Charles Martinet Deserves Better Than His Super Mario Bros. Movie Cameo

Martinet has been a constant presence for every generation of Mario fan, from 1994’s Mario Teaches Typing all the way to every single Mario game released on the Nintendo Switch since 2017. No matter your age, you know Martinet’s voice. And Nintendo and Universal Pictures have done him a disservice. Regardless of what you think of Pratt’s performance in the new movie, Martinet deserved better.

The studios did come up with a way to include Martinet in the film in not one but two cameo appearances. One could see this as an honor, but his brief scenes mostly seem to exist for their inherent easter egg appeal rather than to actually celebrate the actor’s considerable legacy.

We first hear Martinet’s iconic (and highly exaggerated) Italian accent early in the film, while Mario and Luigi are watching their plumbing service commercial at the Punch-Out Pizzeria. In the ad, Mario and Luigi put on a cartoonish accent reminiscent of the video game character, presumably to entice customers because apparently that’s what Brooklynites with plumbing issues want. When the commercial’s over, Mario asks Luigi if he thinks the accents are too much. That’s when another guy in overalls and a hat suddenly turns from the corner arcade cabinet he’s playing on and reassures the Mario Bros. in a pitch-perfect Mario voice that the accent is “Perfect! Wahoo!” This is Martinet as a character named Giuseppe, which may be a nod to a third plumber character Nintendo fans made up as a joke. Giuseppe even does a little Mario jump and everything before being ushered off screen until late in the movie when he pops again for an encore. Also, the cabinet he’s playing is a game called “Jumpman,” which is a reference to one of Nintendo’s names for the character back in the early ’80s before they finally settled on Mario.

Martinet’s slightly meatier second role in the movie is as Mario and Luigi’s dad. This time, Martinet sheds the classic Mario accent for something closer to Pratt and Charlie Day’s performances as two regular guys from Brooklyn. In a bit of a meta narrative, part of Pratt’s whole motivation for saving the Mushroom Kingdom from Bowser is to make his dad proud. He eventually does earn Papa Mario’s approval when Bowser comes crashing through Brooklyn for the movie’s climactic battle and the plumbers save the day. Papa Mario hugging his sons at the end of the movie will melt a few hearts for sure, but the moment ultimately falls flat when you remember what could have been.