As I mentioned before in my review of The Wizard, the first movie to pimp a videogame, (I don’t count Cloak & Dagger because the Atari 5200 game went unreleased) you couldn’t talk about videogames in 1989-1990 without Super Mario Bros. 3 coming up. Nintendo and its world dominating Nintendo Entertainment System console had almost no competition. Even with the lack of competitive pressure they still released what many consider to be the best platformer ever made. In fact, they knew that it would be a classic from before it was released. Even the commercial was packed full of grandeur.

Prior to the game’s release, Mario got a healthy bit of exposure. Not just from The Wizard and the two previous high-profile videogames, but on television in the form of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! The kid-oriented program featured live action versions of the heroic plumbers (with wrestler Lou Albino as Mario) and included a short Mario cartoon (on Mondays-Thursdays; Saturdays we got a Zelda cartoon). Most of the non-animated clips are painful and groan-inducing in their delivery, but can still be fun for NINstalgia. Regardless, this show was a cultural breakthrough for Nintendo, crossing into the North American television market and generating more buzz for their system and its games.

Nine months after the game hit, selling out of stores and earning accolades from every magazine, the Super Show! (then changed to Club Mario) was replaced with Captain N and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, a one-hour program which featured three segments – two Mario cartoons set inside the world of the new game, framing a Captain N: The Game Master cartoon. This might have been some Mario overkill, but the ways that these cartoons differed from those featured in the Super Show! were numerous.

Like the video game on which The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 was based, the overall look of the series was given a graphical overhaul. The scenery was brighter and decorated in such a way that authentically replicated the new game. The Goombas had wings, Bowser had kids and floating block power-ups enabled Mario and company to fly, breathe under water and even jump around in a big fucking shoe. But where I think this series really shined was in its writing, which took a considerable leap from the previous series. Sure, this is a kids show, and plots aren’t necessarily deep (especially in the under 15 minute runtime per story) but some of them do make amusing – sometimes questionable – viewing. The heroes and villains have to leave their Mushroom Kingdom and visit the Real World (that’s our reality, not the MTV show) where things are often scary and threatening, but nothing that two plumbers from Brooklyn can’t fix.

Here are a few choice episodes:

“Reptiles in the Rose Garden” – Bowser warps the White House to the Mushroom Kingdom so that he can make his daughter Kootie Pie Koopa the Empress of America. The amusing part is that an animated rendition of Barbara Bush realizes that help is needed and acknowledges Mario and his friends for his heroics. All through the episode, even when Mario attempts to return the White House, President George Bush, Sr. is in his office, on his phone, oblivious to his plight.

“Dadzilla” – Kootie Pie Koopa & Big Mouth Koopa, Jr. are convinced that they're adopted, and believe that Madzilla (a Godzilla-like monster) is their real father. Madzilla can’t take to the pressures of parenthood though, so he agrees to go back with the heroes to Giant Land on the condition that he doesn’t have to have any kids!

“Tag Team Trouble” – Toad loses the gold donation that he was going to make to the orphanage, so he sets up a tag-team wrestling match with Mario and Luigi versus the two Sledge Brothers. The bastard Koopas rigg the match so there is no way for the heroes to win. Princess Toadstool gets Mario and Luigi invincibility power-ups so they can pummel their foes into submission unscathed. Way to go! Cheating is perfectly okay, kids!

“A Toadally Magical Adventure” – Toad decides that he can defend himself with a magical wand, only he doesn't actually know how to weild it. “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” type antics ensue. The episode is an obvious allegory about self-defense and gun control, two issues that were very controversial at the time. When the wizard gets the all-powerful wand, he uses it to roast weenies, showing that even the trained wielders of such weapons are often the least qualified.

“Kootie Pie Rocks” – My favorite episode by far because of the dated subject matter – and perfect timing. Bowser, under the pressure of Kootie Pie, is encouraged to kidnap Real World rock stars Milli Vanilli while they are “performing” live. Ever the professionals, Milli doesn’t stop singing because… well because they are AWESOME showmen. Mario saves Rob & Fab from lifetime imprisonment by Bowser. But where was Mario in April 1998 when Rob needed him most?

