Charles Martinetthe voice actor behind Mario, Luigi and other Nintendo characters, has announced his retirement. Nintendo confirmed that Martinet he will not lend his voice for the next games of the company, closing a cycle of almost thirty years since its debut in Super Mario 64.
the japanese giant announced on his Twitter account that Martinet will stop recording character voices, though it won’t completely move away from Mario. “Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games for a long time. Charles now assumes the new role of Mario Ambassador,” the company said. The new position means that will continue to travel and interact with fans at Nintendo events.
Although the first video game with the voice of Charles Martinet is Super Mario 64his work with Nintendo dates back to the early 1990s. The 67-year-old actor auditioned for the role in 1991when the Japanese required a person to bring the popular plumber to life in an interactive application.
During CES in 1992, Nintendo introduced Mario in real timean animated 3D Mario head that appeared on TV screens. Attendees could interact with the character thanks to an arrangement that involved cameras, motion capture sensors, and technology from Silicon Graphics. Charles Martinet and Stevie Coyle provided their voices and answered questions from the audience.
Years later, Shigeru Miyamoto asked Charles Martinet to take the role Super Mario 64. The actor coined iconic phrases such as “Mamma mia” or the classic “It’s me, Mario”, most of them without a script and with a very ambiguous idea of what the Nintendo team in Japan required.
Mamma mia! The Mario game that catapulted the career of Charles Martinet
Although Charles Martinet already had experience with educational Mario software, your participation in Super Mario 64 catapulted his career. In the years since, he has brought Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi and dozens of other characters to life in Nintendo games.
Charles Martinet’s dubbing career it is not limited to Nintendo games. The actor offered his voice for famous titles such as Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance, Skies of Arcadia, Shinobi, Jet Set Radio Future, TLOTR: Return of the King, Virtua Quest either The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Martinet also has participation in some obscure games for DOS and the classic Mario’s Game Gallery from Macintosh.
He latest video game by Mario with the voice of Charles Martinet is Mario Strikers: Battle League, released for the Nintendo Switch in 2022. The actor will no longer participate in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, WarioWare: Move It and any future projects. It is unknown if Martinet will continue to voice him in other video games.
With a history of 30 years and dozens of successful video games, Charles Martinet was left out of one of the most important projects from nintendo. In a decision that surprised many, Super Mario Bros: The Movie he dropped the characteristic voice of the plumber. Although the film has been a box office success, thousands of fans would have preferred Martinet over Chris Pratt.