Illumination and Nintendo Announce Theatrical Release Date and Voice Cast for the Super Mario Bros. Animated Film
Illumination (HQ: Santa Monica, CA, USA; Founder and CEO: Chris Meledandri) and Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto, Minami-ku, Japan; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, “Nintendo” hereafter) today announced that their new animated film based on the world of Super Mario Bros. will be released worldwide during the 2022 holiday season. Universal Pictures will release the film in North America on December 21, 2022, with the release schedule for additional countries and regions to be announced at a future date. The film will be co-financed by Universal Pictures and Nintendo.
In addition, the two companies announced the voice actors for the characters Mario (Chris Pratt), Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), Luigi (Charlie Day), Bowser (Jack Black), Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen), Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen), Kamek (Kevin Michael Richardson) and Spike (Sebastian Maniscalco). Each voice actor was cast for their ability to capture the unique spirit of their character.
This new animated film will be produced by Chris Meledandri of Illumination and Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo, directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, who previously collaborated on the animated series Teen Titans Go! and the film Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. The screenplay of the film will be written by Matthew Fogel, whose writing credits include The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part and the upcoming Illumination film Minions: The Rise of Gru.
“Mario and Luigi are two of the most beloved heroes in all of popular culture, and we are honored to have the unique opportunity to work so closely with Shigeru Miyamoto and the widely imaginative team at Nintendo to bring these characters to life in an animated movie, unlike any film Illumination has made to date,” said Chris Meledandri, Illumination’s Founder and CEO, and outside director of Nintendo.
“We are collaborating with Chris and his experienced team to not just create a character licensed film, but a new piece of entertainment which brings Super Mario Bros. to life on the screen, and allows everyone to enjoy whether or not they know about the game. The production so far is constructive and going very well, and both parties are learning a lot from each other. We humbly ask that fans wait just a little longer for the premiere, and we hope they look forward to seeing the unique characters from Super Mario Bros. on the big screen,” said Shigeru Miyamoto, Representative Director, Fellow of Nintendo.
- Voice cast
Mario – Chris Pratt
Princess Peach – Anya Taylor-Joy
Luigi – Charlie Day
Bowser – Jack Black
Toad – Keegan-Michael Key
Donkey Kong – Seth Rogen
Cranky Kong – Fred Armisen
Kamek – Kevin Michael Richardson
Spike – Sebastian Maniscalco
??? – Charles Martinet
- About the Super Mario Bros. animated film
This Super Mario Bros. animated film, which will be produced by Chris Meledandri of Illumination and Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo, is scheduled to be released during the 2022 holiday season. It will premiere on December 21, 2022, in North America. The release schedule for additional countries and regions will be announced at a future date. The film will be co-financed by Universal Pictures and Nintendo, released worldwide by Universal Pictures.
- About Illumination
Illumination, founded by Academy Award® nominee Chris Meledandri in 2007, is one of the entertainment industry's leading producers of event-animated films. The company's franchises include two of the top-four animated films of all time, and its iconic, beloved brands infused with memorable and distinct characters, global appeal and cultural relevance have grossed more than $6.25 billion worldwide. Illumination was honored by Fast Company as one of the world's most innovative companies.
