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The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3

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The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3
GenreAnimated television series
Created byDIC Entertainment
Nintendo (characters)
Developed byReed Shelly
Bruce Shelly
Directed byJohn Grusd
Voices ofWalker Boone
Tony Rosato
Tracey Moore
John Stocker
Harvey Atkin
Dan Hennessey
Gordon Masten
Michael Stark
James Rankin
Paulina Gillis
Stu Stone (as Stuart Stone)
Tara Strong (as Tara Charendoff)
ComposerMichael Tavera
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes26 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerAndy Heyward
ProducerJohn Grusd
Running time11 minutes
Original release
NetworkNBC
ReleaseSeptember 8 –
December 1, 1990

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 is an American animated television series based on the video game Super Mario Bros. 3. It aired on NBC with Captain N: The Game Master in a programming block titled Captain N & The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 from September 8, 1990 through December 1, 1990.

Format

The cartoon shows Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad fighting against King Bowser Koopa and his Koopalings, whose names differed from their original names in the video game. On the show, the Koopalings were called below. This list is youngest to oldest:

  • Hop Koopa (Iggy), the first twin Koopa, yet a pure schemer to his core
  • Hip Koopa (Lemmy), the twin brother of Hop
  • Kootie Pie Koopa (Wendy), the only female, and a 16-year old spoiled brat
  • Cheatsy Koopa (Larry), a Koopaling that cheats if he can't win
  • Kooky von Koopa (Ludwig von Koopa), a mad genius who makes inventions
  • Big Mouth Koopa Jr. (Morton), the talk-a-lot of the Koopalings, probably why his name is "Big Mouth"
  • Bully Koopa (Roy Koopa), Apparently the eldest of the kids, and had somewhat of a personality to bully his siblings
File:SMB3-TV-Koopalings.jpg
The Koopalings

No official explanation was ever given to the name change. While its reason is disputed among fans, most agree that the likely explanation is that DiC, the company that made the show, did not have access to their real names during production of the show as they were using the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 3 as reference. In the game, the Koopa Kids were not originally named (usually being called simply as "Koopa Kid" or "Little Koopa") until it was brought over into the US for English localization, shortly before The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 went on air. Given the vast amounts of time it takes to animate a cartoon, it would be very difficult to make the cartoon in such a short time, needing more than a year. To accommodate this, the made-up names were added in place, each fitting their personality or a play in sound. When viewing the cartoon, it appears that DiC was never informed of the add-on. Oddly enough, names from the American version of the game were inserted ("Kooky Von Koopa", "Bigmouth Koopa" Junior or referring to King Koopa as "Bowser"), which may have been a last minute attempt to make the cartoon feel more like the US version of the game. DiC likely retained the show names to avoid confusion among viewers and to avoid the large amount of expenses of to re-animate the whole show to accommodate this.

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. When the series was first broadcast, it was part of the one-hour block "Captain N and the Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3" on NBC's Saturday morning cartoon block. It aired as Mario 3 episode/ Captain N episode/ Mario 3 episode. Later, the two shows were split into 2 shows after NBC ended Saturday morning cartoons, on ABC's Saturday morning cartoon, and Sunday morning cartoon block. It aired as Mario 3 episode. Later, the one shows were split into 1 shows before ABC begin Saturday and Sunday morning cartoons and after ABC ended Saturday and Sunday morning cartoons.

Since the show was based on Super Mario Bros. 3, the enemies and power-ups were also seen in the show. In addition to being more faithful to the Mario gameplay, 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 locations such as London, Paris, Venice, New York City, Cape Canaveral, Los Angeles and even Washington, D.C. One memorable episode entitled "7 Continents for 7 Koopas" was about the seven Koopa Kids invading each of the seven continents.

This cartoon was originally shown in the hour-long Captain N and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 programming block along with the second season of Captain N: The Game Master. All further airings of the series separated it from Captain N.

It should also be noted that Mario and Luigi had Bronx accents instead of Italian. This was prior to Charles Martinet auditioning to be the voice of Mario and creating an Italian accent for the character.

