Super Mario World (TV Series)

**Super Mario World** is an American animated comedy television series loosely based on the Super NES video game of the same name. It is the third animated series based on the Mario video game series, with the other two being *The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!* and *The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3*. Thirteen episodes of the show were aired, as part of a block with *Captain N: The Game Master* called *Captain N & The New Super Mario World* on NBC. Just like *The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3*, the show is produced by DIC Animation City in association with the Italian studio Reteitalia, S.p.A. and Nintendo of America, Inc. (except it was animated by a Chinese animation studio, Pacific Rams Production, Inc.), who licensed the characters and game to DiC.

The animated series featured the same voice actors who had performed in *The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3*, with the character of Toad replaced by that of Yoshi, alongside an exclusive character not featured in the games called Oogtar. Episodes mainly focused on the Mario Bros. dealing with schemes by King Koopa, and made use of new elements introduced by the video game within the story, though with involvement of the "real world" reduced to mere references for the series. Due to the enactment of Children's Television Act back in October 1990, stricter changes were made for this show, such as dark themes that were present in *The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3* are replaced with more kid-friendly material, like adding educational and morality subplots. Also, Princess Toadstool's energetic personality is withdrawn as subdued to more of a rational adult, along with reducing Wendy O Koopa's role due to excessive gender stereotyping, but still keeps her in the games. Due to copyright restrictions, no license music were required for this show, leaving the series untouched for syndication and home media releases.

## Home Media

*Captain N and the New Super Mario World* DVD set, released November 13, 2007.
The *Super Mario World* episode "The Night Before Cave Christmas" was released sometime in 1996 for a VHS tape entitled "Super Mario Bros. Super Christmas Adventures"; along with "Koopa Klaus".

Currently, DVDs of every single *Super Mario World* episode are available in Australia; the episode "A Little Learning" was also available on a VHS tape for a time in the UK.

Due to complications involving the use of Yoshi, it was originally thought that DVD box sets of *Super Mario World* weren't going to be made, which explains this show seldom had VHS releases, along with poor critical reception by the time during the show's release. However, those issues were resolved, and Shout! Factory has released a box set containing the complete series, along with the third season of *Captain N: The Game Master*. Due to the nature of its production (unlike *The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: The Complete Series* and *The Super Mario Bros. Super Show*), the DVD box set of this show minimizes extra features (only showing Yoshi concept drawings and the storyboard of the intro). Also, *Super Mario World* is actually one half of a series entitled *Captain N and the New Super Mario World*, which also consists of the third season of *Captain N: The Game Master*. Although the "New" suffix was used to promote the *Super Mario World* game when the show first aired, it is part of the series' proper title, and was never dropped. An episode of this half hour series consists of a Super Mario World cartoon and either a Captain N cartoon, or a second *Super Mario World* cartoon. Due to legal issues, the third season episodes of *Captain N and the Super Mario World* episodes are inseparable, and have to be released on DVD in the same set. This also explains why the first two seasons of *Captain N: The Game Master* were released in a "complete series" set; the third season is part of a separate show. The DVD was discontinued in 2012, along with *The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: The Complete Series* and *The Super Mario Bros. Super Show* Volume 1 and 2, when Cookie Jar Entertainment merged with DHX Media.

Despite the discontinuation of the SHOUT! Factory DVD prints, this show, alongside the other two *Mario* cartoons, were reissued by another company, as a result of continuing marketing the show under the courtesy of DHX.

## Social issues

Some episodes of Super Mario World can also be seen as social commentary for controversial issues, such as street gangs ("Born to Ride"), addiction ("Rock TV"), bullying in school ("A Little Learning") and obesity ("King Scoopa Koopa").

The show also had several episodes, such as "The Wheel Thing" and "Party Line", dealing with the introduction and consequences of introducing new concepts and technologies to others without thinking ahead, in this case, the cave-people of Dome City.

## Trivia

* Unlike *The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3*, the Koopalings appear separate in most episodes, absent in few.
* This is the first depiction of Yoshi with actual hands instead of paws.
* Unlike *Mario 3*, the teaser promos uses one segment each due to the cancellation of *Captain N*, as only seven episodes were made because of budget cuts. Notably that Princess Peach seldom narrates any of the teasers.
	+ On home media releases, only seven of the teasers survived. Six others have yet to be recovered, similar to the teasers for *Mario 3* and the second season of *Captain N* that were all wiped from existence since their departure.
* The episode "Send In the Clown" seems to have drawn closer to the popular SNES game, which is the only episode to feature Bowser Koopa in the infamous Clown Car, as its concept depicts every attack from said game.
	+ "Send In the Clown" received its score of 7.8/10 on IMDB, next to the highest rated episode "Mama Luigi".
* Due to legal issues, the staff uses their creative concepts instead of using exact details from the SNES game, such as cave-people replacing Yoshis and the names of places and characters are explicitly altered.
* Several lines from the series finale "Mama Luigi", including the "That's Mama Luigi to you, Mario!" line, have become an Internet meme, even to the point of "Mama Luigi" being a standalone character from the normal Luigi. The line was inspired by an argument writer Phil Harnage had with the show's producer. I was having an argument with one of the Producers about something they left out of the storyboard that was in the script, and he accused me of being OCD. So I said, “That’s Mister OCD to you, bud.” He cracked up. Having gotten a laugh, first opportunity I had I used it in a script. When writer Phil Harnage was asked in a fan interview about the episode's popularity, he replied saying he was unaware of it.
	+ "Mama Luigi" is by and large the highest rated episode of this show with its score of 9.4/10 on IMDb.
* Despite the negative reception upon its original airtime, it became a cult following in later years when uploaded on video-sharing websites, such as YouTube. The fan-edited episodes were also made for comic relief, especially the YouTube-Poop edits.
* To date, this is the final American *Super Mario Bros.* cartoon made.

## Alternate version of the series finale

A collaborative re-animated version of the episode "Mama Luigi", organized and directed by animation artist and *Teen Titans Go!*/*Breadwinners*/*Right Now Kapow* storyboard artist Andrew Dickman, was released on YouTube on August 29, 2017. With 227 animators and artists contributing and participating in the project, the goal was to make a re-animated version of the episode in which each animator is given a scene from the episode and animates in any direction they choose so long as it follows the basic formula of the original scene. The project was announced on July 10, 2016 and was roughly completed a year later with an annotated version available on Newgrounds. The video was praised for not only recapturing the nostalgic moments of the classic episode but for also having the involvement of several artists who worked on the original series. Phil Harnage, the writer for the original episode, praised the video as well. The project was dedicated to the memories of Tony Rosato (Luigi Mario) and Harvey Atkin (King Bowesr Koopa), who died during the production of the project.