The Super Mario Bros. Movie is one of the most successful animated movies of all time. Making over $1.3 billion during its impressive run, the film was the second highest-grossing animated movie of all time for a brief stint. It has since been knocked further down the list by last year’s Inside Out 2 and the surprise hit Chinese animated movie Ne Zha 2. Given this success, it is no surprise that The Super Mario Bros. 2 was announced last year. It is yet unтιтled but is tentatively slated for an April 3, 2026, release.
The first Mario movie included several beloved characters from the original Nintendo games. This included the тιтular Mario and his brother Luigi. It also included key supporting characters such as Peach and Bowser, the latter of which was impeccably voiced by Jack Black. One character mysteriously absent was Yoshi, who does not appear until the end of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. This reveal gives the team a lot of liberty to explore this character, but there is really only one good option for the character.
Yoshi Should Only Say His Own Name In Super Mario Bros. Movie 2
This Would Be The Most Faithful Adaptation
In the original Nintendo games, Yoshi is a small green dinosaur who rarely speaks lines of dialogue. Instead, he is reduced to a few key catchphrases and vocalizations. Opting against complete sentences, Yoshi instead offers expressive sounds such as “yay!” or vague onomatopoeia that are hard to transcribe. His most common catchphrase is one simple word: “Yoshi!” The character’s consistent self-reference is one of the most iconic parts of his characters.
Including Yoshi in the upcoming The Super Mario Bros. 2 begs the question of whether the character will fully speak. The easiest approach for the film, without risking irritating the audience, would be to have him speak in full sentences like the other characters do. However, it would actually be much more interesting if Yoshi were to only voice his own name in the second movie. This would be far more faithful to the games, and would be a way to distinguish the beloved and adorable character from the other roles.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Shows How Much Yoshi Can Do Without Fully Speaking
They Did A Similar Thing With Groot
If The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel opted for a name-only version of a speaking Yoshi. It would have an existing model to go off of. The Guardians of the Galaxy movies have a character named Groot, who is a tree-like extraterrestrial who, while sentient, only speaks a single line: “I am Groot.” The suggested approach would simplify things even more, cutting the “I am” to opt for a simple “Yoshi!” being repeated. Nonetheless, Guardians of the Galaxy shows how one can still include a unique character even without fully speaking.
Guardians of the Galaxy cleverly uses the “I am Groot” line to convey a wide range of emotions. Even though Groot only voices a single line, actor Vin Diesel infuses a wide range of inflections into his voice-acting role that show off his vibrant internal state. The Super Mario Bros. sequel should mimic this with Yoshi, creating a character that is faithful to the games while still being dynamic and interesting.
Who Could Voice Yoshi In The Super Mario Bros. Movie Sequel?
Multiple Names Have Been Floated
One of the hardest decisions that The Super Mario Bros. sequel will have to make is casting the role of Yoshi. While it is still the right direction for the character, this is especially the case if the actor is given the challenge of only saying “Yoshi” but with different tones and inflections. As such, the actor should be someone experienced with voice acting who can portray a lot of charisma. One obvious choice includes Mark Hamill, who would be a name draw given his Star Wars background, but has fashioned himself into a prolific voice actor in recent years.
Tokata’s voice is incredibly distinctive as Yoshi, which would be especially essential if The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 does opt to have Yoshi only say his own name.
Other names that have been floated in the Yoshi conversation are Alan Tudyk, Bill Hader, Tom Holland, and SpongeBob‘s Tom Kenny. While any of these actors could be good choices for the role, the strongest choice to play the dinosaur is Kazumi Tokata. This creative has been composing music for Nintendo and voicing Yoshi for decades already. Tokata’s voice is incredibly distinctive as Yoshi, which would be especially essential if The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 does opt to have him only say his own name.
