''The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3'' is an

animated television series An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...

. It premiered on September 8, 1990, on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. It is the second animated series to be based on

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

's ''

Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...

'' video game series and is loosely based on the video game '' Super Mario Bros. 3''. The animation was provided by

Sei Young Animation Sei Young Animation Co., Ltd. () was an animation studio based in South Korea, known best for working overseas for North America animated TV shows, such as '' The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!'', ''The Legend of Zelda'', and ''The Adventures of Su ...

Overview

Unlike its predecessor, the series dropped the use of live-action segments, Wart's minions and King Koopa's alter-egos, featured an entirely new cast with the exceptions of John Stocker and

Harvey Atkin Elliot Harvey Atkin (18 December 1942 – 18 July 2017) was a Canadian actor best known for his roles as Morty Melnick in ''Meatballs'', Sergeant Ronald Coleman in ''Cagney & Lacey'', and for voicing King Koopa in ''The Super Mario Bros. Super Sh ...

, who reprised their respective roles as Toad and King Koopa, established a level of continuity in stories, and featured the introduction of a set of characters called the Koopalings, based upon the same characters from the Mario games but with different names to their official counterparts. Episodes were divided into two segments of around 11 minutes each, always opened by a title card featuring world-map footage taken from ''Super Mario Bros. 3'', and often featured the use of power-ups and other elements from the game.

Format

''The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3'' focuses on

Luigi is a fictional character featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario, Nintendo's masc ...

Toad Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scientif ...

, and

Princess Toadstool is a fictional character in Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise, created by Shigeru Miyamoto and introduced in the 1985 original ''Super Mario Bros.'' installment. She is the princess regnant and ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, where she resides in ...

, who reside in the Mushroom World. Most of the episodes revolve around the four characters' efforts to prevent the attacks made by

King Koopa , or King Koopa, is a fictional character, the primary antagonist in Nintendo's Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise, and the arch-nemesis of Mario. In Japan, the character bears the title of . Bowser is the leader of the turtle-like Koopa ...

and the

Koopalings The (also known as in Japan and Europe or in Japan) are a fictional group of seven childlike characters in the Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' video game franchise by Nintendo. Their individual names are Larry Koopa, Morton Koopa Jr., Wendy O. K ...

to take over Princess Toadstool's

Mushroom Kingdom The is a fictional principality in Nintendo's ''Mario'' series. It is the setting of most main-series ''Mario'' games with an inconsistent presentation. There is no established canon regarding the topography of the ''Mario'' universe, and many ...

. Like ''

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! ''The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!'' is an American live-action/animated television series airing from September 4 to November 30, 1989, on syndication. The series is based on the video games ''Super Mario Bros.'' and '' Super Mario Bros. 2'' by ...

'', the show was produced by DIC Animation City, with the overseas animation being done at the South Korean studio

Co., Ltd., although the show was co-produced by Italian studio Reteitalia S.P.A. Since the show was based on '' Super Mario Bros. 3'', the enemies and power-ups were also seen in the show. In addition to being more faithful to the ''

'' gameplay, the series was given an established sense of continuity, something that the previous series lacked. Many episodes are set on

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

(consistently referred to as "

The Real World Real World or The Real World may also refer to: * Real life, a phrase to distinguish between the real world and fictional, virtual or idealized worlds Television * ''The Real World'' (TV series), 1992–2017 * "The Real World" (''Stargate Atla ...

" by the characters) and are set in locations such as

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Cape Canaveral , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, and

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

One episode titled "7 Continents for 7 Koopas" is about the Koopalings invading each of the seven

continents A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...

. This cartoon was originally shown in the hour-long ''Captain N and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3'' programming block along with the second season of '' Captain N: The Game Master'' on

, whose format involved having two Mario Bros. episodes with a full-length Captain N episode sandwiched in-between. All further airings of the series separated it from ''Captain N'' when ''

Weekend Today ''Weekend Today'' is currently the branding of the weekend editions of ''Today'', an American morning news and talk program that airs daily on NBC. Weekend editions of ''Today'', began with the launch of the Sunday edition of the program on Sep ...

'' aired in 1992. Also that year, it was included in Rysher Entertainment's ''Captain N and the Video Game Masters'' syndication package.

Voice cast

The TV series entered production before official names were given in the development process of the video game, so the Koopalings names are all different. *

Walker Boone Theodore "Ted" Nicoloff, better known as Walker Boone (May 4, 1944 – January 29, 2021), was a Canadian actor. He was best known as the voice of the Nintendo character Mario in the DIC-produced animated series '' The Adventures of Super Mario B ...

