Charles Martinet

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Revision as of 23:33, August 19, 2021 by 69.123.100.78 (talk) (→‎Portrayals: Played the WW GIT Demo and yes, Charles is voicing Wario.)
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"Charles" redirects here. For the historical writer in Mario's Time Machine, see Charles Dickens. For the historical scientist in Mario's Time Machine, see Charles-Gaspard de la Rive.

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“Ah, that Charles Martinet. Nice Italian boy.”
Mario, Mario vs. Donkey Kong

Charles Andre Martinet (last name pronounced mar-tin-AY), born September 17, 1955 in San Jose, California, United States of America, is a prominent voice actor of the Mario games. He voices several major characters, including Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Baby Wario, Metal Mario, the male bosses in Super Mario Advance, and many other male characters in the Mario series. The Internet Movie Database attributes over 150 works to Martinet in total. Martinet speaks fluent French, English and Spanish, but, ironically, not much Italian. His first voice over work at Nintendo was voicing the announcers, boxers, and the referee in Super Punch-Out!! for the SNES.

Martinet originally was not invited to audition for the role of Mario. He crashed the auditions, and was asked to do an Italian accent. His recordings left so much of an impression that they were the only one sent to Nintendo.[1] A former Shakespearean actor, Martinet has stated that Mario's voice was based on his voice for Gremio, a character from The Taming of the Shrew.[2]

Martinet first officially voiced Mario in the Super Mario Bros. pinball machine in 1992, though he was uncredited in the game.[3] The next time he portrayed Mario, and the first time as several other characters, was for Mario in Real Time in 1994, when he had motion sensors hooked to his face, which transposed his facial movements to a computer-generated Mario head on a screen. Martinet watched people passing by the screen through a surveillance camera and talked to them as Mario. This is used rather often by Nintendo when attending trade shows. An altered form of Mario in Real Time appeared in 1995's Mario's Game Gallery (later reissued as Mario's FUNdamentals), which is the first video game to have Mario portrayed by Charles Martinet.

Portrayals

Gallery

Trivia

  • At the time of his audition, Charles Martinet had never heard of Mario or Nintendo.[5]
  • In Mario Party, Super Smash Bros., Mario Golf, and Mario Party 2, as well as the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64,[6] his surname is misspelled "Martinee", like how it is pronounced.
  • According to an interview in 2009, Charles Martinet told Shigeru Miyamoto that he wanted to voice Link in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, though Miyamoto told him that Link would remain without a speaking voice. In the final game, his grunts and yells were portrayed by Nobuyuki Hiyama.[7]
  • Charles Martinet's favorite Mario game is Super Mario Maker. He is also a fan of the Mario Kart series, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, New Super Mario Bros. U, and Super Mario 3D World.[5]
  • Martinet has been recognized by the Guinness World Records as providing the "most video game voiceover performances as the same character" (at least 100 as Mario, as of the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate).[8]
  • Prior to doing voicework for the Mario franchise, he voiced the character Arnie the Dinosaur, a parody of Barney the Dinosaur, in the movie Nine Months, with Arnie coincidentally resembling Yoshi, one of Mario's friends.
  • Coincidentally, the voice clip sampled for Bowser's laugh in Super Mario 64 was recorded by Martinet years before his debut as Mario.[4]

References

External links