Marc Graue: the voice-over of Mario in Hotel Mario
>> Thursday, July 31, 2008
Marc Graue was the man who did the voice-over of Mario and Luigi, along with Jocelyn Benford who did the voice-over of the Princess. Marc has his own website, "Marc Graue Recording Studios", which shows his current projects. Below you'll find some words we've had with him about his past in Hotel Mario. While this work was 'business as usual' for Marc, who would have thought he would be asked about his experience 14 years later!
Marc about Hotel Mario: "The Hotel Mario game developers and directors were great to work with. Most video game directors are easy to work with and the good ones know what they want so they will usually have you do the scripted version and then let you do a version with lots of ad libs. I got the VO gig for Hotel Mario the old fashioned way. Audition and wait for the call. The normal process is to send voice actors “sides” (the script with some character descriptions) and then you read a couple of different ways and hopefully the client & director like what they hear!"
Marc continues: "I’ve voiced games from “World Of Warcraft” to the latest “Ratchet & Clank” game “Future Tools Of Destruction but hopefully the voices are pretty different than Hotel Mario! I’ve been lucky enough to own and operate the oldest voice over recording studios in Burbank, CA for the last 25 years so I’ve been involved with some very cool projects both as voice talent and as a producer. To see some of our current projects you can visit our website at http://www.fixinthemix.com
I think it’s very cool ( and flattering ) that something that was recorded in 1993 has found new life on [YouTube videos that are using Mario & Luigi’s voice for their comedic video collages]. During a recording session you almost always have alot of fun but you’re not usually aware of how big, successful or how much impact a project will have.
Being a voice over guy with a sense of humor and NO taste means there are always going to be lots of really bad out takes..Nothing is sacred so needless to say Mario and Luigi found themselves in some very compromising positions….VOCALLY!! [There's one line] in the cutscene where Mario says “Hey, you! Get off of my cloud”. That was made up during the session and was a reference to the song sung by The Rolling Stones.
The down side to being a voice actor on a project is that well you’re a voice actor on the project so very rarely are you privy to any of the actual workings or levels in a game…I remember walking through a mall and seeing a huge display of “The Undead”, a character I voiced on World Of Warcraft, the person I was with pointed it out loudly enough that I was approached by a couple of gamers who wanted to know what happened at a certain level. After telling them I had no idea as I was only the voice talent they proceeded to tell me I was full of S*%T ahhh the glamourous life of voice over! Considering Hotel mario was released in 1994 I’m thrilled to see it take on a new life as a parody of itself on Youtube…or anything else you can think of! I don’t think the Academy will be calling me anytime soon and I really dont feel it was “My Finest Moment As A Thespian”….but hey’ we had alot of fun…. AND someone is still listening!!!"
Thanks to ThePspImp @ Youtube