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List of Mario television series

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A number of television shows 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, 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).

Before DiC

File:MARIO55.JPG
Mario as seen in the Saturday Supercade.

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 his niece Pauline (who was instead his girlfriend in the game) was constantly on the trail of escaped circus gorilla Donkey Kong (his primary nemesis in the game).

File:Marioanime.jpg
The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach.

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 Luigi, Princess Peach, and King Bowser. 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. 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.

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!

File:SMBSSLogo.jpg
"Hey paisanos! It's the Super Mario Bros. Super Show!"

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! was the only one of the three American Mario animated series to air in syndication. The first part of each episode was 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, and Toad battle against King Koopa, often in a movie parody. Getting into the spirit of these parodies, Bowser 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. Like most 1980s cartoons, Bowser would prolong the series' run by escaping from his adversaries (which he did through the use of sub-space potions), despite the fact that they could easily catch him. 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 Link and Princess Zelda fight against the forces of Ganon. Scenes from the episode were shown during the live-action segments on the preceding days as sneak previews. (These preview clips are edited out of the episodes on Yahooligans! TV, but are restored on the DVD set except on the episode "King Mario of Cramalot".)

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, and could be seen on Yahooligans! TV from April 2004 to December 2005. Since then, the show has been de-linked from Yahooligans! TV, but the content is still accessible. Additionally, a few stand-alone DVDs were published between 2002 and 2005. DVDs produced in the UK have the Saban logo instead of the DiC logo. The show is now released by Shout! Factory in a volumed DVD set.

Cast

Episodes

Note that in this list, the titles of the animated segments are listed first, and the live-action segments' titles are listed second.

  1. The Bird! The Bird! / Neatness Counts
  2. King Mario of Cramalot / Day of the Orphan
  3. Butch Mario & the Luigi Kid / All Steamed Up
  4. Mario's Magic Carpet / Marianne and Luigeena
  5. Rolling Down the River / The Mario Monster Mash
  6. The Great Gladiator Gig / Bonkers From Yonkers
  7. Mario and the Beanstalk / Bats in the Basement
  8. Love 'Em and Leave 'Em / Will the Real Elvis Please Shut Up!
  9. The Great BMX Race / Mama Mia Mario
  10. Two Plumbers and a Baby / Lost Dog
  11. Stars in Their Eyes / Alligator Dundee
  12. Pirates of Koopa / Do You Believe in Magic?
  13. Robo Koopa / Captain Lou is Missing
  14. Count Koopula / Magician
  15. Jungle Fever / Dance
  16. Mario of the Deep / Two Bums From Brooklyn
  17. The Fire of Hercufleas / The Marios Fight Back
  18. Mario Meets Koop-zilla / Fortune Teller
  19. Mario and Joliet / Fake Bro
  20. Too Hot to Handle / Time Out Luigi
  21. Brooklyn Bound / Cher's Poochie
  22. The Adventures of Sherlock Mario / Plumbers of the Year
  23. Hooded Robin and His Mario Men / Flower Power
  24. Toad Warriors / E.C. The Extra Creepy
  25. The Pied Koopa / Super Plant
  26. Bad Rap / Caught in a Draft
  27. On Her Majesty's Sewer Service / 9001: A Mario Odyssey
  28. Mario and the Red Baron Koopa / Gorilla My Dreams
  29. Mighty McMario and the Pot of Gold / Heart Throb
  30. Do You Princess Toadstool Take This Koopa...? / Mario Hillbillies
  31. The Mark of Zero / Toupee
  32. 20,000 Koopas Under the Sea / Vampire Until Ready
  33. The Koopas Are Coming! The Koopas Are Coming! / Zenned Out Mario
  34. Koopenstein / Baby Mario Love
  35. Quest For Pizza / The Painting
  36. The Unzappables / George Washington Slept Here
  37. The Trojan Koopa / Texas Tea
  38. Karate Koopa / Adee Don't
  39. Elvin Lives / Home Radio
  40. Koopa Klaus / Little Marios
  41. The Ten Koopmandments / The Artist
  42. The Provolone Ranger / Goodbye Mr. Fish
  43. The Great Gold Coin Rush / Game Show Host
  44. Mario of the Apes / Chippie Chipmunks
  45. Crocodile Mario / Rowdy Roddy's Rotten Pipes
  46. Plumbers Academy / Glasnuts
  47. Princess, I Shrunk the Mario Brothers / A Basement Divided
  48. Flatbush Koopa / Opera
  49. Raiders of the Lost Mushroom / Cyrano de Mario
  50. Star Koopa / Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush
  51. Escape From Koopatraz / French
  52. 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
  • Magic's Magic
  • Wild Thing
  • Mommies Curse
  • Fred Van Winkle
  • Tutti Frutti, Oh Mario
  • The Magic Love
  • Defective Gadgetry
  • The Great Hereafter
  • Treasure of the Sierra Brooklyn
  • Pizza Crush
  • Tutti Frutti Mario
  • The Ghoul of My Dreams

