Charles Martinet Will No Longer Voice Mario
We have a message for fans of the Mushroom Kingdom. Please take a look.
Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games for a long time, as far back as Super Mario 64. Charles is now moving into the brand new role of Mario Ambassador. With this transition, he will be stepping back from recording character voices for our games, but he'll continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario and interacting with you all!
It has been an honour working with Charles to help bring Mario to life for so many years and we want to thank and celebrate him. Please keep an eye out for a special video message from Shigeru Miyamoto and Charles himself, which we will post at a future date
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I've met Charles Martinet several times at conventions. The dude is an absolute delight. He is deeply connected with Mario as a character, far beyond what is normal for a voice actor. He knows everything about Mario. Mario has been his life for nearly 30 years. He has absolutely earned the right to retire from Mario if he so chooses.
One thing that I thought was interesting, apparently he doesn't have a home. He travels so much for conventions that he just lives out of a suitcase. Everything he owns is in that suitcase. He just goes from hotel to hotel.
If that’s true it’s gotta be exhausting. I can’t imagine that kind of grind at his age.
Then again, they said he’ll continue being a Nintendo ambassador and traveling around, so perhaps that’s not the reason?
Hoping the video has more detail.
The guy is probably a nomad. NGL sounds fun if you enjoy what you do.
Probably more of a pain for Nintendo to actually schedule him in a sound booth to record lines 😅
Where is Charles?
I don't know last week he was in Paris and just yesterday was in Timbuktu.
DAMNIT. I need a fresh "ya-hooo" recording for the new Super Mario Bros game. FIND HIM
Where in the world is Charles Martinet!?
I followed the exact same thought process, lmao.
Makes sense that he's done with the work part of being so intimately linked to a character. He has done so much voice work over the years. But I must say I really love that he's still going to be Mario but in a much more laid back role as Ambassador, he deserves his retirement and it was kinda expected after the Mario Movie cameo.
This makes me worried, Charles they he wanted to voice Mario until he died. I’m hoping the video clears things up.
Yeah I don't really want to hear Chris Pratt every time I play a Mario game from now on.
Snap, unless he’s copying Charles’s iconic Mario sounds (ya-hoo), he’s entirely forgettable as a voice actor.
Hell, he's even forgettable as an actor. Period.
I like him as Starlord
He was wonderful in Moneyball, but then again so was everybody in that movie
Agreed, he knocked that role out of the park but other than that, he’s very generic. I don’t dislike the guy, all said (his ad-libbed lines in P&R are some of the funniest lines in the show).
Granted, the only Mario games I've actually played was SMB on the NES and Odyssey, so I don't have the same attachment to the character as some, but I still don't get the hate Chris Pratt got for that role. The movie wasn't anything really special, the character was fine. But people were freaking furious.
Because Pratt isn’t a good voice actor. Really though, there were few standout performances in that entire movie, so he wasn’t alone in that. It’s almost like they picked the cast based on who can only play themselves, not on who would be a good choice. Princess Peach, Luigi, and Bowser were the only real solid performances in my opinion.
And Luigi barely got screen time!
It had less to do with Pratt and more to do with it being a radical departure from the established voice of a very nostalgic and beloved character. It would basically be the same thing if Pratt was chosen to voice Micky Mouse or Bugs Bunny.
It's also compounded by the fact that the Mario fan base, for good reason, loves Charles Martinet. Just see comments here for evidence. So pulling out a generic sounding Hollywood frontman felt like they were focusing on sales over source material. Which is true, but will always upset longtime fans.
He is 67 now, probably just decided to slide into retirement. Or maybe he's having a hard time even doing the Mario voice as he ages.
I feel kinda bad asking this, but: How much work did he really do recording Mario's voice? Unless I'm forgetting a huge amount of content, wouldn't a 10 minute recording session once a year pretty much cover the last 30 years of Mario content?
He’s a method voice-actor so doing a triple jump can be exhausting.
It's-a no longer me, Mario!
Hope this is what he wanted
Chris Pratt taking over as the voice of Mario from now on.
He's so cool
Sad to see him go, but glad I got to hear him as Mario.
Ow wow wow wow