 Chris Pratt is the new voice of Mario. In a Nintendo Direct yesterday, Shigeru Miyamoto announced the casting for the upcoming Illumination Super Mario movie. Some casting choices, such as Jack Black as Bowser and Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, seem perfectly logical. But why Chris Pratt as Mario? To answer this, we need to explore two questions. Why big-name Hollywood movie stars get cast in animated films to begin with, and why Chris Pratt specifically would be on anyone's radar for Mario. It's widely believed that big-name movie star casting for cartoons started with Robin Williams. In 1992, Williams voiced two animated characters, Batty from Fern Gully and the Genie in Aladdin. Said Aladdin co-director Ron Clements, Robin changed the way animated films were perceived. His brilliant comedy brought an adult appeal to animation that was new at the time. He was also one of the biggest stars ever to be featured in an animated film at that time. To be clear, we didn't want Robin because he was a big star. We wanted him because he was right for the part. We wanted him because we thought his talents could bring something new and innovative to Disney animated features that could be exciting and entertaining. And he sure did. In agreeing to work with Disney, Williams requested that his character didn't feature too heavily in the movie's advertising. Disney promptly ignored this request and much of the film's marketing centered on Williams casting. When this proved phenomenally successful, Movie Studio executives suddenly had definitive proof that star appeal could sell tickets to animated films, even if their faces weren't actually on display. In the years since, movie studios have come to rely less and less on traditional voice actors, who instead have found more opportunities for work in video games. So why Chris Pratt specifically for Mario? Is he really the best fit for the character that Hollywood can offer? The truth is that this movie is probably far more about that coveted star appeal than Pratt's actual suitability for the role. In a way, this is all thanks to his existing rapport with dinosaurs. Before making it big, Pratt lived out of a van in Hawaii, working the minimum hours necessary as a restaurant server just to cover the cost of fuel, food and fishing gear. While working one day, Pratt served actress and director Rae Dawn Chong and managed to convince her to give him a part in her in-development short film, Curse Part 3. The film was, apparently, so bad that it was never released, but it pushed Pratt to move to Hollywood. There he got a job in another restaurant to pay his way while auditioning for parts, and he often got caught stealing food off customers' plates. After a few smaller parts, he landed the role of Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation. While trying to find the perfect actor to play Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel casting director Sarah Finn was certain that Pratt would be a good fit. It took a lot of effort to convince both Pratt and director James Gunn to actually get together for an audition. According to Finn, Pratt didn't want the role, and Gunn didn't want Pratt in the role. Then, said Finn, I finally got him to audition, and James Gunn said he didn't want to see him, and that really was a challenge. I was really happy when I finally got them together, and it was honestly one of those eureka moments that we talk about in casting when it absolutely feels right and you know it's right. James turned to me within 10 seconds and said, he's the guy. This had a massive impact on Pratt's career, but the film that really made him a Mario contender was his next big role, Owen Grady in Jurassic World. Jurassic World was a phenomenal box office hit. Nostalgia for Jurassic Park helped this become the highest-grossing film in 2015, and that made Chris Pratt the highest-grossing actor of 2015. It's difficult to say whether Pratt had any real impact on the movie's box office, but as with Robin Williams, movie executives saw this as proof that Pratt's star appeal could carry other movies to financial success. Thus, Pratt is considered by many in Hollywood to be a very safe bet. If he headlines a film, it's a good chance the film will do well. To a certain extent, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. When in pre-production for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, Paramount wanted Pratt to play Sonic's human friend Tom Wachowski, a role which ultimately went to James Marsden. Of course, Pratt is also experienced at voicing big-budget cartoons, having played Emmett in the Lego movie and its sequel, and Barley Lightfoot in Pixar's Onward. When the opportunity arose to become Mario, Pratt took it. He has been a big fan since his childhood, when he used to steal coins from a wishing well to feed into a Mario arcade machine at his local laundromat. What Pratt will do with Mario remains to be seen, but the moral of this story, movies are a business, driven by numbers, and sometimes that leads to unorthodox creative decisions.