exactly who such a character should sound and that is where the divide happens. Some initial reactions are:
When it comes the monopoly on big animated franchises, Disney has always led the way, but with the arrival of Despicable Me, Illumination proved that they can deliver crowd-pleasing animated movies to rival the best. Now it looks like they could have another huge hit on their hands with the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie this year.
While there was initially a lot of backlash against the casting of Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario, from both the public and other voice over stars, that seems to have now been swallowed up by the visually stunning movie depicted by the array of trailers and teasers. Not only does the film bring to screen many of the popular characters from the Nintendo games in a brilliantly rendered way the holds true to the original character designs and doesn’t attempt to mess with it in any way, but it also has the potential to spin out into a huge, multi-platform franchise.
For now, the full focus is on this year’s first movie, but there have already been rumors of other spin-offs being in development, including one featuring Rogen’s Donkey Kong. With such a huge fan base, and increasingly positive reactions to new footage, it seems impossible to believe that The Super Mario Bros. Movie will be anything other than a runaway hit when it hits cinemas.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie will be released on April 7, 2023.
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