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A number of television programs based on the Super Mario Bros. video game series have been created. After appearing alongside Donkey Kong in 1983 and starring in a few anime specials released only in Japan, the protagonist Mario starred in several American animated television series, produced by DiC Entertainment. Three series were produced by DiC, each with a different title and based around a different game (or games).
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Before DiC
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Prior to having his own animated series, Mario starred as a regular character on the Donkey Kong-based segments of CBS's Saturday Supercade. Voiced by Peter Cullen, Mario, along with Pauline (who was his niece instead his girlfriend as she was in the game) was constantly on the trail of escaped circus gorilla Donkey Kong (his primary nemesis in the game).
In 1986 Mario was the main character of a theatrical anime movie, titled Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen (スーパーマリオブラザーズ ピーチ姫救出大作戦! Translation: "The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach"). This film is very obscure, even in Japan where it was released, and not much is known about it; even the video release of the movie has become hard to find. The video was produced by Japanese animation company Grouper Productions, and it marked the animated debut of Mario's brother Luigi, damsel-in-distress Princess Peach, and his nemesis, the reptilian King Bowser (Koopa in Japan). The plot, based off of the first Super Mario Bros. game, revolves around Mario and Luigi being sucked into their Famicom game and having to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser. It was never translated into English. Un-authorized clips (albeit unsubtitled) can be found at YouTube.
An unrelated anime OVA trilogy was also released only in Japan. The trilogy was released on August 3, 1989, about a month before The Super Mario Bros. Super Show began airing. These three direct-to-video 15-minute films feature characters from Super Mario Bros. 3 retelling classic fairy tales - Momotaro, Issunboshi, and Shiroyukihime (Snow White). Chronologically, these films would mark the actual animated debut of the Koopalings and several other enemies from Super Mario Bros. 3, excluding the Japanese commercial for the game. More information on Mario's anime appearances can be found here and here.
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The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
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The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! was the only one of the three American Mario animated series to air in syndication. The first and last parts of each episode were live action and showed Mario (played by "Captain" Lou Albano) and Luigi (Danny Wells) living in Brooklyn, where they would often be visited by celebrity guest stars, such as Cyndi Lauper, Danica McKellar, and a Cher impersonator. Occasionally, the main actors would be playing guest stars themselves, forcing their regular characters to leave when it came time for their other characters to show up.
The second part of each episode was a cartoon based on the Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2 video games, where Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool (as Peach was called in North America until the late 1990s), and Toad battle against King Koopa, often in a movie parody. Getting into the spirit of these parodies, Koopa usually had a different outfit for each one. Interestingly, Wart, the main antagonist of the second game, was never in any of the episodes, yet most of his minions managed to appear. The Super Mario Bros. cartoon was shown on Mondays through Thursdays only.
On Fridays, the show would air the ''Legend of Zelda'' cartoons based on the game of the same name, in which the elf-like Link and Princess Zelda fight against the forces of the evil sorcerer Ganon. Scenes from the episode were shown during the live-action segments on the preceding days as sneak previews.
The show later changed its name to Club Mario, replacing the live-action Mario segment with two completely different characters known as Tommy Treehuger and Coemcee, with occasional appearances by Tammy Treehuger (Tommy's twin sister) and Evil Eric (Coemcee's evil twin brother).
This show lasted from 1989 to 1990.
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Cast
John Stocker as Toad, Koopa Troopa, Mouser, Beezo, and Flurry
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Episodes
Note that in this list, the titles of the animated segments are listed first, and the live-action segments' titles are listed second.
The Bird! The Bird! / Neatness Counts
King Mario of Cramalot / Day of the Orphan
Butch Mario & the Luigi Kid / All Steamed Up
Mario's Magic Carpet / Marianne and Luigeena
Rolling Down the River / The Mario Monster Mash
The Great Gladiator Gig / Bonkers From Yonkers
Mario and the Beanstalk / Bats in the Basement
Love 'Em and Leave 'Em / Will the Real Elvis Please Shut Up!
The Great BMX Race / Mama Mia Mario
Two Plumbers and a Baby / Lost Dog
Stars in Their Eyes / Alligator Dundee
Pirates of Koopa / Do You Believe in Magic?
