Celebrate Mario Day with our rundown of The Super Mario Bros Movie

It's Mario Day 2023 and you know what that means: we're counting down the days until the release of The Super Mario Bros Movie this Easter. Nintendo's gaming icon is translated into big-screen animated form for the first time, so here's what you need to know.

It has an all-star voice cast

Guardians of the Galaxy's Chris Pratt voices gaming's most famous plumber, Mario. He's joined by The Witch and The Queen's Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy, here voicing Princess Peach. And School of Rock's Jack Black voices the nefarious Bowser.

The big names don't stop there. Knocked Up's Seth Rogen voices Donkey Kong, Horrible Bosses' Charlie Day is Luigi and Key & Peele's Keegan-Michael Key is Toad.

It's from the guy behind Despicable Me and Minions

That would be producer Chris Meledandri of Illumination Entertainment who has spun some of the biggest family hits of recent years. They're the creators of baldy super-villain Gru and his hapless Minions whose adventures have spawned a host of madcap box office successes.

Meledandri is collaborating with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, recognised as one of the most influential and revered animators in the history of gaming.

It's also from the directors of Teen Titans Go! To the Movies

Released in 2018, DC superhero adventure Teen Titans Go! To The Movies adapted the successful TV series of the same name. It received critical acclaim for its animation, humour and voice cast, all of which were marshalled by directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic.

The duo is expected to bring the same lively and inventive touch to the new Mario movie.

The directors are self-confessed fans of the original games

"We’re both big fans and grew up with Super Mario," Horvath told Animation Magazine. "It was a huge part of our childhood. I have kids and we’ve played Mario games together so the opportunity to make a movie featuring all my favorite characters was pretty insane. And it was exciting for us to tell a story about how Mario became Super Mario.

"I got to make the movie that I always wanted to see when I was a kid. There hadn’t been a Super Mario movie that satisfied the fan in me. I feel like this has all been a prank, but apparently, it’s real and really happening."