20 Video Game Movie and TV Moments That INSULTED Fans

The scars of the nineties Super Mario movie run deep, and studios wisely steered clear of the property until animation technology was able to create something authentic and impressive that Nintendo would be proud to plaster their name all over. And that something arrived three years ago in the form of Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros Movie.

Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, the Su-Ma-Bro-Mo introduces a full cast of our favourite characters, voiced by big names like Chris Pratt, Jack Black and Anya Taylor-Joy, all rendered in that distinctive 3D style first developed in Super Mario 64. The film follows brother-plumbers Mario and Luigi, who are sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom and Dark Lands respectively, and who unwittingly become part of a war between Princess Peach and Bowser.

And it goes the whole hog, with all the hallmarks of the game, including the supporting characters, settings, challenges, and many of the mechanics. There’s just one problem: Mario and Luigi aren’t Italian.

The opening of the film introduces us to the brothers in full Dolmio Day mode, until the rug is shamelessly pulled from under us. Because Italian-American Mario and Luigi are voiced by Pratt and Charlie Day, and only put on their iconic accents as a marketing ploy to advertise their business to Americans who want something supposedly genuine from the old country…

For once, can’t we just have something nice without having to Americanise it??