Why doesn’t Charles Martinet voice Mario in the Super Mario Bros movie?

Quite a portion of people who are familiar with the Super Mario Bros. game are also familiar with the name Charles Martinet. The person behind the legendary voice of Mario and his brother Luigi, Charles Martinet, was born on September 17, 1955. He is an American voice artist known for his contributions to the Super Mario video game series since 1992.

Why doesn’t Charles Martinet voice Mario in the Super Mario Bros movie?

With the new movie, titled Super Mario Bros, slated to hit theaters worldwide on April 27, 2023, one wonders why Charles Martinet was not chosen to voice the characters in the film. In place of the original voice, popular Hollywood actor Chris Pratt was chosen to voice Mario and actor Charlie Day was chosen to voice Mario’s brother Luigi.

Although Charles Martinet has been the person behind the voice of Mario for years, it must be noted that Martinet has not been involved in any major film projects and his main area of ​​expertise is video games.

Working with a character in a film is different than video games and requires a wide range to convey the emotions through their voice. This doesn’t mean that the work Charles Martinet has done isn’t significant, it just implies that the platforms are wildly different.

Also, considering the stats, it only makes sense to cast a hero like Chris Pratt, who has a track record of being part of massive, commercially successful projects with millions of viewers around the world compared to Charles Martinet’s limited audience.

The face of Chris Pratt is an internationally recognized image. He has been part of some of the biggest film projects like MCU’s Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and also films from the Jurassic World franchise. The hype, popularity and reach that the film gains by casting such an actor is quite large.

The acceptance and urge people will have to see the film is far greater than what would be if Martinet were the film’s lead.

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Mario is not a man of big words. There are few instances where Mario talks continuously in-game. But when it comes to movies, that won’t be the case. We can be sure that unlike the video game, Mario will take most of his role. According to Charles Martinet, he had in mind the stereotypical Italian-American accent with a deep and hoarse voice for the Brooklyn-based Italian plumber.

But Martinet thought it would be difficult for the kids to understand the accent and changed it to the version we hear today. As entertaining as the Martinet version is, sitting through an entire 90-minute film may not prove as engrossing as it should.

When casting actors for a film based on an iconic character, star value or star power is an important factor. The 1993 film “Super Mario” was not as successful as expected and even ended up on the list of the worst films of all time. Nintendo doesn’t want history to repeat itself.

Casting Chris Pratt, who is well received by audiences, lowers that risk factor to a level far better than the name Charles Martinet can. In addition, the total budget of the film is estimated at around 80 million US dollars. The budget amount is comparatively less for a film based on a legendary video game. Movies like ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and ‘Call of Duty’ came out with huge budgets and Nintendo or Illumination don’t want to raise the question of whether it’s worth putting Charles Martines in the movie and taking the risk.

Although there are doubts about Chris Pratt’s performance as Mari, and that he is often seen as the only outsider in the film’s entire cast, the star’s worldwide reach and acceptance is in fact much greater than that of Charles Martinet.

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With the release of the film’s teaser trailer, people were able to hear Chris Pratt’s voice as Mario. The teaser trailer featured two lines of dialogue from Mario, saying “What is this place?” and “The Mushroom Kingdom here we come.” The immediate reaction from fans was that Chris Pratt just sounded simple and just like himself.

But even if Chis didn’t live up to fans’ expectations, it doesn’t make Charles Martinet the next best choice as there are the factors mentioned above that need to be considered.

Cast as Mario in the film or not, Charles Martinet is an absolute legend. His iconic portrayal of the character will be remembered by people for a very long time. As the Guinness World Record holder for portraying the same character in a hundred different titles, the name of Charles Martinet will always be remembered alongside Mario.