Actor Keegan-Michael Key voices Toad in the upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but how did he find the little creature’s voice? In an interview with Fandango, Key said he tried to channel a friend of his, and brought that to the movie’s directors as a jumping off point.
The idea was to “almost pretend like I was sucking on a helium balloon,” with the aim of feeling like he was “pinching” the sound of his voice to make it higher. After testing the voice out, Key received a note that it should be even higher, so he kept going and going.
“Trying to get as high as we could and still have a certain comfort level within the voice. It was a really fun, exploratory experience to try to find the right spot and try to get those rhythms in a place where it felt like it would be Toad, but kind of a new version of Toad at the same time,” Key said.