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News Charles Martinet & Miyamoto video on his new role as mario ambassador released.

I don't know why, but I was kinda expecting them to be in the same room for this.

Also, genuinely love how Nintendo just refuses to acknowledge Mario Teaches Typing as his first role.
 
Dream retirement to be honest.

Travelling around the world, doing fun stuff and someone else pays for it.
 
I love Charles so much! 💕

Not much else to add, I just hope this is a happy ending for his career as the Mario voice;

Linkstrikesback said:
Nintendo denies Mario teaches typing ever existed
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You see, Miyamoto mentions the first role in a "Super Mario" game, as in mainline titles; He technically didn't lie ;P
 
Importing my comment from the other thread:

So cute that Miyamoto remembers Charles almost hitting his head in a restaurant in Kyoto haha

Enjoy the Ambassador life, Charles!
 
I don’t wanna get too tinfoil-hat here, but I dunno… something feels off about this whole thing. What could it be? Did Charles ask for too much money? Did Charles want to go union if he wasn’t already? Did he actually want to retire? Everything Charles said publicly in the past few years makes me think this was not his call.

It could honestly be that he just decided to retire and he changed his mind about playing Mario for the rest of his life. I guess we’ll never know.
 
I expect them to not really introduce the new voice actor(s) (expect for them showing up in the credits of course). Then they are much less dependent on one person and it would be much easier to switch to a new voice if needed.

Edit: my 2000th post, wah-hoo!
 
Derachi said:
I don’t wanna get too tinfoil-hat here, but I dunno… something feels off about this whole thing. What could it be? Did Charles ask for too much money? Did Charles want to go union if he wasn’t already? Did he actually want to retire? Everything Charles said publicly in the past few years makes me think this was not his call.

It could honestly be that he just decided to retire and he changed his mind about playing Mario for the rest of his life. I guess we’ll never know.
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Charles recently said he is not retiring, but it doesn't mean anything much because if he is an ambassador and traveling around, signing things, etc. work as Nintendo's "employee" it could still be counted as working and not retiring.

Also a few years back when Charles said he "wanted to do this forever" a lot of fans (and you) liked to use that quote in the past few weeks to make a conspiracy that Nintendo forced him out, but he also said if he thinks he can't do the voice anymore, he will let Nintendo know to find a new replacement.
 
Derachi said:
I don’t wanna get too tinfoil-hat here, but I dunno… something feels off about this whole thing. What could it be? Did Charles ask for too much money? Did Charles want to go union if he wasn’t already? Did he actually want to retire? Everything Charles said publicly in the past few years makes me think this was not his call.

It could honestly be that he just decided to retire and he changed his mind about playing Mario for the rest of his life. I guess we’ll never know.
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I think quite the opposite. He's literally still working for nintendo. He's got a raise, so not sure how you come to the other conclusion that he asked for too much and they didn't want to do it. He's also LITERALLY the mario ambassador. The voice of mario at special events. He arguable is going to become more known than if he just voiced mario in the games now.
 
i-feel-you-dwayne-johnson.gif
 
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Ab said:
I think quite the opposite. He's literally still working for nintendo. He's got a raise, so not sure how you come to the other conclusion that he asked for too much and they didn't want to do it. He's also LITERALLY the mario ambassador. The voice of mario at special events. He arguable is going to become more known than if he just voiced mario in the games now.
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Where was it said he got a raise? I didn’t see that anywhere.

He’s been doing the events/conventions circuit for years and years and years. That ain’t new. That’s business as usual.

Honestly I see his “Mario Ambassador” job as a way for Nintendo to keep him on an NDA’d employment contract. They’ll pay him whatever just so he stays under an NDA. He’s not allowed to talk about his time as Mario, he’s not gonna be able to write that book we all want him to write, etc. Most importantly: he won’t ever be able to say why he’s not the voice anymore.
 
Derachi said:
Where was it said he got a raise? I didn’t see that anywhere.

He’s been doing the events/conventions circuit for years and years and years. That ain’t new. That’s business as usual.

Honestly I see his “Mario Ambassador” job as a way for Nintendo to keep him on an NDA’d employment contract. They’ll pay him whatever just so he stays under an NDA. He’s not allowed to talk about his time as Mario, he’s not gonna be able to write that book we all want him to write, etc. Most importantly: he won’t ever be able to say why he’s not the voice anymore.
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Lmfao, it's literally a promotion. 2nd if he didn't want it he wouldn't do it.
 
Derachi said:
I don’t wanna get too tinfoil-hat here, but I dunno… something feels off about this whole thing. What could it be? Did Charles ask for too much money? Did Charles want to go union if he wasn’t already? Did he actually want to retire? Everything Charles said publicly in the past few years makes me think this was not his call.

It could honestly be that he just decided to retire and he changed his mind about playing Mario for the rest of his life. I guess we’ll never know.
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It could always be about money, but then with this video message and his future role - from the infos we got it could be literally any reason and I see no real indication for anything. At least it seems amicable.

If I have to guess I believe that it is likely a personal/private matter. Personal health or other live stuff that likely gets more important at his age.
 
