List of Mario television series

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Nintendo Maximus (talk | contribs) at 00:45, 15 August 2005 (→''Mario All-Stars'''). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Jump to navigation Jump to search

Various television shows based on Super Mario Bros. exist. After making his animated debut alongside his old co-star Donkey Kong in 1983 and starring in a few anime specials released only in Japan, Mario starred in his own American animated TV series, produced by DiC Entertainment. Three shows were made, each with a different title. However, since the shows all belonged to the same franchise, they can altogether be seen as one whole show, with each individual show as a single season. In fact, recent DVD releases as well as Yahooligans! TV broadcasts of the first series refer to the show simply as Super Mario Bros., which could be assumed to be the title for three series as a whole.

Another point of interest is that they sometimes featured things that, by coincidence, would happen in later games. (For example, Mario's appetite for Italian delicacies is mentioned in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine.)

Before DiC

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

Prior to having his own animated series, Mario starred as a regular on the Donkey Kong-based segments of CBS's Saturday Supercade. Voiced by Peter Cullen, he, along with his niece Pauline (who was actually his girlfriend in the game) was constantly on the trail of escaped circus gorilla Donkey Kong (who was actually his pet monkey in the game).

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

Mario then starred in a 1986 anime movie made for TV, titled The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach. This film is very obscure, even in Japan where it was shown, and not much is known about it; the rental video released of the movie has even become hard to find. But what is known about it is that it was produced by Japanese animation company Grouper Productions, and that it marked the animated debut of Luigi, Princess Peach (still referred to as Princess Toadstool in the USA at the time), and King Bowser Koopa. 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 save Princess Peach from Bowser.

File:MarioAnime2.jpg
Mario in his second anime appearance.

It was later followed up by an anime OVA trilogy, also released only in Japan, on August 3, 1989, just 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 Japanese folk tales - Momotaro, Issunboshi, and Shirayukihime (Snow White). Chronologically, these films would mark the actual animated debut of the Koopalings and several other enemies from Super Mario Bros. 3, excluding Japan's 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 Mario cartoons to air in syndication. The first part of it 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. 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 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 Bowser Koopa, usually 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 practically all of his minions managed to appear; this seems to suggest that Wart is perhaps in alignment with Bowser. Like most 1980s cartoons, Bowser would prolong the series' run by using a Sub-Space potion to escape from his adversaries (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 are fighting against the forces of Ganon.

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 occassional appearances by Tammy Treehuger (Tommy's twin sister) and Evil Eric (Coemcee's evil twin brother).

This show lasted from 1989 to 1990, and can currently be seen on Yahooligans! TV.

Cast

Episodes

Note: The first titles are the cartoon segments. The second titles are the live-action segments.

  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. Stars in Their Eyes / Alligator Dundee
  11. Jungle Fever / Dance
  12. Brooklyn Bound / Cher's Poochie
  13. Toad Warriors / E.C. The Extra Creepy
  14. The Fire of Hercufleas / The Marios Fight Back
  15. Count Koopula / Magician
  16. Pirates of Koopa / Do You Believe in Magic?
  17. Two Plumbers and a Baby / Lost Dog
  18. The Adventures of Sherlock Mario / Plumbers of the Year
  19. Do You Princess Toadstool Take This Koopa...? / Mario Hillbillies
  20. The Pied Koopa / Super Plant
  21. Koopenstein / Baby Mario Love
  22. On Her Majesty's Sewer Service / 9001: A Mario Odyssey
  23. Mario and Joliet / Fake Bro
  24. Too Hot to Handle / Time Out Luigi
  25. Hooded Robin and His Mario Men / Flower Power
  26. 20,000 Koopas Under the Sea / Vampire Until Ready
  27. Mighty McMario and the Pot of Gold / Heart Throb
  28. Mario Meets Koop-zilla / Fortune Teller
  29. Koopa Klaus / Little Marios
  30. Mario and the Red Baron Koopa / Gorilla My Dreams
  31. The Unzappables / George Washington Slept Here
  32. Bad Rap / Caught in a Draft
  33. The Mark of Zero / Toupee
  34. The Ten Koopmandments / The Artist
  35. The Koopas Are Coming! The Koopas Are Coming! / Zenned Out Mario
  36. The Trojan Koopa / Texas Tea
  37. Quest For Pizza / The Painting
  38. The Great Gold Coin Rush / Game Show Host
  39. Elvin Lives / Home Radio
  40. Plumber´s Academy / Glasnuts
  41. Karate Koopa / Adee Don't
  42. Mario of the Apes / Chippie Chipmunks
  43. Princess, I Shrunk the Mario Brothers / A Basement Divided
  44. Little Red Riding Princess / No Way to Treat a Queenie
  45. The Provolone Ranger / Goodbye Mr. Fish
  46. Escape From Koopatraz / French
  47. Mario of the Deep / Two Bums From Brooklyn
  48. Flatbush Koopa / Opera
  49. Raiders of the Lost Mushroom / Cyrano de Mario
  50. Crocodile Mario / Rowdy Roddy's Rotten Pipes
  51. Star Koopa / Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush
  52. Robo Koopa / Captain Lou is Missing

