The Super Mario Bros. Movie Clip: Toad's Wild Ride

I don't know about everyone else, but I think I'm officially ready to move past the "Chris Pratt's voice acting might be bad" stage of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" discourse into the "this movie actually looks like a lot of fun" stage. If you weren't already sold on Illumination's big-screen version of the beloved Nintendo game from the first trailer, maybe this new clip will do the trick. The latest footage from the film features Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and the actor introduced the first official clip at Thursday night's The Game Awards. Check out your new look at the Mushroom Kingdom below. 

This 95-second clip gives us a good look at one of the first worlds Nintendo fans ever visited: the Mushroom Kingdom, home to Princess Peach's palace. This time around, though, it's not an 8-bit level but a vibrant and bustling Toad-filled community. The colorful animation from the studio behind the "Despicable Me" and "Sing" franchises looks admittedly delightful, and Key's Toad is a chipper and vaguely frantic tour guide as he yells, "This guy's brother is going to die imminently!" to clear a path through the crowd. Pratt's mustachioed plumber also speaks up more here than he has in past footage, revealing what might be a hint of an Italian accent.

The scene is also packed with tons of references for Nintendo fans, from an antiques dealer's claim that "you just have to blow in" a relic to get it to work (a reference to those pesky, dusty NES cartridges) to a Cheep Cheep pufferfish in a bag to a purple-clad resident named Chanterelle. Plus, the city's architecture is composed of Mario game design elements, like ATMs made of coin blocks, floating tile pathways, and rapid transit in the form of those classic warp pipes. When Mario exits one, it emits the same sound that's become synonymous with the game franchise.

So far, I think "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" looks pretty dang cute and has a great cast to help it along. In addition to Key and Pratt, Charlie Day is on board as Luigi, who Jack Black's Bowser has captured the first trailer shows. Meanwhile, Anya Taylor-Joy plays Princess Peach, Seth Rogen voices Donkey Kong, and Fred Armisen is on board as Cranky Kong. "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" will hit theaters on April 7, 2023.