Mario Brothers Super show, DVD... (1 Viewer)

[DeathStar1]

Anyone pick up the disc? What's the running time on this thing, Hidden episode included? I'm thinking of picking it up, but the length of the thing, and the price will be a deciding factor.

It's pretty cool they have a new animated inspector gadget peice on it explaining the menu, but did Don Addams reprise the voice?

 

[Beau]

I didn't know this was put on DVD! That's preety coo, I loved that show.

 

[David Lambert]

[rant]Super Mario Bros. Super Show!: Mario's Greatest Movie Moments[/rant] (1989)
1 Disc (DVD-5); approx. 85 minutes
Full Screen (4x3), Stereo, English Subtitles
SRP: $14.99 Street Price: $12.99
AVAILABLE NOW

• Eight Complete Episodes
• Exciting Interactive Game
• Trailers
• Scene Access
• And Much More!

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (SMBSS) was a spin-off of the popular-but-short-lived cartoon Captain N: The Game Master. Various voice actors came over to the new show that featured Ninentdo's most popular videogame character, Mario, and the adventures of him, his brother Luigi, and ever-in-distress-damsel Princess Toadstool (and sidekick Toad). The ever-menacing villian was King Koopa...but, unless you've been under a rock since the early 1980's you know about these characters!
SMBSS aired for just one season, on Mondays-Thursdays, in syndication, with Friday's slot taken up by The Adventures of Link, based on the almost-as-popular "The Legend of Zelda" videogame. It featured at the start and end of the show a live-action person dressed as Mario, talking or singing-and-dancing against the cartoon backdrop (he used a gruff American voice, rather than the Italian-accented voice Nintendo switched to during the days of the Nintendo 64 console).
DIC Entertainment's show has been captured onto DVD by TriMark/Lion's Gate, in a "best-of" compilation themed to "Mario's Greatest Movie Moments". You can catch the meaning of this by the episode titles included:

• [*]Kount Koopula![*]Koopenstein![*]Koopzilla[*]Robo-Koopa[*]Toad Warriors[*]Raiders of the Lost Mushroom

Also included are two bonus episodes of Adventures of Link:

• [*]The Missing Link[*]Kiss'n Tell

Those comprise the "eight complete episodes" on this disc. Video is nice, with bright colors and clear picture almost all of the time. A few dirt artifacts can be seen on the screen at any one time, clearly indicative of the age of this material, but nothing I considered overly distracting. Also: it may just be that my glasses need to be checked, but I thought that on occassion I could see a blurring of background lines, whenever the action moved rather fast.
Sound is great; nothing you'll use for demo material, but more than up to the job.
Overall, the disc gets good marks for a clear presentation similar to what you expected to see on TV back in 1989, after rushing home from school. It's just a bit dated, as to be expected 13 years later.
DIC Entertainment utilized one of their best characters, Inspecter Gadget, to be the "guide" to this DVD, available for help on any menu screen, to explain what the options are. If Don Adams wasn't pressed into service for the voice, then they sure got a heck of an impressionist! This feature is great for young kids who aren't familiar with DVD yet. Veterans will get tired of it before the first presentation is over, though...and there's no apparent way to kill it if you accidentally activate it!
The "trailers" consist only of a commercial for other DIC Entertainment product, including Inspector Gadget and many others that are not yet on DVD (although some are, like Mario's fellow videogame star, Sonic The Hedgehog). I only hope this means the rest are "coming soon" to DVD.
Overall, I give this disc above-average marks for the price. It doesn't represent itself to be more than it is: good fun to kill some time and relive your memories with. Me, my wife, and my 4-year-old son enjoyed watching this together. And then we went and broke out the NES console. Oh, joy!

 

[Scott_J]

Awesome review, David. Looks like I may pick this one up after all. Did you happen to pick up the Sonic disc, as well? If so, if you could post a review of that one, I'd really appreciate it.
BTW, David, I just found out from a post at DVDTalk that there's an easter egg on the disc, in the form of ANOTHER complete episode of Mario. I'll spoilerize it in case you're the type that likes finding them yourself.
From: Arsene Lupin III
Subject: Re: A review of the Super Mario Bros Super Show DVD
The reviewer missed out on the cool hidden feature of this disc....
Play through the trivia game. If you beat it (it's 8 questions long,
each asking a simple question anyone could answer if they watched the entire disc), you get a FREE BONUS EPISODE of "The Super Mario Bros." The episode is "Adventures of Sherlock Mario," and after the episode is the closing portion of the live-action Lou Albano/Danny Wells bit for the episode. In fact, during the closing segment, Lou/Mario turns to the audience and says "The only thing that could cheer me up right now are some scenes from the next 'Legend of Zelda'!" Then we see a preview for a Zelda episode (not on the disc) where Link and Zelda are battling what appear to be large Ironknuckles (without the horses). The "Zelda" logo appears again with the writing "This Friday!" across the top-left corner of the screen. We are then returned to conclusion of the live-action segment. Then the closing credits roll.
By the way, this "hidden episode" is the only show of this disc which is not subtitled for the hard-of-hearing.
And this hidden feature, my friends, is what makes this disc cool. A
piece of SMB Super Show history, complete with Zelda trailer,
something I have not seen for years.
That was from a post at alt.video.dvd
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=su...e .com&rnum=1

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I was still getting "Nintendo Power" magazine when this show started, and the way they promoted it made it sound like it was going to be just the coolest thing ever, then when it finally came on I was very disappointed. The magazine made it sound like a sight-and-sound extravaganza, but it was just the same old crappy animation with low-rent live-action stuff thrown in. I'll probably end up getting this anyway, but I'd rather have the Pac-Man cartoon shows!

