Now Viewing: marioTag type: Character The portly Plumber and princess-saver, Mario of Nintendo's Mario Bros. Franchise. Everyone should knows who he is by now. Not to be confused with that completely different Mario(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_(entertainer)), but why would anyone even think that on a site like this? He debuted in 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong where he was known as Jumpman, his name was changed to Mario in Donkey Kong Jr. The name Mario is reference to Mario Segali who was the landlord of Nintendo of America in the early 1980s. His design was influenced by technological limitations at the time; he was given a mustache, large nose, and overalls so as to be easier to recognize. He has a hat because the developers couldn't render his hair sticking up when he fell. Interestingly, his original color scheme is the inverse of his iconic one; he originally had a blue cap and blue shirt combined with red overalls. From the 1980s to early 1990s, he was played by a wide variety of voice actors/actors including: Peter Cullen (Saturday Supercade), Lou Albano (The Super Mario Bros. Super Show), Walker Boone (The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and World), Ronald B. Ruben (Mario Teaches Typing), Colin Case (Super Mario Compact Disco), David Platshon (Mario's Time Machine; PC version), Nick Glaeser (Mario is Missing; PC version), and Mark Graue (Hotel Mario), Furuya_Tohru (The Great Mission to save Princess Peach), and Bob Hoskins (1993 live action movie). Most of these actors gave him either a lower gruff-sounding voice or a slightly younger sounding boyish voice. This changed when Charles Martinet decided to crash a voice acting audition for Mario. He had been informed that an audition was taking place near where he was. At this time, Martinet was not familiar with video games or Mario so when he auditioned, he had to quickly improvise a voice for Mario based off of a vague description of the character. Martinet toyed with using a gruff voice, but decided to use Mario's now-iconic falsetto Italian-accented voice which was inspired by his previous performance as Gremio in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew in order to make Mario more likable and family-friendly. He immediately got the job after the audition and became Mario's most well known voice actor, playing Mario in every Mario game since Mario's Fundamentals in 1995 though most people were introduced to his voice in Super Mario 64. However, Martinet first played Mario in 1994 as part of a Mario in real time performance at a Nintendo trade show. Martinet hid from the sight of the attendees, but he could see the attendees himself and was able to respond directly to them, and had sensors hooked to his face, which allowed Mario to mimic his facial expressions. Martinet has also played other characters related to Mario such as Luigi and Mario's rivals Wario and Waluigi. Ever since he took on the role, he has embraced it and on his instagram and vine accounts, he often performs short comedic skits featuring the Mario Bros. Martinet has played Mario so many times that on December 7, 2018, he earned a Guiness World Record for voicing the same character in over 100 video game appearances, and retired from voicing the character on August 21, 2023. However, he remained involved with the franchise as a brand ambassador for Mario. Starting with Super_mario_bros._Wonder, Mario is played by Kevin Afghani, who also plays Luigi, much like Martinet did. For the 2023 animated film adaptation of the Mario franchise, however, Chris_Pratt was cast as Mario instead, but Martinet still had a smaller role in the film. Pratt also gives Mario a lower voice, much like the pre-Martinet actors. Unlike most of the cast, his characterization is kept simple in all incarnations, even in the Mario RPGs where he functions as a silent protagonist. Mario does not talk except for a few short phrases, yells, and grunts. He loves Italian food and is a cheerful man who's always up to help the Mushroom Kingdom and other people whenever necessary and often seems to be only person, along with his brother Luigi, in the Mushroom Kingdom to be actually effective against Bowser. He is in a romantic relationship with Princess Peach. He is very athletic and acrobatic despite being on the chubby side and is, considering that he has starred in almost every genre of video game imaginable, multi-talented. In his competitive game appearances, Mario is often designed to be a moderate and beginner friendly character who does not specialize in one category or is particularly weak in any category. He is also probably the most prolific video game character ever with hundreds of appearances. Other Wiki Information Last updated: 10/15/23 4:56 AM by jojosstand This entry is not locked and you can edit it as you see fit. |
     
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