Chris Meledandri, the producer for Illumination who is working on the “Super Mario Bros.” movie starring Chris Pratt, defended Pratt’s voice casting as the Italian plumber hero Mario and said you shouldn’t expect the film to lean into the thick, Italian accent of the video game character.
In a video from celebrity site TooFab, Meledandri said that as an Italian American himself, he understood the concerns that Pratt, who is not from an Italian background, would be voicing an Italian cartoon and video game character. And asked if the movie would lean heavily into Mario’s accent from the original games and his catch phrase, “It’s-a-me, Mario!,” Meledandri explained that while the film addresses that, it’s not how Pratt intends to voice the character.