Tara Strong took toTwitterto not-so-subtly express her opinion about the newly shown-offThe Super Mario Bros. Movieand its casting, writing simply, “It should be Charles,” along with a picture of her with long-time voice actor Charles Martinet. Strong is a renowned and recognized voice actress known for her portrayals of Timmy Turner (The Fairly OddParents), Bubbles (The PowerPuff Girls), Harley Quinn, and many, many more.
Strong did not need to be too specific for fans to understand what she was talking about. The upcoming Mario movie’sfirst trailerwas the central focus of the Internet on the day of its premiere, and it was the first impression fans got of the voice actors' performances. The movie generated a lot of buzz back in 2021 when a Nintendo Direct revealed that the cast was packed with big-name stars like Chris Pratt, Keegan Michael-Key, Jack Black, and Seth Rogen.
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The more recent trailer showed off Jack Black’s Bowser voice, among others, which yielded a much more favorable response, generally, than Chris Pratt’s Mario. Black’s portrayal is gruff and low-pitched, which is at least somewhat similar to what little we’ve heard in the games. On the other hand, it’s clear that Pratt’s portrayal sounds nothing like the Mario voice we’ve grown accustomed to throughout the years. Though the trailer only has a sentence or two from him, the total lack of Mario’s usual deep accent and high-pitched vocalizations is easy to notice.
It has been a commonly shared notion online that perhaps Martinet should have been given the role, as he’s voiced Mario in the video games ever since the character has had a voice. Nintendo and Illumination, the animation studio producing the movie, clearly decided to go in a different direction with this project, which some weren’t pleased with, including Strong. However, her deterrence seems to go beyond simply what actor would sound better.
Her followingtweetmade that clear. She wrote, “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.” She then posted a tweet asking people to share pictures or nice stories of Martinet. Martinetrespondedby thanking Strong and everybody else for their kind words. “My little eyes seem to be leaking today… with tender affection.”
