As if millennials didn’t have enough to deal with, the OG voice of Mario from Nintendo 64 has just announced he will be stepping back from recording the titular character. RIP to the Mario voice of our childhoods!
Charles Martinet has been the man behind the beloved plumber dating back to the time of cartridges that you aggressively blew into to get working. I’m talking the Super-Mario-Bros-Nintendo-64 days.
Martinet nabbed himself the Mario role in 1991 with a last minute audition, rocking up as the casting directors were already putting away equipment. He also lent his talents to other characters including Luigi, Wario and WaLuigi.
He has now taken on the role of Mario Ambassador with Nintendo, which, NGL, sounds like one of the coolest job titles out there. He’ll be travelling the world, signing autographs and probably making fan’s days by shouting “Mama Mia!”
Martinet took to X (formerly Twitter) to confirm the news, writing, “[M]y new Adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart! [#]woohoo!”
Sir, don’t you mean “wahoo”?
There’s been no word yet on who will be replacing Martinet, but I’m sure we can rest assured it won’t be Chris Pratt. If you’ll recall, the actor voiced Mario in the recent movie The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Let’s just say that fans weren’t too thrilled with his appointment as the titular character. Which is fair, considering Mario is a thickly moustachioed Italian and Chris Pratt is the whitest of the cis white men.
His voice talents went on to disappoint, with fans roasting his efforts right from the get-go because, well, there was no effort and Chris Pratt just sounded like Chris Pratt.
Regardless of who replaces Mario, there’ll no doubt be a special place in all our hearts for the OG. Lets-a-go raise a glass to it’s-a-him!
