Luigi’s voice has not changed. That’s what I thought, at least. Charles Martinet, who also voices Mario, has
been in charge of Luigi’s voice for the last 2 decades. If Luigi’s voice sounds different now, it’s
just because Charles has gotten older. Well, that's what I thought. But then, someone sent me a message on Twitter. And it turns out, I was wrong. It turns out that Luigi used to have two different
voices. And the version of Luigi that you heard could
have been either. It just comes down to luck! Let me tell you about why Luigi doesn’t
sound like he used to! So, if we’re talking about Luigi’s voice,
there is one very important man to bring up - Charles Martinet. In the early 1990s, about 92 or 93, Charles
Martinet showed up to an audition for the voice of a videogame character. Actually, Martinet wasn’t actually invited
to the audition - he crashed it! The guy running the thing told him, you’re
an Italian plumber, you’re gonna have to talk to all of kinds of people, just go do
your best. So, Martinet’s first thought was kind of
a stereotypical Italian/Brooklyn type guy: "I'm walkin' here, I'm walkin' here!" But then he realised that that voice might
be kinda scary for kids. So, on a whim, he went for a much higher pitched
and friendly sounding voice "It's a me, Mario," which was based on the character Gremio from
a Shakespeare play. Gremio is this old friendly Italian man - so
Charles Martinet just changed him into a young friendly Italian man. [Italian rambling...] Famously, Charles Martinet kept talking and
talking for so long that the tape recorder ran out of tape! He was told, go home, please leave! So, Martinet thought this meant he didn’t
get the job, but before long, he heard back - and he was successful - he got the role! In fact, his was the only tape the interviewer
sent to Nintendo! So, you might be wondering what the audition
was for! Mario 64? Mario Kart? No, it was for real life. Basically, Nintendo had this advanced real
time technology where Charles Martinet would be strapped up in a big metal helmet, and
any movements he made would be transferred to this 3D Mario head. Anybody who walked past the booth would be
picked up on a secret little camera, and Charles Martinet would start talking to them, as Mario. That’s where Mario first got the voice that
we know and love. But what about Luigi? Well, sometimes people would ask if they could
speak to Luigi instead of Mario. However, no-one had made a 3D model for Luigi
with this real time tech, so Charles Martinet COULDN’T show Luigi on screen. There was no Luigi to show. So, he came up with a clever solution. He would say something along the lines of
“My brother is very shy. He is cooking some spaghetti in the kitchen! Say hello Luigi!” And then, Charles would reply as Luigi, except
he couldn’t move his lips at all otherwise Mario on screen would would look like he was
talking. And so, the voice Charles came up with was
something he made up on the spot bound by the limitation of not being able to move his
mouth! It was a voice he could do while keeping his
jaw clenched. As for Nintendo, well, they had no input at
all on the voice - it was all Charles! It was funny though. People kept asking to see Luigi, but there
was nothing that Charles Martinet could do. He didn't have a Luigi. Now, a few years later Nintendo developed
Super Mario 64, and for the first time they gave Mario a human voice. "It's a me, Mario!" They figured Charles Martinet was doing such
a good job with the real time 3D Mario, it just made sense to put him in the games, too. And so, he became the voice of Mario in Super
Mario 64. "Yahoo!" In fact, he’s been the exclusive voice of
Mario since that day. So, you’d expect the same would happen with
Luigi, right? Not so. You see, while Super Mario 64 was in development,
a completely different team within Nintendo was developing the game Mario Kart 64, and
in this game, the racers were going to speak for the first time. And this is where I need to introduce you
to a guy called Julien Bardakoff. Bardakoff was a French translator for Nintendo
of Europe, but in the 1990s he was asked to come all the way over to Japan to translate
Super Mario 64 into French. Oh, and he was only 19 at the time! So, one day Bardakoff was on his lunch break
- actually, he was playing Magic the gathering with one of his friends at the company - and
that’s when he was shown a demo of Mario Kart 64. It wasn’t finished, they didn’t have any
of the voices yet. So Julien said, “ Can I do Toad’s voice?”,
and the other guy told him, “Sure! You just have to come to the recording studio.” So, Julien Bardakoff showed up at the recording
studio, and the person in charge of the recording was Koji Kondo of all people, the legendary
composer who’s written uncountable iconic videogame songs, like the themes from Mario
and Zelda. But at the time, Bardakoff didn’t recognise
Koji Kondo. Of course, he knew who Koji Kondo the composer
was, but he had no idea that the man in front of him in the recording studio was that guy! So, Bardakoff started running through some
of the things he was gonna say as Toad, but then Koji Kondo stopped him and and said "you
don't have a Toad voice! Your voice would be more fitting more Luigi." And that is where the arguments begin! Eventually, Koji
