Super Mario-Kun

The ''Mario'' media franchise extends out of video games into non-game media. Mario and themes related to the franchise have appeared in television shows, anime, films, comics and manga, merchandise, and musical performance.

Television

'' Saturday Supercade'' is an animated television series produced for Saturday mornings by Ruby-Spears Productions. It ran for two seasons on CBS, beginning in 1983. Each episode comprised several shorter segments featuring video game characters from the Golden Age of Arcade Games. Donkey Kong, Mario and Pauline (from the '' Donkey Kong'' arcade game) were featured in the show.

'' The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!'' is the first American TV series based on the ''Mario'' NES games. It was broadcast in syndication from September 4 to December 1, 1989. The show was produced by DIC Entertainment and was distributed for syndicated television by Viacom Enterprises (full rights have since reverted to DiC through Nintendo).

'' King Koopa's Kool Kartoons'' is a live action children's television show broadcast in Southern California during the holiday season of 1989/1990. The show starred King Koopa (also known as Bowser), the main antagonist of the ''Mario'' series. The 30-minute program was originally broadcast during the after-school afternoon time-slots on Los Angeles-based KTTV Fox 11.

''The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3'' is the second TV series based on the ''Mario'' NES games. It aired on NBC from September 8 to December 1, 1990. Based on the ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' video game, the cartoon shows Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad fighting against Bowser and his Koopalings, who went by different names on the show. 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. It was part of a 1 hour block with Captain N's second season, structured such that 2 episodes of Mario 3 would bookend the longer Captain N episode that made the "meat" of the sandwich.

''The Super Mario Challenge'' is a game show which aired on The Children's Channel. It ran from 1990 to 1991 and aired at 4:30 p.m. every weekday. The presenter, John Lenahan, was a lookalike of Mario, and dressed in his clothes. Two guest players had to do tasks, all of which involved playing the ''Mario'' video games '' Super Mario Bros.'', ''Super Mario Bros. 2'' and, after its release in 1991, ''Super Mario Bros. 3''. Rounds included challenges to see which player could complete a level in the fastest time and who could collect the most gold coins on a certain level.

'' Super Mario World'' is an animated television series based on the SNES video game of the same name. It is the third and currently last Saturday morning cartoon based on the ''Mario'' series. The show was originally aired on Saturday mornings on NBC in the 1991–92 season. It was featured in a half-hour time slot with a shortened version of '' Captain N: The Game Master''. Episodes of ''Super Mario World'' were later shown as part of the syndication package ''Captain N and the Video Game Masters''. Afterwards, the series was split from ''Captain N'' altogether and shown in time-compressed reruns on ''Mario All-Stars''.

''Mario Ice Capades'' is a television special featuring a Mario-themed Ice Capades skating show, broadcast on ABC on December 28, 1989. It starred Christopher Hewett as Bowser. Jason Bateman and Alyssa Milano also appeared in the special.

Films

Bowser and the Super Mushroom appeared in the 2012 Disney computer-animated film '' Wreck-It Ralph''; Mario is mentioned by Felix but not seen in the film. Mario's original arcade game appearance in ''Donkey Kong'' makes a cameo in the 2015 science fiction action comedy film '' Pixels''.

''Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!'' (1986)

''Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!'' is a 1986 anime film based on the '' Super Mario Bros.'' video game. Directed by Masami Hata and produced by Masakatsu Suzuki and Tsunemasa Hatano, the plot centers on Mario and Luigi, who go on a quest to save Princess Peach from Bowser. It is notable for being the first film based on a video game, predating the live-action ''Super Mario Bros.'' film by seven years.

''Super Mario Bros.'' (1993)

''Super Mario Bros.'' is a 1993 American science-fiction comedy adventure fantasy film based on the Japanese video game series of the same name by Nintendo and distributed by The Walt Disney Studios through Hollywood Pictures, thus becoming one of several rare occasions where Disney and Nintendo have collaborated. The film was directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, written by Parker Bennett, Terry Runté and Ed Solomon, and stars Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, Samantha Mathis, Fisher Stevens, Fiona Shaw and Richard Edson. The story revolves around the titular Mario brothers, as they find a parallel universe, ruled by the ruthless dictator King Koopa, who seeks to merge the two dimensions so that he can rule both worlds, leaving it up to Mario and Luigi to join forces with Princess Daisy, the daughter of the world's displaced King, to stop Koopa.

''Super Mario Bros.'' was shot in both New York City and North Carolina on a budget of $48 million. The film was released on May 28, 1993, in the United States and was unsuccessful both critically and commercially, receiving criticism for its storyline, characters, dialogue and unfaithfulness to the games. Bob Hoskins later stated in an interview in 2007 that the film was "the worst thing I ever did". However, the film was nominated for two Saturn Awards (one for Best Costume, the other for Best Make-up).

Years later, however, commentators called it a cult film, and has spawned a fan-made website, a fan-made sequel comic, and even a Blu-ray release in the United Kingdom.

