Shigeru Miyamoto Thanks Charles Martinet For Being The Voice Of Mario In Heartfelt Message

Charles Martinet looks like Peter Griffin's stoner uncle in that pic at the top.

He truly is the sweetest guy. Despite voicing more than just Mario games, he definitely embraces his work with Nintendo the most when he's at conventions.

Good luck on your roll of traveling around the world and attending conventions on Nintendo's dime.

His role seems similar to Miyamoto, but his primary function will be Mario ambassador for Nintendo rather than complete fellowship. I think they wanted to keep him on the payroll, plus reward him for the years he's contributed to the characters in the universe.

What. A. Legend.
I wish him all the best with his Mario related ventures!

Yeah, so Nintendo has basically given Charles the axe. "Brand ambassador" literally just means going around to conventions and signing autographs like he's already been doing--and could continue to do, with or without Nintendo's official approval. I guess they handled it as tactfully as they could with this sweet little send-off, but he's essentially been fired. That's rough.

Charles will always be one of my favorite people in the world, he's always so kind and all and he's an all around inspiration.

Thank you for lending your voice all these years Charles!

Congrats on an incredible career, Charles! You're the man!

I wish you nothing but the best for you Charles!

@123akis Agree. And possibly more voice lines will mean translations. Even though Charles can speak multiple languages I don't think he can speak all of them like Japanese. If Nintendo needs more voice actors for the multiple languages it would be a good point to go new anyway.

If I had to guess, this might simply have to do with age, and I don't mean to suggest ageism whatsoever.

As much as I would love to see Charles continue in the role, Nintendo is notoriously perfectionist and probably doesn't want Mario to have any signs of raspiness/age in his voice - something that happens to most of us as we get older and probably will for Charles at some point too.

So I think this is a respectful sendoff all things considered, and I hope to meet Charles at an event someday and thank him for his amazing work.

I liked when Miyamoto said thanks in English! I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard him speak another language before…

lol @ reading comment #5 and then comment #6 immediately after.

I dunno. The whole situation is weird. He says he wants to voice the characters forever. Then suddenly he's not employed to do that anymore. And then the voices in the first post-Martinet game are basically the same. So obviously they don't want a new creative direction. What's the deal then? Just weird.

This was a real cute message. Martinet is such a treasure

Isn’t it a thing in Japan that voice actors are never truly replaced? I wonder if Charles continuing to represent the Mario brand is a way of honouring that tradition while letting him semi-retire.

If anyone else follows Charles on Instagram, one of the first things you’ll notice is his sincerity and genuine passion for Nintendo and the characters he’s portrayed. It would be so easy for someone to stand in front of a camera and deliver a template, corporate bs message, but Charles’ enthusiasm is legitimate and will be sorely missed.
Wishing him the best in everything that he does.

He asks while the company actively dishonors him to gain Hollywood clout

Nintendo made Mario a memorable icon.
But it was Charles Martinet that made Mario an unforgettable character.

The series will be a bit less special without him.

@Key19 they seem to me to have just ai copied the voice and decided they no longer needed to pay him but realized what backlash this would bring if they just said Nothing and dropped him so came up with this semi ***** honorific title to appease him and fans

@Not_Soos Agreed. I feel like I can tell he's a bit sad about all this. It was definitely their decision, but I hope this "ambassador" thing means they're going to keep paying him and paying for his travel to take care of him as thanks for the years of work he's provided for them.

Hearing that Charles used to call Miyamoto "Papa" in his Mario voice just makes my heart melt.

Goodbye, Charles. You will always be the Mario Brothers to me.

I'm glad above all that this is an amicable hand-over. I'll do everything in my power to meet Charles one day and thank him myself. A thanks here will do for now.

Hmm, i really want to know the reason why he stopped. Got the feeling that there is more then this "cute" video.

I mean, couldn't they just reuse his voice for all future Mario games and still let him "retire" and become a Mario Ambassador?
Either way, he seems like a lovely man, and just hearing him voice Mario and all the other characters brings a smile to my face.

While I do think it's important to prepare for the future and re-cast roles - we see this all the time with long-standing mascots like Bugs Bunny or the Muppets, and it's preferable to re-using the same library of samples or AI - I wouldn't be surprised if Charles is saddened by the change. I hope this ambassador role means they're continuing to pay and take care of him as their long-standing go-to voice actor.

They killed mario ;D

@delt75 my example has been Luigis mansion 3, which has little lines of dialogue that are unique to the game (answering telephones, calling for help, any cut scenes). I feel recycling could only go so far and might hinder future games in a sense. I'm sure Nintendo intends to pump out Mario games for another 40 years, so it's reasonable they'd move on (at some point). Edit - also commercials, promos, theme park stuff etc, might need a refresh

Either way, very touching send-off, wish CM the best

I am worried that the new Warioware won't have much VA. I thought Get It Together suffered without a bigger chunk of Martinet. Even an impersonator would be welcome. or a new voice. We just need better cutscenes than GiT.

