Charles Martinet to no longer voice Super Mario, now a Mario 'Ambassador'

[StaticMania]

Quote

game devs's friends and family used to do the voices in the 90s with psx games, what would  mario would've been like if they just got an intern or devteam member to do the voice?

 

You mean just game devs...and that didn't typically happen for fully voice acted characters.

[juiceDpunk983]

I'm going to miss Charles as the plumber. His "That's a so nice" line always stayed in my head. Hearing Luigi shout "Mario" in his iconic voice in a spooky mansion will be missed greatly.

I really loved his voice, he didn't just voice the characters, he gave them life and I'm really gonna miss him in the role.

The new voice is good for Mario so far, as I didn't even recognize a change until people pointed it out, so at least Mario's character seems to be in good hands. I worry for Luigi's voice though, haven't heard him yet.

[SupahBerry]

https://comicbook.com/gaming/amp/news/nintendo-super-mario-bros-wonder-new-voice-actor-revealed/

 

Want to meet your new Mario? You'll have to beat the game to find out who...

 

 

...Pheh, who am I kidding?

DGMW, I'm captivated; giving this extra reward to players to motivating them to play through it beyond "save the in game world" sounds cool on paper. But this is the modern internet run society, and word travels fast. Y'all know people will lock on to this game like missiles the split second it breaks street date and then reveal who he is a half hour later, for all news articles and stations to report on.

 

Only if you avoid using the internet at all during the lead up to release could this work, but even then you'll probably need much luck. Cause this is more than just a spoiler for a major plot twist or a returning character. To them, it's a race to unmask an the identity of one the most famous character's new actor-- and the bragging rights that comes with. And that's not disregarding people who can't get, play and beat Wonder right when it comes out; chances are most everyone will just look up his name ATP.  

 

But, sounds like a decent challenge if anyone does manage to learn Mario's new VA by the credits without knowing in advance.

 

On a separate note, I doubt this secrecy has anything to do with the imminent video game VA strike; this is likely what they planned to do beforehand, plus Nintendo is not among the companies to be affected

[Tornado]

The secrecy is so they can push any discussion on the matter to after the game's launch where it is far more likely to be drowned out.

[JezMM]

On 9/5/2023 at 10:40 PM, Supah Berrio said:

https://comicbook.com/gaming/amp/news/nintendo-super-mario-bros-wonder-new-voice-actor-revealed/

 

Want to meet your new Mario? You'll have to beat the game to find out who...

 

 

...Pheh, who am I kidding?

DGMW, I'm captivated; giving this extra reward to players to motivating them to play through it beyond "save the in game world" sounds cool on paper. But this is the modern internet run society, and word travels fast. Y'all know people will lock on to this game like missiles the split second it breaks street date and then reveal who he is a half hour later, for all news articles and stations to report on.

 

Only if you avoid using the internet at all during the lead up to release could this work, but even then you'll probably need much luck. Cause this is more than just a spoiler for a major plot twist or a returning character. To them, it's a race to unmask an the identity of one the most famous character's new actor-- and the bragging rights that comes with. And that's not disregarding people who can't get, play and beat Wonder right when it comes out; chances are most everyone will just look up his name ATP.  

 

But, sounds like a decent challenge if anyone does manage to learn Mario's new VA by the credits without knowing in advance.

 

On a separate note, I doubt this secrecy has anything to do with the imminent video game VA strike; this is likely what they planned to do beforehand, plus Nintendo is not among the companies to be affected

This never came across as some kind of intended reward or you vs social media speedrun challenge to me, just rather a clinical attitude that they don't consider it of promotional importance any moreso than announcing who is voicing the little flower guys ahead of time either, nor will they be announcing who the third listed course designer or chief programmer is - just read the credits and see.

Doug Bowser's exact quote here is just a friendly PR re-wording of said clinical attitude.

 

I certainly hope people aren't going to rush playing through the game just to find out the name of a person or get annoyed that they find out over social media instead of the credits. Neither scenario is that important and hyperfocusing on it is just going to spoil the experience every time Mario utters a vocalisation.