''The Super Mario Bros. Movie'' (2023)

''The Super Mario Bros. Movie'' is an upcoming computer animated film adaptation of the franchise, produced by Illumination and Nintendo. It is co-produced by Nintendo fellow and series' creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri. The film features the voices of Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong; longtime ''Mario'' voice actor Charles Martinet will feature in a series of cameos. In January 2020, Nintendo's President Shuntaro Furukawa stated that the film is "moving along smoothly" with the film aiming for release in 2023. Furukawa stated that Nintendo would own the rights to the film, and both Nintendo and Universal would fund the production of the film. Meledrani called the film a "priority" for the Illumination animation studio.

Anime

''Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Bros.'' is a series of three direct-to-video OVAs produced by Studio Junio, licensed by Nintendo, and released on VHS tapes on August 3, 1989, exclusively in Japan. The plot of the episodes involve characters from the Mario franchise in the stories of three fairy tales: Momotarō, Issun-bōshi and Snow White. Its cast includes Miyako Endō ( Princess Peach, Kinopio, Morton Koopa Jr., Wendy O. Koopa), Tōru Furuya ( Mario), Masaharu Satō (Koopa, Larry Koopa, Iggy Koopa), Naoki Tatsuta ( Luigi, Ludwig von Koopa, Roy Koopa, Lemmy Koopa), and Toshiko Sawada (narration).

The openings for each video used a soundtrack cue from '' On Golden Pond'', namely "New Hampshire Hornpipe".

''Mario Kirby Masterpiece Video'' is an 20-minute educational video released by HAL Laboratory in 1993 on VHS exclusively in Japan. The purpose of the video is to teach kanji to children by featuring two adventures starring Mario and Kirby separately, with various stills narrated over by Mayumi Tanaka and kanji transcriptions.

''Super Mario's Fire Brigade'' is a 1989 short fire safety public safety announcement video animated by Toei Animation and J.C.Staff, directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai and starring Toru Furuya as Mario, Yoku Shioya as Luigi, Saori Sugimoto as Kaoru, Yumi Tōma as Tatsuya, Chieko Saitō as Kaoru's Mom, and Daisuke Gori as Kaoru's Dad. There was also another video produced about traffic safety, titled ''Super Mario Traffic Safety''.

''Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi's Adventure Land'', is a 28-minute interactive video anime based on '' Super Mario World'' released for Bandai's Terebikko system. The Terebikko allowed viewers to interact with the anime using a telephone-shaped microphone to answer multiple choice questions, such as what will hatch from Yoshi's egg. The cast includes Tōru Furuya as Mario, Yū Mizushima as Luigi, Yuriko Yamamoto as Peach, Chika Sakamoto as Yoshi and Takeshi Watabe as Bowser.

Comics

''Super Mario-kun''

''Super Mario-kun'' is a Japanese kodomo manga series written and illustrated by Yukio Sawada ( 沢田 ユキオ ''Sawada Yukio'') and serialized in the monthly manga anthology '' CoroCoro Comic''. Individual chapters are collected into '' tankōbon'' volumes by Shogakukan, who released the first volume on July 27, 1991, and have released 56 volumes. The series has only been licensed in Japan and France, published by Soleil Manga. It follows Mario and his friends through the plot lines of many ''Mario'' video games, starting in '' Super Mario World'' and reaching as far as '' Super Mario Odyssey''. Courses created by Sawada for '' Super Mario Maker'' were released on November 6, 2015, with a ''Super Mario-kun'' costume unlocked for players who clear them.

Viz Media released the first English-language publication of CoroCoro's manga series in December 2020 under the title ''Super Mario Bros. Manga Mania''.

There is another manga series which ran for five volumes with exactly the same title, written and drawn by Hiroshi Takase (嵩瀬ひろし), also published by Shogakukan but serialized in Pikkapika Comics. Because of the identical titles, Sawada's and Takase's series are easily confused. There is a third manga series with the same title, written and drawn by Kazuki Motoyama from 1988 to 1998.

Nintendo Comics System

The ''Nintendo Comics System'' was a series of comic books published by Valiant Comics in 1990 and 1991. It was part of a licensing deal with Nintendo, featuring characters from their video games and the cartoons based on them.

Super Mario Adventures

''Super Mario Adventures'' is an anthology of comics that ran in '' Nintendo Power'' throughout 1992, featuring the characters from Nintendo's '' Mario'' series and based loosely on '' Super Mario World''. The series was also serialized in '' CoroCoro Comic'' in 1993. Charlie Nozawa, the artist who created the comics, is also known by the pen name Tamakichi Sakura.たまに読むならこんなゲーム漫画～桜玉吉のスーマリ編～
" '' Mandarake''. Retrieved on November 19, 2008. - "小学館「SUPER MARIO ADVENTURES マリオの大冒険」漫画・チャーリー野沢（桜玉吉）" Kentaro Takekuma

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