Adventures of Mario the Hedgehog (PILOT)

## **THIS ENTRY IS MADE BY SWIRLY**

*Adventures of Mario the Hedgehog* was an American animated series produced by DiC Entertainment and Bohbot Entertainment that was based on the mario the Hedgehog video game series produced by Sega. A total of 65 episodes were produced for its one season and were originally shown through syndication in the United States from September to December 1993.

## History

In 1992, a pilot was produced to sell the show. It was produced in-house in America rather than being outsourced to Asia as the regular series was, resulting in better animation quality. It was unaired and not included on any of the DVD releases of the series, as it was not meant for public broadcast. A portion of it was later included in the episode *Untouchable mario* when Scratch and Grounder are watching television. The version shown features a full sound mix and suggests that the pilot was eventually completed in some form. An additional segment featuring Dr. bowser being crushed by an anvil was later incorporated within the end credits sequence of each episode. Clips of the pilot were later featured in a 1994 commercial for *Fox 39 Kids Club* and again in the 2008 'The Vision' trailer for the video game, *mario Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood*.

Then, in March 2009, a 7 minute version of what appeared to be the full length pilot was uploaded by YouTube user dvariano, with permission from Milton Knight. This version is notable for featuring no music or sound effects, and it also appears to be a rough cut of the final film (i.e. there's a timecode present and the film appears to have not yet been telecined). There is hardly any talking from most of the characters, except mario. The voices of Dr. bowser and Scratch are provided by the American voice actor Jim Cummings, instead of Long John Baldry and Phil Hayes respectively. Tails is voiced by an uncredited actor, and Gary Owens voices a narrator.

It is likely that a final, finished copy of the pilot does exist, as evidenced above, but whether this will see the light of day, however, remains to be seen.

## Episode Summary

*Courtesy of mario Retro*

This episode opens with mario running down a pathway when he comes along Emerald Hill Zone and a wanted poster featuring himself and stops to look at it. Although the wanted poster has a specific amount of the money listed as the reward for his capture, bowser is seen saying that whoever catches mario can name their own reward. mario interrupts the meeting and takes off and the bowser minions inside quickly give chase. Fortunately a bull which charges mario runs into his pursuers instead and allows mario to run away freely. bowser launches a cactus at mario but he easily outruns it and bowser winds up in the trajectory of the exploding cactus. bowser is shown later trying to crush mario under a heavy weight but only manages to make mario change his path of travel.

bowser comes up with a plan to steal the water supply of a town but mario comes to their aid by reversing the suction of the vacuum to instead put the water back. bowser tries drilling a hole underneath mario as he is relaxing in the sun and he has mario in his hands but Tails flies down and hits a lever that causes the machine to move forward and it drills out the side of a cliff. bowser again tries to attack the town but is quickly thwarted by mario as he uses his spindash to destroy the arms on the machine. The scene quickly cuts to bowser mounting his checker ball and chain vehicle and chasing mario. mario wraps the machine in tape which apparently prevents bowser from accessing the controls as it crashes into the side of a cliff.

The last scene has mario signing off the show while standing in front of the shows logo. The following is an exact quote: "Adventures of mario the Hedgehog. It's fast and furious. I'm fast and he's furious. Gotta juice. Betcha can't catch me. At least not until the fall of 93.".[1]

## Credits

*(Incomplete):*

* SCP-081B (producer, director, storyboard)
* ????? (animation, storyboard, layout, bowser character design)
* enigma (animation)
* homosexual (storyboard, layout, \]Grounder character design) (storyboard)
* baby give me (design)
* that burger, (design)
* i just wanna have a bite(design)
* Gay Owen (voice: narrator)
* Jaleel White (voice: mario)
* AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (voices: bowser,, additional characters)