Charles Martinet to retire as the voice of Mario

[ranger_scout]

After almost 30 years, Charles Martinet will be stepping down as the voice of the beloved character Super Mario. He will now be moving on to a new role as "Mario Ambassador" for the company.

“Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games for a long time, as far back as Super Mario 64,” Nintendo said in a message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, today. “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 honor 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.”

Martinet shared the tweet on his page, adding, “My new adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart! #woohoo !!!!!!!”

In addition to his signature Mario character, Martinet has voiced other Nintendo figures including Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario, among others.


https://deadline.com/2023/08/charles-martinet-nintendo-mario-1235523914/

I will surely miss him as the voice of Mario and many other characters, but he brought a lot of joy to my life and to millions of others as well. I wish him well in his new role as Mario Ambassador.

[Coola Yagami]

He's been doing voice acting for other stuff, but like, how much work or effort does it take to voice Mario for his games? The games aren't exactly dialogue heavy, and when they are, everyone except Mario talks all that much.

Dude can literally walk into the recording booth and say 'whoo-hoo! waa-haa! yahoooo!!! whooaaaaauuughhh!! mama mia!' and then maybe similar sounds and 'okee-dokee' as Luigi and he'd be done.

[Wednesday's Serial]

I've always been curious about this. Especially because SO MANY people can do the voice perfectly. Seems like at most they'd need him for an hour of recording every few years. Plus can't they just reuse what they have?

[CyberCubed]

I'm worried he has cancer or something that they're not telling us.

[neatoman]

I'm worried he has cancer or something that they're not telling us.

Well, the man is 67 years old. That's not a guarantee he's ill but it does make it more likely. Even if he's healthy, he's still an old man and it might be good to make sure people can get used to the idea of someone else voicing Mario, Luigi and Wario or else there could be a "Mel Blanc voiced all the Looney Tunes for 50 years until he died" scenario.

[TheCanadiandrome]

Keep in mind he once said “I wanna continue voicing Mario until I die” so either Nintendo was like “nah nah” or ye maybe something else underlying is going on. Either way it’s the end of an era. At least he’s not gone outright, we’ll find out more from him and Shigeru Miyamoto in due time

[ranger_scout]

This is just as tough of a pill for me to swallow as 11 years ago when I found out Disney decided to retire Paige O’Hara as the voice of Belle from Beauty and the Beast. However, she is like what Martinet will be doing with Nintendo in the future representing the character at various events for Disney. She also briefly came back to voice Belle in Ralph Breaks the Internet. The news also makes me wonder who will be voicing Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and Baby Mario.

There are still many voice Actors in their 60s and 70s who can still do their parts like Frank Welker, Tress MacNeille, Jim Cummings, Rob Paulsen, Cam Clarke, Barry Gordon, Townsend Coleman, and Jodi Benson can still do their parts effortlessly. However, everyone is different.

[Andrew NDB]

Huh, I didn't even think it was the same guy doing it in all the games. Anyhoo, I'm sure they can find another guy to say, "It'sa me, Mahrio!" so we'll survive this, somehow.

[TheCanadiandrome]

Huh, I didn't even think it was the same guy doing it in all the games. Anyhoo, I'm sure they can find another guy to say, "It'sa me, Mahrio!" so we'll survive this, somehow.

No we won’t damn it it’s the video game Apocalypse :lol: :lol:

[ranger_scout]

Kevin Afghani is the voice of Mario and Luigi for Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/super-mario-bros-wonders-new-voice-actor-kevin-afghani/

[ranger_scout]

Apparently, Charles is not allowed to do his voices as Mario, Luigi, and other characters on camera anymore.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mario/comments/1l7ydmb/charles_martinet_apparently_isnt_allowed_to_do/