And the fact that Charles ended up being the voice of Mario is kind of a miracle.

Some point in the early '90s, Charles Martinet crashed an audition.

His role, an Italian plumber from Brooklyn who would be talking to all ages.

Oh and he's... from a video game, I guess.

The first thing that came to Charles mind was the obvious (*stereo typical New York Italian accent*).

But he thought if this character was going to be speaking to all ages, a gruffled-up voice like that probably wouldn't be the best choice.

So instead, he landed on this.

(*Super Mario voice talking about pasta*)

And for over 25 years has brought heart to a magical, creative characters of Shigeru Miyamoto.

Charles has brought soul to so many characters we love and adore.

From the Mario we grew up with, to his ghost hunting little brother, to the greedy garlic guzzler Wario, the scraggly Waluigi,

even the babies!

He set out and succeeded at giving something that these characters and the players playing his firm could share together: joy!

There was a reason so many people, including myself, felt so happy and joyful experiencing Mario games growing up,

and why our parents were more than happy to get us the next Mario game for our Wiis and DS's Versus the 15th shooty game for the cooler consoles.

And Charles' performances was a very important piece of that puzzle.

And even as an adult dealing with adult things.

I've gone back to those games to remember how happy and joyful life can be.

And Martinet's performances helped enhance those experiences so much.

During 2020 and 2021, two of the roughest years for a lot of us, I had a permanent bookmark on my web browser of an interview with Charles.

It was an easy way to cheer myself up whenever I felt sad and miss my family back home.

It reminded me of a 2010 summers I had, watching these same interviews on my mom's old iMac in 360p.

There couldn't be a quicker way to get a smile on my face.

I'm definitely not the only one affected by his work like this, as he continuously goes to conventions to meet fans of his work as Mario and crew and much more talent outside of Nintendo.

Like a dragon in Skyrim.

I even personally had the privilege to meet him at 2022 Momo Con and it was a dream come true.

Oh what? You don't get starstruck?

Try hard core mega insane difficulty then!

I ended up getting this special golden coin set signed by him and a silly poster of fire Mario.

I even embarrassingly told him how I listen to his old interviews to get me through the sad and over.

It was incredibly nerve wracking.

He responded with so much kindness.

And it seems he'll likely continue being able to bring joy to fans as the Mario ambassador.

Ooh, that's a cool title.

I think this is a byproduct of Nintendo realizing how much people value meeting Charles in person like conventions and stuff.

But that new title comes with a cost.

Passing the torch or microphone in this case to a new voice of Mario and crew.

But why is this happening now? Did Charles want to retire?

Maybe Nintendo felt like it was time to evolve the characters?

Who knows?

For one thing, we do know about the future is that this is the new voice of Mario.

(*Chris Pratt Mario impression*)

Oh whoops, wrong clip!

And to me, that sounds like a good Mario.

I think whoever's doing the new voice is doing a great job.

It's ever so slightly different, but not in a bad way.

It'll be exciting to see where Mario and the crew's voices will go, even though it's a little bittersweet.

But one thing still for sure, that's still Mario.

Built on the foundation set by Charles Martinet.

And I doubt the timing of this goodbye could be any more poetic.

As Charles's last recorded performance in Mario media, seems to have been Mario's father, and Giuseppe in the Mario movie,

which you think is already pretty wholesome, a character referencing Jumpman and Mario's literal dad,

until you realize the final spoken lines in the movie is this:

"Wahoo! Mario you were amazing!" " Thanks, Dad."

"These are my boys!”

And already felt for that line was poetic before, but if that was planned, wow!

Charles Martinet's library of work is proof of how important voice actors are.

There's no arguing that they can surely be the heart and soul of characters.

And this glorious man, without a doubt, was and will ever be the heart of Mario.

I don't really know what else to say except thank you.

Thank you for being our Mario.