The debate of Mario's voice

[1upmushroom]

This is where we talk about the most notorious addition in the new Mario games. Charles Martinet's voice intereptation. People have brought it up in arguments most of the time as evidence that the games have gone down the crapper but here, I'm going to be honest.

I despise it, but I also like it. Its like that one kid who annoys the hell out of you but you still don't want anything bad to hapen to him. I grew up with the voice, mostly cause I was born when the new voice was already popular. And I loved it, but then I listened to the cartoon's voice and that's when I started to despise it.

While i still like it as it is uplifting and cool to see that a guy has to dealwith all this random crap and still be able to have a laugh at it and sound in good spirits what was wrong with this?!?!?!?!?!?!



That's the best Mario voice I've heard of if we're looking for an upbeat Mario. It's bright and upbeat, yet it's not too stereopically italian either. Its more american.

And then there's of course Waler Boone's Mario. Which was a pretty good Mario but Captain Lou Albanoe's (RIP) Mario was probably gthe best in protraying a good hearted Mario.

Plus the new Luigi's voice was ok, but Danny Wells' Luigi was way better, it was more deep and again less of a stereotypical italian voice. So that's my 2 cents on Mario's voice, feel free to discuss.

[Phlibbit]

I love, love, love Captain Lou's Mario voice. It 100% encapsulates that "Mario Mania" era of the character just as good as the games themselves. It's a Brooklyn-style voice but also humble, heroic, and upbeat all at the same time. Absolutely perfect.

[Redstar]

Mario is Nintendo's Mickey Mouse. His voice works that way. Nintendo does "icons" right.

[KoopaBro64]

Bob Hoskins' voice was obviously good enough for Nintendo to use it in the SMW animated series

That's Walker Boone doing Mario's voice, he continued in SM3 and SMW after Lou Albano retired as portraying Mario.

[1upmushroom]

Mario is Nintendo's Mickey Mouse. His voice works that way. Nintendo does "icons" right.

I totally agree, everything about the later Mario is nothing short of iconic. Lots of people who never even played the games can say what he looks like and talks like. I'm just saying my 2 cents about the debate of his voice. Like I said I like it too. But give me Captain Lou's Mario any day. Charles Martinet fitted Mario in the later era, and Captain Lou fitted Mario in the Mario Mania era.

Like I said, I grew up with the Charles Martinet Mario and I still like it. But it sometimes gets annoying making me despise it, and thus realizing why Wario was the one who talks regulary.

[GetThosePlumbers]

Walker Boone "is" Mario's voice to me. Hoskins was great, but obviously detatched from the video game character. I don't mind Martinet. Don't care for Captain Lou Albano's voicework.

[Redstar]

Okay, I just listened to Martinet's "Mario voice" from the "Mario and Luigi" RPG series and feel that I have to retract my previous support for it. It's disgusting gibberish in those games.

[Phlibbit]

HAHAHA! Another one converted. Most of the games in that series are good, but yeah--can't stand the voices.

[CTM]

I started gaming in the 64 era, so Martinet's voice was always an integral part of the character for me. While I love Hoskins' performance in the movie, and Captain Lou's on the show, the idea of game Mario with a Brooklyn accent just sounds horrible to me. When I play Mario games I wanna hear some "Yah wah hoohoo!"

[KoopaBro64]

My personal favorite Mario is Captain Lou's voice. Captain Lou just did the best job for Mario! His voice was calm & comforting like Mario's voice should be, and could be heroic sounding. Walker Boone was ALRIGHT..but, his voice was little more husky than Albano's, which kinda takes away the calm trait. Bob Hoskins is the same deal as Boone's, very husky..but, most of Mario's dialogue in the film was angry comebacks, so I can't really blame the man. Charles is good, but, his voice is just too over the top, Lou Albano's voice was normal and just perfect for Mario, Charles I feel is just too cartoony & over the top.

[1upmushroom]

Charles I feel is just too cartoony & over the top.

Funny how we all think this way, ven though the games are SUPPOSED to be cartoony and over the top. But I'm glad to see another fan of Captain Lou's Mario. Overall, its just the better voice.

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

I sort of touched on this in that other thread I made (I should really do something with that at some point), but it's pretty much like two different eras of Mario for me. And for the new era of Mario, I like Charles Martinet just fine. In fact, before there were any Mario cartoons, his voice for Mario was pretty much what I imagined in my head... just with less of an accent.

Then, when the cartoons came around, I think the voice in my head was whatever it was on TV at the time. Even if I was reading the comics or something, I would likely hear Captain Lou or Walker Boone's voice in my head. In fact, if I read stuff from that era now, it's still those voices.

So, I like both for what they are. And really, with how old Mario is written vs. new Mario, I don't think Martinet's would suit the old Mario, nor would Lou, Boone, or Hoskins suit the new Mario. It's like imagining Adam West reading Christian Bale's Batman lines, or vice versa; they're just two versions of the same character which manage to work in their own unique ways, but aren't really compatible.

All of that said: I love hearing Captain Lou's Mario telling us that "if you use drugs, you'll go to Hell before you die," as well as Martinet's Mario giving a press conference.

I guess that's just the Mario Maniac I am.

[1upmushroom]

Well, here's my final say on it. I don't mind the voice, but I could REALLY do without it. Capt. Loue's was the best and always will be. I remember Redstar aying that Ninted got icons right, which they do but icons don't aways make good characters.

The only time Nintendo got icons right for me was when they showed Samus. Samus barely talked, had a badass suit and, surprisngly, was a girl! That, is in icon!

See, when Nintendo gives us icons for chaacters, they often show them as weird, over the top and cartoony, which works with something like Kirby, but not so much with characters ike, Mario, Peach, Toad, and especially Picakcheu.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Basically, Charles Martinet's voice is ok, but Capt. Lou will always be remembered more.

