Toad has an extremely distinctive voice. āHa ha ha haaa!ā Itās so harsh sounding, and screechy. But go back twenty years, and he sounds like
this instead. āYeah, hahaha!ā. He doesnāt sound the same, at all! "I'm the best!" In fact, heās completely missing all of
that screechiness that makes Toadās voice so iconic nowadays. So, why on earth did Toadās voice change
so dramatically? Well, it was kinda an accident - It definitely
wasnāt planned to sound this way! Come on a journey with me to answer the question:
Why has Toadās voice changed so much? Before we start, letās just get this out
the way: Iām leaving out the old Mario cartoons and anime, as always, because they werenāt
controlled by Nintendo themselves. Weāre talking strictly Nintendo sanctioned
voices here! So, Toad actually got his very first voice
earlier than you might expect. It came in the year 1994, in the SNES version
of the game Warioās Woods. This is a puzzle game, somewhat similar to
Tetris, developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. And take a listen to this. "Cool!" That was Toad speaking just there. Let me play another clip. "Yeah!" Actually, to be specific that was RED Toad. You see, Warioās Woods has two different
Toads - one is red and one is green. And oddly enough, Green Toad has his own unique
set of voice clips. "Hello!" Letās compare the two. Here's what Red Toad sounds like... And then, here's
Green Toad. Green Toad sounds more gruff, and manly. So, who are the voice actors behind these
voices? Well, hereās nothing whatsoever in the gameās
credits about voice acting at all. HOWEVER, in amongst the sea of Japanese names,
there are two suspicious looking English names. Michael Kelbaugh and Robin Krouse. Both Michael and Robin were working with or
around Nintendo at the time this game was in development, and as native English speakers,
I think they may well be the people behind the two Toad voices. It's hard to know for sure, but that's my
guess. Now, this game isnāt really connected at
all to the rest of the evolution of Toadās voice - I wouldnāt be surprised if Nintendo
themselves forgot that Toad spoke in this game - but as an official Nintendo developed
game, I couldnāt really leave it off the list. But now, letās move on to where things properly
get started. Ok, so it all begins for real in 1996. Not Mario 64 - Toad IS in that game, but he
never actually speaks. No, Toadās first memorable voice role came
a little later in the year, with Mario Kart 64. For the first time ever, Nintendo wanted their
Mario Kart racers to speak. However, most of the voice actors chosen were
just Japanese Nintendo employees with some free time. As for Toad, well, his voice was provided
by a woman named āTomoko Marunoā. "Ow-ow-ow-ow!" Now, literally nothing is known about who
this woman was, and how she came to voice Toad. Heck, thereās not even a single photograph
of her out there. But what there is is her performance as Toad. Take a listen. Now, when it came time to localise Mario Kart
64 into English, Nintendo of America decided to re-record some of the voices using native
English speakers. I can only assume thatās because some of
those original voices have fairly thick Japanese accents. Anyway, one of the voices that was redone
in English was Toadās. And, the guy who was chosen to voice this
character was Isaac Marshall. He was actually a game tester for Nintendo
- for instance, he had played through all three Donkey Kong Country games to try and
spot bugs and glitches before the general public could. But when Nintendo needed a new voice for Toad,
Isaac Marshall was the one chosen for the role. He decided to go for a fairly youthful, and
very energetic sound. Now, interestingly, after this, Nintendo actually
reversed course a little. In the first 3 Mario Party games, along with
Mario Kart for the Game Boy Advance, they went BACK to using Tomoko Marunoās voice
for Toad - I'm the best! - rather than the more recent Isaac Marshall clips - I'm the
best! To be clear, Iām not just talking about
the Japanese versions of the games. All around the world, people listened to the
Japanese voice clips. But then in 1999, when Nintendo were working
on Mario Golf for the N64, they decided to hire a professional voice actress to take
on the role. You see, they were already holding auditions
to find a new voice for Princess Peach, so they figured they could look for someone to
play Toad as well. With both of these characters, what they wanted
is for someone to perfectly mimic the current voices of the characters. And thatās when they met Jen Taylor. Jen Taylor is a voice actress who is GREAT
at mimicking voices. Sheās done it her whole life. And so, she was able to perfectly mimic both
the current voice of Princess Peach, and the voice of Toad. Iām honestly not sure if Nintendo were looking
for one person to play both characters, but Jen Taylor could do it. And so, in Mario Golf, hereās what Toad
sounds like. Wait, what? Hang on, that doesnāt sound Toad did before. Suddenly, heās got that gruff sound in his
voice. "Try again!" What happened? Well, this is one part of the story that I
really donāt understand. I have scoured hours and hours of interviews
with Jen Taylor, and in every interview she says something to this effect. āI literally went in there and imitated
the woman who had done it before me, and thatās how I got that gig.ā Okay well, thatās something to work from. She wasnāt imitating Isaac Marshallās
voice - "yeah, hahaha!" - she was definitely trying to sound like Tomoko Maruno - "yeah,
hahaha!" Except, she doesn't... She doesn't at all the same! "Try again!" Well, okay thatās not exactly fair. When you listen to the two voices side by
side and you listen for similarities, there are some things in common. "Okay!" "Okay." They both have a similar sort of high pitch
and high energy type thing. But, it seems as though Jen Taylor added that
gruff-ness herself. In most of the clips it's pretty subtle, so
itās not like it changed the performance a huge amount. Except, by only a few games later, this gruff,
Marge Simpson sound had ballooned out of control! Hereās Toad from Super Mario Advance for