Trivia

  • Every Friday, a "Legend of Zelda" cartoon was shown in place of a Mario cartoon.Scenes from the episode were shown during the live-action segments as sneak previews on the preceding days. (These preview clips are edited out of the episodes on Yahooligans! TV.)
  • When shown in reruns after cancellation, DiC took out all the song remakes and replaced them with instrumentals of the songs featured in TAOSMB3.
  • Domino's Pizza sponsored the show.
  • From 1989 to 1991, Kid Klassics released NTSC VHSs of the show. These videos contained two, one, or no live-action segments, and featured the cartoon segments the way they originally aired (meaning they included the song remakes that were edited out in later airings). On these videos, the "Super Mario Bros." theme wasn't included before the cartoon segment.
  • "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 Bird! The Bird!" Oddly, although the picture descriptions say "King Koopa" (alias Bowser), the villain featured in reels B and C is clearly Wart.

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3

File:SMB3Cartoon.jpg
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 was based on the video game by the same name. This shows Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, 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 Koopa)
  • Bigmouth Koopa (Morton Koopa Jr.)
  • Kootie Pie Koopa (Wendy O. Koopa)
  • Bully Koopa (Roy Koopa)
  • Hip Koopa (Lemmy Koopa)
  • Hop Koopa (Iggy Koopa)
  • Kooky Von Koopa (Ludwig Von Koopa)

This cartoon was shown in an hour-length time slot on Saturday mornings with the second season of Captain N: The Game Master in its original run in 1990. Incidentally, the time slot was not the only change made with Mario's animated series at this point. This series was given an established sense of continuity, something that the previous series didn't seem to have.

All further airings of the series separated it from Captain N. It was last seen on PAX TV in 1999, but has also 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. Never Koop a Koopa / Princess Toadstool For President
  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. Mush-Rumors / The Ugly Mermaid
  10. Up, Up and a Koopa / 7 Continents for 7 Koopas
  11. Crimes 'R Us / Life's Ruff
  12. True Colors / Recycled Koopa
  13. The Venice Menace / Super Koopa

Trivia

  • The show is rated TV-Y7.
  • Almost every episode features the title floating over a world map screenshot from the game. "Kootie Pie Rocks", however, did not have that kind of title card.
  • Hip (Iggy) and Hop (Lemmy) were voiced by Tara Strong. She currently does the voice of Timmy Turner of the Nickelodeon cartoon The Fairly OddParents When you listen to Hip, he sounds somewhat like Timmy speaking slower than he usually does. Incidentally, Tara also provided the voice of Bowser Junior in Super Mario Sunshine.
  • Milli Vanilli guest starred in the episode "Kootie Pie Rocks" where they are kidnapped by aforesaid Koopaling (known as Wendy O. Koopa in the games) 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" appear to have now been replaced with an action theme music, as well as the mention of their names being cut from the episode.' (TV.com [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).

Super Mario World

Super Mario World was based on the Super NES video game with the same name. This show takes place on Dinosaur Land, and Toad is replaced by Yoshi and a preadolescent caveman named Oogtar (who did not exist in the games). Unlike in the game, Yoshi's Island was populated with cavemen instead of Yoshies, and many of the locations were not called 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 real names on the show, but rather by what real-life things they resembled (for example, Rexes were called dinosaurs, and Wigglers were called caterpillars).

This cartoon was shown with the third season of Captain N: The Game Master in 1991, and was the last original Mario animated series. Like its predecessor, it was last seen on PAX in 1999. Except for part of a Christmas videotape released in 1996, it has never had any NTSC home video releases. (However, all but two of the episodes were released on PAL VHS.)

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

  • The show is rated TV-Y7.
  • In the original "We'll be back" and "We’re back" clips (when it was airing with Captain N), the show was mistakenly referred to as "Captain N & Super Mario Bros. World".
  • The episode writing in this series seems to be less complex and different than SMB3, just as SMB3 was different than SMBSS. This is probably since Reed and Bruce Shelly did not provide the pilot and did not work as story editors on this show (or on the show period) but rather Phil Harnage, an exceptional writer of the previous two series. The idea that the setting was no longer in the Mushroom Kingdom probably added to this.
  • Yoshi's basic look changes considerably for the better after the first half of the show’s run.
  • Yoshi's voice actor, Andrew Sabiston, later went on to do the voice of Diddy Kong in Donkey Kong Country.

Mario All-Stars

Mario All-Stars was released in 1994 on cable television, airing on the Family Channel, then later in edited reruns on the USA Network. It featured 39 episodes of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show and all the Super Mario World episodes with time-compressed footage and no live-action segments. Oddly enough, the commercials aired for this show featured clips from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 (which was never featured on this show for reasons unknown) and claimed to feature the Mario Bros. in "40 brand-new adventures".

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Mario_television_series&oldid=21031424"