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, who reprised their respective roles as Toad and King Koopa), established a level of continuity in stories, and introduced a set of characters called the Koopalings, based upon the same characters from the Mario games but with different names. 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.
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 Mario gameplay, the series was given an established sense of continuity, something that the previous series lacked. Many episodes are set on Earth (consistently referred to as "The Real World" by the characters) and are set in locations such as Brooklyn, London, Paris, Venice, New York City, Cape Canaveral, Miami, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. One episode titled "7 Continents for 7 Koopas" is about the Koopalings invading each of the seven continents.[3]
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 NBC, 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 aired in 1992. Also that year, it was included in Rysher Entertainment's Captain N & The Video Game Masters syndication package.[4]
Voice cast
The TV series entered production before official names were given to new characters in the development of the video game, so the Koopalings' names are all different.
Tara Strong as Hop (Iggy) Koopa (credited as Tara Charendoff)
Home media
North America
In 1994, Buena Vista Home Video released 4 VHS volumes of the series which each contained 2 episodes.
In 2003, Sterling Entertainment released a VHS/DVD titled King Koopa Katastrophe, which contained 6 episodes. The DVD release also contained the Sonic Underground 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.[citation needed]
Due to the success of the DVD sets of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, Shout! Factory 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 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) 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 by Cinedigm in July 2015.
The show was made available to stream on Paramount+ in 2021.[8]
The original broadcast version of Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 features covers of licensed songs on five episodes and two Milli Vanilli 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.
Title
Ep #
Distributor
Release date
Super Mario Bros. 3: Mind your Mummy, Mommy Mario
2
Buena Vista Home Video
1994
Super Mario Bros. 3: Misadventures in Babysitting
2
Buena Vista Home Video
1994
Super Mario Bros. 3: Never Koop A Koopa
2
Buena Vista Home Video
1994
Super Mario Bros. 3: The Ugly Mermaid
2
Buena Vista Home Video
1994
Super Mario Bros.: King Koopa Katastrophe
6
Sterling Entertainment/NCircle Entertainment
July 22, 2003/August 21, 2007
Super Mario Bros. / Heathcliff
1
Sterling Entertainment
2004
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: The Complete Series
26
Shout! Factory
June 26, 2007
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: The Trouble with Koopas
6
NCircle Entertainment
January 6, 2009
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: What a Wonderful Warp
6
NCircle Entertainment
March 3, 2009
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: Koopas Rock
6
NCircle Entertainment
June 2, 2010
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: Complete Series Collector's Edition
26
NCircle Entertainment
May 14, 2013
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: The Complete Series (re-release)
The show has also been released on DVD 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.
Pidax released the complete series in Germany (with English audio included) in one boxset.
References
^Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 804–806. ISBN978-1476665993.
^Damian Inwood. "Pi Theatre, Independent Vancouver Theatre >> The Baroness and the Pig". Archived from the original on April 25, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2011. That's what Vancouver actresses Diane Brown and Tabitha St. Germain do with the delightful black comedy, The Baroness and the Pig. (...) St. German – better known to Vancouver audiences as Paulina Gillis – plays the Baroness as a naïve gentlewoman, full of prissy mannerisms and twittering, bird-like movements.
