Shop
 Explore 

Voice actor reimagines the 'Mario Bros.' trailer without Chris Pratt and people loved it

Mario's iconic voice was brought back to life.

mario bros chris pratt

Mamma mia, so much better!

The latest trailer for Nintendo’s animated “Super Mario Bros.” movie, featuring Chris Pratt as the voice of everyone’s favorite goomba-stomping Italian plumber, dropped on Oct. 6, and let’s just say reviews were … mixed, at best.

People were generally disappointed that Pratt sounded nothing like the iconic character in the trailer, seemingly taking no inspiration from Charles Martinet, the voice actor who originated the role and created Mario’s signature accent—along with almost every character in the video game.

Carlos Morillo, who claims to be a voice actor, wrote on Reddit, “I edited the Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer to see how it would sound without Chris Pratt,” and judging from the comments online, this rendition was much closer to what audiences had hoped for.

Mixing his voice with Martinet, Morillo completely replaces Pratt’s voice and reimagines the trailer. People were quite pleased.

“Wow I was giving them the benefit of the doubt, that maybe Mario's high pitched voice wouldn't work for a full movie, but it's actually way better like this. I now wish they weren't using Chris Pratt,” one person wrote in the YouTube comments.

“This one makes me feel warm and fuzzy.. It actually made me laugh,” wrote another.

One commenter also pointed out perhaps the key ingredient to why Pratt’s performance seemed to fall flat. “Famous voices should stick to voiceovers of humorous documentaries; let the voice actors do the real work. There's so much more life in a character voiced by a professional voice actor.”

Technically, no formal training is required to become a voice actor. However, it’s much more than simply speaking into a microphone—it can take years to acquire the skills required to bring a character to life in an authentic, engaging and lasting way. And that doesn’t just go for larger-than-life cartoon characters—the legendary speaking voice of James Earl Jones came as a result of voice lessons.

It’s not that celebrities don’t engage in this type of specialized training when preparing for a role, however there is often an unspoken permission to simply use their regular voice, as Pratt seemingly has for his Mario. Sometimes this takes viewers out of the story, thus making everyone lose out on the magic.

By contrast, Jack Black, whose experience as a singer clearly bleeds into his voiceover talents, has had overwhelmingly positive reviews for his portrayal of Mario's most well-known nemesis—Bowser. He doesn’t sound much like Black at all, which helps the character stand out on its own.

The call to bring back trained professionals in the craft (yes, craft) of voice acting, rather than hoping a star-studded cast will fill seats for better box office numbers, is part of a larger conversation around producing quality art versus making a cash grab. It’s a conversation that perhaps will never come to full closure, but just like this faux “Mario Bros.” trailer, hopefully we can reimagine something better.

From Your Site Articles

Woman’s experience scheduling an EEG highlights the unconscious bias of textured hair

Though her scalp was exposed for the procedure, they still insisted she take her twists out, making it harder to get to her scalp.

Sadé Naima|TikTok

Woman can't schedule EEG due to unconscious textured hair bias.

Getting a medical procedure done can be scary, or at the very least nerve-wracking, no matter how many times you've had it done. It's something that's outside of your normal routine and you're essentially at the mercy of the medical facility and providers. Most of the time, the pre-procedure instructions make sense, and if something catches you by surprise, it's usually easily explained.

Sadé Naima recently had an experience while attempting to get an EEG that wasn't easily explained away. In fact, the entire situation didn't make sense to the TikTok creator who experiences migraines. Naima uploaded a video to the social media platform explaining the sequence of events that happened after her doctor referred her to receive an MRI and EEG.

An MRI uses a magnetic field to generate images and an EEG uses electrodes that stick to your scalp to create images of your brain waves.

Keep ReadingShow less

unconscious bias

Wife cooks nachos for 'picky' husband who refused to eat her salmon. But she has a point.

Should she be cooking two meals?

via TheMamaBrianna/TikTok

Brianna Greenfield makes nachos for her husband.

A viral video showing a woman preparing nachos for her "picky" spouse after he refused to eat the salmon dinner she cooked has sparked a contentious debate on TikTok. The video was shared on April 26 by Brianna Greenfield (@themamabrianna on TikTok) and has since earned over 2.5 million views.

Brianna is a mother of two who lives in Iowa.

The video starts with Brianna grating a massive hunk of cheese with a caption that reads: “My husband didn’t eat the dinner that I made…So let’s make him some nachos.”

“If I don’t feed him, he literally won’t eat,” she wrote. “This used to irritate me. Now I just blame his mother for never making him try salmon,” Greenfield wrote. The video features Meghan Trainor’s single “Mother” playing in the background.

Keep ReadingShow less

Heroic train conductor spots and saves 3-year-old autistic, nonverbal boy lost on tracks

He was dangerously close to the third rail.

via MTA info/YouTube

An MTA employee rescues a 3-year-old child on the tracks.

Five Metropolitan Transportation Authority employees are hailed as heroes for their quick thinking and diligence in the April 6 rescue of a young boy. Locomotive Engineer William Kennedy was operating a southbound Hudson Line train near Tarrytown, a few miles north of New York City, when he noticed an unusual object on the northbound track.

That “object” was a 3-year-old boy.

Kennedy sent an emergency call out to all trains in the area, catching the attention of a northbound conductor, Shawn Loughran, and a trainee. Loughran slowed down his train as he approached the child, who was straddling the electrified third rail.

When the train screeched to a halt, Assistant Conductor Marcus Higgins didn't waste a second. Leaping down the tracks, he sprinted 40 yards ahead of the train, scooping up the young child like a guardian angel.

Keep ReadingShow less

Here’s how we can use the power of awe to make our lives more fulfilling

Being amazed by things outside ourselves is tremendous for our mental health.

via Benjamin Davies/Unsplash

A young man looking into the sky

The exhilaration of a rock concert. The feeling of deep serenity you experience during a religious ceremony. That sense of connectedness you get while walking through a dense forest. The lightness that flows through your body while dancing and the dissolution of the ego you experience on psychedelics. These are all experiences that give us the feeling of awe.

Most of us love having at least a few of these experiences and believe they help us grow. But now, a team of psychologists has explained why cultivating a sense of awe can benefit our minds and bodies and how we can create these experiences ourselves.

Maria Monroy and Dacher Keltner posit that a sense of awe can help solve the crises of individualism, excessive self-focus, loneliness and a culture of cynicism, and can even improve our physical health. They explain it in a research article titled “Awe as a Pathway to Mental and Physical Health.”

Keep ReadingShow less

Woman flawlessly breaks down how luxury bags—and other designer brands—keep people 'poor'

"They're targeting the people who want to look rich—middle and lower class folks who don't have a lot of money or savings. That is the bread and butter of designer brands."

Cara Nicole/Youtube

Not worth it.

It feels safe to say that we are all hoping to be more mindful about how we spend our money these days, whether it’s to be kinder to the environment, align better with our values, improve our finances or simply exercise free will against the siren call of consumerism.

That’s why this video essay created by Cara Nicole (who gives all kinds of financials and sustainability education on her Youtube channel) feels so timely.

In just under twenty minutes, Nicole astutely breaks down how luxury brands like Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Rolex create the fake illusion of wealth through “manufactured exclusivity” and getting free marketing from celebrities and influencers—who often don’t even pay for the products themselves. Meanwhile, most real rich people wouldn’t be caught dead in the flashy brands, and in reality consider them "overrated." But still, the illusion persists. Because advertising.

Keep ReadingShow less