But then there was The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! In which Mario was played by “Captain” Lou Albano, who was born in Italy and raised in New York, hence why he pretty much just used his own voice.
In the live action movie, Brit Bob Hoskins did his best Brooklyn accent; and video game Mario finally received a voice thanks to the legendary Charles Martinet, who have the character a thick Italian accent, with a helium-esque falsetto pitch – which was perfect for the video games, but was certainly a far cry from the macho gruffness of earlier incarnations.
Pratt might end up being a bad Mario (a lot of people have likened his take to Linda Belcher from Bob’s Burgers) but let’s not pretend that there is any standardized Mario template for him to live up to, the voice has been as all over the place as Mario’s career choices – the man went from being a plumber, to a doctor, to a professional Go-Karter? Really?
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