The new voice actor for Mario should probably be Italian, and maybe even an actual plumber.

Japanese culture certainly has a class about it. Hate to see martinet go i'll forever remember booting up mario 64 the first time

Charles Martinet also did a wonderful job narrating for the series High Score. I'm really hoping they do another run of episodes for that series (with Martinet narrating of course).

So three articles in, and we are now being told, what we already new, Charles is being moved on, of course with his new role as an ambassador.

Charles is Mario. Mario is Charles.

@Not_Soos How you got that is impressive. CM is likely wanting to retire. When all the ignorant people came out against Pratt and wondered why Martinet wasn't doing it, he came out and said he couldn't physically do an entire movie's worth of dialogue for several characters. He's tired, your voice changes with age too, ask any musician how hard it is to continue doing something 30 years into your career vocally. A lot of them continue to do it, and you almost never hear about the toll it takes day after day, but there's always a stopping point. Steven Tyler, James LaBrie, Vince Neil, Rob Halford, etc. It's better to go out on top, and I respect Charles for finding his stopping point and for Nintendo offering him a permanent role within the company out of admiration for all he's done.

This whole ordeal seems pretty fishy to me.

Two absolutely wonderful men; I'm glad to say I've met them both.

I wish they used subtitles when Shigeru Miyamoto speaks on Nintendo Direct events, I love hearing him speak and I can't stand the ridiculous voice they use for the dubbing.

Good luck with your Mario-related travels from here on Mr. Martinet! We really need more people like you in this world.😊

@Not_Soos "fired" is total speculation. he's been doing it for decades. he's an older veteran voice actor now. it may have just as easily been a mutual decision, or entirely Charles'. playing one character for decades is cool, but he may feel it's time to move on.

In any case, the voices in Wonder aren't significantly different in style. So it's not like they were trying to go in a wildly different direction he couldn't handle. And they're keeping him around in a very visible role, so the relationship does not seem to have soured in any significant sense.

You could be right, but you are speculating based on nothing.

Just getting to the bottom of these comments and my 8 year old comes up to me and asks me what I'm doing.

Me: "You know Mario? Well, the man who's been the voice of Mario for nearly 30 years is retiring, he's not gonna voice Mario anymore".

My kid: "What!?! His voice is the best!"

Thank you, Charles. Such an indelible impact of joy on the lives of so many. You're the best.

I hope he writes an autobiography. I am sure that he won't, but not enough voice actors do really, and would love to read more. Anyway, what a legend. What a legacy. He will forever be special to so many generations. Hope that I get to meet him one day.

@RobynAlecksys He said it himself that he is not retired

If Charles is able to fly around the world and meet thousands of fans and talk in all those characters voices for hours on end then I’m more than certain that he is still great at doing voice acting in any capacity

They have retired him in a gentle way. Its bittersweet but this is Nintendo

Ambassador just means they have sanctioned his celebrity and his continuing on with it. The obvious PR move in light of his popularity.

This ordeal is what business calls ‘restructuring’. Basically firing someone despite being/for being good at their job without stating any reasons. Happens all the time

"Papa!!" I can just hear Charles Martinet saying that in his Mario voice. 😆
Random off topic but... No love for Peach's VA? I don't even think the original Leslie Swan has gotten love ever 😕

Come on people. Don't speculate about why all of this happened if you don't have any solid evidence to support your claim. Besides, I really don't think it's our business whether he chose to retire from voice acting or got fired.

@Not_Soos I think in this case he hasn't "essentially been fired" but I think it also isn't because of Pratt.

If you look at Nintendo's overall strategy in the post-Switch years, part of that is to distance itself from the Iwata era more.

Look at all the big names from that period: Reggie, Miyamoto, Martinet, even some of the juniors like Tezuka, Aonuma, and Sakurai. They're all out of the company entirely like Reggie, are being moved out of active development and into either more senior executive/admin roles like Tezuka and Aonuma or into custom-built roles like Miyamoto's "Creative Fellow" or this "Mario Ambassador" thing.

I think Nintendo knows the brand goodwill it earned from that era, but wants to build a more nimble, adaptable company for the future and so they're trying to retain that goodwill while aligning the company more to the new corporate strategy from within.

@RobynAlecksys @demacho @KoopaTheGamer It's not just baseless speculation. Kit and Krysta put out a video when the news first broke about Charles stepping down from being the voice of Mario. They know better than any of us how Nintendo handles PR, and they hypothesize Nintendo is looking to go in a new direction for Mario's voice and came up with the role of "Voice Ambassador" to reduce the amount of backlash from fans and not completely sour their relationship with Charles. They obviously don't know that for certain since they aren't still with the company, but I think it makes perfect sense. Especially since I'm pretty sure Charles relatively recently expressed his desire to be the voice of Mario for years to come, but I don't have a source to verify that.