[Zaysho]

I don't think it's as big of a deal to Nintendo as say, Sega did for Sonic what with publicly announcing they recast everyone (but Eggman) in 2010 or when they randomly "parted ways" or whatever with Smith for a few months a couple years ago. Martinet stepping down is a huge deal and they can't not acknowledge his work, but in the grand scheme I don't think it matters to Nintendo as much with Mario. It's notable that characters he doesn't voice have shuffled actors at least a couple times in different games, including Bowser, Peach, Rosalina, the Koopalings have two sets of actors depending on whether it's mainline Mario (and that work was likely recycled from NSMB Wii) or spinoffs like Kart/Smash Bros.. It wasn't frequent, but it did happen, and they never bothered to make a big deal out of it.

 

And honestly for all we know the actor is no one anyone will have ever heard of and may even be Martinet's understudy if the actor is more or less matching his work anyway. People will probably look like this in a month:

 

[Tornado]

Making a dog and pony show out of who the new voice actor is would also be counterproductive to them replacing Martinet to begin with. Nintendo desperately wants to be Disney, and they want Mario to be Mickey Mouse. I won't say that that's why Martinet was replaced necessarily, but the backlash to the Mario movie's cast (and seeing how handcuffed Disney is to Mark Hamill even when they find someone to deepfake his face onto who looks almost identical to how he looked in the 70s already) almost certainly concerned them with regards to that.

 

On 8/22/2023 at 12:20 PM, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

What about the use of AI voice synthesizers? You think they’d use that instead?

I wouldn't rule them doing so out, especially for as comparatively little is needed for the role. I'd assume Nintendo would compensate Martinet for it, though, since they gave him a window seat when they didn't "have" to do that much (see: Sega, Capcom).

 

On 8/23/2023 at 11:07 PM, StaticMania said:

You mean just game devs...and that didn't typically happen for fully voice acted characters.

Yes it did. There wasn't a deep talent pool of cheap voice talent to draw from for games released in the West until after anime took off. All manner of 90s mid-budget PC games and pre-MGS console games had a voice cast of "the developers doing bad accents with their friends/family;" with a proud history all the way through to the original Deus Ex.

If a game had voice acting before Half Life/MGS and it wasn't bankrolled by Activision or LucasArts, it probably was cast entirely with whoever one of the developers happened to know who could act and/or sing the best no matter how much voice acting and/or singing was required.

[Shiny Gems]

Here is the special message.

[StaticMania]

So, he's just gonna keep doing what he's been doing.

But more.

[Sonicka]

1 hour ago, StaticMania said:

So, he's just gonna keep doing what he's been doing.

But more.

Essentially what he's been doing already now just has an official title to distract us from the fact that he no longer will be voicing Mario in the games. 

I've gotta be honest, he sounded perfectly fine in the video when he ran through the Mario favourites in succession. So either Nintendo is forcing him out of the role in a questionably respectable sendoff so they can pursue new avenues, or they are just preparing a younger actor to fill in the role since Martinet won't be around forever - get in there and get the audience used to it now I guess? 

But it's still just super weird to me, because unless Nintendo hand him a cease and desist on ever voicing them again when the new guy starts - he's still going to be going to these conventions to promote the franchise whilst no doubt doing the voice for the crowds and fans... 

[Shiny Gems]

Well, someone acquired the Super Mario Bros. Wonder demo and did a little data mining, including the voice actors in the game.

https://famiboards.com/threads/super-mario-bros-wonder-—-pre-release-discussion-thread.6614/page-28#post-862363

Spoiler

Looks like Charles Martinet's replacement might be Mick Wingert! Didn't he do the voice work in the Shrek and Kung Fu Panda video games?

 

[Zaysho]

He isn't: https://www.ign.com/articles/mario-wonder-mick-wingert-nintendo

Quote

But I also reached out to Wingert's agent, Epoch Talent, and here's where things get goofy. Mick Wingert's official, on the record response was that while he can neither confirm nor deny his involvement in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, "he can confirm that he is NOT voicing Mario."

 

[Shiny Gems]

20 hours ago, Zaysho said:

He isn't: https://www.ign.com/articles/mario-wonder-mick-wingert-nintendo

 

Thanks for clarifying. Looks like we have to wait a bit longer now to find out who the real new guy is.

EDIT: Looks like we have our real voice actor this time.

 

[Itzyaboi64]

What the h e double hockey sticks is the “Mario ambassador” like really what’s he gonna do take credit for Mario games randomly