[KoopaBro64]

Well, here's my final say on it. I don't mind the voice, but I could REALLY do without it. Capt. Loue's was the best and always will be. I remember Redstar aying that Ninted got icons right, which they do but icons don't aways make good characters.

The only time Nintendo got icons right for me was when they showed Samus. Samus barely talked, had a badass suit and, surprisngly, was a girl! That, is in icon!

See, when Nintendo gives us icons for chaacters, they often show them as weird, over the top and cartoony, which works with something like Kirby, but not so much with characters ike, Mario, Peach, Toad, and especially Picakcheu.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Basically, Charles Martinet's voice is ok, but Capt. Lou will always be remembered more.

Agreed, maybe not so sure on the Pikachu thing, but then again, I'm not a fan of Pokemon so I can't say much on that.

Charle's Mario portrayal is good for the games, it's a memorable voice that is loved by the Video-Game community, which of course is a very good thing, but, if Mario were to star in another movie or cartoon, his characterization would have to be more serious, kinda like he was in the Mario cartoons. Bob Hoskin's Mario was good of course, but he acted more of a Luigi, he was all cowardly, he did have his moments, but Mario is supposed to be kind and brave like he was in Lou Albano's portrayal.
Of course I'd like the Danny Wells Luigi voice back too, after all, Danny did create Luigi, he gave him his personality which defined him from Mario.
And just to mention, I wish they would have Toad's old high pitched voice from the N64 era still. His new, croaky voice is just annoying..it does pay tribute to the Mario Bros. Super Show, but, oh man..

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Basically, Charles Martinet's voice is ok, but Capt. Lou will always be remembered more.

I kind of doubt that. For one, most kids who have been introduced to and grown up with Mario from the mid-90's to today have probably never seen the Super Show, and know Martinet. Kids just know "it's-a me, Mario!" more now.

As for the remainder, well, the fact that no one seems to remember the Super Show making note of the Bros.' last names being "Mario," instead attributing it to the movie just leaves me to wonder.

I'm not saying no one does, but I think the more time passes, the more the number of people who remember Captain Lou as Mario will continue to shrink.

That Lou only did the Super Show, with Walker Boone doing it for one season more than Lou did for AoSMB3 and SMW probably doesn't help matters much.

[Phlibbit]

You're right, LDB.

The thing is that the Mario cartoons (all of them) are essentially now retro cartoons that a handful of people from the "Mario Mania" age remember fondly. Yes, the cartoons are surprisingly still around and you see cheap $5 DVDs of them everywhere, but I still imagine that their reach is limited compared to the games.

As it stands, Mario is more of an "icon" now for Nintendo ala Mickey Mouse for Disney. Whereas Mickey started out with cartoon shorts/films/etc and was more prevalent, he's really just a figurehead for the company. Same with Mario--yes, there are games but the personality just isn't there. Or--it's there, but just in a different way than the "Mario Mania" days.

[Wesr]

I couldn't figure out why he has a thick Italian accent in the games. Captain Lou was good as him in the original Mario cartoons and I don't remember the mario world ones but I'm sure that voice fits. It always bugged me that he sounded like a really bad Italian imitation when he's supposed to by a NYC plumber.

[Mario500]

^Walker Boone performed as Mario for the "Super Mario World" TV series and "The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3".

[Serum]

To me, Walker Boone is the definitive voice of Mario, and should have gone on to voice Mario in the later games up until this day. He's a gruff but lovable sounding Italian Brooklynite-- the perfect embodiment of Mario.

Lou Albano was good, but he was too Italian, then Bob Hoskins is a British guy pretending to be from Brooklyn, and now we have Charles Martinet, whose voice really makes me agitated whenever playing the newer games beyond Super Mario 64-- Charles Martinet's voice is almost racist in its stereotypical, borderline ethnic slur Italian accent. But that's just me, most people really love the goofy voice he does, but to me, Walker Boone was the man.

[1upmushroom]

To me, Walker Boone is the definitive voice of Mario, and should have gone on to voice Mario in the later games up until this day. He's a gruff but lovable sounding Italian Brooklynite-- the perfect embodiment of Mario.

Well that's mostly because you grew up with that voice as opposed to Martinet's. In fact that's why so many people mostly kids want to Martinet's voice in a movie or cartoon. That's the voice they grew up with.

[Serum]

Well that's mostly because you grew up with that voice as opposed to Martinet's. In fact that's why so many people mostly kids want to Martinet's voice in a movie or cartoon. That's the voice they grew up with.

No, actually to be perfectly honest, I never heard Walker Boone's voice as Mario until around 2003-2004, a good six years after I knew who Mario was. Despite my being born in 1987, my parents never bought into the whole video-game thing until 1996, with the release of the Nintendo 64, so until then, I had no idea who Mario was-- so Martinet was the first voice of Mario I was exposed to. Back in the day, as a young child it seemed fine, but gradually I grew to like other interpretations more, like Bob Hoskins, Lou Albano and Walker Boone.

Even the guy who voiced Megatron from the Transformers cartoon voiced Mario at one point-- what's his name, Frank Welker? It was on a 1980s cartoon show called "Saturday Morning Supercade," where Mario was constantly rescuing Pauline from Donkey Kong-- but this version of Mario was a far cry from the Mario we know today.

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

It was Peter Cullen, actually, who had voiced (and still voices) Optimus Prime.

[Serum]

It was Peter Cullen, actually, who had voiced (and still voices) Optimus Prime.

That's him. I'm not a fan of Transformers at all, so I didn't know. But it's pretty interesting that the voice of the popular robot was once the voice of Mario.