Illumination and Nintendo Announce Theatrical Release Date and Voice Cast for the Super Mario Bros. Animated Film
24.9.2021 02:46:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
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
Coherent Solutions Launches AKTIV, a Dedicated Fitness and Wellness Technology Business Unit10.11.2026 17:34:00 EET | Press release
Coherent Solutions officially launches AKTIV, a dedicated business unit focused exclusively on fitness and wellness technology. AKTIV brings together over 15 years of fitness industry experience, dedicated leadership, and global engineering capabilities to help fitness and wellness operators and equipment manufacturers compete through technology. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261110242555/en/ Coherent Solutions officially launches AKTIV “We know the fitness and wellness industry and the challenges operators and manufacturers face. With AKTIV, we spend less time defining what needs to be built and more time delivering solutions that improve operations, member experiences, and business performance,” said Vadim Bartlov, Managing Director of AKTIV. AKTIV builds on Coherent Solutions' established work with leading fitness companies, including Life Time, Planet Fitness, Anytime Fitness, Orangetheory, and BowFlex,
Mouser Explores the Newest Computing Technologies Beyond Moore's Law in its Technology Series10.11.2026 17:12:00 EET | Press release
Mouser Electronics, Inc., the authorized global distributor with the newest electronic components and industrial automation products, today announced the latest installment of its Empowering Innovation Together (EIT) technology series, Moving Beyond Moore's Law. The series explores how engineers are advancing computing performance as traditional semiconductor scaling approaches its physical limits, from chiplets and advanced packaging to silicon photonics and emerging transistor technologies. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261006980414/en/ Explore what comes after Moore's Law as the industry seeks new paths to computing performance. As a key driver of semiconductor advancement, Moore's Law has served as a roadmap for the industry, describing the trend of transistor counts on integrated circuits doubling approximately every two years. With conventional silicon transistors becoming increasingly difficult to shr
Netceed appoints Eric Updyke as Group CEO10.11.2026 16:15:00 EET | Press release
Netceed, a global leader in delivering supply chain solutions across broadband, data center and energy infrastructure, today announced the appointment of Eric Updyke as Group CEO, effective 10th November, 2026. He succeeds Alper Türken, who will step down as CEO on 10th November, 2026. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261110492065/en/ Netceed appoints Eric Updyke as Group CEO Eric brings more than 35 years of leadership experience in communications and technology infrastructure. Most recently, he served as CEO of Spirent Communications plc from 2019 to 2025. At Spirent, he led the company's shift from a hardware-centric vendor to a solutions provider built on software, automation and services. He also expanded the business into new sectors, including AI data center providers, and guided it through a strategic sale, culminating in its $1.5 billion acquisition by Keysight Technologies in 2025. Before Spirent, Eri
80% of IT Leaders Say the Digital Workplace Is Critical to AI Success, Yet Only 10% Have Fundamentally Redesigned It, Lenovo Research Finds10.11.2026 16:00:00 EET | Press release
Eight in ten IT decision makers say the digital workplace is critical to successful AI-led transformation, yet only 10% report fundamentally redesigning it for AI, according to Lenovo’s sixth Work Reborn report, The AI-ready workplace. The findings expose a significant gap between deploying AI tools and the operating capabilities needed to integrate them into how work gets done across an organization. The report frames workplace readiness as a connected system spanning people, workflows, technology, support and governance, with each contributing to how enterprises translate AI ambition into business outcomes at scale. Based on an August 2026 survey of 1,200 IT leaders at organizations with at least 1,000 employees across 12 countries, the report examines the workplace conditions needed to translate AI deployment into measurable value. While 76% rank AI-led transformation among their organization’s top IT priorities, only 27% have scaled AI across business functions. AI Deployment Is No
Nearly Nine in 10 Private Capital GPs Face Data Validation Challenges10.11.2026 16:00:00 EET | Press release
Nearly nine in 10 (88%) of private capital general partners (GPs) surveyed say their finance and operations teams spend between 11% and 50% of their time validating, reconciling, recalculating or recreating administrator outputs, according to new research from CSC, the leading provider of global business administration and compliance solutions¹. CSC surveyed more than 300 GPs and 200 limited partners (LPs) across North America, Europe, the U.K., and Asia Pacific. The report, Future Private Capital CFO 2026, examines how fund finance, liquidity management, reporting, outsourcing, cybersecurity, and AI governance are reshaping the role of the private capital CFO. Half of GPs say their finance and operations teams spend 11% to 25% of their time validating, reconciling, recalculating, or recreating administrator outputs, while 38% put the figure at 26% to 50%. As firms add asset classes, structures, jurisdictions, liquidity tools, and reporting requirements, complexity is increasingly bein
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