Tony Rosato Antonio Rosato (26 December 1954 – 10 January 2017) was an Italian-Canadian actor and comedian, who appeared in television and films. He was best known as a cast member on both '' SCTV'' and ''Saturday Night Live'', and for voicing Luigi in '' ...

Tracey Moore Tracey Moore (born January 17, 1960) is a Canadian voice actress and voice director. She is most noted as the voice of Princess Toadstool in the ''Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3'', ''Super Mario World'', and the singing voice of Strawberry ...

* John Stocker as

* James Rankin as Cheatsy (Larry) Koopa *

Dan Hennessey Dan Hennessey (born August 25)https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Dan-Hennessey/ is a Canadian voice director and voice actor who, early on in his career, performed with a children's comedy troupe The Zoo Factory (with John Stocker, Bruce Gord ...

as Bully (Roy) Koopa *

Tabitha St. Germain Tabitha St. Germain, formerly known as Paulina Gillis Germain and also known as Tabitha or Kitanou St. Germain, is a Canadian actress and comedian. She is known for a variety of roles across many different shows. She has been actively doing voi ...

(as Paulina Gillis) as Kootie Pie (Wendy O.) Koopa * Gordon Masten as Big Mouth (Morton) Koopa *

Michael Stark Michael Stark (born April 6, 1955, New Westminster, British Columbia) is a Canadian voice actor. He was born Michael Williams and now works under the name of Michael Williams-Stark. He has worked as a voice talent for DIC Entertainment which in ...

as Kooky (Ludwig) von Koopa * Stuart Stone as Hip (Lemmy) Koopa * Tara Charendoff as Hop (Iggy) Koopa

Home media

North America

In 1994,

Buena Vista Home Video Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, is the Home video, home entertainment distribution arm of The Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films ...

released 4 VHS volumes of the series which each contained 2 episodes. In 2003,

Sterling Entertainment United American Video (or in short: UAV) Corporation, and more commonly known as UAV Home Video or UAV Entertainment was an American entertainment company founded in 1984 as a small local company originally located in Charlotte, North Carolina. ...

released a VHS/DVD titled ''King Koopa Katastrophe'', which contained 6 episodes. The DVD release also contained the ''

Sonic Underground ''Sonic Underground'' ( French: ''Sonic Le Rebelle'') is an animated television series co-produced by DIC Productions, L.P., Les Studios Tex S.A.R.L. and TF1. It is the third ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' animated series, and the last to be produced b ...

'' episode "Sonic Tonic" as a bonus feature. The DVD was re-released by NCircle Entertainment in 2007, excluding the Sonic episode. A DVD featuring one episode plus two ''Heathcliff'' episodes was released as a prize in Golden Grahams cereal in 2004. Due to the success of the DVD sets of ''The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!'',

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

and Vivendi Visual Entertainment released a three-disc box set of ''The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3'' with all twenty-six original episodes on June 26, 2007, which was released again in a double pack with ''

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog ''Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog'' is an animated series that was based on the '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' video game series produced by Sega of America, DIC Animation City, Bohbot Entertainment and the Italian studio Reteitalia S.p.A. in associ ...

'' volume 1 as a double pack on December 4 the same year, as a tie-in with '' Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games''. NCircle Entertainment (under license from

Cookie Jar Entertainment Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. (also known as Cookie Jar Group and originally known as CINAR; renamed as DHX Cookie Jar Inc. from 2012 until 2014, or simply just Cookie Jar) was a Canadian media production and distribution company owned by DHX ...

) has also released the series in 4 volumes as well as the Collector's Edition of the complete series. The show was re-released to

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

Cinedigm Cinedigm Corp. is an American entertainment company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Cinedigm's businesses encompass digital cinema, streaming channels, content marketing, and distribution. History Early years Cinedigm Corp was founded ...

in July 2015. The original broadcast version of ''Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3'' features covers of licensed songs on five episodes and two

Milli Vanilli Milli Vanilli were a German-French R&B duo from Munich. The group was founded by Frank Farian in 1988 and consisted of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. Their debut album, '' All or Nothing'' in Europe, reconfigured as ''Girl You Know It's True'' in ...

songs on one episode. Due to copyright restrictions (or in Milli Vanilli's case, due to their 1989 lip-syncing scandal), the complete series DVD sets from both Shout! Factory and NCircle Entertainment use the song "Mega Move" from '' Captain N: The Game Master'' in place of the licensed songs. However, the ''King Koopa Katastrophe'' DVD from Sterling Entertainment/NCircle Entertainment features three of the six episodes with the original broadcast music still intact.

Internationally

The show has also been released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

in Australia in a full box set made by MRA Entertainment. In Europe, Disky Communications released three volumes with six episodes each in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. A fourth volume, containing six more episodes, has only been released in Germany.

References

External links