At the beginning of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Mario arrives in the Mushroom Kingdom and meets the citizenry known as the “Toads.” Each Toad is short, adorable and has a mushroom cap at the top of their head. They also all have similar, sweet voices. Of the hundreds of citizens, they all pretty much look and sound the same, but one Toad is unmistakably different. While his low-set reading glasses only slightly set him apart visually, his low, booming voice and commanding presence make him unmistakable. He is the Toad General and he is not to be taken lightly.
Toad General is voiced by prolific voice actor Eric Bauza, who has played nearly every Looney Tunes character at some point and provided literally hundreds of other cartoon voices. In the 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Bauza voiced a handful of characters and he reappears in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, reprising his role as Toad General, which he talks about here. Additionally, he discusses some of his work that was cut from the first film, including an expanded role for Donkey Kong’s pal Diddy Kong.
Polygon: So, tell me about the Toad General. What was the direction you were given when you got the part?
Eric Bauza: Toad General was always described as no-nonsense, all high-stakes, everything is serious. He shouldn’t sound cute. He should not sound like every other adorable Toad. I actually took a lot of inspiration from Keith David. I just love that resonance that he has. He commands a lot of seriousness.
It’s funny though, online, hardcore Mario fans are like “Why isn’t he called Toadsworth? Just give him a mustache and make him Toadsworth!” Fans will always find something to get mad at, like the President of Nintendo is just putting people through torture on purpose.
In the first movie, you provided a few voices. Can you talk about those other characters too?
I was Diddy Kong, who had a much bigger part, by the way, but they cut him down. He was originally Donkey Kong’s hypeman, like in WWE wrestling, but they cut his scene entirely. I was bummed about that. I was also the voice of Sports Coat Kong.
Another fun fact is, they were trying to get the rights to use the original sound bites for Yoshi because they didn’t know how much, if at all, Yoshi was going to appear in the first one. They asked me to record Yoshi’s voice, though they may have asked a couple of other people too. He ends up being an Easter egg, like literally an egg, at the end, but I don’t know if they used me or if they used the original sound bite.
Did you grow up with Mario?
I did. I loved it. I had every version, every console, N64, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Japanese Super Nintendo, Game Boy. All of it. I played it all.
Did you plays as Mario or Luigi?
Mario for sure.
What about for Mario Kart? Who is your go-to character?
Oh, man. I think Yoshi was always my guy, and I’m talking about playing it in the arcade too. He was an easy-to-drive character. Either him or Toad, but I usually pick Yoshi. I just love Yoshi.
So they’re making a Donkey Kong movie and people are talking about a Star Fox movie. Tell me, what would a General Toad movie look like?
Oh my gosh. It would be like McHale’s Navy, or like Police Academy, but like with Toads. I want a goofball military comedy.