His face might not be recognisable but for millions of gamers around the world, Charles Martinet’s voice was probably the one they heard when playing a Nintendo video game for the first time.
Martinet attended Middle East Film and Comic Con in Abu Dhabi last weekend thanks to his connection to the gaming industry. A tall man with white hair down to his chin, Martinet, 66, speaks in a tone that doesn't immediately give away his ties to the gaming world. However, in a split second, he lets out a familiar, high-pitched, “It’s-a me, Mario!”
For more than 30 years, he’s been the voice behind the most famous Italian plumbing brothers in gaming history: Mario and Luigi. It's a role that he takes seriously and one that he says he has no plans of walking away from — at least not anytime soon.
“I’m going as long as I can. I’ll know when I can't and I don't sound right and I'll be the first to say it. But the wonderful thing about a voiceover talent is you last so long."
Martinet didn’t originally set out to be a part of the video game industry when his friend told him there was an audition for a job in Las Vegas and that he should crash it.
“I said, ‘buddy, there's no way I would ever crash an audition. I'm a professional actor. Where should I go?’,” he says with a sly smile. “And I don't know why. But I left the beach and I went, and I crashed this audition.”
He made it at the last minute, just as the casting directors were putting away equipment and asked if he could read for the part. He was told he was auditioning for the role of an Italian plumber from Brooklyn named Mario for a gaming system called Nintendo.
It's such an honour for me to play a character that I know is something that people love
Charles Martinet
Back in 1990, Martinet hadn’t heard of either. Although the character of Mario first appeared in the Donkey Kong video game in 1981, it would still be a couple more years before Mario would be the star of his own game.
Given the clues about the character, he just decided to go for it, speaking about Italian food in a high-pitched accented voice that would soon become synonymous with the overall-wearing, red capped plumber.
Originally, when Martinet heard “Italian plumber from Brooklyn”, he had a different voice in mind but soon realised that it would be too rough to be suitable.
“The idea of a character talking was incredible at the time. But I wanted to do something that would be nice in case there were children,” he says.
Instead, in that moment and with about 20 seconds to get ready, he drew inspiration from a past character he played in William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew but made his voice sound younger.
He then proceeded to audition with that, discussing different Italian food combinations until the tape ran out. He was given a “thank you, we’ll be in touch” and thought that was the end of it.
After his 1990 audition, he wasn’t sure if it would amount to much. In the following years, Martinet voiced Mario at video game trade shows, in which people would walk up to a television that displayed a 3D Mario head that moved around the screen and he would talk to them. He was able to see them via a hidden camera and facial motion capture helped sync his voice to Mario's movement on screen, a revolutionary idea at the time.
“This was a one-off job for me. You know, to go to Las Vegas and work. And I thought, well, that's great,” he says.
“We had so much fun with the character that we did it again and again and again, for five years until I got a phone call: ‘Mr [Shigeru] Miyamoto would like you to play Mario in a video game?’ To which I said, ‘Marvelous’.”
While he made his video game voice debut in 1995’s Mario’s FUNdamentals, most fans of the franchise may have heard Martinet’s voice for the first time in a milestone Mario game that was created for the Nintendo 64 and released in 1996: Super Mario 64.
It would go on to be praised by critics as well as players. It was named the Game of the Year by members of the gaming media including Electronic Gaming Monthly, Game Informer and the Golden Joystick Awards. It was also the bestselling video game of 1996. During its first three months on sale in the US, it sold more than two million copies and is still regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time.
While some may wonder if playing the same characters for so long would get stale, Martinet says that it never does. He says he knows that Mario and Nintendo have been a part of so many people’s childhoods and that it means a lot for him to be part of that too.
“It's really absolutely spectacular. It's such a joy. And it makes it such an honour for me to play a character that I know is something that people love.”
He believes the appeal of Mario and Nintendo is that, not only is it a game franchise that's nostalgic for so many around the world, but also one that follows a simple formula that most people can relate to.
“Life is like a video game. You play and your character evolves and develops and you end up defeating the monsters and rescuing the princess, and you realise you are a hero the whole way.”
Scroll through the gallery below to see all the Super Mario games created:
Play-off fixtures
Two-legged ties to be played November 9-11 and November 12-14
- Northern Ireland v Switzerland
- Croatia v Greece
- Denmark v Ireland
- Sweden v Italy
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP FIXTURES
September 30
South Africa v Australia
Argentina v New Zealand
October 7
South Africa v New Zealand
Argentina v Australia
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
Results
5.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Dirt) 1,600m, Winner: Panadol, Mickael Barzalona (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer)
6.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,400m, Winner: Mayehaab, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass
6.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh85,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Monoski, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer
7.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (T) 1,800m, Winner: Eastern World, Royston Ffrench, Charlie Appleby
7.50pm: Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (D) 1,200m, Winner: Madkal, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass
8.25pm: Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (T) 1,200m, Winner: Taneen, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi
