Watch how Pedro Pascal's Mario Kart skit on Saturday Night Live was filmed all within 24 hours. Pascal appeared on the late-night sketch comedy series on February 4 to help promote his ongoing role on HBO's new hit, The Last of Us. While Pascal appeared in several live-action skits on the program, he was also featured in a pre-taped sketch satirizing Mario Kart, inspired by the upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie starring Chris Pratt. Playing a grittier, Mad Max-style version of Mario, Pascal's sketch became a highlight of Saturday Night Live for its impressive use of visual effects.With a video posted to Twitter, Saturday Night Live pre-taped short director Mike Diva reveals how the Mario Kart skit was filmed entirely in a single day. Check out the footage below:
With the final product of the skit shown above, footage below shows the impressive two day-long process that it took to make HBO's Mario Kart come to life. The captions on the video reveal that a test video for the sketch was shot on Thursday, while Pascal's footage and the early renders of the special effects were all done on Friday, before the video aired on Saturday Night Live the next day.
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Diva credits a 14-person VFX team, two designers, and two editors with the final skit, which has since been viewed over 7.3 million times on YouTube and was initially watched by 4.3 million viewers in the US on cable. SNL's "HBO Mario Kart Trailer" skit capitalized on Pascal's current The Last of Us fame, as the show has hit record-breaking television viewership since it premiered on January 15. The sketch also poked fun at The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is slated to be released on April 7, and has already created some major controversy due to casting decisions.
While a Super Mario Bros. film has been in development for quite some time, it was announced that the project was officially moving forward in 2021. In September of that year, Nintendo game director Shigeru Miyamoto released the voice casting for the film, which pegged Chris Pratt in the leading role of Mario. The choice has been heavily criticized by those who say that Pratt doesn't have the vocal chops for the role, and that the role should've instead gone to Charles Martinet, who has been voicing Mario since 1992.
Since Saturday Night Live's Mario Kart skit with Pascal, the internet has been flooded with positive responses to Pascal's post-apocalyptic version of Mario. They are far better than the responses to Pratt's voiceover work in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. However, with the film set to release in less than two months, there's little that Nintendo can do about the backlash to Pratt's casting. He will be the animated Mario, and Pascal's version of the character will live on forever within the Saturday Night Live sketch.
Source: Mike Diva/Twitter