Robo Koopa / Captain Lou is Missing
Mario of the Deep / Two Bums From Brooklyn
The Fire of Hercufleas / The Marios Fight Back
Mario Meets Koop-zilla / Fortune Teller
Mario and Joliet / Fake Bro
Too Hot to Handle / Time Out Luigi
Brooklyn Bound / Cher's Poochie
The Adventures of Sherlock Mario / Plumbers of the Year
Hooded Robin and His Mario Men / Flower Power
Toad Warriors / E.C. The Extra Creepy
The Pied Koopa / Super Plant
Bad Rap / Caught in a Draft
On Her Majesty's Sewer Service / 9001: A Mario Odyssey
Mario and the Red Baron Koopa / Gorilla My Dreams
Mighty McMario and the Pot of Gold / Heart Throb
Do You Princess Toadstool Take This Koopa...? / Mario Hillbillies
The Mark of Zero / Toupee
20,000 Koopas Under the Sea / Vampire Until Ready
The Koopas Are Coming! The Koopas Are Coming! / Zenned Out Mario
Koopenstein / Baby Mario Love
Quest For Pizza / The Painting
The Unzappables / George Washington Slept Here
The Trojan Koopa / Texas Tea
Karate Koopa / Adee Don't
Koopa Klaus / Little Marios
The Ten Koopmandments / The Artist
The Provolone Ranger / Goodbye Mr. Fish
The Great Gold Coin Rush / Game Show Host
Mario of the Apes / Chippie Chipmunks
Crocodile Mario / Rowdy Roddy's Rotten Pipes
Plumbers Academy / Glasnuts
Princess, I Shrunk the Mario Brothers / A Basement Divided
Raiders of the Lost Mushroom / Cyrano de Mario
Star Koopa / Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush
Escape From Koopatraz / French
Little Red Riding Princess / No Way to Treat a Queenie
The following thirteen live-action segments were aired with episodes of the Legend of Zelda cartoon on Fridays.
Slime Busters (aired with The Ringer)
Magic's Magic (aired with Cold Spells)
Wild Thing (aired with The White Knight)
Mommies Curse (aired with Kiss ’N Tell)
Fred Van Winkle (aired with Sing for the Unicorn)
Tutti Frutti, Oh Mario (aired with That Sinking Feeling)
The Magic Love (aired with Doppelganger)
Defective Gadgetry (aired with Underworld Connections)
The Great Hereafter (aired with Stinging a Stinger)
Treasure of the Sierra Brooklyn (aired with A Hitch in the Works)
Pizza Crush (aired with Fairies in the Spring)
Tutti Frutti Mario (aired with The Missing Link)
The Ghoul of My Dreams (aired with The Moblins are Revolting)
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Trivia
When shown in reruns after cancellation, DiC took out all the song covers played during the action/chase sequences, and replaced them with instrumentals of songs featured in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, presumably because of music licensing issues for each of the songs. The original songs have only been reinstated in the UK DVD volumes, the US DVD releases including the box sets still have replaced music.
The cartoon shared much of its incidental music with Captain N.
From 1989 to 1991, Kid Klassics released NTSC VHS videos of the show. These videos contained two, one, or no live-action segments, and featured the cartoon segments as they were originally produced and aired (meaning they included the action/chase songs that were edited out in later airings). On these videos, the "Super Mario Bros." theme was not included before the cartoon segment.
The episode "Two Plumbers and a Baby" was aired without an intro on television.
There was a View-master three-reel set based on the show (but labeled as "Super Mario Bros. 2"). The "A" reel showed various scenes from the live-action segments, while the "B" and "C" reels were an adaptation of the episode "The Bird! The Bird!" Oddly, although the picture descriptions say "King Koopa," the villain featured in reels "B" and "C" is clearly Wart.
This was the only one of the three Mario cartoons to air on ABC in Australia.
In the episode Stars in Their Eyes, the song sung/buzzed by the alien Quirks is the theme to The Legend Of Zelda. Similarly, in the Zelda episode "Doppleganger", Link is whistling the Super Mario Bros. theme while practicing his swordsmanship.
In the episode "Neatness Counts", Luigi says to Mario "...you have a piece of spaghetti on your overalls." Mario responds while the audience is laughing by what sounds faintly like "Oh f word you Luigi!" The actual quotation is "Oh thank you, Luigi." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldd3iHBC-Sw
"The Super Mario Brothers Super Show - Mario's Greatest Movie Moments" DVD features a bonus episode only viewable after correctly answering questions in an interactive quiz. The episode, "The Adventures of Sherlock Mario", also features the final segment of the live action, "Plumbers of the Year" episode complete with a preview for the next episode of "The Legend of Zelda" and the live action ending credits.
On the US Volume 1 DVD set, all the episodes include their previews for the Legend of Zelda cartoons except for the episode "King Mario of Cramalot" where it is absent. It is unknown why it is not included.
Lou Albano had stated in an interview that he hated the show, but was talked into doing the voice of Mario by his wife.
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Airing History
USA
UK
Canada
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The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3
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The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 was the second Mario animated series produced by DiC. Based on the Super Mario Bros. 3 video game, the cartoon shows Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad fighting against Bowser Koopa and his Koopa Kids (called Kooplings in the series), who went by different names on the show. On the show, the Koopa Kids were called:
Kootie Pie Koopa (Wendy O.)
