What was more, basing Mario’s design closely on the Japanese box art for the NES Super Mario Bros. Super Show! was a stark contrast from what we knew of him from the games-which was very little.īut he was brought to life in a fun, comedic way, with Captain Lou Albano finding a perfect balance between being fun and kid-friendly and nailing the tenor and gruffness of the Brooklyn accent. Mario’s portrayal in The Super Mario Bros. If you were a kid in the 90s and you loved Super Mario, there was nothing better than waking up on a Saturday morning, grabbing a big bowl of Corn Pops and watching the weird and whacky adventures of the Super Mario Brothers-in syndication, obviously since it only lasted a few months. Throughout the entirety of the film, Hoskins’ Mario is relatable, resourceful and reliable, and his iconic voice and absolute command of the Brooklyn accent brought the character to life in a truly believable way-and when he stepped into those iconic red and blue coveralls, there was no denying he WAS Super Mario. ![]() Regardless of his feelings toward the movie, or how much of it he allegedly filmed sober, Hoskins’ ability to portray gruff but caring and incredibly likable characters translated perfectly to a “realistic” imagining of the iconic plumber. And if you were like me and you grew up loving this movie, that was in no small part due to the portrayal of Mario by the late, great Bob Hoskins. For me, it’s the same kind of high-concept that gave us movies like Ghostbusters, Flash Gordon, or Buckaroo Bonzai. I’ve long been on the record saying while it’s not a very good Super Mario movie, it IS a very good B-movie sci-fi comedy. Even if he had stuck with the goofy Italian accent the whole film, it would’ve been more fun than a basic Chris Pratt voice with 4% of a Brooklyn accent. Compared to every other actor whose voice felt perfectly suited to their character-even Seth Rogan, who just used his own voice-the star of the film just blends into the background. Don’t get me wrong, Chris Pratt was perfectly okay as Mario, but that’s just it- it was just okay. However, it’s his portrayal by Chris Pratt that reduces him to a somewhat homogeneous character, overshadowed by everyone else who brought personality and life to the characters. While initial trailers and posters had him looking somewhat uncanny, when the movie finally released, he looked a lot closer to his videogame self than Luigi or any other character-whether Nintendo stepped in or not remains unknown. There’s a part of me that feels bad for putting this one so low on the Top 10 Mario list because, visually, Mario in Illumination’s 2023 The Super Mario Bros. However, if for nothing else, this Mario sticks with you in all its wrongness. Every frame that features Mario looks enough like him but just feels off, thanks in large part to the CDi’s legendarily bad animated cutscenes. This is made worse by the awful choice of voice they gave to him-no disrespect to Marc Graue, but his choice was way off the mark here. Super Show version, he is still oddly uncanny. Despite looking somewhat like the Super Mario Bros. ![]() The Mario in Hotel Mario is iconic in just how bad it is. Nintendo would eventually back out of that deal as well due to the lack of quality in the device, but because of some licensing agreements, Phillips was able to release both a Mario game and three terrible Legend of Zelda games. Everyone knows by now the story of the Phillips CDi, but briefly for those who don’t-Nintendo partnered with Sony to make a disc-based system (what would eventually become the PlayStation), then backed out of the deal to partner with Phillips instead. Starting this Top 10 Mario list at the first and lowest spot is Mario in his iconic appearance in Hotel Mario.
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