Celebrated voice actor Tara Strong has criticised Chris Pratt’s casting as Mario in the upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Strong, whose previous work includes the voices of Harley Quinn, Batgirl, Timmy Turner from Fairy Odd Parents and My Little Pony’s Twilight Sparkle, has taken to Twitter to share a photo with Charles Martinet alongside the caption “It should be Charles”.
Martinet has voiced Mario in a variety of games for the past 20 years, as well as voicing Wario, Luigi, Waluigi, Baby Luigi and Baby Mario across the franchise.
It should be Charles. pic.twitter.com/IeWoyAAHKj
— tara strong (@tarastrong) October 6, 2022
Strong followed it up by writing: “Voice actors: I’m gonna put my heart & soul in this for at least 20 years, help sell billions in merch, make the studios millions of dollars & make generations around the world happy.
Hollywood: We don’t care.”
“Hey twitter friends, I happen to know a certain earth angel who could use some love tonight. Have a story about Charles Martinet? Pics? Ever meet him at a con? Share in this thread pretty please. I love him so much that now we insist on being next to each other at all cons,” she added with the Tweet racking up hundreds of replies.
Martinet responded by saying, “thank you everybody! Your love and kindness mean more than you could ever know, and genuinely touched my heart. My little eyes seem to be leaking today with tender affection.”
According to the original announcement, Martinet will appear in the film in a cameo role.
The first trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie was revealed earlier this week, with fans taking to social media to criticise Pratt’s voice work.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a collaboration between Nintendo and Illumination, the animation studio behind the Despicable Me franchise and The Secret Life Of Pets.
Back in July, producer Chris Meledandri said that “when people hear Chris Pratt’s performance, the criticism will evaporate, maybe not entirely – people love to voice opinions, as they should.”
The rest of the voice cast includes Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Sebastian Maniscalco as Foreman Spike and Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is scheduled to be released in cinemas on April 7, 2023.
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