Although the reason for their name change is disputed, it is most likely that DIC did not have access to their real names during production of the show, for the company was probably using the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 3 as reference — the Koopa Kids were not given names until its US release. The made-up names were added in place. Apparently, DIC was never informed of the change at first. Oddly enough, bits from the American version were inserted (calling Kooky "Kooky 'Von' Koopa", referring to King Koopa as "Bowser"), which clearly shows DIC became aware of the change. Why DiC never reverted their names back to their video game counterparts is unknown to this day. The Koopa Kids would always sing every song on the show.
Since the show was based on Super Mario Bros. 3, the enemies and Power-Ups used in the show were from that game. In addition to becoming based more toward the games, the series was given an established sense of continuity, something that the previous series lacked. The show was also known for having many of its episodes set in "the real world", with "actual" human beings appearing from time to time. Episodes took place in cities such as Paris, Venice, New York City, Cape Canaveral, and even Washington, D.C.. One memorable episode was about the seven Koopa Kids invading each of the seven continents.
This cartoon was shown in an hour-length time slot on Saturday mornings on NBC with the second season of Captain N: The Game Master in its original run in 1990. All further airings of the series separated it from Captain N. It was last seen on PAX TV (now renamed "i" in 2005) in 1999. It has more recently been released on DVD in Australia in a full box set, Europe which one volume out of the four has only been released in Germany and one single DVD release in the US.
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Cast
John Stocker as Toad, Boomerang Bros, Fire Bros, Thwomp and Paragoombas
Tara Strong as Lemmy "Hip" and Iggy "Hop" Koopa (credited as "Tara Charendoff")
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Episodes
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Trivia
Except for "Kootie Pie Rocks", every episode's title card features the episode's title superimposed on a world map screenshot from the game.
The French-German pop duo Milli Vanilli guest starred in the episode "Kootie Pie Rocks" where they are kidnapped by Koopa during a live concert (visited by, among others, Princess Toadstool, who is a fan). The episode aired October 27, 1990 just prior to November 15, when it was revealed that Milli Vanilli was really a lip-syncing duo who only fronted for real musicians. The songs originally featured in "Kootie Pie Rocks" ("Blame It On The Rain" and "Girl You Know It's True") have now been replaced with an action theme music, and the artists' names have been cut from the episode. Oddly, while "Blame It On The Rain"'s title was omitted from the dialouge (spoken by Koopa right before he says, "Blame it on King Koopa!"), the title of "Girl You Know It's True" is still retained when Milli Vanilli suggested the song to Mario and friends. However, the artist's names and music have been mostly retained in the Region 2 DVD releases in 2004. The songs are available by switching the audio to Dutch, however the ending is still cut in both soundtracks which an instrumental plays instead of a Milli Vanilli song.*
A few times in this series, King Koopa was addressed as Bowser Koopa ("Bowser" being the name Nintendo of America usually used in the games, and "King Koopa" being the name usually used in Japan and the cartoons).
President George and First Lady Barbara Bush (the parents of the current president, George W. Bush) are featured in "Reptiles in the Rose Garden", albeit without their actual names (Mario incorrectly addresses Barbara as "Mrs. President") or George's face actually being seen (he spends the episode on the telephone).
"Super Koopa" marks the only time Bowser has ever used Power-Ups in any of the Mario cartoons.
There were five episodes which Princess Toadstool and Toad did not appear: "Crimes R Us," "Misadventures of Mighty Plumber," "Life's Ruff," "Misadventures in Babysitting," and "Mush-Rumors." The Princess was only referenced once by Luigi in "Life's Ruff" when he told the king of Ice Land that she is concerned over the king's bully-like behavior.
The episode "Life's Ruff" is the only one in the Super Mario animated series which Mario did not appear. Only his brother Luigi appeared, who has appeared on every Super Mario cartoon episode.
Like the previous Mario cartoon series, the animation was done by Sei Young Animation Co. Ltd, however this show was co-produced by Reteitalia S.P.A.; hence the slight differences in character design.
Of the four protagonists (Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad), only the voice of Toad was unchanged for this series.
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Airing History
UK
POP (2004-2006) (edited version)
ITV2 (2005) (as part of "GMTV2 kids" )
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Super Mario World
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Super Mario World (also sometimes referred to unofficially as The Super Mario World Show) was the last of the three American Mario cartoons. The show was based largely on the Super Nintendo game of the same name, but with small yet noticeable changes.
