It’s-a Me!
In the games, Charles Martinet performs the voice of Mario. It is a role he has played since Super Mario 64 (1994). But for the movie, he is replaced by Chris Pratt, who does not have Martinet’s high-pitched, over-the-top Italian accent and instead speaks with a more grounded Brooklyn accent.
In a clever wink to the games, we learn that Martinet’s Mario voice is a put-on, intended to draw customers to the Mario brothers’ new plumbing business. Martinet plays several characters including Mario’s dad, a meta reference to Martinet’s role in Mario’s development. Another fun fact here is that Mario’s parents were based on already existing but unused designs made by Nintendo; the dad is almost an exact recreation while the mother saw some adjustments from her original sketches.