Here's a link to the K&K video in question, though: https://youtu.be/vJ0uOdonwMc?si=-n7aZn93R51Jnrfg They bring up other points as to why Nintendo might be making this move as well based on their experience with the company, so it's worth a watch. Similar to how Nintendo limits their collaboration with content creators, they don't like the people behind their games to become well-known, in case some controversy should arise and causes bad publicity. (It's worth noting Martinet IS pretty vocal about his political beliefs, so perhaps that was a factor.) I'm not saying what Nintendo is doing is malicious and that we should riot or anything. But I do strongly believe this was ultimately their decision and not his.

@Not_Soos While I'm sure Kit & Krysta know a lot about how Nintendo operates, they're not an insider source anymore. Their channel launched over a year and a half ago, so they wouldn't know anything specific about this topic. Speculation supported by someone else's speculation is still speculation.

@World Yeah, I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head. There may be other factors in play as well, noted by Kit and Krysta, which I discussed in my other reply above. I wanna say for the record though, I never once thought for a second it had anything to do with Pratt, lol.

@Not_Soos Of course! I did not get that you thought it was Pratt from your reply. That was more just generally addressed to people who were saying it in the thread, haha

I do think it's a bit sad to see these big players get moved on to other things, though! It'll be interesting to see what Nintendo looks like in a few years for sure.

@World Ahh okay, haha! Just wanted to make sure I didn't give that impression because I did not think that all. 🤣

@Jiggies The Nintendo UK channel uses subtitles in directs.

@World Aonuma's role didn't change during the Switch generation. He's been the Zelda series producer for much longer than the Switch.

Thanks again for everything Mr. Charles -San. You will always be Mario's voice for me. And I hope you still have alot of fun as a Mario Ambassador. Really great work thanks.

They didn't say why he's leaving. Was he fired or is he retiring? I'm okay with him wanting to retire but I'm not okay with them firing him.

It seems Nintendo are handling Martinet as a “Mario Ambassador” the same way they’re handling Miyamoto as a “creative fellow”, not off the books with Nintendo, but not fully hands on anymore.

@BiscuitCrumbsInMyBed This. I hate it.

@locky-mavo I was thinking the same thing. Both Miyamoto and Martinet are at a respectable retirement age, but clearly neither wants to swan off and leave their life’s work behind.

Nintendo no doubt wants to keep them part of the ‘brand’ and recognise their numerous contributions, while filling the roles they occupied — before those roles are suddenly vacated by nature’s cruel hand.

That said, Miyamoto and Martinet both seem full of vim and vigour, and Charles’ voice shows no sign of deterioration. He is still Mario, and in his heart and the hearts of many others he will always be.

But he has been voicing the plumber — whose official age is 24-25 — for at least as many years, and there will come a time when he simply can no longer do so. The ‘ambassador’ role (read: mandatory-but-presumably-well-compensated-semi-retirement) seems as safe and amicable a way of future-proofing the position as any I can think of.

I think it's time. Marios design is getting a refresh, voice too. I think it's time. He will still be around.

@LadyCharlie best comment here— extremely well said 🙏🤘

That is awesome. Love that they are keeping him on staff.

It still comes off as them firing him and giving him this nebulous "ambassador" role (which seems to just be him going to conventions like he was anyway) to keep the fans from being outraged.

@DAHstroy He spoke a lot of English when he unveiled Twilight Princess at E3 2004. You should check it out, it's definitely their most epic game reveal!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwMdcESljqg

I still don’t understand all the tin foil hatting about this. He still works for Nintendo but now has a flexible role that should he decide to retire (or worse) then Nintendo has already had his replacement on deck. No one can or wants to work forever.

It is interesting seeing the juxtaposition of today’s culture which is dismissive of our elders (ok boomer gets tossed like candy even to people that aren’t boomers) and this “outrage” on behalf of a fairly normal job transition. Legal retirement age is 65 in the US, Mr. Martinet can say duces at anytime really. At this point unless he has mismanaged his funds, he is just working for the enjoyment of it. Being an ambassador (likely connecting with fans) seems the perfect role until he retires.

Well done by ninendo.. i suppose he was a freelancer, so not just dumping him but finding a new role is a good gesture to respect your friends...

I'm sure he's a nice guy but I have always found his Nintendo voiceover work to be incredibly annoying.

Classy way to handle a forced retirement for Charles. He looks like a great guy to hang with, and Mr Miyamoto thanking him for the role is a great send off. Wish him luck with is new role as ambassador.

This now reminded me how different it was from the ugly mess with the Bayonetta VA...

Will be missed but I'm glad Nintendo has given him this new role! Good luck 👍

@BTB20 Thanks for letting me know. Maybe from now on I'll watch the UK Direct instead.

Thank you, Charles. Thank you for being my childhood hero.

And whoever is stepping into the hat and overalls now is already knocking it out of the park. The spirit of Mario will live on. Forever.

That was surprisingly sweet, especially the end of Miyamoto’s segment. Wish Martinet all the best and I hope to see him at one of those events one day.