Legendary Mario series voice actor Charles Martinet has apparently been prohibited by Nintendo from performing Mario character voices on video. The news was shared by YouTuber Ricky Berwick who met Mr. Martinet at a convention recently. Despite Charles retiring from the role he was given the official title of Mario ambassador by Nintendo, though he did say that he was unsure of what the role will entail.
Charles Martinet apparently prohibited from using Mario cast voices on video
Am I allowed to curse? If so, this is complete and utter bullshit.
Everything Nintendo does annoys me now.
Nintendo treats everybody so badly
Yes they do!
Same!
Nintendo are obsessed with control of their IPs. I hate it.
If you don’t like it – maybe it’s time to pressure USA to change it’s terrible law?
Most of it it’s just to protect own brands and if you have brands as valuable as Nintendo, Disney and others – you need to do it.
Otherwise – you will lose it and everybody will be able to use it freely, copy it freely.
If Sony, Microsoft, Sega had any brand as valuable as Mario, Pokemon, Mickey Mouse etc (No, Sonic is NOT as valuable) -> they would do the same. And they’re doing the same with brands like ones from Atlus.
It’s not a law, it’s just Nintendo pressuring him. If he defies them, he stops being a Nintendo ambassador. Nintendo just sucks lately. He could do all the impressions he wants, Nintendo doesn’t have any real legal say in the matter. You or I could make a channel dedicated to Mario impressions and make money off it.
Nintendo is operating under Japanese law here.
You sound like a bootlicking POS. This is absurd. It’s the man who brought the voice to the character. It’s not some D measuring contest with who has the biggest IP. Disney is a disgusting company as well, Nintendo perfectly mirrors them. Fitting. Your comparison is pathetic.
Of course they are obsessed.
Look at what happened to everyone else.
Microsoft bleed out most of its IP and mismanaged the remaining ones until they had basically nothing left.
I’m not even sure if Halo would get as much hype after repeat failures.
Sony is in a slightly better position but they don’t really have any IP you’d call a household name.
I don’t hate either company btw, but they completely wasted their IP.
Sega is in a similar position with not much IP left aside from sonic that gets people’s attention. But sonics overall image is a mess so aside from just letting the fan base keep the IP alive through where determination… Hard to say how healthy the IP actually is.
Nintendo may be overprotective of their IP … But it’s better than not being protective enough and letting it die.
Yes they are! And me too!
This is what annoys me the most in our time: people imagine that they have the right to do whatever they want with what does not belong to them and then complain that society protects its rights! You would do the same in their place, I would be surprised if you would appreciate someone walking into your home like that and using your belongings as they see fit. It’s exactly the same.
Really? Pretty sure Charles’ Voice belongs to himself, not Nintendo
As long as they keep paying him, then he doesn’t need to do Cameo videos or anything to make cash.
Unless, for whatever reason, Charles signed something basically selling his voice for commercial purposes.
If not, theoretically, Charles could just fully leave Nintendo and use the Mario voice else where for other characters not affiliated with Mario. That’s probably why Nintendo wants to keep him ’employed.’ His job is to stay silent in any media related capacity, and to only speak at conventions privately with fans.
It’s Nintendo way of letting Charles retire without letting him go.
OMG SOFIONA, THIS GUY VOICED ALL YOUR FAVORITE GAMES PUT HIS HEART AND SOULS INTO EVERY PROJECT, AND YOU CANT LET THE MAN DO HIS VOICE FOR HIS FANS DURING HIS RETIREMENT!? PLEASE BE MORE HUMAN INSTEAD OF BOOTLICKING A MULTI BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY, I BEG OF YOU!!!!!!
“I would be surprises if you would appreciate someone walking into your home like that and using your belongings as they see fit. It’s exactly the same” WHAT. THAT’S HIS VOICE. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.
this is the dumbest thing I’ve heard. A person isn’t allowed to speak in a certain voice is equivalent to theft lmao. Maybe he himself cant record videos and try to make money off of it, but someone else recording him talking is nonsense. Are they going to come after me for posting videos imitating the voice just because it’s close enough, no, you and anyone trying to say this is IP protection are complete morons
No, it’s not the same. We’re talking about somebody’s voice, not a physical, inanimate object. The false equivalence here makes me think you can’t possibly be this dense, and are instead baiting. If you want a better analogy, this would be like someone coming into your house, and forcing you to pay them to speak with your own voice. Nintendo does not own his voice. His voice is not the character “Mario”. It’s Charles playing the character. Y’know, the thing all actors do. Next thing they’ll come after will be impressionists, and I guess you’ll defend that, too. Nobody will know why, because it’s like a flavor of Stockholm syndrome that you hold for a corporation that doesn’t know you exist, but whatever insulates you from having to think critically, right?
No I would not, and basically nobody does. Even Disney isn’t so scummy. First I’ve ever heard of a company trying to restrict a person from using a voice.
I get it to some extent
Thos os freaking stupid. Nintendo is becoming like Disney
Nintendo is 1,000 times worse than Disney! Disney is great! At least they don’t sue THEIR OWN fans for millions of dollars that the fans don’t have and that the billion dollar company DOESN’T NEED! (Bowser lawsuit)
No, but they do try to stop you from suing for wrongful death by saying you waived that right since you had a Disney+ free trial, which is equally scummy.
Oh STFU with that! Lies! It’s all lies! People are just jealous of Disney’s success! So they make up stuff about them to try and make em look bad!
I’m gonna say this once but I call bullshit.
Our first mistake was ever seeing multi billion dollar corporations as people and giving them the same rights as individuals.
Good thing he didn’t use his real voice for Mario! 😳 Poor man would have to alter his voice every time he spoke in front of a camera, otherwise.
Charles Martinet reacted to the tweet. He said, that’s his choice, but he’s allowed to speak on Mario’s voice. https://x.com/CharlesMartinet/status/1932458680542474319
well he’s frankly being a dick here. massive respect lost.
I think, I know what do you mean, but take that into account that Charles Martinet can not say what he wants. He has to “show” Nintendo its best side.
I don’t know what they mean. Can you explain?
I’m confused. How is he being a dick?
Another disgusting move by Nintendo, don’t care what anybody says. Nintendo is Disgusting in many ways.