How Charles Martinet Changed Mario Forever

Charles Martinet has been voicing Mario for over twenty years, and he's pretty darn good at it. With the Super Mario Bros Movie proving a success and with Nintendo moving away from Martinet's work in Super Mario Bros Wonder and beyond, the man deserves a bit of extra attention.

As the beloved voice actor behind one of the most recognisable characters of all time steps back from the role that he defined, it's time to revisit how he got the role, and why his particular version of the character has stood the test of time when other versions of Mario have been all but forgotten.

Martinet tells a good story about how he got the role of Mario to start with. It's a solid underdog tale, with a beach bro turning up unannounced at an audition, and annoying everyone until they gave him a job.

Martinet insists that he had never heard of Mario before the audition, and this lack of familiarity with the character no doubt helped shape his particular take on Nintendo's mascot.

This just goes to show that it's better to do things your own way than copy what everyone else does.

In case you were wondering, that's why this video is a series of drawing timelapse clips rather than footage from Mario games. We've tried doing things the way everyone else does them. Now we're going back to doing things our own way.

Lots of love,
BretonStripes and Kotor

Sources for this video:
   • Real Time Mario at the 1992 SCES  
   • How Charles Martinet Auditioned For T...  
https://kotaku.com/marios-voice-actor...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/blo...
https://www.essentiallysports.com/esp...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainm...
https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-...
   • Mario Vs Donkey Kong Cartoon