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

StephenNParker said:
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.
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Just to be clear, he's not being paid by Nintendo to attend conventions, at least in the past. Conventions would pay him or other guests to turn up, but that money comes from the ticket sales of the convention and similar things like that, rather than Nintendo et al.
 
Quoted by: SNP
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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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Martinet is in his late 60s. Not unreasonable that he wants to move away from doing voices full-time, especially the exaggerated voices of the Mario cast, as those can be strenuous to perform continually.

I agree that the ambassadorship seems like a way to keep him on payroll. Obviously it's a secure arrangement for both parties, but I can't imagine they'd agree to that if there was any kind of animosity.
 
Polynaut said:
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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Charles : "I'm getting the retirement of my dreams ! Wioohoo !"
People : "Maybe Nintendo wanted to get rid of him, there's something fishy about this"
Charles : "Guys, nothing happened, look, I'm here with my papa, Shiger-"
People : "SHUT UP, CHARLES ! ADULTS ARE TALKING !"
 
The man is 67 years old. We already have Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger to over extend someone's vocals to the point of sounding like a cover.

Let him enjoy the paid retirement travelling everywhere.

Oh, and thanks Charles. You surely left an imprint, not only in the videogame world.
 
Linkstrikesback said:
Just to be clear, he's not being paid by Nintendo to attend conventions, at least in the past. Conventions would pay him or other guests to turn up, but that money comes from the ticket sales of the convention and similar things like that, rather than Nintendo et al.
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oh, I know. I said in one of the other posts that attending an event, or convention is never part of the contract so the studio won't pay for it (unless it was official event in the marketing cycle).

My point of the post you quoted is if being Mario Ambassador mean "he getting paid by Nintendo to attend events" or "keeping him on payroll so he won't break his NDA (although you do not necessarily need to be employed to be available to sign NDA)", Charles still gonna get paid and that is fine by me.
 
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All good things must come to an end, but it seems Martinet's streak is going to continue for quite a while. Well deserved
 
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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'm going to quote this post, despite it having been quoted several times before, because I really need to highlight what it is you're insinuating here.

Companies have dropped voice actors before. Companies have dumped voice actors before, unceremoniously and acrimoniously. Many times, VA's have voiced their displeasure over this.

Nintendo didn't dump Martinet. They made a formal announcement, thanking him for his performances over the years.

They announced at the same time that they're still retaining him as a Mario brand ambassador going forward: anyone who has followed his career knows that this is something he was already involved in. Not just fan cons or signings, he would go to official Nintendo events and talk about Mario and Nintendo projects on stage, often in multiple languages as the man is fluent in multiple languages.

On top of that, all parties involved release a video where, q'uelle surprise, they state how happy they are with this new development. Martinet is still getting paid, still getting to do work he by all accounts enjoys, and Nintendo get to keep a good relationship with one of their most prominent voice actors.

They could not be more public about what they're doing. This whole "I dunno guys, something is reeeaaaally fishy about this" line is just baseless conjecture that flies in the face of observable facts: an elderly voice actor is passing on his most famous role to a younger voice actor after decades doing the voice (and voice acting is murder on your vocal chords), he's getting to keep doing parts of the job he still enjoys, and Nintendo is happy to keep paying him to do so.

You don't need to be Poirot to realize there really isn't much mystery here
 
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I really liked how Miyamoto described Charles as somebody who “wants to put smiles on people’s faces”, which is basically a core Nintendo value. They say it all the time and here is Miyamoto describing Charles as a physical embodiment of this core value.

Anybody watching this and not seeing how respectful, thankful and/or reverential Miyamoto’s message is toward Charles is somebody that hasn’t paid a lot of attention to Nintendo.
 
Man I swear, some people seem convinced that Nintendo is holding a gun to Charles Martinet’s head and somehow forcing him to stay on as an ambassador. Like, if he truly was unhappy with this, he wouldn’t have sign on as an ambassador.
 
Derachi said:
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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I don’t see why it has to be positive or negative. The logical read is that Charles is getting old, so he might want to retire or he may have health problems or his vocal chords aren’t what they used to be. Nintendo still wants to keep him around in some sort of official capacity so they come to this arrangement.

At any rate, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of bad blood between Charles and Nintendo.
 
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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STOP
T
O
P
 
People are legit underestimating the work required with voice acting and the strain it can have on vocal cords.

There really is no other reason to go into tinfoil hat theory.
 
meatbag said:
I don’t see why it has to be positive or negative. The logical read is that Charles is getting old, so he might want to retire or he may have health problems or his vocal chords aren’t what they used to be. Nintendo still wants to keep him around in some sort of official capacity so they come to this arrangement.

At any rate, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of bad blood between Charles and Nintendo.
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Yeah, if there was and bad blood, Charles wouldn’t be doing farewell videos with Miyamoto. I’m probably just thinking too much into it, given the current state of the entertainment industry.
 
