GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.<\/p>\n
Actor Chris Pratt, who voices Mario in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, has revealed what he says is the correct way to pronounce the iconic character’s name.<\/p>\n
Appearing on The Tonight Show<\/a>, Pratt said, “I can confirm, as the guy, it’s maa\u00b7ree\u00b7ow.” He added: “But don’t feel bad if you have used ‘marry-o’; a lot of people do that.”<\/p>\n Pratt went on to say that Benny Safdie, who voices Bowser Jr., repeatedly pronounced Mario’s name incorrectly while doing press for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and handlers had to step in to correct him.<\/p>\n Pratt previously said he “sampled various Italian and New York accents”<\/a> to find his Mario voice for The Super Mario Bros. Movie. “As the directors and I developed the character, we came to land on a voice that is different than Charles Martinet’s version of Mario, but also different from my own voice.”<\/p>\n The actor’s original Mario voice was too Jersey and too close to Tony Soprano<\/a>, the iconic fictional mob boss from HBO’s The Sopranos.<\/p>\n The Thomas Game Docs show recruited a linguistics expert to discuss the topic of pronouncing Mario’s name, and you can check out the video below. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto has said Mario is Italian, and given that, the Italian pronunciation is likely the correct one.<\/p>\n We’ll get to hear Mario’s voice again in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which comes to theaters on April 1. The film will also include Fox McCloud<\/a>, but we don’t know who is voicing him.<\/p>\n