“True Colors” – Kooky and Cheatsie make the Mushroom people different colors, segregating them, and thus turning them on each other for no reason. The message of racism based on skin color is valid, but the bigger issue - why didn’t the Mushrooms clean off the colored - goes unanswered. Sorry, Mario, no BAFTA awards until you take a bath.

Not all of the episodes have a cheesy message though, which is good because it balances the life-lessons with sheer entertainment. The episode “The Venice Menace” has the brothers saving Venice from being turned into Kootie Koopa’s personal water park. “Misadventures in Babysitting” has a bastard little child causing mischief for our heroes after getting lost in the Mushroom Kingdom. Another favorite, “The Misadventures of Mighty Plumber” has Mario and Luigi’s television hero Mighty Plumber come to life, only to be conned by Bowser into thinking that the Mario brothers are thieves.

Even though I watched all twenty seven episodes in one marathon sitting, I never got bored. Of course, I watched most of these when they originally aired, and I’m a big enough Nintendork that I’ve purchased the two other Shout! Factory releases and enjoyed them. The show won’t be nearly as interesting to the uninitiated. The namedropping of cultural references like Federico Fellini (I shit you not!) may go right over your child's head, but if you have fond memories of this era, you’re sure to find hours of enjoyment revisiting these stories.

The DVD Presentation
Let’s start with the not-so-bad, before we get to the bad. The audio, which is a 2.0 stereo mix, is fine. I had no problems distinguishing the characters despite nearly all heroes and villains having typical over-exaggerated accents. The background music never drowned out the dialog, and the sound effects that were straight from the video game were a lot of fun to hear. The animated menus (on discs 1 & 2) are also fun, which have either Mario or Luigi running over and hitting a block which gives us the menu. But that’s pretty much the end of all positive comments. The picture quality is murky and there is no evidence of clean-up. This is sad, especially when you take into account how colorful the show is and how miraculous it would look if mastered in HD. But that isn’t the worst of it. The final two episodes have glitches in it. I thought it was my DVD player, but I checked it in others players and an internet search reveals others having the same issues. To completely make matters worse, the original music (when actual pop songs were used) was not included, which includes the awesome episode where Princess and gang travel to the real world for a Milli Vanilli concert. Yep… “Girl you know it’s true, ooh, ooh, ooh, we’ve been removed!” Oh, also, no subtitles. So, if you’re deaf, well… damn that must suck.

And the Extras Are?
The back cover on the third disc sounded very exciting, as it offered me to “Step Inside the Incredible World of DIC like never before.” The reality of the disc was another thing altogether. Set up entirely on the one disc, called “The Writer’s Bible” is essentially just that. It’s a set up guideline for writers to follow. There is a backstory which is fairly generic, no where near canon when taken into context of the game (not that that matters, but I thought it should be mentioned). This backstory runs just over a minute and it is among the longer features on this set. Then there is a writing guideline showing suggestions of how stories should start and the format to follow (hence the “Writer’s Bible” aspect. Following that there are little bits about each of the heroes and villains, test artwork for each of the “worlds” and full versions of ten of the original songs written for the show. Nothing here will be worth visiting more than once, and all of it could have been included on Disc 2 which would have made this set cheaper and require less shelf space.

The first disc opens with trailers for the Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and The Legend of Zelda DVD releases. Conspicuously absent is any advertising for their Captain N: The Game Master set.

As a fan of Nintendo, the Mario series and cheesy shit, it’s pretty sad that none of the DVDs related to Nintendo products really provide a well-rounded package. That’s not limited to Shout! Factory’s products either. That includes the DVDs for The Wizard and the Super Mario Bros. movie. Oh well. C’est la vie.

The Bottom Line
I can’t really say that I expect releases of niche-market 1990’s video game cartoons to get better treatment, but I think that The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 deserves it. The show is a lot of fun, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who isn’t already initiated. Children aren’t likely to love these characters based on the show alone. On the other hand, Nintendorks like me will eat this up and, when it comes down to it that's all that matters.

And yes, I’ll be buying Super Mario World whenever Shout! Factory gets around to releasing that too.