Board 8 > Nintendo Direct: The Super Mario Bros. Movie coming 6 October 4:05PM Eastern

(+) Yeah! (+)

I also do think Pratt's in a bit of an unfair position. He did have a very slight New York accent in the tiny bit we heard, and if he just went full on hammy Italian accent, in today's world people would jump all over him and go "Why didn't you just hire an Italian guy?" Why is a fair criticism of the casting, and his casting overall was a poor choice to begin with, but I'm not really sure what all the guy can actually do in this situation.

probably not apply for the role?

I also do think Pratt's in a bit of an unfair position. He did have a very slight New York accent in the tiny bit we heard, and if he just went full on hammy Italian accent, in today's world people would jump all over him and go "Why didn't you just hire an Italian guy?" Why is a fair criticism of the casting, and his casting overall was a poor choice to begin with, but I'm not really sure what all the guy can actually do in this situation.

If anyone was curious as to what Mario would normally sound like having full conversations:

https://youtu.be/G8sYvNtjXRI

I would absolutely take all of these examples of full dialogue Martinet (and the ProZD impression) over Chris Pratt. They sound completely fine.

I think the non-English dubs all showed a pretty good way forward with having a voice that takes cues from Charles Martinet's version of Mario but doesn't go full Martinet, dialing it back a bit more to normal person voice. They all sound pretty good in their own right. None of them sound anything like Pratt.

The ProZD impression is all serious emotion!

I don't think there's any evidence that Martinet can't do a more serious voice, he just hasn't had to in any of the games for obvious reasons. Maybe he actually can't, but I also seriously doubt that Illumination bothered to find out either way. 99% chance they just booked they biggest stars they could find and didn't consider Martinet for the role at all.

I've heard that it's hard for Martinet to do the voice for long periods of time, but I don't know if that's true or not for sure.

I like how you assume that it was his decision
If they were disappointed with his casting they would have kicked his ass out

I've heard that it's hard for Martinet to do the voice for long periods of time, but I don't know if that's true or not for sure.

I wonder how well an AI can imitate his Mario voice with that much to work off of.

Considering they can perfectly imitate Darth Vader's voice now, I think they could do it with Mario

Is it really that good? I had heard about the attempts with Darth Vader but hadn't actually listened to any of the results yet.

You wouldn't be able to tell it's an AI in the Obi-Wan show if you didn't know.

I dunno about that. If you're not looking for it and not paying attention, yeah, but it's far from perfect.

I believe Charles Martinet could pull it off too. He's a very talented VA. He was Paarthurnax in Skyrim for God's sakes.

If Martinet has a cameo it should be something immediately recognizable as "the Mario voice" imo

Oh, it's not perfect, but I think it's good enough that the average person couldn't tell if they didn't know, and it's an improvement over what James Earl Jones was able to do for Rogue One, if nothing else.

IIRC Martinet is supposed to have multiple cameos

What Respeecher could do better than anyone was re-create the unforgettably menacing way that Jones, now 91, sounded half a lifetime ago. Wood estimates that hes recorded the actor at least a dozen times over the decades, the last time being a brief line of dialogue in 2019s The Rise of Skywalker. He had mentioned he was looking into winding down this particular character, says Wood. So how do we move forward? When he ultimately presented Jones with Respeechers work, the actor signed off on using his archival voice recordings to keep Vader alive and vital even by artificial meansappropriate, perhaps, for a character who is half mechanical. Jones is credited for guiding the performance on Obi-Wan Kenobi,and Wood describes his contribution as a benevolent godfather. They inform the actor about their plans for Vader and heed his advice on how to stay on the right course.

All the people saying that the Mario voice couldn't work for a full-length feature reminds me of how Disney executives wanted Steve Martin to be the voice of Goofy in A Goofy Movie because they assumed that hearing the traditional voice for over an hour would drive people bonkers, but in the end Bill Farmer turns out to absolutely kill it and manage to do the silly Goofy voice and still make it work in dramatic, more emotional scenes:

https://youtu.be/14_a4rY2z9Q

I believe Charles Martinet could pull it off too. He's a very talented VA. He was Paarthurnax in Skyrim for God's sakes.

The problem I would have with the classic Mario voice is the rest of the cast would also have to use their classic voices, but that would completely kill my interest in the movie. The casting of Bowser, Luigi and Peach are literally the only reasons I'm interested in seeing this in the first place.

Pratt sounds like a Rocket Raccoon you get off Wish

If only we could've gotten Danny DeVito to play Mario

Yeah, people want and expect Pratt's voice to be bad so it's a bit of confirmation bias. He didn't really say enough to judge how he's going to do yet.