Ab said:
Lmfao, it's literally a promotion. 2nd if he didn't want it he wouldn't do it.
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If you’re not going to cite a source on the ”raise/promotion” thing then you have zero way to confirm it. Ever hear of a lateral career move? They happen. Not every job title change involves a pay raise buddy.
 
Ultimately, Martinet is going to have a steady paycheck, is able to continue to travel and interact with fans, which seems to be something he very much enjoys.

Pay raise or not, it's a nice way to sweeten his retirement, and he deserves the best retirement.
 
lexony said:
If I have to guess I believe that it is likely a personal/private matter. Personal health or other live stuff that likely gets more important at his age.
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Yeah I think it totally could be a personal matter. Like, I don’t think I even want to know, it’s none of my business. I just get the impression we’re not being given the full story.
 
Derachi said:
Yeah I think it totally could be a personal matter. Like, I don’t think I even want to know, it’s none of my business. I just get the impression we’re not being given the full story.
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That is likely true because we get most of the time not the full story when stuff like this happens. Especially with Nintendo.
 
Derachi said:
If you’re not going to cite a source on the ”raise/promotion” thing then you have zero way to confirm it. Ever hear of a lateral career move? They happen. Not every job title change involves a pay raise buddy.
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Source? What kind of professionalism do you thing Nintendo does? They're not going to outright tell you what he made before and what he's making now. That makes no sense. You're very presumptuous for no reason also. It's not a title change. It's literally a promotion lmao.
 
Ab said:
You're very presumptuous for no reason also. It's not a title change. It's literally a promotion lmao.
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I think you're the one who's being presumptuous. It's a completely different role, that's the only fact we have. Could be more money, could be less.
 
Ab said:
Source? What kind of professionalism do you thing Nintendo does? They're not going to outright tell you what he made before and what he's making now. That makes no sense. You're very presumptuous for no reason also. It's not a title change. It's literally a promotion lmao.
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You’re asking me for a source? You’re the one saying ”he got a raise” and “it’s literally a promotion” and have zero way to back it up.
 
It's great to hear Miyamoto acknowledge Waluigi, especially after he didn't voice him in the Vine videos or having a meet-and-greet with Waluigi.

Thank you for reading.
 
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Somewhat strange order of events, I don't imagine doing a recording session for Mario characters is that much of a burden compared to flying around and doing conventions. I'd guess Nintendo was looking for more energetic sounding characters and attracted new voice talent. In any case it's nice to see that he's still part of the club in a way.
 
Has he been going to conventions all these years on his own dime? Now he gets to do the same (and maybe more) and get paid for it? Gets to continue to be Mario's avatar IRL and not have to do the dirty work? Sweet. Can't see it being a money thing. Not to be morbid, but he's 67 and maybe Nintendo just doesn't want the voice of Mario dying on the (main) job.
 
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I do think the reason for the VA change is far simplier than most seemingly want it to be. I think it’s because those four voices strain on the vocal cords and Martinet voice for them has changed. Look at the Simpsons. Many characters (Julie Kavner) have voices that are very different from their earlier seasons. We even saw this with games like Warioware Gold where Wario’s voice is clearly being adapted to where it isn’t as grainy. I could see Nintendo wanting to keep their voices at the same cadence with a younger VA rather than run Martinet into the ground.
 
Are we really going to argue about this? How about be happy for Charles until info comes out that Charles isn't happy about this instead of tinfoil hat nonsense? This goes for both sides of the argument I am not picking a side here.
 
Hosermess said:
Has he been going ton conventions all these years on his own dime? Now he gets to do the same (and maybe more) and get paid for it? Gets to continue to be Mario's avatar IRL and not have to do the dirty work? Sweet. Can't see it being a money thing. Not to be morbid, but he's 67 and maybe Nintendo just doesn't want the voice of Mario dying on the (main) job.
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Yeah, they paid it themselves, voice actors showing up at conventions is never part of any contract (unless it is an official event as part of the marketing cycle), it is usually a side gig that helps them have more income when waiting, training, and auditioning for a new role.

So when Martinet became Mario Ambassador (which he had never been before) with Nintendo's acknowledgment, it essentially meant he was going to be on Nintendo's payroll now to do the same thing (or even more that we might not know just yet).
 
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Ab said:
Nintendo isn't going to be public about pay salaries for there employees. I already said this
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So why are you saying things like “he got a raise” and “it’s literally a promotion” as if they’re definitely true when 1) lateral career moves exist (I’ve had one) and 2) they haven’t and will not ever say as much?
 
Derachi said:
Regardless, you still haven’t supplied one.
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I think it's going to depend on what people think of "promotion/pay rise".

Some people think that Charles essentially going to do the same thing he has been doing before (without the voice acting of course) like attend conventions, sign autographs, photo booths, etc. but with Nintendo paying for it (probably travel, hotel stay, etc.) instead of Charles pay it out his pocket like all others voice actors did. It means he got a promotion. Glass half-full crowd.

But others will think that he doesn't do voice acting anymore so it means Nintendo fired him and can only do conventions, which means a demotion. Glass half-empty crowd.

And there was a group of glass of water crowd, which is Cahrles got a career change, does it mean anything? Nope.
 
