Mamma mia, what’s-a-going on? The release of the Chris Pratt–ified Super Mario Bros. Movie seems to be fueling a rivalry between the 2023 animated adaptation and its 1993 live-action predecessor. Per People, Seth Rogen, who voices Donkey Kong in the 2023 take on the Nintendo video game, recently called the original Super Mario Bros. movie “one of the worst films ever made.” While at an April 1 premiere for his new movie, Rogen said that the previous adaptation made his 11-year-old self realize for the first time that movies could be bad. To him, the 2023 movie will “vindicate that moment. It’s nice to know that 11-year-olds out there won’t be disappointed in the same way that I was.” But that doesn’t mean that everyone will be satisfied: John Leguizamo, who starred as Luigi in the 1993 movie, has been vocal about his disapproval of the new plumber brothers since last year. Leguizamo confirmed to TMZ on April 5 that he still plans to boycott the new movie due to a lack of diverse lead casting (and no, it’s not because Pratt isn’t Italian or a plumber). “They could have included a Latin character,” he explained. “I was groundbreaking, then they stopped the groundbreaking. They messed up the inclusion.” Obviously, the only way to settle this dispute is for the casts to go get some go-karts and hit the tracks.
