Some audiences are crediting the success of ‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ with being ‘anti-woke’
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Universal Studio’s latest kids movie, “The Super Mario Bros Movie,” smashed at the box office during its opening weekend last week. The animated movie based on the classic video game raked in $204.6 million domestically and $377 million globally — making it the highest-grossing debut of 2023, per Variety.
Some viewers credit the movie’s massive success with being “anti-woke.”
Early criticism of ‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’
Criticism for the movie came with its first trailer. “Mario” fans panned Universal for casting Chris Pratt — a white man — to voice the mustached Italian plumber from Brooklyn, per HuffPost.
John Leguizamo, who voiced Mario’s brother Luigi in the 1993 live-action adaptation “Super Mario Bros.,” has been vocal in criticizing the film for not including a Latin character.
“They messed up the inclusion,” Leguizamo told TMZ last week. “They dis-included. Just cast some Latin folk! We’re 20% of the population. The largest people of color group and we are underrepresented.”
Twitter claims ‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ is anti-woke
Some viewers took to Twitter to praise the kid’s movie because it “refused to let Mario Bros go woke!”
Mario Bros just grossed $377 million—a new record for animated features—despite John Lequizamo boycotting the film because it “messed up the inclusion” casting two white men, Chris Pratt and Charlie Day, as the Italian American leads. Nintendo refused to let Mario Bros go woke!
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 10, 2023
It’s hard to find movies to see with the kids that aren’t woke and full of brainwashing trash. Super Mario Brothers was good 👍 pic.twitter.com/roAWjcxn6i
— TheLizVariant (@LibsAreSoDumb) April 9, 2023
The original creator of Mario, Miyamoto, was heavily involved with the production of the animated film and insisted that it have as little plot as possible and just feel like one of the games
It has no woke narratives and all the characters are exactly like the original games pic.twitter.com/W3yX0NKrwT— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) April 10, 2023
Others disagreed or felt confused by the ‘anti-woke’ label
Some viewers did not agree that the movie was “anti-woke” but rather “apolitical.” Others did not understand why the movie was receiving a political response.
I don't think the Super Mario Bros movie is "anti-woke." It's decided unwoke and apolitical, like the video games it's based on. That alone makes it anti-woke in today's world, I suppose.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) April 10, 2023
What was anti-woke about it?
— Mitch D (@m_downey) April 10, 2023
How is Super Mario Bros anti-woke? What does that even mean? What victory lap are we taking here? https://t.co/uizz5OTGEB
— Matt Lipton (@mattliptoncomic) April 11, 2023
Correct - The Super Mario Bros movie was fantastic.
It wasn’t “anti-woke” though, that would imply it addressed wokeness.
It was simply a fun story that crossed multiple generations of Mario and didn’t inject politics, propaganda, or agendas of any kind at any point…— Zach Isenor (@IsenorZach) April 10, 2023
