Chris Pratt

Chris Pratt
General Information
Birth	June 21, 1979 (age 45) Virginia, Minnesota, United States
Gender	Male
Series Information
Credits	Actor
Portrays	Mario
Years	2000 - Present

Chris Pratt is an American actor and comedian who voiced Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Aside from Mario, he is best known for playing Owen Grady in Jurassic World, Garfield in The Garfield Movie, Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy, Emmet Brickowski in The Lego Movie, and Barley Lightfoot in Onward.

Early life

Pratt was born in Virginia, Minnesota on June 21, 1979. During the time of his birth, his mother worked at a Safeway supermarket, and his father worked in mining and later remodeling houses. His mother has a Norwegian descent. At age seven, Pratt and his family relocated to Lake Stevens, Washington. In high school, Pratt participating in a youth wrestling tournament, shot put, and track & field. He graduated from Lake Stevens High School in 1997.

After dropping out of community college, Pratt began working as a door-to-door discount ticket salesman and an evening stripper. He eventually arrived at Maui, Hawaii, being homeless, spending most nights in an abandoned minivan and sleeping inside a tent. At age 19, Pratt worked as a waiter at a Bubba Gump restaurant.

Acting career

Pratt made his acting debut in 2000 where he portrayed Devon in the short film Cursed Part 3. At the time he was working at Bubba Gump, Pratt met actress and director Rae Dawn Chong, who would cast Pratt for Cursed Part 3, which filmed at Los Angeles, California.

In 2011, Pratt gained a little more attention after portraying Scott Hatteberg in Moneyball, a sports drama film based on the 2002 Oakland Athletic baseball team. In 2014, Pratt's fame rose to higher ranks after portraying Emmet Brickowski in The LEGO Movie. During that same year, he portrayed Peter Quill the Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy.

2015 marked the year where Pratt made his first true breakthrough by portraying Owen Grady in Jurassic World, the first film of the Jurassic Park sequel trilogy.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

"Is-a me, a-Mario."

—Chris Pratt talking about his role pre-release

For a few scenes in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, a faint Brooklyn accent can be heard from Mario such as when dining with his family. His lack of Brooklyn accent in most scenes in the film is due to the directors telling Chris Pratt not to sound too much like the character Tony Soprano. At the time, Pratt's Soprano-esque voice was praised as a "New York, Italian guy" voice by Penguin King voice actor, Khary Payton, before the accent was axed by the directors.

Reception

Online

Pratt's voice has received negative reception from the internet. A comment included in articles states Pratt as the "prime example" of why voice actors must be hired for the role. Another comment included in articles has criticised Mario's lack of Italian accent. A comment from Tara Strong, a Canadian-American voice actress who played Hop Koopa in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, posted a tweet on the same day as the trailer release stating "It should be Charles."

Official film critics

While the Los Angeles Times's Katie Walsh praised Black's performance as Bowser, she criticized both Pratt and Day's lead performances of Mario and Luigi as being "so unremarkable that it could have been anyone at all". Calum Marsh wrote for the New York Times criticizing Pratt's performance as "grating" and "unctuous". Kristy Puchko from Mashable commended the fan service and music but was critical of the characters and noted Pratt's lack of accent, commenting "whatever voice Pratt is doing isn't Brooklyn, and it isn't anything particularly specific, consistent, or exciting". Screenrant's Molly Freeman described most of the voice cast as "fun" with Black's Bowser being a standout, while noting that Pratt's performance was "not so bad as to be distracting, but not strong enough to be at all interesting either". Josh Spiegel from SlashFilm criticized Pratt's performance as Mario as being "blandly heroic". IGN's Tom Jorgensen had slight criticism towards Pratt and Day's attempt at New York accents for Mario and Luigi as "certainly not going to be taking home any commendations from the good people of Brooklyn" and stated "There’s definitely been a flattening of the more cartoonish qualities". However, he applauded the actors for embodying each character's heroism and for a grounded delivery that "balances well with the fantastical trappings of the Mushroom Kingdom". Brian Tallerico of Roger Ebert, a self-described lifelong fan, wrote that the vocal performances were "uniformly mediocre".

External links

• Chris Pratt at Nintendo Wiki, a wiki on all things Nintendo.
• Chris Pratt at the Internet Movie Database
• Chris Pratt at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

References