The first trailer for the Super Mario Bros. Movie is scheduled to premiere on Thursday, October 6 during a special Nintendo Direct event, but courtesy of fast food chain McDonald’s we may have just got our first look at the design of the platforming plumber in the hotly-anticipated flick.
Twitch streamer ConnorEatsPants has shared an image on Twitter, that they claim comes via an employee of the fast-food chain. The heavily cropped image appears to be from unreleased promotional material and showcases Mario in his iconic fist-in-the-air pose. The authenticity of the image is not yet confirmed, but internet sleuths have already matched up several elements of this leaked image with the officially released teaser poster giving it further credibility.
did a McDonalds employee in the ConnorEatsPants discord just leak the first photo of Mario in the Mario Movie pic.twitter.com/DK7hITeJAPOctober 5, 2022
As for Mario’s design in the movie, well as you might expect he looks an awful lot like Mario. However, there is something slightly off about this design of the character. Perhaps it’s the slightly wider mouth and jaw, or maybe it’s the bend in his elbow. The resized nose has also drawn discussion from the passionate Nintendo community. The open-buttoned shirt is another change compared to the character’s classic design that has attracted online debate.
Will the Mario Bros. Movie be super?
While anticipation for the first Super Mario Bros. Movie appears to be fairly high, the movie is also attracting a fair degree of skepticism. This may be in large part due to the historic trend of video games not translating especially well to the big screen, but it could also be the film’s bizarre voice cast.
When the cast was announced last year during a Nintendo Direct, the reaction was a mix of incredulity and downright derision. The news that Chris Pratt would be voicing Mario produced plenty of mocking, as did the casting of Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Jack Black as Bowser and Charlie Day as Luigi. Granted, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach and Keegan-Michael Key as Toad received slightly more enthusiasm.
It should be noted that we’ve yet to hear any of these undoubtedly very-talented performers give their take on these familiar characters. So, while the cast list might seem odd on paper there is every possibility each will nail their role in the finished feature.
Pratt at least seems fairly confident in his work, telling Variety, “I worked really closely with the directors and trying out a few things and landed on something that I’m really proud of and can’t wait for people to see and hear.”
We won’t have to wait much longer to see Mario’s movie design in action, and we also expect to hear Pratt’s interpretation of the character in this first trailer. As for the full feature, the Super Mario Bros. Movie was originally slated for release in December of this year but was delayed until April 7, 2023 back in the Spring.
The animated film is a collaboration between Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment, the studio behind the world-conquering Minions franchise, and is expected to be one of the biggest films of 2023. Let’s just hope the Super Mario Bros. Movie can live up to its billing. We really don’t need another bad video game film to add to the very long list of past failures.
