The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!

"Swing your arms, from side to side/Come on it's time to go do the MARIO!/Take one step, and then again/Let's do the MARIO all together now!/Everybody!/ Do the Mario!/ Just like thaaaaaat!". What a pathetic little dance. Swing your arms and take two steps, one at a time. Wow, I have to assume that it was written the night before the show aired and was crafted with very...hmmm..."physically un-taxing" moves to accommodate ex-pro wrestler Lou Albano, who played Mario. Incidentally, if you grew up in the 80's like I did, you might remember that Lou Albano used to be in all of Cyndi Laupers videos. Remember how at the end of the song, the "just like thaaaaat!" part, how he went down on one knee, and it looked like he was about to fall over? Sigh - I love nostalgia. I used to watch this show while I ate my Nintendo Cereal (NIN-TEN-DO it's a cereal, wow!) from an actual Super Mario Bros. bowl, no joke. What a terrific show, I have the episode where Princess Toadstool got kidnaped by Koopa (go figure) and Mario, Luigi, and Toad have to go to the desert oasis to save her. And it had the irritable genie, and the flying carpets, and PIDGETS (Luigi spoke pidget, actually). This show was followed up by the strange Super Mario 3 based cartoon and the completely strange and horrible Super Mario World based cartoon.

I remember these cartoons (among the other Super Mario Bros. cartoons) when I was young, and have them now as fun memories. And surely the tapes I have bring back many fun, wonderful memories of my youth, and I will surely never forget them (and I am definitely not going to lose those tapes)! If these are available for purchase, be sure to pick up a few of these tapes for your children! Although brief in length, they are certain to brighten your child's day!

Believe it or not, before I saw this series, I didn't know who Mario, or Link from the Zelda series, was. I did not own a Nintendo Entertainment System until my fifth birthday, and I first saw this show while I was three years old, which gave me my first real taste on the wonderful world of Nintendo. I loved it, and even now I miss this series. Having animated versions of both Mario and Zelda were fantastic. Mario would usually battle variations of King Koopa(who was a fused version of Mario villain Bowser and Mario 2 baddie Wart), usually in versions of movies like Indiana Jones or Frankenstein. The Zelda ones featured Link and Zelda(who actually fought in the Zelda cartoons), facing Ganon(who else?), as he tried to capture the Triforce. I thought it was really cool how both toons would use the actual sound effects from the games. I also noted how the characteristics of Mario and Luigi in the show are now the ones used for them in the current Mario games. This show reminded me of how KUSI-51 used to be cool, when they had shows like this, Ninja Turtles, Jetsons, and Tiny Toons. What happened to those days? I guess they went the way of the Disney Channel, Disney Adventures, Fox, and USA. Oh well, I was ticked off when they changed the theme song during the 90's, and instead of the host sequences of a live-action Mario and Luigi they now featured..... two guys on the top of an apartment with a big-screen TV!? Luckily, the few videos and taped episodes I have give me the chance to relive my childhood memories.

BOTTOM LINE: I don't care what anyone else says, I love this show!

I loved this show to death. The live action sequences featured funny cameos from celebrities, and the cartoons. . . they were just awesome, with my favorite video game heroes in amazing escapades. They really don't make them like this anymore.

Contrary to what many claim, Mario's first initial cartoon appearance was NOT the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. Rather, it was in an obscure Donkey Kong cartoon that aired as part of Saturday Supercade during the early-1980s, before Nintendo rose into prominence. You wouldn't have noticed, because in that cartoon, Mario was a generic guy who pursued the big dumb ape. But that's irrelevant, because before 85, Mario wasn't a big deal. After '85, he practically salvaged the video gaming industry and got a cartoon out of it.

Every Mario cartoon had the same basic plot; evil King Koopa (Bowser, although he never goes by that name in the cartoon) wrecks havoc in various worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom and it's up to Mario, faithful brother Luigi, loyal Mushroom Retainer Toad, and the Princess (when she isn't kidnapped) to spoil his nefarious plans. Rinse, lather, and repeat.

Odd thing was that this had more in common with Super Mario Bros. 2 (Mario USA to Japanese folk - the less said, the better) than it did the original game, but I'm not complaining.

The way I see it, the cartoon (and even the Captain Lou Albano live skits) was what truly defined Mario as an Italian plumber from Brooklyn who enjoyed eating pasta rather than this fat plumber who ate mushrooms, something that the games depicted. The cartoon stayed true to the original games, as opposed to the later movie which was a bastardization of what was good and wholesome. The stories are rather cheesy, crude, and cheap parodies of certain series and movies, but who cares? They were fun and back then, that's all you really needed.

The animation was decent for its time. You have some minor technical errors here and there (sometimes Mario would be speaking with Luigi's voice, or his hat would be the wrong color), but these things happens in all the old cartoons (see the old Ninja Turtles as a good example - yes, you know who you are!) The voices were pretty good; nothing great, but alright nonetheless. Characterizations were pretty good (even though it's based off a video game and you actually had no frame of reference as far as characterization goes).

Of course, the cartoon is only part of the show. Bookending the cartoon are live-action skits featuring Captain Lou as Mario and this other guy as Luigi, in their Brooklyn basement, where they have to deal with these guest stars' problems. I'm not just talking nameless hacks looking for a quick buck, but actual stars whom were popular at the time. Like the cartoons, the skits were cheesy but fun. And it's always a welcome sight to see Captain Lou make an idiot out of himself by doing the Mario. (Now, if the REAL Mario were to have done that in any of the modern Mario games, it would have actually prompted me to buy a modern Nintendo system.)

Every Friday, they'd throw in a little Zelda cartoon. Back then, when I first saw them, I never touched the original game, but still enjoyed them nonetheless... although these days, hearing Link whine "Excuse Me, Princess" every fifth minute irritates me to no end.

After some time, the Super Mario Bros. Super Show changed its format and became Club Mario. While you had the same IL' good cartoons, instead of live Mario and Luigi, you had two 'hip' guys in a messed-up apartment with lots of stuff that boggles the mind. Every once in a while, they have actual 'storylines' such as one guy's evil twin trying to take over the show. Sometimes, I wish good IL' Koopa showed up during the Mario Bros' off-day and took over the show so he could cancel it, because even back then, it was bad.

Even today, it's still a good wholesome cartoon that's good for a few laughs and maybe can be genuinely enjoyed. I think you can find them on Yahoo somewhere, who airs the shows online. Check 'em out if you have the chance.