We have a message for fans of the Mushroom Kingdom. Please take a look.
Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games for a long time, as far back as Super Mario 64. Charles is now moving into the brand new role of Mario Ambassador. With this transition, he will be stepping back from recording character voices for our games, but he’ll continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario and interacting with you all!
It has been an honour working with Charles to help bring Mario to life for so many years and we want to thank and celebrate him. Please keep an eye out for a special video message from Shigeru Miyamoto and Charles himself, which we will post at a future date
Granted, the only Mario games I’ve actually played was SMB on the NES and Odyssey, so I don’t have the same attachment to the character as some, but I still don’t get the hate Chris Pratt got for that role. The movie wasn’t anything really special, the character was fine. But people were freaking furious.
Because Pratt isn’t a good voice actor. Really though, there were few standout performances in that entire movie, so he wasn’t alone in that. It’s almost like they picked the cast based on who can only play themselves, not on who would be a good choice. Princess Peach, Luigi, and Bowser were the only real solid performances in my opinion.
And Luigi barely got screen time!
It had less to do with Pratt and more to do with it being a radical departure from the established character of a very nostalgic and beloved character. It would basically be the same thing if Pratt was chosen to voice Micky Mouse or Bugs Bunny.
It’s also compounded by the fact that the Mario fan base, for good reason, loves Charles Martinet. Just see comments here for evidence. So pulling out a generic sounding Hollywood frontman felt like they were focusing on sales over source material. Which is true, but will always upset longtime fans.