Kondo managed to persuade Julien, and he ended up recording the voice clips for Luigi! Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Charles
Martinet IS in Mario Kart 64, he just voices Mario and not Luigi. Anyway, here’s Julien Bardakoff as Luigi. When Mario Kart 64 was released in the US,
Nintendo of America decided to re-record some of the voices. Some of them, like Peach, had quite thick
Japanese accents, which I think is why Nintendo chose to replace them. But as for Luigi, I’m not sure what Nintendo’s
reasoning was. Perhaps it was to be more consistent, but
consistent with what…? The 3D talking heads? I don't know... Anyway, for whatever reason, poor Julien’s
voice got ditched, and replacements were recorded by none other than Charles Martinet! And he essentially just used the same voice
he had created for the real-time talking heads. Take a listen to his voice in Mario Kart 64. Weirdly though, this is not at all the end
of the story. Because for the next 6 or 7 Mario games, it
was kinda down to luck which of these two voices you would hear - Nintendo couldn’t
make up their mind which one to use. Let me show you what I mean. The next game featuring Luigi’s voice was
Mario Party. And in this game, regardless of whether you’re
playing in Japan or America or Europe, the voice clips used are Julien the Frenchman's! "Luigi is the top!" But then, the NEXT game featuring Luigi was
Mario Golf. And this time, Charles Martinet was asked
to record some new voice lines for Luigi. And over the next few years, Nintendo kept
doing that same thing, switching between Julien and Charles’ voices, kinda depending on
how they felt that day… at least, that’s the impression I get. Oh, not to get distracted but quickly coming
back to Mario Golf, the voice clips for Luigi in this game are really funny. I’m not sure what was going through Charles
Martinet’s head during the recording session, but Luigi sounds kind of terrifying in the
game. Listen out and see if you agree with me… Yeah, Luigi sounds like a member of the mafia
or something. Very strange. Anyway, what happened afterwards? Did this flip-flopping just keep on going
forever? Obviously not. And there’s one game that cemented Luigi’s
voice as Charles Martinet up until this very day. And that game is…. Luigi’s Mansion! For the first time, Nintendo wanted to make
a game focused completely on Luigi. Actually, the game was originally just going
to feature Mario as usual, but when the developers started introducing ghosts and haunted mansions,
they figured it made more sense to play as the infamous scaredy-cat, Luigi! Realistically, the developers had two options
to pick from. Julien, or Charles. And this decision essentially set Luigi’s
voice on its current path. They picked Charles Martinet. So, Charles Martinet came to the recording
studio, where he was shown an in-progress version of the game. It wasn’t finished yet. During the recording, Charles ended up putting
a lot of HIMSELF into the role. Like in Luigi's Mansion, Luigi will whistle
or hum to himself as he explores the mansion. That is Charles Martinet doing the humming,
to be clear. And, according to Charles Martinet, HE himself
does that same thing in real life when he’s nervous too, although presumably not while
exploring haunted mansions... Anyway, here's what the final voice clips
sound like. Martinet drew on his own life when recording
the voice for this game. He himself is a younger brother, and he tends
to be more timid and anxious than his older brother, just like Luigi and Mario. And having those real life anchors likely
helped Martinet out during the recording, since Luigi’s personiality hadn’t really
been fleshed out much in the past. But now, all of a sudden Charles Martinet
was in a recording booth humming and whistling and saying the word “Mario” in 13 subtly
different ways. As he himself explained, “Yeah it is- it’s
intimate, isn’t it! You get to see Luigi, you get to really feel
his trepidation and hesitancy, and then his joy and happiness and triumph...” So, what about after 2002? Has Luigi’s voice changed any more since
then? Well, in terms of voice actors, it has not
changed. Charles Martinet is still voicing Luigi in
the year 2021! However, the way in which Martinet PORTRAYS
Luigi has definitely changed since then. The character’s voice has become notably
deeper over the last 20 years. Let’s use the Luigi’s Mansion series as
an example. Here’s a clip from that first Luigi’s
Mansion game. "Mario? Mario? Wowowowowow!" And then, here’s what he sounds like almost
2 decades later, in Luigi’s Mansion 3. [Lower pitched Luigi sounds.] It’s not like he sounds like a different
guy or anything, but the difference in pitch is definitely noticeable. Which isn’t a surprise! Charles Martinet is a human with a voice,
and human voices do change over time. If anything, his current voice harkens back
to the good old days. So yes, Martinet does a brilliant job voicing
Luigi, although I will say, Julien Barkanaff definitely wins points for style - arguing
with Koji Kondo of all people, over whether to voice Toad or Luigi, that wins all awards
in my books. "Mamma mia!" Oh god... that was my attempt. I tried, I'm sorry! Um, subscribe and turn on notifications if
you liked this video and wanna see more of what I have up my sleeves. Syke! I’m wearing a T-shirt, you fool! No sleeves here! See you next week… hahah.
