Charles Martinet Retires From Traditional Role as Super Mario Voice Actor; Will Be Mario Ambassador

Charles Martinet has been the voice of Super Mario basically forever, but Nintendo just announced that he won't perform in the role going forward.

[gold_drake]

he'll definitely be missed.

just a shame Nintendo didnt give him the opportunity to voice Mario in the movie.

[-Foxtrot]

Which was a dick move because the characters he did voice were fine, he did a good job. He could have done it.

[gold_drake]

yea, just an odd choice.

[Asplundh]

He does a good job in the games, but can't really see him carrying conversations in a movie. I think he would had sounded even more out of place than Pratt.

[DarXyde]

It's pretty much what happened with David Hayter: they got brushed aside for no reason beyond the big brains wanting big name talent.
Both situations are a damn shame, especially when they were willing.

[mjchitown]

Chris Pratt was great as mario in the movie. yell still crying over this ? and yet yell love the movie . make that make sense. nintendo never let Charles Martinet do much with mario voice in the games .

[gold_drake]

i never praised the move or anything.
so your comment makes no sense whatsoever.

[0hMyGandhi]

I didn't care for the film myself. It was absolutely gorgeous to look at....And that's about it. It's inoffensive, passable entertainment with a few good performances (Jack Black was basically born to play Bowser, apparently) and so it's not a bad watch, just nothing extraordinary, either. I suppose that most who praise the film do so because it bucks the trend of terrible videogame movies, and wasn't the absolute dumpster fire that it could have been.

Pratt was serviceable, just like Anya (whereas Charlie Day killed it as Luigi) .

But here's the thing: people can absolutely detest a major element of something, while still loving that very thing as a whole, it just requires the other facets of that thing to work overtime to overcome that negativity.
Kiefer being brought in on MGS5 didn't ruin the game, but it left a mark on an otherwise incredibly polished franchise with weird background drama that didn't even need to be there to begin with. His performance was * fine * , but Hayter is THE voice that we've all come to know and love, and many felt strange by his absence.

[1Victor]

I totally understand why they didn’t used him to voice the animation as they needed a star power name attached to it to maximize the money pull, but they could have forced the studio to have him voicing Mario dad as a Easter egg for the game fan.

[mjchitown]

Charles Martinet only had 22 lines of dialogue in mario games. let that sink in

[mastershredder]

Hollywood chooses the talent to represent the character/voice, which is contracted AAA talent that make them big bucks. Also why hollywood and their overpaid screen-talent (replacing long standing voice-specific talent) are destroying an industry they were never part of in the first place.

[gold_drake]

america has a weird history with voice acting i agree.

where i live, thats pretty much a standalone job without the "actor" perspective. but i think thats pretty much everywhere where english isnt the main language.

[Christopher]

Now is time for Chris Pratt to really shine! /s

[Nintentional]

He’s so cool

[MaximusPrime_]

I met him in NYC last year September...by chance..

I was in NYC for a short holiday break. On one day I decided to pop round Nintendo store at Rockefeller plaza. He was there for photoshoot with a young disabled fan who's bucket list was to meet him. No one knows he would be there so it wasn't a fan event but a quiet one. I just managed to meet him and got a photo of his mario pose.

As someone just visiting from the UK managed to meet him without realising was once in the lifetime.

I wish Charles all the best with his future endeavours.

[0hMyGandhi]

listen, I love this dude, but there's absolutely zero reason why he should "retire" from his role. Especially for the games, I just can't imagine (beyond a few press events) that there's a massive time commitment, so why not do as the person who voices the gecko in the Geico commercials, and rock out for as long as possible?

Regardless, he will be missed. He's certainly earned his retirement. I just hope this isn't Nintendo forcing him out to get a *ahem* "real" celebrity voice.

[Snookies12]

I mean, I get what you're saying. It's only a voice role where he just makes noises and says one or two words. Yet, he's been doing this for decades. I'm sure most people would want to just take it easy after such a long time of doing one single thing.

[-Foxtrot]

It’s a shame though he didn’t just do one last game, maybe hold off for the next big 3D game and Nintendo could have incorporated themes of change, new beginnings and possibly a little send off for him within the game

A game celebrating all the games he’s starred in from remixed levels to Easter eggs

[Chard]

The send-off is the movie I guess - he plays the father of Mario with his last line being “these are my boys”

[HyperMoused]

Isnt Marios vocab...."woohoo"... "yippee" and "its-a-me-a-Mario".. .they have those sounds..

[DefenderOfDoom2]

I wonder if Charles M will wear the Mario outfit when he does events promoting Mario .