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 due to music licesening issues for each of the songs. The original songs have never been reinstated, not even for the DVD sets.
  • The show was sponsored by Domino's Pizza.
  • 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 wasn't 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.
  • Mario's "Plumber's Log" narrations at the beginning of each episode is reminiscent of William Shatner as Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek.
  • This was the only one of the three shows to air on ABC in Australia.

Airing History

USA

UK

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3

File:SMB3Cartoon.jpg
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 opening screen, similar to that seen in the beginning of the actual game.

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 Peach, and Toad fighting against Bowser Koopa and his Koopa Kids, who went by different names on the show. On the show, the Koopa Kids were called:

  • Cheatsy Koopa (Larry)
  • Bigmouth Koopa (Morton)
  • Kootie Pie Koopa (Wendy O.)
  • Hop Koopa (Iggy)
  • Bully Koopa (Roy)
  • Hip Koopa (Lemmy)
  • Kooky Von Koopa (Ludwig)

Although the reason for their name change is disputed, it's most likely that DIC didn't have access to their real names during production of the show, for they were probably using the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 3 as reference, in which 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.

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 towards 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 in 1999. It has more recently been released on DVD.

Cast

Episodes

  1. Sneaky Lying Cheating Giant Ninja Koopas / Reptiles in the Rose Garden
  2. Mind Your Mummy Mommy, Mario / The Beauty of Kootie
  3. Princess Toadstool For President / Never Koop a Koopa
  4. Reign Storm / Toddler Terrors of Time Travel
  5. Dadzilla / Tag Team Trouble
  6. Oh, Brother! / Misadventure of Mighty Plumber
  7. A Toadally Magical Adventure / Misadventures in Babysitting
  8. Do the Koopa / Kootie Pie Rocks
  9. The Ugly Mermaid / Mush-Rumors
  10. Crimes 'R Us / Life's Ruff
  11. Up, Up, and a Koopa / 7 Continents for 7 Koopas
  12. True Colors / Recycled Koopa
  13. The Venice Menace / Super Koopa

Trivia

  • The show is rated TV-Y7.
  • Except for "Kootie Pie Rocks", every episode's title card features the episode's title superimposed on a world map screenshot from the game.
  • Milli Vanilli guest starred in the episode "Kootie Pie Rocks" where they are kidnapped by the Kootie Pie 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" have now been replaced with an action theme music, and the artists' names have been cut from the episode. However, the artist's names and music have been retained in the Region 2 DVD releases in 2004. The songs are available by switching the Audio to Dutch.[1]
  • 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).
  • Many fans of the games consider this cartoon series to be the strongest of Mario's animated adventures.
  • This was the only Mario cartoon to air on Nine Network in Australia.
  • George and Barbara Bush are featured in "Reptiles in the Rose Garden", albeit without their actual names (Mario addresses Barbara as "Mrs. President") or George's face actually being seen (he spends the episode on the phone).
  • Ernie Anderson narrated the introduction sequence.
  • "Super Koopa" marks the only time Bowser has ever used Power-Ups in the entire run of the franchise.

Airing History

Super Mario World

File:SMWCartoon.jpg
Super Mario World

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 exist 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 never called by their in-game names on the show, but rather by whichever real-life things they resembled (for example, Rexes were called dinosaurs, Wigglers were called caterpillars, and Chargin' Chucks were called football players). 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), and the "invention" of automobiles by Mario, as well as television by Bowser (in the show called "Rock TV"). 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. Like The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, it was last seen on PAX in 1999.

All the episodes are currently available on PAL DVD. However, except for part of a Christmas videotape released in 1996, it has never had any NTSC home video releases (thus far).

Cast

Episodes

  1. Fire Sale
  2. The Wheel Thing
  3. Send in the Clown
  4. Ghosts R Us
  5. The Night Before Cave Christmas
  6. King Scoopa Koopa
  7. Born to Ride
  8. Party Line
  9. Gopher Bash
  10. Rock TV
  11. The Yoshi Shuffle
  12. A Little Learning
  13. Mama Luigi

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. 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", Peach 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 the bad guys. This tactic does not appear in the Super Mario World game (or any Mario game, for that matter) and had no explanation whatsoever.
  • In the game, the neon sign on Bowser'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'd worn since the first Mario cartoons.

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".

See also

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