It’s a-me, wahoo, yiiiiiipeee, Mario time, and mamma mia! Mario is not a man of many words, even if whatever few lines he speaks have become memorable pieces of gaming history. Just like the man behind those catchy phrases, Charles Martinet, it’s all part of Nintendo’s legacy that has shaped so many people’s experiences with video games.
That’s what makes it far more than understandable to see the reactions after Martinet was not cast as Mario for what is set to be the plumber’s big cinema debut next year. For a good part of his life since Super Mario 64, Martinet has devoted his professional career to Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi, even returning for new recordings meant for Lego’s Super Mario toy line that launched last year. To put it bluntly, when it comes to Mario voices, there is no second best.
That in itself is a rare achievement, but now that Chris Pratt was selected to voice Mario, the last statement will cease to be true whenever fans get to hear the actor utter his first words in whatever Italian accent he can muster. So why pass on Martinet? Well, the answer might be more simple than expected given the voice actor’s somewhat limited range and lack of experience in a project as big as what a Super Mario movie entails.
Martinet's film and television credits since becoming Mario (because let there be no doubt that Martinet is Mario) are few and far between, and most importantly nothing to write home about. This is not a disservice to Martinet. That lack of activity is due to the man’s prolific career in gaming ever since he found a home at Nintendo, but the fact of the matter is that Mario games top out their exposure levels at around 20 to 30 million copies sold, compared to the hundreds of millions of people that go see Marvel films and anything else Pratt has starred in.
Pratt’s casting is a decision made in the boardroom by executive producers, hardly something one can imagine to have come out of Shigeru Miyamoto’s head, yet that part is exactly why Nintendo partnered up with Illumination to develop this film. Mario as a movie is raw, unproven, and, considering most video game movies' track record, a risky bet at best. Suffice to say, a Mario movie already has a big cross to bear without it having to worry about casting a lead actor that is unknown to the larger parts of what they would hope will make the movie’s whole target audience.
Watching Martinet go full Mario and Luigi for longer periods of time is a treat to watch, at least for the few people that know what that sounds like from special events, conventions, or Martinet’s social media, but let it sink in how that would sound like for 90 minutes straight. It’s perfectly fine to question Pratt’s casting, he’s glaringly the biggest misfit in the entire Super Mario cast, but just because Pratt might not be the best Mario one could imagine that doesn’t instantly make Martinet the best choice either.
It’s a known fact that talented actors don’t necessarily bring the full effect of their performances into voice acting, so an even better argument might be why Nintendo opted to not cast any professional voice actors instead. Obviously, star power (and not the Mario kind) comes into play here, but conversely, neither case should lead anyone to assume a specific type of actor will automatically do a good job with an unproven commodity such as Mario.
Mario games don’t have the massive budgets that Cyberpunk 2077, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, or Red Dead Redemption command nowadays, regardless of that not preventing them from being triple-A gaming experiences. In the movie landscape, Super Mario is likely to be in the region of a $100m budget, more than enough to make quite a few Mario games, so, when faced against that, are the risks of bringing Martinet worth it for Nintendo?
As weird, unsettling as it can be to not hear Martinet play Mario once that first trailer comes out, the thought of Mario eventually bombing and having Martinet take the blame should be equally frightening for Mario fans. So far, Martinet’s career lacks any blemishes, that obviously doesn't mean there aren’t bad Mario games but the man’s voice is not at fault for those because voice acting (especially in Mario games) is only a small part of a larger experience and product, as proven by so many great games with poor voice acting that are out there.
Pratt’s casting seems off, but to be fair, nobody knows what type of Mario movie Nintendo, Illumination, and Miyamoto have in mind, only that the plumber will talk a lot. Martinet is already in the film, and it’s hard to imagine he won’t play a part in coaching Pratt nail his best Mario, so if Martinet himself can make peace with that idea, then why should anyone else judge on that?