Derachi said:
So why are you saying things like “he got a raise” and “it’s literally a promotion” as if they’re definitely true when 1) lateral career moves exist (I’ve had one) and 2) they haven’t and will not ever say as much?
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Ambassador of Mario sounds like a promotion to me. That's all.
 
Ab said:
Ambassador of Mario sounds like a promotion to me. That's all.
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I think it's probably just a way to allow Martinet to continue using Mario branding (music, imagery, props) when he appears at cons around the world. He makes money off autographs, photo sessions and is paid to attend those, and it's useful for him if he can outright advertise his connection to Mario utilizing copyrighted materials.

To me, there's not really any evidence to suggest he's being paid more or being kept on a meaningful bankroll by Nintendo. Of course, I hope he is!

Really, just hope the guy's happy.
 
StephenNParker said:
I think it's going to depend on what people think of "promotion/pay rise".

Some people think that Charles essentially going to do the same thing he has been doing before (without the voice acting of course) like attend conventions, sign autographs, photo booths, etc. but with Nintendo paying for it (probably travel, hotel stay, etc.) instead of Charles pay it out his pocket like all others voice actors did. It means he got a promotion.

But others will think that he doesn't do voice acting anymore so it means Nintendo fired him and can only do conventions, which means a demotion.
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Exactly. We don’t know and won’t know. I definitely do not think you can assume it’s a foregone conclusion that he got a raise/promotion. It sounds like he’s going to be doing what he’s been doing: the convention circuit. The “Mario Ambassador” role could be anything: it COULD be “Nintendo pays him to attend events“ or it COULD be “Nintendo wants to keep him on payroll so he has to abide by corporate NDAs and never talk about the work he’s done for Nintendo in any kind of commercialized way, like by writing a tell-all book, while also abiding by non-compete and anti-headhunt clauses so he can’t voice an Italian Plumber character for a competitor, in exchange for a yearly salary.” We do not and will not know, and I don’t think anyone can draw any conclusions from what we know.
 
Do we really need to have this whole conspiracy theory about evil Nintendo forcing poor Charles Martinet out of his dream job again?

No offense but if it wasn't mutual and he wasn't happy with the arrangement I doubt he'd have accepted the deal or would appear in a video with Miyamoto.
 
One of the weirder theories I've seen comes from people who think that this whole "ambassador" thing is about Nintendo keeping Martinet on a tight leash, which is probably the most cynical way to see the situation. I don't think if they were to just say bye to each other he would've jumped on Cameo and started doing memes about Mario smoking weed and sharing secret information
 
Derachi said:
Exactly. We don’t know and won’t know. I definitely do not think you can assume it’s a foregone conclusion that he got a raise/promotion. It sounds like he’s going to be doing what he’s been doing: the convention circuit. The “Mario Ambassador” role could be anything: it COULD be “Nintendo pays him to attend events“ or it COULD be “Nintendo wants to keep him on payroll so he has to abide by corporate NDAs and never talk about the work he’s done for Nintendo in any kind of commercialized way, like by writing a tell-all book, while also abiding by non-compete and anti-headhunt clauses so he can’t voice an Italian Plumber character for a competitor, in exchange for a yearly salary.” We do not and will not know, and I don’t think anyone can draw any conclusions from what we know.
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IDK about you but "pay him to attend event" and "keep him on the payroll" is still Charles getting paid and I'm happy for that, considering Charles has only doing work for Nintendo (could be 1-2 roles outside of this) for the past 10-15 years.
 
Ab said:
Ambassador of Mario sounds like a promotion to me. That's all.
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"it sounds like a promotion" is a pretty big change in tune from
Ab said:
He's got a raise
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Ab said:
it's literally a promotion.
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anyway, I've only ever put forth what it COULD be. As I've said: we don't and won't know. It could be that Charles just loves interacting with fans and would rather be doing that full time! Or it could be something else. I think assuming this is a positive for Charles is a bit shortsighted, just as assuming this is a negative is.
 
Miyamoto looks like he hasn’t aged in 20 years.

Martinet looks like he’s always having a good time like he could making stepping on Legos look fun.
 
Derachi said:
"it sounds like a promotion" is a pretty big change in tune from




anyway, I've only ever put forth what it COULD be. As I've said: we don't and won't know. It could be that Charles just loves interacting with fans and would rather be doing that full time! Or it could be something else. I think assuming this is a positive for Charles is a bit shortsighted, just as assuming this is a negative is.
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Bruh, I'm still saying I believe he got a promotion. Because that's what it sounds like to me. Again, bruh
 
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Listening to Charles feels like listening to a friend I've known forever and he so easily makes me smile, just like Satoru Iwata in his Direct sketches.
 
Didn't expect the twitter replies to be 100x more wholesome than this thread, but here we are.

Really going to miss Charles. Mario 64 will always be one of my most favorite childhood games and memories. I gotta say too, his Luigi has become incredibly good. Luigi's Mansion will not be the same without him.

Best of luck Mr. Martinet, I hope I get to meet you in person one day (and have you sign my Mario 64 cartridge!!)
 
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