Chris Pratt voices Mario in the upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and one of the directors has now commented on why Pratt was the right choice to play the lead character.
Co-director Aaron Horvath told Total Film that the movie tells the story of how Mario becomes Super Mario, and that the film picks up with Mario and Luigi as regular “blue-collar guys” from Brooklyn trying to have a career in the plumbing business. Casting Pratt as Mario “made total sense,” Horvath said, because Pratt is known for playing the role of a regular guy who becomes a hero.
“He’s really good at playing a blue-collar hero with a ton of heart. For the way that Mario is characterized in our film, he’s perfect for it,” Horvath said.