DiC Mario Cartoons

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by LeotheLateBloomer

Right?! You'd think Mario would have an anime tv series during the GameCube era since Sonic had one. It would have been nice competition.

Sonic had both Sonic X and now Sonic Boom in the 2000's.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Leaving Mario two cartoons shorter than Sonic. There's no telling how long Boom will last. Mario could possibly go for either anime or CG since I don't know how an American-made cartoon of him will do by today's standards. Especially since he has an established voice now with Charles Martinet.

[TheBlueTurtle1]

Looking back at the show, it shows me that Mario can have deeper more gruff voice and get away with. I imagine if a new cartoon/show was launched with thecurrent voice actor, by the end of the 20 mins it would get annoying.

[drgon78]

Super Mario Bros. 3 was the best of the three. Though I preferred the Legend of Zelda cartoon over all three.

[TMNT_Guy]

Originally Posted by sdp

Also Mario games have never been about story which makes it difficult to translate into other mediums, since they've always been about gameplay first.

Super Mario RPG, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi Super Star Saga, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Paper Mario, Luigi's Mansion, Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door and Super Mario Galaxy would disagree with you. There are more games I could mention, but I think I've proved my point that Mario can work just fine, if not, amazingly with a story.

Originally Posted by sdp

Think of it how Disney doesn't really make Mickey Mouse cartoons even if he's one of the most iconic characters ever.

Ever see the new Mickey Mouse shorts? Mickey Mouse had new cartoons on TV since 2014. They're funny, creative, some are barely even 10 minutes long and some have little dialogue, letting the animation and the characters simply tell the story. They could easily and successfuly do a Mario series like that, similar to the intro for Mario Power Tennis:


Honestly, I don't think we'll ever see Mario having adventures outside the games again so long as Story-Ruins-the-Gameplay-Shigeru Miyamoto is around.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Originally Posted by TheBlueTurtle1

Looking back at the show, it shows me that Mario can have deeper more gruff voice and get away with. I imagine if a new cartoon/show was launched with thecurrent voice actor, by the end of the 20 mins it would get annoying.

It would probably have every character speak except Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi. Maybe how the Kirby anime handled Kirby's dialogue only not turning the protagonist into an infant.

[Storm Eagle]

Originally Posted by LeotheLateBloomer

A lot of us grew up with DiC's Mario cartoons; The Super Mario Bros Super Show, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3, and Super Mario World. What were some of your fondest memories with those cartoons and do you ever go back to them?

Well I remember thinking it was cool that they got Captain Lou Albano to play and voice Mario. I liked his voice better than the one in the Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World cartoons. I even liked his voice better than Charles Martinet's Mario voice. No disrespect to him though, since I met him before and he was pretty cool. I also like Danny Wells' Luigi voice better than the others.

[cammy85]

Super Mario 3 was consistently good. SMW and SS not so much. The Unzappables was my first Mario experience and sadly the live action segment isn't on DVD.

SS is pretty good at times but what's bad is really bad. It's like you're waiting for the live action to resume again.

SMB3 is terrific all the way through. I just marathoned it again recently as it's hard to just pick and watch, and The Venice Menace/Super Koopa has glitches. :/ The Koopa kids were either integral or just shoehorned into the plot. Did Hip and Hop really have to be in The Ugly Mermaid???

SMW is just too forced and it's weird that they just moved everyone there instead of the vacation plot of the game. Koopa could've easily taken the Mushroom Kingdom while they were gone. At least this show is unique for mixing in one shot villains and having Koopa work alone on two occasions like the old days.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

I think Hip and Hop were twins because of Lemmy and Iggy having the same hairstyle at the time. It would have helped if they looked at the size of their sprites seeing that Iggy is way taller than what his cartoon counterpart became. If a new cartoon were to happen, they definitely wouldn't mess those small little details up, this time around.

[Luke795]

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 on Steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/517030/

[ssjup81]

I mentioned something about this show about a year ago on another message board. The members there didn't know about it. Oh, I will say this...because of the cartoons, it made me a big fan of Luigi. I liked the fact that despite his reservations, he'd still go in and try to do what needed to be done. I wouldn't consider him "chicken", but he seemed more cautious than anything, in the beginning.

Spoiler:

The first one was the Super Mario Bros Super Show. It had a live-action segment where the brothers were shown at their home and plumbing company in Brooklyn and had a dilema or issue for the segment and sometimes they'd have guest stars, like Cyndi Lauper (which wasn't surprising since she was a wrestling fan and a big fan of Lou's and were friends). Anyway, they were portrayed by the late Captain Lou Albano (Mario) and the late Danny Wells (Luigi). They also voiced the chatacters in this first version. Between the segments, a Mario cartoon would air.

The cartoon used elements from the first two games (Super Mario Bros and our Super Mario Bros 2). The enemies in this series included those like Mouser and Triclyde and Shy Guys, those ostriches, some enemy Birdos, etc. Each episode was generally themed, for the most part, and I definitely have to give credit where credit is due. They were pretty creative, especially since the first two games didn't have many power ups. Only the star, fire flower, and mushroom. In the show they never used the mushroom and they rarely used power ups. The most consistent item used was the potion that could make a door (SMB2). That's how Koopa always got away.

