The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3

Infobox Television
show_name = The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3


caption =
show_name_2 =
genre = Animated television series
creator = DIC Entertainment
Nintendo (characters)
writer =
director = John Grusd
creat_director =
developer = Reed Shelly
Bruce Shelly
presenter =
starring =
voices = Walker Boone
Tony Rosato
Tracey Moore
John Stocker
Harvey Atkin
Dan Hennessey
Gordon Masten
Michael Stark
James Rankin
Paulina Gillis
Stu Stone (as Stuart Stone)
Tara Strong (as Tara Charendoff)
narrated =
theme_music_composer =
opentheme =
endtheme =
composer = Michael Tavera
country = USA
language = English
num_seasons = 1
num_episodes = 26
list_episodes = List of Super Mario episodes#The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3
executive_producer = Andy Heyward
co_exec =
producer = John Grusd
sup_producer =
asst_producer =
cons_producer =
co-producer =
editor =
story_editor = Reed Shelly
Bruce Shelly
location =
cinematography =
camera =
runtime =
channel = NBC
picture_format =
audio_format =
first_run = start date|1990|09|08
first_aired = September 8, 1990
last_aired = December 1, 1990
preceded_by = "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!" (1989)
followed_by = "Super Mario World" (1991)
related =
website =
production_website =
imdb_id = 0098762
tv_com_id = 2581

"The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3" is the second TV series based on the "Super Mario Bros." NES and Super NES series of video games. It aired on NBC, from September 8, 1990 through December 1, 1990.

Format

Based on the "Super Mario Bros. 3" video game, the cartoon shows Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad fighting against Bowser Koopa and his Koopalings, who went by different names on the show. On the show, the Koopalings were called:

*Cheatsy Koopa (Larry)
*Bigmouth Koopa (Morton)
*Kootie Pie Koopa (Wendy)
*Hop Koopa (Iggy)
*Bully Koopa (Roy)
*Hip Koopa (Lemmy)
*Kooky Von Koopa (Ludwig von Koopa)

No official explanation was ever given to the name change. While its reason is disputed among fans, most agree that the likely explanation is that DiC, the company that made the show, did not have access to their real names during production of the show as they were using the Japanese version of "Super Mario Bros. 3" as reference. In the game, the Koopa Kids were not originally named (usually being called simply as "koopa kid" or "little koopa") until it was brought over into the US for English localization, shortly before "The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3" went on air. Given the vast amounts of time it takes to animate a cartoon, it would be very difficult to make the cartoon in such a short time, needing more than a year. To accommodate this, the made-up names were added in place, each fitting their personality or a play in sound. When viewing the cartoon, it appears that DiC was never informed of the add-on. Oddly enough, names from the American version of the game were inserted ("Kooky "von" Koopa" or referring to King Koopa as "Bowser"), which may have been a last minute attempt to make the cartoon feel more like the US version of the game. DiC likely retained the show names to avoid confusion among viewers and to avoid the large amount of expenses of to re-animate the whole show to accommodate this.

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.

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 the Mario gameplay, the series was given an established sense of continuity, something that the previous series lacked. The show was also known for having many of its episodes set in "the real world", with "actual" human beings appearing from time to time. Episodes took place in locations such as London, Paris, Venice, New York City, Cape Canaveral, Los Angeles and even Washington, D.C. One memorable episode entitled "7 Continents for 7 Koopas" was about the seven Koopa Kids invading each of the seven continents.

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 "". All further airings of the series separated it from "Captain N".

Cast

*Walker Boone as Mario
*Tony Rosato as Luigi
*Tracey Moore as Princess Toadstool (Princess Peach)
*John Stocker as Toad, Boomerang Bros., Fire Bros, Thwomp and Paragoombas
*Harvey Atkin as King Bowser Koopa
*Tara Strong as Lemmy "Hip" Koopa and Iggy "Hop" Koopa (credited as "Tara Charendoff")
*Paulina Gillis as Wendy "Kootie Pie" Koopa
*James Rankin as Larry "Cheatsy" Koopa
*Gordon Masten as Roy "Bully" Koopa
*Michael Stark as Ludwig "Kooky" Von Koopa
*Dan Hennessey as Morton "Big Mouth" Koopa Jr., Angry Sun and Sledge Bros
*Louise Vallance as Ptooey
*Ernie Anderson as Opening Narrator

DVD releases

It has been released on DVD in Australia in a full box set made by MRA Entertainment, Europe which one volume out of the four has only been released in Germany, the distributor Disky released 3 volumes (each with 6 episodes on each) in the UK and the Netherlands and there was one single DVD release in the US by Sterling Entertainment Group in 2003.

Due to the success of the DVD sets of "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show", Shout! Factory released a 3-disc box set of "The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3" on June 26 2007, which was released again in a double pack with "The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" volume 1 as a double pack on December 4 2007, as a tie-in with "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games"

Broadcast history

* USA
* NBC (1990-1991)
* The Family Channel (1992)
* PAX Network (1999)

* UK
* Channel 4 (?-1999)
* The Children's Channel
* Disney Channel UK
* Pop (TV channel) (2004 –)
* ITV2 (2005)