I don't think it's something that was ever officially stated at the time, just the info they gave the studios making those adaptations. And it was contradicted a few years later with Yoshi's Island on the SNES which shows Mario and Luigi being born in the Mushroom Kingdom. And then decades later, we are introduced to New Donk City in Odyssey, the true setting of the arcade games.
1:31 absolutely dead at the thought of them shipping the arcade cabinets from Japan to America over all of Asia, Europe, Africa, and almost all of the continental US to reach Washington state, instead of just shipping them across the Pacific
Well the actual reason is because during ww2, when the allies landed in Italy, Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi were on the frontlines of the battle until they found their distant relatives Muigi and Lario and they offered to take them back to America for a new life and that’s how they met the American sounding princesses
It's worth noting that the story of him getting sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom is no longer canon in the games, and hasn't been for a long time. In Yoshi's Island on the SNES, we see he was born in the Mushroom Kingdom. Which means he couldn't have been in New York in the arcade games. And finally, in Mario Odyssey, we get our answer for where those games actually took place. New Donk City. So he's not really Italian, technically speaking. He's not even from our world.
Maybe the Mario from Donkey Kong is an ancestor to the Mario from Super Mario Bros/Yoshi's Island. So the original Mario got sucked into the mushroom Kingdom from Brooklyn, but the next Mario (his son?) was born there - implying the original Mario never escaped...
@zeonmoo192 The original Mario being Mario's dad is a theory that had been around for a while, and makes sense since Rare has said that Cranky Kong is the original Donkey Kong and Yoshis Island DS shows Mario and DK being the same age. But unless Pauline and Cranky Kong also got sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom, it still doesn't make sense for the arcade games to be in New York. Since clearly Pauline, Cranky, DK, etc or all on the same planet as the Mushroom Kingdom now. And it's openly stated that New Donk City is where the original Donkey Kong took place now. The ceremony is depicting an event from the city's history, and reenacts the events of Donkey Kong arcade.
7:28 to 7:36 Hate to be that guy but that’s the flag of Ireland (light green white and orange), not Italy (dark green white and red). I recommend checking your monitor colour settings
I think it's just the lighting! The footage is of Rome! I do agree, the red definitely looks more orange than red. I promise it's actually an Italian flag though!
@@ThomasGameDocs I'd like to add some rebuttals on things. 8:39: While it is likely that Mario being from Brooklyn that somehow was transported to the Mushroom Kingdom by Warp Zone would be an agreed upon concept with Nintendo (and that this concept has been a major idea in official non-canon material, to the point of being used for the Mario Movie from Illumination), the narrative in-game never explicitly state this. In fact, the first two games to change the narrative would be 1994's Donkey Kong for the Game Boy, and Yoshi's Island on the SNES. In the former, it says Mario was chasing Donkey Kong by foot on a wild goose chase that led him to the Mushroom Kingdom, which also means the Sewers that Mario and Luigi were in are actually in the basement of Castle Toadstool (which not only would explain how Mario heard Peach's cries for help, but also because Bowser's proposed name was gonna be Boss Creeper, a reference to the Koopa Troopas being originally called Shellcreepers); In the latter, Mario and Luigi were delivered by Stork before Kamek interfered, and it led to Yoshi helping Mario save his brother so they can get back home. In fact, it's likely that this *new* narrative was made to cut ties with the outdated narrative, after the Live-Action film bombed at the box office for disregarding the Fantasy Script. 10:40: Charles Martinet was actually not the first to give Mario some Italian dialect; if you remember what you said earlier about Lou Albano, you stated that he was an Italian American. Albano took advantage of this and was the first to give Mario his iconic dialect; in fact, you can look up "TUMF Pasta Proclamations", and see a compilation of various clips where Mario (and Luigi) speaking of Italian Food and saying "Mama Mia" (TUMF also made one for the multiple Uh-Ohs, which Mario also said in the games). It could also be the reason why Mario's SMB3 and SMW cartoons were short lived; not only did it not go for a Syndication Package, but Mario (as well as Luigi) was made less Italian and more American. Same applies to the Live-Action film, as Mario was portrayed by Bob Hoskins, a British Man. While he does great as Eddie Valiant, he didn't think highly of playing as Mario. Although the Illumination film was great, it felt weird that Chris Pratt would play the character; but it is interesting they made Mario being Italian again, by having a big Italian Family. 12:20: Not just any Shakespearean play, but "Taming of the Shrew", in which during his time performing, he was casted as Gremio, the elderly suitor of Bianca. Also, sidenote, even though it's just speculation, Charles Martinet's voice for Mario reminds me of when Mel Blanc does a voice for Christopher Columbus in Bugs Bunny's "Hare We Go" (great, now even the title of that short makes me think of Mario).
my entire teens i thought mario was mexican, because i know more mexicans named mario than italians, as well as i thought he would yell "mexico!" before entering a stage, not "let's a go!"
I can imagine some of the auditions sounding like either the villains from Home Alone or Mario from The Super Show, only for this weird guy to come and fascinate everyone with his own twist on an Italian plumber. And somehow, not only did it stick but it also gave the most popular character ever his voice. A voice that fits so well, Nintendo has never tried to change it since. I absolutely love Charles' acting, he will forever be Mario.
wow I did not know that about miyamoto's inspiration from italian comics! suppose that would explain miyamoto's artwork style for the cabinets at the time.
It's not 100% confirmed that Martinet did the pinball voice, as the voice actor hasn't officially been credited and the performance is quite different from other early Martinet performances. The claim that Martinet was the actor comes from a Reddit post that claimed he said he was when asked about it, but a known issue is Martinet's memory of some of his early work has been mistaken in some other disputes about credit, notably over Thomas Spindler's portrayal of Wario in certain N64 games.
@@novauviolon I just check and in the Mario Wiki shows that Craig Brolley voiced it, sourcing an email from Dave Zabriskie, the composer for that machine in particular
Your videos are always so high quality and interesting that time flies by when I watch them. Thank you for your work!Your work brings not only knowledge but also joy. Thank you for sharing your skills and passion with us!🙈🍈🏘
It fits him really well, the modern stereotypes for us Italians are really goofy imo, it makes mario surprisingly lovable for a lead without much personality
this is a strange year. 1985 was the year it was released in the US and on the Famicom in Japan, we in Europe got it in 1987, while in 1986 came a Famicom DIsk System port of the game. why he said 86 instead of 85 or 87 is a mystery for me.
So they (Nintendo America) said that Mario was a Carpenter?!?! (5:26) (P.S.: Mispronounciation of Mario Segale... you have to pronounce the final "E" and put the accent on the "A")
Fun fact: The first time we heard Charles’ voice was in a Gottlieb pinball machine, 3 years before Mario Teaches Typing, they stole the voice clips from the tradeshows!
Mario: *Exists* Thomas Game Docs: “Why are you white?” (In all seriousness, this was a great video; it’s fun to see how things that we take for granted come about, in gaming or otherwise.)
9:24 I find it interesting that despite this, Mario is depicted as Mexican instead of Italian on the "Mission to Rescue Princess Peach" movie. Maybe the people who made that movie just mistook Mexican charro suits and ponchos with Italian stuff.
So basically he's italian because his name is Mario. No but all jokes aside this was a really interesting video, I know so much about Mario and yet I still learned new things here, so thank you for that!
I always thought Mario and Luigi got their names from the movie "The Wages of Fear" (1953), countries of origin France and Italy. E.g from two of the main characters.
They got really lucky with the technology restriction. I can pretty much guarantee nobody would be playing popeye maker in 2024 mainly because the series would have failed before SNES.