The plot was that Mario and Luigi were doing some plumbing, but were sucked into a drain which was really a warp zone and saving Princess and Toad accidentally. Mario and Luigi are trying to find a way back home to Brooklyn while also trying to return the princess' mushroom people back to normal and finding others who can help reverse what Koopa did (first game's story loosely) while avoiding Koopa.

It aired Monday - Thursday and had about 52 eps I think. On Fridays (with previews all week by the guests or the live-action brothers), they'd air a Legend of Zelda cartoon, based on the first two games. 13 eps. I used to rush home from school as a kid to watch both of these.

Only thing that sucks is that the show used a lot of licensed music, so if you find say the DVD sets, you'll get different music for some parts of certain eps.

The next one to come out (1990) and continue where the Super Show left off, I guess you could say, was the Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3, which was about 26 eps long. They thought Koopa was gone but he returned with his Doom Ship and attacked the kingdom and this series also introduced the Koopa Kids. So yeah, based on elements from SMB3. Lou and Danny didn't reprise their roles, but they still sounded ok. I liked their Brooklyn/Italian accents in general for these cartoons and I had a blast watching it.

In 1991, we got the Super Mario World cartoon, only 12 eps I think.. For it, you find out that Mario, Luigi, and the princess decided to go on vacation and chose Dino Land. Luigi finds Yoshi after his egg hatched and referred to Luigi as "Momma Luigi". lol

Anyway, I used to love the Mario cartoons, but my least favorite of the bunch was Super Mario World. It was annoying because Mario seemed to be the one to get all the power ups. Why not let Luigi get the cape feather and stuff like that.

With the Super Show, despite its cheesiness, and as I stated above, I definitely give credit where credit is due. They didn't have much to work with and the writers were very creative. I also like Lou and Danny as Mario and Luigi and being older, I have more of an appreciation for the live-action segments. In my area, the Super Mario Bros Super Show aired in the afternoons, so I would rush home from school to catch it.

As for SMB3's cartoon, I liked that a lot too as a kid. I liked the power ups, I liked the Koopa Kids (Kooky [Ludwig] and Cheatsy [Larry] were my favorites). I also liked the fact that Mario and Luigi had eps where they would end up back in the real world. There was even an episode where I recall the princess taking a trip to Hawaii to get away from the Mushroom Kingdom. Oh!! And that Milli Vanilli ep! I remembered that one well! She went to the real world to attend their concert. I think I remember the song being Blame it on the Rain (yes...I liked Milli Vanilli as a kid ^^; )

Super Mario World was okay, but as I mentioned in the spoiler, I didn't like it as much as the other two, and that was mainly due to the fact that Mario hogged all of the power ups. The ep that sticks out the most to me, was when Luigi and Yoshi became chickens or something from eating fast food. Mario didn't turn because he only ate the fries and Princess didn't eat it. Koopa was going to kill all the folks turning into those chicken things and open up a fried chicken place. That's just...morbid. ><

In my mind, since I did grow up with these cartoons, I will always associate Mario and Luigi with being Italian Americans from Brooklyn. I miss those accents. I personally hate their voices used in the games now. I hate the fact that they're considered "twins" as opposed to Mario being older than Luigi (check out the old Nintendo Power comics...they did this one where they were talking about the lives of the brothers and they showed Mario, maybe toddler aged with a baby Luigi), and I still hate the fact the Koopalings aren't Koopa's kids (the SMB3 manual contradicts this, of course)...but I'm willing to give that a pass.

Originally Posted by cammy85

SMW is just too forced and it's weird that they just moved everyone there instead of the vacation plot of the game. Koopa could've easily taken the Mushroom Kingdom while they were gone. At least this show is unique for mixing in one shot villains and having Koopa work alone on two occasions like the old days.

They were there on vacation. In the episode where Luigi was telling the story of how they found Yoshi, he mentioned that he, Mario, and the princess came to Dino Land for a vacation, but the cave people were missing, and Mario and Princess were caught.

I guess after that, since Koopa was a threat, they decided to stay in Dino Land longer than they'd originally planned.

[TMNT_Guy]

Originally Posted by ssjup81

I still hate the fact the Koopalings aren't Koopa's kids (the SMB3 manual contradicts this, of course)...but I'm willing to give that a pass.

I've mentioned this before, but I'm still don't understand why that needed to be retconed. From Super Mario Bros 3 (1988 ) to Super Mario Advance 4 (2003) the were always Bowser's children until New Super Mario Bros Wii (2009). Miyamoto always goes on and on how story doesn't matter in games and that they only serve to ruin the gameplay, yet they felt the need to change one of the most well know and liked parts of Mario's very limited lore. I don't understand how this change improves the gameplay, but here we are.

To me it completely misses what made the Koopalings so popular in the first place, the contrasting image that the big bad evil King Bowser is also a loving father. But I'm obviously wrong, because I'm not supposed to like their characters as characters...I'm only supposed to like them for the gameplay they provide.

