"Wahoo! It's-a me! Mario!" - The Mario
Life
- Debut: July 1981 (Donkey Kong)
- Recent: October 20th, 2023 (Super Mario Wonder)
The Biography
Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto.
He is the title character of the video game franchise of the same name and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation. He is an Italian plumber residing in the fictional Mushroom Kingdom, whose adventures generally center on rescuing Princess Peach from the villain Bowser. Mario has access to a variety of power-ups that give him different abilities. Mario's brother is Luigi.
Mario first appeared as the player character of Donkey Kong (1981), a platform game. Miyamoto wanted to use Popeye as the protagonist, but when he could not gain the licensing rights, he created Mario instead. Miyamoto expected the character to be unpopular and planned to use him for cameo appearances; originally called "Mr. Video", he was renamed to Mario after Mario Segale. Mario's clothing and characteristics were themed after the setting of Donkey Kong. He then began to star in the Super Mario series of platform games, beginning with the critically acclaimed Super Mario Bros. in 1985. From 1991 to 2023, Mario was voiced by Charles Martinet.
The Controversy
Mario, the idea vs. Mario, the man.
Everyone knows Mario is cool as fuck. But who knows what he's thinking? Who knows why he crushes turtles? And why do we think of him as fondly as we think about the mythical (nonexistent?) Dr Pepper. Perchance. I believe it was Kant who said "Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play." Mario exhibits experience by crushing turts all day, but he exhibits theory by stating "Lets-a go" keep it up, baby! When Mario leaves his place of safety to stomp a turty, he knows he may die. And yet, for a man who can purchase lives with money, a life becomes a mere store of value. A tax that can be paid for much as a rich man feels any law with a fine is a price. We think of Mario as a hero, but he is simply a one percenter of a more privileged variety. The lifekind. Perchance.
The Voice
Charles Martinet
Mario was voiced by Charles Martinet from 1992 to 2023. When he crashed the audition, the directors were preparing to close for the night, already packing up when he arrived. He was prompted with "an Italian plumber from Brooklyn"; when he heard the phrase, he immediately thought of a stereotypical Italian American with a voice similar to that of a mobster. He then assumed the voice would be too harsh for children, so he planned on using a voice of an older figure. However, according to Martinet, the audition for Mario was the only time where his thoughts crashed and he spoke complete nonsense. After he was prompted the character, he babbled the following in a soft and friendly voice instead:
"Hello, ima Mario. Okey dokey, letsa make a pizza pie together, you go get somea spaghetti, you go geta some sausage, I getta some sauce, you gonna put some spaghetti on the sausage and the sausage on the pizza, then I'm gonna chasea you with the pizza, then you gonna chasea me with the pizza, and gonaa makea lasagne."
The voice he chose was derived from another voice role he used to play the character Gremio from William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Martinet kept speaking with the voice until the audition tape ran out; the clip was the only tape sent back to Nintendo, and when the director called the company he said he "found our Mario". For the following years he would use the voice for an attraction at trade shows: small tracking sensors were glued onto his face, and he would voice a 3D model of Mario's head on a television while he remained hidden behind a curtain. When attendees would approach the screen, they could talk and interact with Mario. The attraction was successful and would be used for five years until he was called by Miyamoto, requesting that he use the voice for a video game.
Chris Pratt
Mario is voiced by Chris Pratt in the 2023 film adaptation. The film depicts him and Luigi as Italian-American plumbers who started their own business in Brooklyn after working for the antagonistic Foreman Spike, who supervises the Wrecking Crew. They attempt to fix a significant manhole leak reported in the news to make a name for themselves, only for the pipe to transport Mario to the Mushroom Kingdom and Luigi to the Dark Lands. Mario works with Peach, Toad, and later Donkey Kong to rescue Luigi and the Mushroom Kingdom from the tyrannical Bowser. Martinet makes cameo appearances in the film as Mario and Luigi's unnamed father and as Giuseppe, who appears in Brooklyn and resembles Mario's original design from Donkey Kong, speaking in his in-game voice. In response to criticism of Pratt's casting, co-director Aaron Horvath explained that he was cast mainly because of his history of playing good-natured blue collar-type protagonists
The Legacy
Mario has been established as a pop culture icon, and has appeared on lunch boxes, T-shirts, magazines, commercials (notably, in a Got Milk? commercial), in candy form, on shampoo bottles, cereal, badges, board games, and as a plush toy.
Mario has inspired unlicensed paintings, performances on talent shows such as India's Got Talent, and short films, which have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. The character has been present in a number of works created by third parties other than Nintendo, such as in the iOS and Android video game Platform Panic, in which one of the purchasable skins is a reference to him.
Many people and places have been named or nicknamed after Mario. Bergsala, the distributor of Nintendo's products in the Nordic and the Baltic countries, is located at Marios Gata 21 (Mario's Street 21) in Kungsbacka, Sweden, named after Mario. Many sports stars, including Bundesliga football players Mario Götze and Mario Gómez, National Hockey League player Mario Lemieux, Italian footballer Mario Balotelli, and Italian cyclist Mario Cipollini have been given the nickname "Super Mario". In a suburb of the Spanish city of Zaragoza, streets were named after video games, including "Avenida de Super Mario Bros".
Mario's legacy is recognized by Guinness World Records, who awarded the Nintendo mascot, and the series of platform games he has appeared in, seven world records in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. These records include "Best Selling Video Game Series of All Time", "First Movie Based on an Existing Video Game", and "Most Prolific Video Game Character", with Mario appearing in 116 original games. In 2009, Guinness World Records listed him as the second most recognizable video game character in the United States, recognized by 93 percent of the population, second only to Pac-Man who was recognized by 94 percent of the population. In 2011, readers of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition voted Mario as the top video game character of all time.
Mario appeared in the 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony to promote the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. In a pre-recorded video, the prime minister Shinzō Abe became Mario to use a Warp pipe planted by Doraemon from Shibuya Crossing to Maracanã Stadium. Abe then appeared dressed as Mario in an oversized Warp Pipe in the middle of the stadium.
Mario Day is celebrated on March 10, as when that date is presented as Mar 10 it resembles the word "Mario". Since 2016 the day has been officially observed by Nintendo, who celebrates the day annually by promoting Mario games and holding Mario-related events.