instance, which was only the third game released featuring Jen Taylorās voice. I mean, the only thing you can notice about
that performance IS the gruff, gravelly sound. Everything else disappears into the background. So, that's what I mean when I say the voice
was created by accident. I donāt mean that Jen Taylor was ill and
thatās where the sound came from. No, what I mean is that Jen Taylor was just
trying to mimic the previous voice, but she didn't do a very good job of it. She introduced a slight rasp to the voice. But over time, this rasp became more and more
exaggerated. And then, something big happened. Jen Taylor left Nintendo. So, Iāve talked about this before, but around
2005 or 2006, Jen Taylor decided to stop working with Nintendo so she had more time to work
with the Seattle Childrenās Theatre. Which left Nintendo without a voice for Peach
and Toad. However unlike Peach, Nintendo were mostly
able to get by by re-using old recordings of Toadās voice - itās not like generally
comments on anything specific that's happening in the games, so no-one's gonna notice if
you use an old clip in a new game. Except, there was one game though where they
needed new recordings. Super Mario Strikers, the slightly bizarre
Mario football game. Apparently none of the old recordings from
Nintendo's archive really fit the vibe of the game very well, because they decided they
needed some new voice clips. Now, while this was going on, Nintendo were
searching for someone to take over from Jen Taylor full time. But before they found that person, they decided
to hire a temporary replacement, in the form of a woman named Kelsey Hutchison. Again, thereās no photo of her on the internet
- for some reason, this story seems to attract mysterious individuals - but perhaps itās
for the better, as her take on Toad is pretty notoriously unpopular. Iām gonna play you a sample, but first a
warning - you might want to get ready to turn that volume down, if this is a bit much. So, that was probably the screechiest that
Toad has ever sounded, but it also somehow fails to get that specific āToadā sound
right. Still, itās not like I could do a better
job: Toadās voice is pretty hard to recreate. Anyway, these sounds were reused in the gameās
sequel for the Wii as well, bringing this noise āAHHHā to a whole new generation. Lucky them. Meanwhile, Nintendo were still searching for
that perfect person to take over both of Jen Taylorās characters. And thatās when they came across someone
who was bizarrely perfect for the job. Samantha Kelly. Samantha Kelly was voicing TV commercials
at the time, but when she heard about the audition for Peach and Toad, she couldnāt
believe her ears! Her natural speaking voice sounded really
similar to Jen Taylorās, so if she just pitched it up a bit, it was a perfect match
for Peach. But Toad, that was far stranger. Youāre not gonna believe this, but from
about the age of 12, Samantha Kelly had been doing Toadās exact voice - without even
knowing it - without even knowing who toad was! āThat was a voice that I had played with
when I was a little kid - when my mom was tucking me into bed! I had this little puppet character called
Cedrick, and my mom would be like STOP IT Youāre driving me crazy! And then, it was like - this is kind of a
fit!ā Of course, that didnāt mean that her first
recording session wasnāt nerve racking. Apparently the recording booth kept getting
hotter and hotter, and she got nervous and sweaty. Yeah, I can't blame her, it seems like a stressful
job. But, this recording session ended up being
a success. And, her Toad debut came in the game Mario
Party 8, from 2007. Hereās her first ever Toad voice. Itās funny. At the time, that was probably the most TOADY
that Toadās voice had ever sounded. But, his voice somehow kept getting more and
more exaggerated as time went by! In fact, by now itās such an extreme voice
to perform that when Samantha Kelly comes to record new voice lines, they always have
to do Peachās voice first. Thatās because after doing Toad, her voice
is so destroyed that she canāt do the Peach voice anymore. Her voice literally wonāt go high enough! So, they first go through all the high pitched
characters, like Peach and Baby Peach. Then, after that, they move on to Toad. Even with Toad though, they start with the
lower energy noises. Then, they move up the ranking, until they
reach the very last lines, which are the truly voice shattering ones. Keep in mind, these recording sessions typically
last for 4 hours at least! And so, finally after all of that, Samantha
Kelly goes home and only by the next day has her voice started to heal. I mean, thatās pretty extreme. She mentioned as well that sheās constantly
having to drink loads and loads of water during the records, just to try and keep her voice
alive. Wow. And you can hear just how extreme Toadās
voice has become in a more modern game, like Mario Kart 8. So, thatās how Toadās voice came to be. It started out normal, but as the voice actors
changed behind the scenes, each one exaggerated the gravelly tone just a little more, until
the present day when Toadās voice isā¦ well, itās certainly distinctive. And hey, while I was working on this video
I tried to do the toad voice and it HURT, pretty bad! So, I have a lot of respect for both Jen Taylor
and Sam Kelly, who performed and continue to perform this voice for years on end. Rather them than me! Both Bowser and Princess Peach have also gone
through pretty dramatic voice changes, so if youāre interested in that, then you can
check out either video - theyāre on screen right now. Plus, if you want to - OH there's a fly on
my keyboard... Sorry, uh, if you want to hear more stories
going behind the scenes of your favourite games, be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications
so that you see the videos and soon as Iāve finished making them. Seeya next time!
I blame Arin Hanson
It seems more than just a coincidence that Toad has the gravelly voice in the Super Show cartoon and then Jen Taylor does a gravelly voice for the āfirst timeā in the games.