It’s only been a few weeks since the first official trailer for the highly anticipated Super Mario Bros. animated movie introduced Chris Pratt’s somewhat distracting voice for Mario. The film’s second trailer, released today during a Tuesday night Nintendo Direct presentation, focuses more on supporting characters and a battle between good and evil in the expanded Mario universe.
The trailer opens with Mario entering a massive colosseum and muttering a somber, husky “let’s-a-go” like you’ve never heard in a Mario game. He then plunges headlong into a fight with Donkey Kong, who casually grabs the plumber by the head and knocks him to the ground for a series of slapstick, Smash Bros.clap style.
Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto notes that Donkey Kong’s design is here for the first time since the ape’s appearance in Donkey Kong country back in 1994. The new design, which looks a bit rounder and friendlier than usual, is meant to be “reminiscent of the original character,” Miyamoto said.
While Seth Rogen’s DK is practically silent in the trailer, Anya Taylor-Joy’s Princess Peach takes center stage as a confident monarch who leads an army of unwilling Toads to battle Bowser’s impending onslaught. “Together, we’re going to stop that monster,” says Peach in a fearless, determined voice that contrasts sharply with the usual high-pitched helplessness countless voice actresses have displayed over the years.
Let’s go
The trailer shows Peach effortlessly wielding a battle ax and summoning flames from a fire flower. Mario, meanwhile, provides the necessary pratfalls when he is pummeled by a Bullet Bill, falls past a precarious donut block and has to remove a Cheep Cheep’s suction cup from his face. Charlie Day’s Luigi is also on hand for a quick scene where he tries to play off the obvious similarities between him and his brother who is interrogated by a sinister Bowser.
There are lots of other little touches for Mario fans in the trailer, such as a glimpse of a Tanooki suit, brief cameos from Cranky Kong, and an island full of Yoshis, as well as a brief mention of “a huge universe with lots of galaxies [emphasis added]all of which depend on the Mario crew.
But it’s the trailer’s conclusion that leans most heavily towards fan service – an inexplicable scene where Mario drives a familiar-looking go-kart down a floating rainbow-colored road alongside dozens of apparent allies. Mario’s “Wahoo!” following a high-speed kart drift at the end of the trailer could be the best take on the character we’ve heard from Pratt yet.
During the short Nintendo Direct presentation, Miyamoto said that the film is “almost finished” but that he is “not allowed to say anything else about it”. Hopefully we’ll get a few more glimpses of other corners of Mario’s vast universe of characters and references before the film hits theaters in April.