The show takes place on Dinosaur Land, and features the then-new character Yoshi, as well as a preadolescent caveman named Oogtar (who did not appear in the games). This time, Toad was not in the cast, as he was not in the game itself. Unlike in the game, Yoshi's Island was populated with cavemen (whom were sort of the comic relief of the show) instead of Yoshies, and many of the locations had different names. For example, the Vanilla Dome was called the Ice Dome, and the Forest of Illusion was called the Enchanted Forest. Also, enemies featured in the game were rarely called by their in-game names on the show, but rather by whichever real-life things they resembled. Also in the show were minor aspects that were never shown in the game, such as Yoshi's aquaphobia (although tropical Yoshis could not survive in water on the later game Super Mario Sunshine). Also, in this show, as in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario and Luigi still used their red and green overalls, respectively, with blue shirt when Nintendo already started depicting them with blue overalls.
This cartoon was shown with the third season of Captain N: The Game Master in 1991 (the final season for NBC Saturday Mornings), and was the last original Mario animated series.
All the episodes are currently available on DVD in Australia. However, except for part of a Christmas videotape released in 1996, it has never had any NTSC home video releases (thus far). 11 of the 13 episodes have been released on VHS in the UK.
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Cast
John Stocker as Oogtar, Magikoopa, Monty Mole and Charging Chuck
Tara Strong as Lemmy "Hip" and Iggy "Hop" Koopa (credited as "Tara Charendoff")
James Rankin as Larry "Cheatsy" Koopa
Dan Hennessey as Morton "Bigmouth" Koopa Jr., Green Dinosaur and Purple Dinosaur
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Episodes
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Trivia
In the original "We'll be back" and "We’re back" commercial bumpers shown during the original NBC broadcasts with Captain N, the show was constantly referred to mistakenly as Captain N & Super Mario Bros. World. This error was never corrected.
The theme song was written by Mark Mothersbaugh, who also wrote the Rugrats theme music, which coincidentally, aired the same month and year.
It was the only Mario cartoon to air on Network Ten in Australia. This was on Cheez TV from Monday to Wednesday.
James Rankin, who played Cheatsy Koopa, sang the opening theme song.
During the episode "Rock TV", Princess Toadstool and Yoshi work together to save Mario and Luigi. By hitting a block which expelled a dozen tiny, mini-Marios, they were able to distract King Koopa and his minions. This tactic does not appear in the Super Mario World game (or any Mario game, for that matter) and had no explanation whatsoever. It is probably meant to signify 1-ups in the sense that the player gains extra "Marios" by collecting 1-Up Mushrooms.
In the game, the neon sign on Koopa's castle reads "Bowser" but in this series, it's "Koopa" (as it is in the Japanese version).
King Koopa (Bowser) received a noticeable makeover as his appearance was less bulky and more crisp to closely match his appearance in the game. His voice was also slightly altered, however, he did retain his familiar crown which he had worn since the first Mario cartoons.
There are some noticable differences regarding Princess Toadstool's appearance in this series than from the previous two: a) Her eyes are light blue, not dark blue with large pupils. b) Her skin complexion is pale, which superficially makes her look "older." This is in contrast to the previous two series where she has the same "natural" skin complexion as Mario and Luigi. c) Her head is much larger than in the two previous series and made her look more cartoonish.
The episode "The Yoshi Shuffle" is the only episode in the series where Princess Toadstool did not make an appearance.
The Mario cartoon series finale "Mama Luigi" is the only episode where Princess Toadstool did not speak a line. She made a brief gasp sound when she was kidnapped by Koopa's minions. "A Little Learning" was the last episode where she spoke in the series.
Two of the episodes ("Send in the Clown" and "Mama Luigi") were somewhat related to the games. "Send in the Clown" marked the only cartoon appearance of Bowser's Clown Car, along with all the methods for fighting Mario at the end of the game except the swooping back and forth as well as the fireball storm between rounds. "Mama Luigi" provides a more detailed version of the instruction booklet's story.
Luigi did not speak a single line in the episode "A Little Learning." Regardless, he is the only major character to make an appearance on every Super Mario cartoon series episode.
"Super Mario World" was animated by a different animation studio Pacific Rim Productions, Inc., hence the difference in character designs, not only for Princess Toadstool (the most obvious), but also for Mario and Luigi.
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Airing History
UK
POP (2004-2006) (with Captain N episodes)
ITV2 (2005) (as part of "GMTV2 kids" )
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Mario All-Stars
Mario All-Stars was released in 1994 on cable television, first airing on The Family Channel (now ABC Family), then later in edited reruns on the USA Network. It featured 39 episodes of the animated segments from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show and all the Super Mario World episodes with time-compressed footage. Oddly enough, the commercials aired for this show featured clips from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, which was never actually featured on this show, and claimed to feature the Mario Bros. in "40 brand-new adventures".
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See also
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