- About Nintendo
Nintendo Co., Ltd., headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, has created franchises that have become household names worldwide, including Mario™, Donkey Kong™, The Legend of Zelda™, Metroid™, Pokémon™, Animal Crossing™, Pikmin™ and Splatoon™, through its integrated hardware and software products. Nintendo aims to deliver unique, intuitive entertainment experiences for everyone, manufacturing and marketing video game devices such as the Nintendo Switch™ family of systems, developing and operating applications for smart devices, and collaborating with partners on a range of other entertainment initiatives like visual content and theme parks. Nintendo has sold more than 5.1 billion video games and over 800 million hardware units globally. From the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System™ more than 30 years ago, through today and into the future, Nintendo’s continuing mission is to create unique entertainment that puts smiles on the faces of people all over the world.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210923006003/en/
Contact information
For Illumination
Sarah Levinson Rothman
sarah.rothman@ledecompany.com
917-623-6060
For Nintendo
Eddie Garcia
egarcia@golin.com
213-335-5536
or
Cindy Gordon
cindgo02@noa.nintendo.com
650-226-4040
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Swiss Rockets Announces Strategic Exclusive License Acquisition of Cutting-Edge Sequencing Technology from MGI Tech and Complete Genomics28.10.2025 18:34:00 EET | Press release
Swiss Rockets, MGI US LLC and Complete Genomics Inc. announced today that they entered into a exclusive license agreement with MGI Tech and Complete Genomics, USA, granting Swiss Rockets a perpetual, transferrable, sublicensable, freedom-to-operate, license for USA, Europe, Latam, Africa and Central Asia with option to expand rights into Asia-Pacific in 2026, covering patents and other intellectual property necessary for development, manufacturing, and sales of the next-generation CoolMPS sequencing platform that will provide faster, cheaper and more accurate whole genome sequencing and other omics tests. The agreement includes payments linked to technology transfer and revenue-based royalties. Swiss Rockets’ future development will focus on advancing CoolMPS products with innovative read barcoding. These innovations will support comprehensive omics testing for advanced genomic research and molecular health monitoring. CoolMPS chemistry provides the most advanced MPS/NGS generating cos
Osmose Acquires Centillion Solutions, Inc. to Expand Its Technical Services Capabilities28.10.2025 16:00:00 EET | Press release
Osmose Utilities, Inc. today announced that it has acquired Centillion Solutions, Inc., a leading engineering services company for the telecommunications industry. Centillion provides fiber optic engineering, design, drafting and geospatial services for Fiber-to-the X (FTTx) and Hybrid Fiber Coax Networks. Founded in 2007, the company has offices in the U.S., Netherlands, UK, Australia, as well as a global design and engineering operation center in India. The acquisition of Centillion Solutions will further position Osmose with the ability to serve as a single vendor of technical services for telecom companies, providing comprehensive turn-key solutions that include pre-design walkout, Outside Plant (OSP) design, make-ready and permitting, and post construction services. “The addition of Centillion expands Osmose’s ability to deliver a complete, end-to-end fiber engineering solution providing customers with one trusted partner for planning, design, and delivery at scale,” said Mike Ada
Merck Partners with Promega to Advance 3-D Cell Drug Discovery Technologies28.10.2025 15:16:00 EET | Press release
Merck, a leading science and technology company, has entered into a partnership with Promega Corporation, a global life science solutions and service leader based in Madison, Wisconsin in the US, to co-develop novel technologies that advance drug screening and discovery. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251028493228/en/ Merck and Promega will co-develop novel technologies that advance drug discovery. The agreement unites Merck’s strength in organoids and synthetic chemistry with Promega's market leading assay and reporter technologies. Together, the companies aim to develop assays capable of tracking cellular activity in real time using an innovative reporter system within three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures. These 3D cell cultures, also called organoids, mimic the human biology, where testing can be done in a model that is physiologically more relevant than traditional two-dimensional (2D) models. “This partn
Guidewire Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire ProNavigator28.10.2025 15:00:00 EET | Press release
CONNECTIONS CONFERENCE--Guidewire (NYSE: GWRE) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ProNav Technologies Ltd. (d/b/a ProNavigator), a knowledge management platform purpose-built for the P&C insurance industry. ProNavigator delivers precise, context-aware best practice information directly within insurance workflows, helping professionals work faster and more effectively. Its platform captures, connects, and surfaces institutional knowledge across claims, underwriting, and distribution. Used by 34 insurance organizations, including 12 shared customers with Guidewire, ProNavigator helps increase productivity, reduce claim cycle times, personalize customer service, and accelerate employee onboarding. Once the acquisition is complete, Guidewire will integrate ProNavigator’s insurance-trained intelligence across its platform, delivering advanced search and contextual knowledge retrieval capabilities for underwriters, claims adjusters, brokers, agents, an
Biometrics Named the Top Fraud-Fighting Tool, Regula Study Finds28.10.2025 15:00:00 EET | Press release
As deepfakes and other impersonation attacks already hit one in three businesses worldwide, companies are resetting their defenses around biometrics. A new survey by Regula, a global developer of identity verification (IDV) solutions and forensic devices, shows that while biometrics currently ranks third in adoption, it is seen as the #1 must-have tool in the ideal future stack. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251028919490/en/ Except for the telecom and banking sectors, which are already leveraging biometrics in full, other industries are aiming to increase their adoption of biometric verification tools. Based on the survey responses, biometrics stands out for both adoption and staying power, unlike other IDV methods: on a global level, it has the lowest drop-off rate among users and the highest growth potential, with 21% of non-users planning to add it soon. What’s happening now Today, most companies still re
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom