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
Over Half of Consumers Will Pay More for Brands That Are Transparent About AI Data Use, New Usercentrics Research Finds24.6.2026 09:30:00 EEST | Press release
AI transparency has become a commercial differentiator, and it's reshaping where brand revenue is won — or lost. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260623804294/en/ Over half (52%) of consumers globally will pay more for brands that are transparent about how they use AI with their data at an average 7% premium. In Germany, that figure rises to 73% of consumers willing to pay a 9% premium, the highest of any market. The finding comes from the second annual State of Digital Trust 2026 Report, commissioned by Usercentrics, a leading data privacy technology company, and conducted by Sapio Research across 11,000 consumers in seven markets. The opportunity for brands that act is matched by the cost of inaction. Almost half (47%) of consumers surveyed have taken at least one action with a direct revenue consequence in the past six months because of concerns about how their data was being used in AI — canceling a subscri
LTM Joins Athena, a Chainguard-led Industry Coalition to Help Secure Open Source Software in the AI Era24.6.2026 09:30:00 EEST | Press release
LTM, the Business Creativity partner to the world’s largest enterprises, has joined Athena, a new industry coalition led by Chainguard, focused on protecting open source software from the rising threat of AI-driven vulnerabilities. Athena brings together leading organizations across the global software ecosystem to address an urgent challenge. As frontier AI models advance, they are increasingly capable of identifying novel vulnerabilities in open source software at machine speed, often faster than traditional disclosure and patching processes can respond. As AI accelerates both software development and the discovery of vulnerabilities, the window between a flaw being identified and being exploited has narrowed sharply. Athena is designed to close this gap through shared intelligence, coordinated action, and pre-disclosure remediation across the ecosystem. The coalition supports vulnerability management end to end, from discovery and analysis to patching, layered mitigations, and upstr
Ilkari Expands European Sovereign Infrastructure Operations With Integration of DC North in Croatia24.6.2026 09:00:00 EEST | Press release
Ilkari, a multinational sovereign infrastructure provider, today announced the integration of DC North in Croatia into its European operations, expanding its sovereign infrastructure footprint across the European Union and strengthening its multi-region platform, which includes existing operations in Iceland and Colombia. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260615555566/en/ DC North in Varaždin, Croatia, is now part of Ilkari’s expanding European sovereign infrastructure operations. The addition marks another step in Ilkari's ongoing build-out of EU-based sovereign infrastructure, as the company continues to scale its operational presence across regulated and sovereignty-focused markets. DC North becomes part of Ilkari's broader infrastructure ecosystem, which integrates domain services, colocation and sovereign cloud into a unified end-to-end stack spanning digital identity, infrastructure delivery and sovereign
Tigo Energy Predict+ Forecasting Platform Helps YASNO Keep Energy Flowing in Ukraine24.6.2026 07:00:00 EEST | Press release
Tigo Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: TYGO) (“Tigo” or “Company”), a leading provider of intelligent solar and energy software solutions, today announced that Ukrainian electric utility, YASNO, is the latest enterprise-tier customer to deploy the Tigo Predict+ platform. The AI Energy platform empowers utility operators to adapt to real-world demand challenges as they balance renewable and baseload generation sources. Predict+ currently manages more than 650 GWh and delivers 97.5% forecast accuracy for utility customers. As the leading provider of electricity, gas, and energy-efficiency solutions in Ukraine, YASNO serves more than 2.5 million households in the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk regions, as well as more than 64,000 business customers. YASNO uses the Predict+ platform in ways that go far beyond typical utility use cases, leveraging Tigo neural network-based AI to maintain grid stability amid highly variable weather and unpredictable infrastructure damage. The roll-out of Predict+ by
MSCI Announces the Results of the MSCI 2026 Market Classification Review24.6.2026 00:42:00 EEST | Press release
MSCI released the results of the MSCI 2026 Market Classification Review. Key takeaways from this year's review include: Reclassification of Bulgaria from Standalone to Frontier Market status Assessment of shareholder transparency and coordinated trading concerns in the Indonesian and Turkish equity markets, acknowledging the announced steps undertaken by both markets to address these matters and noting the continued potential for future consultations on the appropriate treatment of these markets if credible progress is not observed Acknowledgement of the removal of floor prices in Bangladesh, with a caution that any reintroduction could prompt a consultation on reclassification from Frontier to Standalone Market status Ongoing monitoring of the implementation of measures aimed at improving the accessibility of the Korean equity market for international institutional investors Reminder on the reclassification of Greece from Emerging to Developed Market status at the May 2027 Index Revie
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