The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3
Mario and friends defend the Mushroom World from King Koopa.
Sei Young Animation handled the cartoon visuals for The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, a TV series that ran on NBC from September 8 to December 1, 1990. This show, the second Mario cartoon, took loose inspiration from the Super Mario Bros. 3 video game.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Action
- Adventure
- Comedy
- Fantasy
- Musical
- Director
- John Grusd
- Based on
- Super Mario Bros. 3, Nintendo
- Developer
- Reed Shelly; Bruce Shelly
- Composer
- Michael Tavera
- Country
- United States; Italy
- Channel
- NBC (United States); Italia 1 (Italy)
- Executive producers
- Andy Heyward; Robby London
Facts from the source article.
Overview
Unlike its predecessor, this series dropped live-action segments, Wart's minions, and King Koopa's alter-egos. It featured an entirely new cast except for John Stocker and Harvey Atkin, who reprised their roles as Toad and King Koopa. The show established a level of continuity and introduced the Koopalings, based on characters from the Mario games but with different names. Episodes were divided into two segments of about 11 minutes each, always opened by a title card with world-map footage from Super Mario Bros. 3, and often used power-ups and other game elements. The story focuses on Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool living in the Mushroom World, with most episodes revolving around their efforts to stop King Koopa and the Koopalings from taking over the Mushroom Kingdom. The show was produced by DIC Animation City, with overseas animation at Sei Young Animation Co., Ltd., and co-produced by Italian studio Reteitalia S.p.A. It was more faithful to Mario gameplay than its predecessor and had an established sense of continuity. Many episodes are set on Earth, referred to as "The Real World," in locations such as Brooklyn, London, Paris, Venice, New York City, Cape Canaveral, Miami, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. One episode, "7 Continents for 7 Koopas," involves the Koopalings invading each continent. The series originally aired in the hour-long Captain N and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 programming block alongside the second season of Captain N: The Game Master, with two Mario episodes sandwiching a full-length Captain N episode. Later airings separated it from Captain N, and in 1992 it was included in Rysher Entertainment's Captain N & The Video Game Masters syndication package.
Home media
In 1994, Buena Vista Home Video released four VHS volumes, each containing two episodes. In 2003, Sterling Entertainment released a VHS/DVD titled King Koopa Katastrophe with six episodes; the DVD also included the Sonic Underground episode "Sonic Tonic" as a bonus feature. NCircle Entertainment re-released that DVD in 2007 without the Sonic episode. A DVD with one episode plus two Heathcliff episodes was offered as a prize in Golden Grahams cereal in 2004. Shout! Factory and Vivendi Visual Entertainment released a three-disc box set of all twenty-six original episodes on June 26, 2007, which was later re-released in a double pack with Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog volume 1 on December 4, 2007, as a tie-in with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. NCircle Entertainment, under license from Cookie Jar Entertainment, released the series in four volumes and a Collector's Edition of the complete series. The show was re-released on Steam by Cinedigm in July 2015, was available on Tubi from late 2018 until it was removed, and became available to stream on Paramount+ in 2021. The original broadcast versions of five episodes feature covers of licensed songs, and one episode includes two Milli Vanilli songs; due to copyright restrictions or the Milli Vanilli lip-syncing scandal, the complete series DVD sets from Shout! Factory and NCircle Entertainment replace those songs with "Mega Move" from Captain N: The Game Master, though the King Koopa Katastrophe DVD retains original broadcast music on three of its six episodes. In Australia, MRA Entertainment released a full box set. In Europe, Disky Communications released three volumes with six episodes each in the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, with a fourth volume released only in Germany. Pidax released the complete series in Germany, including English audio, in one box set.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who created The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3?
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 was created by Reed Shelly and Bruce Shelly.
Which network aired The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3?
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 aired on NBC (United States) and Italia 1 (Italy).
More in Italian Children's Animated Fantasy Television Series
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