The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 DVD Box Set Review

If you're a 90's child, chances are you remember the DiC cartoons based on the Super Mario Bros. series. Personally, I only caught bits and pieces of all three series when the aired on TV in the late 80's and early 90's, but now thanks to the good folks at Shout! Factory, I finally have an opportunity to relive the series, one episode at a time.

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, as can be expected, is based on the best-selling video game of all time: Super Mario Bros. 3. Unlike other video game shows of its time, Mario Bros. 3 tended to be fairly faithful to the original source material. Most of the characters, locales, items, and even sound effects from the games were featured, sort of making you feel like you're watching the game itself on your TV. The story is thus: after banishing King Koopa to the Banishment Zone, he somehow found a way to return, and this time, he brought reinforcements: his Koopa Kids. Why he apparently forgot his children in the first show is pretty obvious, as they had yet to be created by Nintendo, but it still seems jarring that they just so happen to randomly appear between the two shows. But hey, that's a cartoon for you. Using a new slur of power ups, it's up to the Mario Bros. to beat back the evil Koopa family and keep the Mushroom kingdom safe once again.

This series feels quite different than its predecessors. Unlike the previous series The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, in which the Mario Bros., Princess Toadstool, and Toad traversed the land stopping Koopa, now the Mushroom Kingdom seems a lot more like a kingdom, with the princess actually ruling from her castle and most stories taking place near said area. Instead of having a variety of disguises and lairs, now Koopa has his own castle in Dark Land and keeps his persona as the king we all love to hate. Each story comes in 15 minute increments, and like most cartoons of the time, simply features the Mario Bros. stopping Koopa and his kids from wreaking havoc in various ways.

The characters are more or less the same as their previous outing, but this time, Princess Toadstool gets a bit of an overhaul. No longer is she the cliche "damsel in distress" most of the time. She's much more active in helping our heroes, going on missions with them. In fact, it's safe so say the Mushroom Kingdom would be doomed without her help. The Koopa Kids have a certain charm about them, each containing their own personality quirk. Cheatsy is conniving and sneaky, Bigmouth never shuts up, Bully is the tough guy, Kootie Pie is the spoiled princess, Kooky is the mad scientist, and Hip and Hop are the troublesome twins. Each episode generally features a different Koopa Kid, sometimes two or three, or occasionally all of them. It seems that the writers had a thing for Kooky, as he seemed to appear the most, and worked very closely with his dad. If you've played Mario games featuring these characters, you may notice that their names are different. The often-told story is that DiC didn't have access to names at the time, as the Koopa Kids actually weren't given names in the Japanese version of the game. Thus, they had to make up their own, and when the US version came out with the new names, DiC didn't want to change them to risk confusing the viewers.

Fans of the game will be in heaven. Many of the power ups featured in the game are here, including the fire flower and super leaf. Locations from the game are present as well. The title screen of every episode features the title imposed a world map from whatever world the episode focused on, whether it be Giant Land, Water Land, or whatever.

Sound is top notch, as always. I've always loved hearing the sound of a plinging coin as Mario grabs one, or the power up sound as Mario grabs a fire flower. Sometimes the sounds may get a little overbearing, hearing the frantic running noise every time the characters run (which is a lot). Composer Mike Tavera does a fine job incorporating Koji Kondo's game music into the show and putting it in appropriate places, such as the ending music whenever the characters save the day. Unfortunately they didn't compose much music for the show, so you'll have to hear the same tunes over and over again, but they're so catchy that it should take a while for you to start to grow tired of it. I find the voices to be much better this time around. Personally, I always thought Captain Lou Albano made a pretty wimpy Mario, and was pleasantly surprised to hear Walker Boone take over his voice duty. Boone gives Mario the rough, tough edge he seemed to lack in the first show. Gone is the nasally Danny Wells as Luigi, replaced by Tony Rosato, who gives him sort of a raspy edge. You have to listen closely to tell the difference between original Jeannie Elias' voice and Tracy Moore's, so there's really little room for comparison. Toad and King Koopa are once again voiced by John Stocker and Harvey Atkin respectively, and both breathe the same life into their characters as before. I really can't picture King Koopa with anyone but Atkin's unique voice. I have to give the man props; it seems like the voice would be a pain on the vocal cords.

The animation leaves a lot to be desired. Like Super Show, Mario Bros. 3 had decent enough animation, but riddled with errors. One character may be talking as another character's mouth moves. Coloring errors are easily the worst problem, and they are quite jarring. One episode, "Sneaky Giant Cheating Lying Ninja Koopas," features Luigi trapped in a cage...with Mario's color scheme. Such glaring mistakes really make one question how the colorists managed to keep their jobs.

Once again, Shout! Factory puts together a very nice release. The 13-episode series (2 11-minute stories per episode) is presented in a 3-disc set in two slim cases. The box is bright and colorful, featuring Mario in his famous raccoon form and the Koopa Kids snarling in the background. Just the kind of high-quality cover art I was envisioning it was going to have. Menus are nice, featuring an animated Mario prepared to jump on the block containing the command you want. The audio and video quality is about as can be expected for a show over 15 years old, with bits of dirt and grain. The only glaring problem is the audio muting and the video graying out for a moment in the episode "Venice Menace/Super Koopa," which is due to the production masters having that error, not the DVDs themselves. DVD producer Brian Ward believes in giving the customers more bang for their buck, and it shows. The third disc contains an interactive writer's Bible, featuring narrated bios on all of the characters along with production art. The bios are quite interesting, containing some personal information about the characters that are never addressed in the show, such as how Toad came to work for Princess Toadstool or why Kooky acts the way he does. You can also view various background images used on the show, and listen to ten of the songs featured. The songs are ear-gratingly bad, being sung by the Koopa Kids, so one listen will likely be quite enough.

All in all, while The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 is far from the best show around, it's a nice way to kill some time, and fans of the games will likely be able to find quite a bit of enjoyment out of it. And if you grew up with the show, then of course you should definitely pick it up!