You don’t often think about voice acting while watching a show until you have to point it out. Whether it be because an actor is playing something so perfectly you have to praise it, or the voice doesn’t fit the character, and so you call it out, voice acting goes under the radar often. That has been a problem in the world of voice acting because that “belief” leads them to be viewed as “replaceable” or “expendable” due to how many viewers don’t know the actors behind the voices. They know their voices but not the people. That has led to many people getting replaced despite having a history doing those characters, which brings us to the Super Mario Bros Movie.
People were stunned when it was announced that Chris Pratt would be the voice of Mario instead of longtime voice actor Charles Martinet, who was the voice of Mario in video games for decades. They felt it was a “Hollywood move” to get people to watch the film instead of making things true to the character. Of course, that is a move Hollywood has made many times, especially with live-action video game adaptations like Prince of Persia. Sure enough, when the teaser trailer for the Super Mario Bros Movie arrived earlier this week, the first thing that fans pointed out was that Chris Pratt was using his regular voice instead of a “Mario Voice.”
It was so bad in fans’ eyes that they later looked at the dubs for the French and Brazilian versions of the trailer and found out that those versions sounded “more like Mario” than Chris Pratt.
Enter Tara Strong, one of the most prominent voice actors in the world today and the voice behind many of your childhood characters. Timmy Turner, Raven, Ben 10, Bubbles, Batgirl, Harley Quinn, and more are just some of the voices she has done. So when the teaser trailer came out, she made a clear statement on Twitter:
She would also write:
“Hey, Twitter friends, I happen to know a certain earth angel who could use some love tonight,” then asked her followers to post their favorite memories of Charles Martinet and show him some love and respect. Her fans happily did so, and the stories are rather touching.
Tara Strong has been replaced in roles that she was prominently attached to, so you can understand why she felt terrible for Martinet, and she wasn’t alone:
Some are asking for patience with Chris Pratt, as we only heard a few lines featuring his voice in the trailer, which is true. But, to some, what we heard was enough, and they feel stronger than ever that Charles Martinet should’ve done the full movie himself instead of being a side character in the film.
Oh, and as for what Charles had to say:
Source: Twitter