Voice cast

United States

Later changes

After NBC canceled their Saturday Morning lineup in 1992, the show was split from Captain N, and aired on Family Channel and as part of the Captain N & the Video Game Masters (VGM) block along with Super Mario World, Captain N, and time-cut versions of The Legend of Zelda. When it aired on VGM, Spacetoon, ABC, USA Network and PAX, the episodes ran slower than the NBC versions to fill up more time. For example, the NBC version of "Kootie Pie Rocks" ran for approx. 10:18 and when it aired on PAX and on DVD, it ran approx. 11:20.

The episode Kootie Pie Rocks featured Milli Vanilli and the songs "Blame it on the Rain", and "Girl You Know It's True". But shortly after it aired, a scandal broke out about Milli Vanilli lip-syncing to the songs. The master tape was probably wiped and was replaced with an edited version without the songs (which were replaced with the Mega Move that was originally heard on Captain N). Also, several lines were removed, such as when Koopa is kidnapping Milli Vanilli from a concert and remarks "Blame it on the rain? Blame it on King Koopa!", which was changed to "Blame it on King Koopa!".

And at the end, Milli Vanilli dedicates a song to Princess Toadstool, and play "Girl You Know It's True", with Mario, Luigi, and Princess looking from the side, and try to get Princess Toadstool to snap out of a trance like state, which was cut out in the later version. Also, when Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Toadstool think of a plan to rescue Milli Vanilli from Kootie Pie, they form a fake back-up band ("Back Ups R We"), parodying Toys R Us, and try to perform "Girl You Know It's True" so Kootie Pie doesn't throw a fit. However, since no one in "Back Ups R We" knows how to play their instruments, it sounds horrible and results in Koopa's guards and minions fleeing the castle.

When this scene appears in the second version, the Mega Move replaces the song that also plays at the concert. The second version is on DVD, but various copies of the original uncut version are floating around the internet, from off air video recordings made by viewers during the original airing.

Other episodes also played covers of various songs (Baby Face, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Wipe Out, & Great Balls of Fire), which were usually not played in later airings or video releases. These scenes also had the Mega Move that was used in the 2nd version of "Kootie Pie Rocks". However, some episodes with the songs intact were released on the "King Koopa Katastrophe" VHS/DVD in 2003.

DVD releases

It has been released on DVD in Australia in a full box set made by MRA Entertainment, Europe which one volume out of the four has only been released in Germany, the distributor Disky released 3 volumes (each with 6 episodes on each) in the UK and the Netherlands and there was one single DVD release in the US by Sterling Entertainment Group in 2003.

Due to the success of the DVD sets of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Shout! Factory released a 3-disc box set of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 on June 26, 2007, which was released again in a double pack with Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog volume 1 as a double pack on December 4, 2007, as a tie-in with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

DVD Name Ep # Release Date Additional Information
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: The Complete Series 26 June 26, 2007
  • Interactive The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros. 3 Writers Bible
  • Learn the backstory of The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros. 3 !
  • Meet the Marios & Koopas!
  • Visit the worlds!
  • View the artwork from concept to final!
  • Hear the original music!

Errors

On the Shout! Factory box set, the master for the final episode, "The Venice Menace/Super Koopa" has apparently been damaged, as dropouts occur briefly at certain points in the episodes. This dropout was never present in TV airings, which means the tape was damaged sometime after 1999. However, the original undamaged version of "Super Koopa" is seen on the VHS release of "Misadventures in Babysitting", released in the early 1990s. The original NBC broadcast copies are not used on the DVD boxset. Brian Ward of Shout! Factory, who compiled the set, said that the original masters do not exist, but came from Digibeta copies of the original masters.

Broadcast history

International broadcasting

  • Greece Greece
  • Portugal Portugal
    • RTP M (1992-1993)
    • TVI (February 20, 1994 - December 27, 1996)
    • KidsCo (2010-present)
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