Throwback Thursday- Super Mario World (cartoon)

By Mark Rodriguez

With the world, or rather SEGA going 16-bit with their SEGA Genesis, it was time for Nintendo to break out their own 16-bit system to be able to compete. And thus we had the Super Nintendo, and with it came Super Mario World. The Mario 3 cartoon stopped airing reruns just in time for a new cartoon based on Mario's first 16-bit adventure.

The intro looks pretty cool with vibrant colors... but then the cartoon starts...

 Roughly based on the game, this time Mario, Luigi, and the Princess take their adventures to Dinosaur Land which I assume is part of the Mushroom Kingdom. King Koopa and his brats are back to make more trouble as well. 

The cast is pretty much the same except Toad had been replaced by the new star of the game, Yoshi. Toad is never mentioned or referenced to at all in the series, I assume so as to not to confuse the kids since he's not in the game. Yoshi is a big glutton and is kinda like the kid of the series. He talks in a childish innocent manner and refers himself in the third person cause he needs to learn some pronouns. There is also a caveman character named Oogtar who hangs with Yoshi. He's about as bright as you'd expect a caveman to be and he usually gets in trouble with Yoshi. Despite the game taking place in a heavily prehistoric themed area, there weren't any cave people to be seen, but the cartoon has all the common folk be cave people.

Mario, Luigi, Princess and Koopa all have the same voice actors from Mario 3 as far as I can tell. The characters act pretty much the same.. except this time the Princess comes off more as the nagging voice of reason to everyone's antics. The Mario brothers also seem to take a bit of a babysitter role, mixing their usual adventures with also keeping Yoshi and Oogtar out of trouble.

The show keeps the flying blocks and new power ups like the Super Feather that gives Mario his cape. The music follows the new tunes from the game and we also get the new SNES version of the Mario jump and other sound effects. Also to follow the new game, the Koopa Kids don't have their wands anymore and Koopa now flies around in that Clown Car thing of his. His new castle now has KOOPA in neon lights, similar to how it says BOWSER in the game. 

This show was aired alongside Captain N as both cartoons were considered to be one show. Unlike The Super Show that was one long episode (a little short if you remove the live-action segments) or Mario 3 that showed two cartoons within that half hour, we get an episode of Mario World and an episode of Captain N within that same half hour. As a result of sharing the show and it only being a season long, there were only 13 episodes of Super Mario World. I almost consider them kind of an extra season of Super Mario bros 3 cartoon minus the unexplained absence of Toad. 

With cave people introduced, a new theme in a lot of the episodes is either the Marios or Koopa trying to teach or expose the cave people with modern things and the consequences that followed. With only 13 episodes, the Koopa Kids barely got enough airtime, or episodes to themselves. I remember the first episode was devoted to Kootie Pie, and one episode was all about one of the Koopa Wizards.

There are a few episodes I remember since it's been so long since I seen the show. One was about Koopa opening his own fast food restaurant, and the Marios couldn't stop him since he was earning money the honest way. Mario doesn't like eggs so he skipped out on the burgers and only ate the papaya fries, but Luigi and Yoshi loved them. Soon they were addicted to them, just like everybody else and Koopa would be making a fortune. Eventually Luigi and Yoshi started acting like chickens and would eventually turn into chickens if something isn't done. Koopa then planned to make a second fortune by opening a fried chicken restaurant out of his victims... which is kinda sick when you really think about it. Since Mario didn't eat the burgers (I guess they didn't add the secret ingredient in the papaya fries) he wasn't affected so it was up to him to save the day.

Another episode had a flashback of how Luigi first met Yoshi. Mario was captured and it was up to Luigi to rescue him. He finds the baby Yoshi and since he was there right when he hatched, he called him Mama Luigi throughout the flashback. Seeing that Yoshi was able to eat anything, Luigi was able to use his help to get past Koopa's forces and rescue his bro. It was a great episode and I liked the sight gags. Especially when a Thwomp crushed Mario into a cartoony paper thin version of himself and  Luigi actually rolled him up like he was a newspaper and used one of the P Balloons to turn him back to normal. Priceless cartoon physics there. 

Other episodes I remember off the top of my head were ones where Mario and Luigi invented cars for the cave people with consequences due to traffic jams, one where Koopa invented TV and it brainwashed everyone and even one where the Princess opened a school for Yoshi, Oogtar and the others.... But Hip and Hop Koopa would also enroll, so of course there would be a lot of mischief. 

Another ep I remember had Luigi scold Yoshi for eating something he shouldn't, so he runs away from home. He then finds some evil dinosaurs and joins a motorcycle gang. The ep had a horribly bad wannabe version of 'Born to be Wild' song in it called 'Born to Ride'.

As previously mentioned there was an episode with a Koopa Wizard as the villain. His name was Wisenheimer and he captured Mario, Luigi and the Princess and it's up to Yoshi and Oogtar to face their fears as they cross a haunted forest. I believe there was a running gag that no one pronounced his name right and it would piss him off.

The main setback to this show sadly is how badly the animation took a nosedive in this cartoon. I don't know what happened. Between Mario and Captain N being forced to share half and hour for only 13 episodes... the art style got really sloppy and rushed. You think Mario's big 16-bit break out would demand a show with more attention, but I figured the animators thought as long as it's Mario, kids would still watch. If you think this is bad... the Captain N designs almost hurt to look at, especially since their original designs were almost overly-detailed in comparison.

Sadly the series didn't last long and there wouldn't be any big Mario games coming out during that time that would inspire a new cartoon. While Super Mario World would come with the SNES, Yoshi's Island: Super Mario World 2 would come out near the end of the console's life span... and well, what kind of weird cartoon would that have been? I'd be curious how a series based on Super Mario RPG would have turned out, or at least some sort of TV special. Though seeing as how Toad was removed since he wasn't in Super Mario World, I kinda don't want a series without Luigi in it, since he wasn't in Mario RPG.

It took a while but the series was released on DVD, minus the Captain N episodes. It's good that both segments had their own intros because it would have confusing and awkward for today's kids to run into this show and see Captain N running around in the intro so many years later. I assume the songs were left intact since they didn't have any problems showing them on TV, even though later airings of Mario 3 were cutting them out. But man, did this one have some really embarrassingly bad songs. I know Mario is for kids, but back then even I thought they were lame.

To this date this has been the final Super Mario cartoon made for America. I'm surprised with the games like Mario Galaxy and Mario Odyssey no one pitched to Nintendo to make a new cartoon. Since Mario games come out pretty frequently, there are now LOTS of new characters to work with. Similar to how Robotnik is now called Dr. Eggman, despite the fact that in Japan he was always Dr. Eggman, a new modern day Mario cartoon would now use Princess Peach and Bowser instead of Princess Toadstool and King Koopa.

If there was ever a new show I'd much rather it had a basic name like Super Mario Bros, or The Adventures of The Super Mario Bros or whatever, just so long as you don't name it after a particular game. This way the series isn't  limited to just the characters and power ups of that one game, and new episodes and seasons can expand with stuff based on the next Paper Mario game, Superstar Saga, or even if they ever make another Luigi's Mansion. An episode based on Mario Kart is a must.