[sdp]

It had to do more with how the Mario world evolved. When SM64 came out it was a very different mushroom kingdom and that's because the N64 couldn't make the original worlds we used to know. The 3D worlds also meant you couldn't have 7 levels like in the past with a koopaling in each level but instead you could have a different boss that could do different things while it was more difficult to find things for the koopalings to do than create a new boss designed on a gimmick. They always liked the idea of a "kid" bowser which is why we got Bowser Jr. and one of them is easier to handle. Eventually they were able to recreate the original mushroom kingdom more like the ones from the 2D games and due to popular demand/to reference the past they also brought the Koopalings back but no longer as their kids which is fine now since Jr. does a good job. I was angrier when they were ignored like they never happened. They worry about gameplay first and story later which is fine. The Koopalings could've had the same fate as DK jr. RIP. No reason to complain anymore, the kids who grew up with the Koopalings are all older adults who don't care about Mario lore while there's a whole generation of adults who are 18+ who grew up playing Mario Sunshine as their first game.

Originally Posted by TMNT_Guy

Super Mario RPG, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi Super Star Saga, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Paper Mario, Luigi's Mansion, Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door and Super Mario Galaxy would disagree with you. There are more games I could mention, but I think I've proved my point that Mario can work just fine, if not, amazingly with a story.

RPGs don't count, obviously they're story focused and they're comedy oriented. SMW2 is a barebones story same with SMG which most of the story is not even part of the main quest but something you do on your own by reading the chapters and Miyamoto thought it was too much story which is why he eliminated it in SMG2. Sunshine is the only real example you have there and Miyamoto has pointed out many times how it didn't work and it is a pretty crappy story when they added a little more plot to the Mario game.

Ever see the new Mickey Mouse shorts? Mickey Mouse had new cartoons on TV since 2014. They're funny, creative, some are barely even 10 minutes long and some have little dialogue, letting the animation and the characters simply tell the story. They could easily and successfuly do a Mario series like that, similar to the intro for Mario Power Tennis:


Honestly, I don't think we'll ever see Mario having adventures outside the games again so long as Story-Ruins-the-Gameplay-Shigeru Miyamoto is around.

They're shorts, yeah Mario could make some shorts but a 22 minute season show? Mario doesn't lend itself too much to that. They would need to make too many creative decisions and most likely suck. We'll see what happens now that Nintendo is finally licensing stuff but I don't think most of their IPs lend themselves to cartoons.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

DK Jr. IS Donkey Kong. The original DK is Cranky Kong.

That Mario Power Tennis opening is still my favorite opening to any Mario game. It'd be cool to see an 11 minute episode cartoon in the same vein as Sonic Boom. I don't know how they'd do a Mario anime. Even one that was like Kirby or Sonic X would be hard to imagine.

[TMNT_Guy]

Originally Posted by LeotheLateBloomer

That Mario Power Tennis opening is still my favorite opening to any Mario game.

I must have spun that disk in my Gamcube more times just to watch that intro then I did to actually play the game.

Originally Posted by sdp

We'll see what happens now that Nintendo is finally licensing stuff but I don't think most of their IPs lend themselves to cartoons.

I can respect that, but I feel that the Mario cast have such diverse personalities that the stories just write themselves. A series staring Wario alone has so much potential. Imagine greedy short tempered Wario going on adventures and get rich quick schemes with his Wario Ware friends for more and more money. It would be like a more comical and greedy version of Ducktales with Wario's archeological escapades from the Wario Land series and his feud with Captain Syrup. Heck, we've had fully voiced Wario already and he's a delight to listen to:

[sdp]

Originally Posted by LeotheLateBloomer

DK Jr. IS Donkey Kong. The original DK is Cranky Kong.

That's highly debatable. DK jr still appeared in Mario Tennis with modern Donkey Kong. Not to mention Baby Mario appears in modern era games as well so continuity be damned, I want DK Jr.

[TMNT_Guy]

Originally Posted by sdp

Not to mention Baby Mario appears in modern era games.

That was kind of explained in Mario & Luigi Partners in Time, Professor E. Gadd has a time machine and that's how Baby Mario and Baby Luigi were able to join Mario and Luigi in that game. Even Bowser was able to travel back in time in Yoshi's Island DS so time travel apparently isn't a hard thing to do in the Mario universe.

Which means whenever Baby Mario or Baby Daisy are hanging out with their adult counterparts, they were simply plucked from time and presumably sent back after the kart race or tennis tournament their having.

[NeonTurtledude]

I loved the mario dic cartoons, my fav is adventures of super Mario bros. 3

I also saw the mission to save princess peach film years ago and a few episodes of Saturday supercade

[CyberCubed]

These shows have not aged well at all and I've watched them a few years ago. I don't mind that they're not like the source material but man, they just are not that good.

[Coola Yagami]

Gotta hand it to the dialogue though. Most characters at the time, like the Turtles, mostly speak with puns related to their favorite food or whatever. Mario and Luigi both talked about their favorite foods AND plumber puns.

My favorite line from the live action segments will always be 'hey, you're falling asleep on the job and we're not getting paid by the hour'.