Action-Packed Quest Awaits Fans and Gamers in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”

NINTENDO’S mustached hero Mario, along with the rest of the characters from the Super Mario Bros. that have been captivating gamers and fans for decades jump out of the game for The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

For the first time, iconic global entertainment brands Illumination and Nintendo join forces to create “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”, a new cinematic adventure starring pop culture’s most prominent plumber of the past four decades. Based on the world of Nintendo’s Super Mario games, the film invites audiences into a vibrant, thrilling new universe unlike any created before in an action-packed cinematic comedy event.

In “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”, while working underground to fix a water main, Brooklyn plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt, Jurassic World and The LEGO Movie franchises) and brother Luigi (Charlie Day, Horrible Bosses) are transported down a mysterious pipe and wander into a magical new world. But when the brothers are separated, Mario embarks on an epic quest to find Luigi. With the assistance of a Mushroom Kingdom resident Toad (Keegan-Michael Key, The Lion King) and some training from the strong-willed ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy, The Queen’s Gambit), Mario taps into his own power.

Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” features an extraordinary comedic cast, including Jack Black (Jumanji films) as Bowser, Seth Rogen (The Fabelmans) as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live) as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson (Family Guy) as Kamek and Sebastian Maniscalco (Green Book) as Spike, plus a special voice appearance by Charles Martinet, who has voiced the characters of Mario and Luigi in the Super Mario games for more than 30 years.

Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of the Super Mario games and producer of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, explains that the Super Mario world connects with so many people across the globe because it has continued to evolve since its conception.

“Since I was a child, I longed to become a manga artist, and until around the time that I entered high school, my dream was to become one,” Miyamoto says.

“Around then, I was imagining the characters I drew myself appearing in my own manga. Although the rail shifted to the game instead of manga, I believe that if my first game was not fun enough, the characters which appear in it would not have remained in everyone’s memories. Fortunately, the character which appeared in Donkey Kong, the very first game I developed, was remembered and recognized by many people, and allowed me to produce many series of games after that.

“For the people who play the game, the character was recognized as an alter ego of themselves which moves around on the TV screen. And Mario evolved along with the evolvement of digital technology. As I continuously produced a game of Mario whenever a new technology came out, Mario became a very unique character which is totally one of a kind.”

From Universal Pictures International, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” starts playing in local cinemas nationwide on April 19.

(ROHN ROMULO)