The Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer is out, and it looks pretty solid

The Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer is live ahead of the film’s April 2023 launch in theaters, and—hey, whaddya know—it looks decent.

We now have a look at what CGI Mario looks like, as re-created by longtime CGI animation studio Illumination Entertainment, and the character has received a serious touch-up compared to the longtime visual archetype used in 3D Mario video games and instruction manual images since the launch of Super Mario Sunshine. In great news, the version in today’s trailer appears to deliver cartoonish exuberance while also looking a bit more human inside this film’s fantastical world.

The trailer includes three sequences with familiar characters. The first stars Bowser in a fiery, effects-filled battle against an adorable, penguin-filled ice kingdom. As assisted by an apparent second-in-command Magikoopa, Bowser and his army of Koopa Troopas push forward and seize a familiar-looking “super” star. This moment concludes with a shout from new Bowser voice actor Jack Black (Jumanji) asking, “Now who’s gonna stop me?”

After the screen fades to black, an apparently confused Mario lands in a fantastical, mushroom-filled landscape and wonders where exactly he’s landed. His exclamation in the moment, “What is this place,” comes without any sort of exaggerated Italian accent, instead sounding like rote Chris Pratt (The LEGO Movie series, Jurassic World series). He’s soon greeted by Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), who warns Mario about touching the wrong types of mushrooms in comedic fashion before the duo then rushes toward the Mushroom Kingdom.

After this, an incredibly brief chase sequence confirms that popular series character Luigi (voiced by Charlie Day) has also had his 3D appearance altered to look much like the redesigned Mario, in terms of eye shape and other elements.

The CGI-animation film’s existence was confirmed in early 2018, months after industry insiders accurately suggested that it would be produced as a collaboration between Illumination Entertainment (the creators of Despicable Me, Sing, and The Secret Life of Pets), and Nintendo. The news confirmed the first feature-length Super Mario film treatment since 1993’s live-action Super Mario Bros., which had itself been preceded by a feature-length, Japan-exclusive anime released in 1987.

Up until this week, Nintendo’s only official update about the newest film came roughly 13 months ago with voice cast announcements for the film’s various regional launches. Today’s English-language trailer, which debuted simultaneously on YouTube and at New York Comic-Con, confirms what actor Chris Pratt sounds like as Mario’s first new voice actor in over 25 years—which, really, sounds like normal Chris Pratt. Before the trailer, Pratt appeared from an apparent home office to describe his longtime interest in the video game series, followed by Jack Black appearing in a stylized Bowser-themed T-shirt to make jokes about his “training” for the film.

Charles Martinet, the character’s longtime voice actor in the game series, confirmed that his voice would appear in the film in one way or another, though neither that cameo didn’t emerge in this week’s trailer, nor did a majority of the rest of the cast, either in voice or visual form. Super Mario series creator Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed in the presentation that more sneak peeks of the film are sure to come before its April 7, 2023, worldwide release date in theaters.