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 don’t wanna get too tinfoil-hat here, but let me just go ahead and do it anyway
 
Derachi said:
Yeah, if there was and bad blood, Charles wouldn’t be doing farewell videos with Miyamoto. I’m probably just thinking too much into it, given the current state of the entertainment industry.
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I think there could also be a mutual thing. Our company is struggling with finding reps for people retiring and part of the problem was management coasted for too long not training and more importantly retaining the right people

It could be Nintendo found a new voice actor they want but the window would close if they didn't lock him down.

Yes they could coast with Charles for another 5 to 10 years but what happens if there is a sudden illness or death?
 
Honestly the only surprise is that they didn't introduce the new voice of Mario here. If you actually want to tinfoil hat conspiracy something, the "this was cut out of the direct/a longer video" has a lot more meat on the bone.
 
lemonfresh said:
No chris pratt? I'm suprised
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3lo5h6.jpg
 
Derachi:
Derachi said:
I don’t wanna get too tinfoil-hat here...
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Also Derachi:
Derachi said:
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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BassForever said:
Honestly the only surprise is that they didn't introduce the new voice of Mario here. If you actually want to tinfoil hat conspiracy something, the "this was cut out of the direct/a longer video" has a lot more meat on the bone.
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That didn't surprise me much because they just said a few days ago that we'll have to find out who the new voice of Mario is from Wonder's credits :D
 
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What an idiot, he said the catchphrase wrong, instead of "it's a me, Mario!!" he said "it's a me, Charles". No wonder (!) he got fired, he doesn't even know the name of the character he played for so many years.

(s)
 
Coincidentally, he's gonna be in my neck of the woods tomorrow until Sunday for our local convention. Might be his first one since this video? I think I'm gonna go and get some stuff signed, and it'll be nice to meet the guy.
 
Loved the video. A heartwarming tribute to Charles, imo. Wishing him all the best for his future. After all these years, we can say that he definitely helped to build the character.
 
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Why did this video remind me if that Jon Lovitz Dunkin Donuts SNL skit, like at any moment he might say "it's been a wild ride all these years saying let's a-go, but now it's time to a-go die."
 
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Kartina said:
What an idiot, he said the catchphrase wrong, instead of "it's a me, Mario!!" he said "it's a me, Charles". No wonder (!) he got fired, he doesn't even know the name of the character he played for so many years.

(s)
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(S) stands for Serious... right?
 
meatbag said:
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!
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Japan is not built for western sizes, it's quite hilarious seeing anyone 6 feet and above struggle with doorways, ceilings, entrances to trains and so on. Even shopping for clothes, I am probably a size M or even size S in the west, but in Japan I was often the largest size they had available lol.
 
efyu_lemonardo said:
Japan is not built for western sizes, it's quite hilarious seeing anyone 6 feet and above struggle with doorways, ceilings, entrances to trains and so on. Even shopping for clothes, I am probably a size M or even size S in the west, but in Japan I was often the largest size they had available lol.
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You don't even have to be this tall.

I'm 181cm (dunno, i think thats ~5'11"?) and i already had problems sometimes.

Also, don't even try to buy shoes over there if you're rocking more than US size 10. The store clerk looked at me like i was making a joke when i asked for Chucks size 11 or 12.

Nintendo could give Martinent some custom made suits tho, now that he's an official company representative. ^^
 
julian said:
I really liked how Miyamoto described Charles as somebody who “wants to put smiles on people’s faces”, which is basically a core Nintendo value. They say it all the time and here is Miyamoto describing Charles as a physical embodiment of this core value.

Anybody watching this and not seeing how respectful, thankful and/or reverential Miyamoto’s message is toward Charles is somebody that hasn’t paid a lot of attention to Nintendo.
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Love this post. 💕✨
 
Even in this vid, Martinet's voice is sounding rough. Understandable why he's retiring before he ends up like Julie Kavner as Marge Simpson
 
robertman2 said:
Even in this vid, Martinet's voice is sounding rough. Understandable why he's retiring before he ends up like Julie Kavner as Marge Simpson
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this was a painful yeah, but I agree. they may not have said why the change was made in this video, but in my opinion we heard all that we needed to hear.
 
Charles' voice as Mario has sounded a bit off since Mario Odyssey imo, and you can hear in the video even at some point that he's struggling to do it.

No need for any cynical, conspiracy theories. He can't do the voice anymore as he used to, it's cool that Nintendo is keeping him on board anyway.

I liked how Miyamoto recalled how Charles almost hit his head at the door of a Kyoto restaurant because of how tall he is.
 
A near 28 year run is an impressive feat for any VA I think. That’s a very wholesome video and thank you for your contributions Mr. Martinet!
 
MaitreWakou said:
Charles' voice as Mario has sounded a bit off since Mario Odyssey imo, and you can hear in the video even at some point that he's struggling to do it.

No need for any cynical, conspiracy theories. He can't do the voice anymore as he used to, it's cool that Nintendo is keeping him on board anyway.

I liked how Miyamoto recalled how Charles almost hit his head at the door of a Kyoto restaurant because of how tall he is.
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I don't know how tall Charles is, but this is at least a good heads-up to me that if I ever visit Kyoto, I'll have to duck a lot.
 
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