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.
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.
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.[6]
Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! (1986)
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".[8] 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,[9] and has spawned a fan-made website,[10] a fan-made sequel comic,[11] and even a Blu-ray release in the United Kingdom.[12]
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a 2023 computer animated film adaptation of the franchise, produced by Illumination and Nintendo and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is co-produced by Nintendo fellow and series' creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri.[13] 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 features in a series of cameos.[14][15][16] 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.[17] Meledandri called the film a "priority" for the Illumination animation studio.[18]
After the critical and commercial failure of the live-action filmSuper Mario Bros. (1993), Nintendo became reluctant to license its intellectual properties for film adaptations. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto became interested in developing another film, and through Nintendo's work with Universal Parks & Resorts to create Super Nintendo World, he met with Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri. By 2016, the two were discussing a Mario film and, in January 2018, Nintendo announced that it would collaborate with Illumination and Universal to produce it. Production was underway by 2020, and the cast was announced in September 2021.
The openings for each video used a soundtrack cue from On Golden Pond, namely "New Hampshire Hornpipe".
Mario Kirby Masterpiece Video[n 3] is an 18-minute educational video released by HAL Laboratory in 1995 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 still pictures narrated over by Mayumi Tanaka and kanji transcriptions.[19][20][21]
Super Mario-kun[n 7] 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,[27] and have released 56 volumes.[28] The series has been licensed in Japan; France, published by Soleil Manga [fr];[29] and Spain, published by Planeta Comic.[30] 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.[31]
Viz Media released the first English-language publication of CoroCoro's manga series in December 2020 under the title Super Mario Bros. Manga Mania.[32]
Other Super Mario children's manga
There is another manga series which ran for five volumes with exactly the same title as Sawada's Super-Mario-kun, although this series is instead written and drawn by Hiroshi Takase (嵩瀬ひろし), also published by Shogakukan but serialized in Pikkapika Comics.[33] Because of the identical titles, Sawada's and Takase's series are easily confused.[citation needed]
There is a third manga series, published by Kodansha in Comic Bombom, written and drawn by Kazuki Motoyama [ja],[34] from 1988 to 1998. The series is altogether called KC Mario by the public in Japan.[35] The titles of each volume vary according to the game each work is based on.
The Motoyama manga have other characters and give Mario powers he does not have in the games. Luke Plunkett of Kotaku described the work as "a wild ride".[35]
The Nintendo Comics System was a series of comic books published by Valiant Comics in 1990 and 1991.[36] It was part of a licensing deal with Nintendo, featuring characters from their video games and the cartoons based on them.
Super Mario Adventures[37] 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,[38] is also known by the pen name Tamakichi Sakura.[39]Kentaro Takekuma was responsible for the story, which follows Mario and Luigi as they attempt to rescue Princess Peach (known as "Princess Toadstool" in the English comic) after she is abducted by Bowser with intent to marry her.
Nintendo Gamebooks were gamebooks released in two series, Nintendo Adventure Books and You Decide on the Adventure, and based on video games created by Nintendo.
Electromechanical games
Nintendo has licensed several electromechanical games for use in arcades and casinos, including two popular pinball machines by Gottlieb. Super Mario Bros., released on April 25, 1992, was the first Gottlieb machine that included a dot-matrix display tracking scores and various animations. The game shared a lot of its art assets with Super Mario World released for SNES two years prior, and featured Charles Martinet in his first voice-over role as Mario, for which he was never paid nor credited.[40] 4,200 units were manufactured.[41][42][43][44]Super Mario Bros. Mushroom World released a few months later in June 1992, this time based on Super Mario Bros. 3 for NES. Only 519 units were produced, making it significantly rarer and more sought-after by modern collectors.[41][45][46][47][48]
Other electromechanical games licensed by Nintendo include a Mario Kart 64slot machine made by Maygay,[49] as well as a series of Mario Fushigimedal games made by Capcom. The Mario Fushigi series began in 2003 with Super Mario Fushigi no Janjan Land, then Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party in 2004, Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party 2 in 2005, and Mario Party Fushigi no Korokoro Catcher.[citation needed]
Mario has appeared on lunch boxes, T-shirts, magazines, commercials (notably, in a Got Milk? commercial),[50] in candy form, on shampoo bottles, and as plush toys.[51] Multiple Mario-themed versions of popular board and card games have been released by USAopoly, including Monopoly,[52]TacDex,[53] and Connect 4.[54] Nintendo has also released in 2017 a puzzle featuring Mario.[55]
Events
National Mario Day is an annual holiday to commemorate the Nintendo video game character Mario, on March 10.[56][57][58] This date is chosen because MAR 10 looks like the name MARIO.[59][60]Gamers can commemorate the occasion by playing games from the series, or with Mario-themed events, and coordinating on social media with the hashtag #NationalMarioDay.[61][62]
In 2014 the Christian Science Monitor advised parents that Mario Day was an opportunity to bond with their children, and listed Mario Day-themed events parents could take their children to, to encourage that bonding.[63] In 2016, Nintendo created a video about the event, where Mario caused chaos in their American offices;[64][65] and "brought some joy to the monotonous workday in the ways only Mario could."[64] Chad Concelmo of Destructoid appears in the video.[66]
In September 2020, Nintendo started the Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary event, which lasted from September 3, 2020 to March 31, 2021. This event began with a Nintendo Direct which announced many games, as well as covering already released Mario themed merchandise, clothing and in game events.[68]
The Super Mario series of video games has a large amount of music, much of it composed by Koji Kondo. The "Super Mario Bros. theme" is particularly well-known.
The Super Mario Bros. theme has been featured in many concerts, including "PLAY! Chicago",[69] the Columbus Symphony Orchestra,[70] Play! A Video Game Symphony,[71] and others.
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Lisa Suhay (2014-03-14). "Mario Day: Ways to score big bonding points (+video)". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2017-03-10. So far, the best celebration I've found was hosted by the DC Public Library in Washington last Saturday and involved kids from local art programs creating various projects and eating Mario-themed cakes.
