MOVIE NEWS – Chris Meledandri says Chris Pratt’s given “such a strong performance” in the Super Mario movie that we’ve never seen anything like it.

The Super Mario Movie is “three-quarters finished”, says studio boss Chris Meledandri, and Chris Pratt has apparently given such a fantastic performance as Mario that the makers are blinking in amazement.

In an interview with Variety, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri gave us a sneak peek at the upcoming Super Mario Movie, which will also star Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black and Seth Rogan, among others.

“Chris was cast because we felt he could give a great performance as Mario”

Speaking specifically about the casting of Pratt, Meledandri said, “Chris was cast because we felt he could give a great performance as Mario. And now that we’ve done about 15 recording sessions, and the movie is three-quarters done, I sit here and say that I love his performance as Mario.”

In the same interview, Meledandri defended Pratt’s casting, explaining that because of his own Italian-American heritage, he felt he could make this casting decision “without worrying about offending Italians or Italian Americans.” But regardless, “I think we’re gonna be just fine,” Meledandri added, “especially because [Pratt] ‘s given such a strong performance.”

If you thought the production of Illumination was some kind of weird fever dream, here’s what we know about the film so far.

Originally slated for December 2022, Super Mario Movie was recently pushed back to April 2023, so we’ll have to wait a little longer to see Pratt’s performance in the film. If anyone is at all worried about Nintendo’s famous IP falling into the hands of the Minions’ studio, they’ll be happy to hear that Shigeru Miyamoto (aka Mario creator) is also working on the project as a producer.

Source: Variety