BTW anyone seen the X-rated parody "Super Hornio Brothers", starring none other than Ron Jeremy as the Mario character?

 

[Ryan L B]

The Sonic dvd was the Serious ABC version. It contains the first 4 episodes. Well hopefully, they will release all of the other versions of the Sonic series.

 

[paul o'donnell]

David,
My respect for you grows with every thread. Someone who knows Captain N and still owns a NES.

Strangely this one passed me by, but now it is firmly in my sights.

 

[David Lambert]

Thanks for the info about the bonus episode, guys! I meant to address it in the review, that the "Exciting Interactive Game" was just this trivia game, and not too exciting to me. I didn't complete it, and so didn't know about the bonus video. As this was my first "Review", I hope I can be forgiven! I'm practicing, really.
I had THOUGHT of mentioning "Captain" Lou Albano (former WWF star) and Danny Wells in the live-action sequences that were missing from the front, but decided against it because I didn't think anyone else would remember them! I see I was wrong, as it's mentioned in the posts at DVDTalk and at Google.
I do have the Sonic disc, but haven't watched it myself yet. My 4-year-old son's watched it all the way through, and I saw enough to see that video quality was comparable to SMBSS, but I can't review it more than that yet; sorry.
Paul: Thanks! I also own an Atari VCS, Intellivision, ColecoVision, MicroVision, Vectrex, Atari 800, Atari 5200, and games for the Atari 7800 and Sega Master System. I had also given thought to adding to the review that the first Mario title was around long before the NES was. Of course, we should all know that he first appeared in 1981's Donkey Kong:
http://www.klov.com/D/Donkey_Kong.html
...and then he had his own game, joined by Luigi for the first time, in 1983 (a game which was converted to the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and ColecoVision):
http://www.klov.com/M/Mario_Bros..html
I should mention that those pics are click-able for more info, courtesy of the site "Killer List of Videogames". Videogames are my OTHER hobby...

 

[paul o'donnell]

I know, I was born the same year as Mario
I always preffered Donkey Kong Jnr personally. And I had one of those pocket LCD games of donkey Kong back in the day
*wipes tears from eyes* Arcades, its a shame they died. Best thing ever.
Petition for all 35 (was it more?) Captain N episodes to be released anyone?
Also, thanks for the link to the site David. Although I've already spent HOURS, no, DAYS on that addictive son of a...

 

[cafink]

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (SMBSS) was a spin-off of the popular-but-short-lived cartoon Captain N: The Game Master.

Someone correct me if I'm remembering wrong, but I don't think this is correct, David. The Super Mario Bros. Super Show was based on the first two Super Mario Bros. games, while Captain N appeared later, shown as a "Double-feature" of sorts with Super Mario Bros. 3. Obviously, The Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon was released a few years later than the original SMBSS. Captain N came LATER.

 

[Anthony Liz]

Actually, both shows appeared in 1989. Super Mario only lasted one year (65 episodes) because in 1990 the Mario Bros. became part of NBC's Captain N: The Game Master. That ended in 1992, but during that time they went through a few name changes. I know Captain N came out in September, but I'm not too sure about what month Super Mario appeared. Either way, since September is so close to the end of the year, I doubt either one is a spin-off of each other.

 

[David Lambert]

You guys are right; I have it switched up. The original show(s) were wrapped up into Captain N. My memory must be bad; but the Internet is a good reminder...as with this site's info.
Anthony, I think that "spin-off" or "wrap-into" of some sort did indeed happen, because (as the IMDB will verify), much of the voice talent is the same...right down to Link and Zelda!
Thanks for keeping me honest, fellas!

 

[cafink]

I don't think "spin off" is the right word. They're both video-game based shows prodeced by the same studio, so it just makes sense to use the same voice talents for common characters. It's not that one show spun off from the other so much as that they both spun off from the same video games.

 

[David Lambert]

Okay, Carl...I bow to your wisdom!
Did you know we had the same post counts? I know...that's meaningless.
So is which show begat from what. I'm sorry I brought it up in my review. I'll leave out such stuff next time; it was my first-ever review.
/cynicism
yeah, yeah...I'm a sore loser.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Mario's original name was Jumpman, as listed on the arcade game's instructions (I have one of these in my apartment ) He was referred to as Mario in books and magazines after the game came out though and had that name officially in Donkey Kong Jr. when that came out.
Whatever happened to "the lady" in the original game (who was referred to as Cindy but was called Pauline on the cartoon show if I remember correctly?)

 

[paul o'donnell]

David, don't even think about making this your last review. Where else is one to get their 80s fix?
and Jesse, you own an original 1981 Donkey Kong arcade?! Ooh you lucky so n so

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

You guys are also forgetting, after Super Mario Bros. 3/Captain N went off the air, there was another spinoff entitled Super Mario World (based on the SNES game) that lasted a few episodes.

 

[James_A]

Good God!

You guys scare me. Capt. Lou comes in has shopping where I work, and my sister knew his granddaughter and her boyfriend from school. Awesome guy!

Jim

 

[cafink]

Did you know we had the same post counts? I know...that's meaningless.

Well, I think it means something if you take into account the fact that you signed up more than two years later than I did!

 

[Steven K]

So does the DVD contain the animated episodes only, or does it also have the Captain Lou segments?

What about after Captain Lou left? I'm talking about the hosts, Tommy Treehugger and that Black dude (all I can remember is every Friday, his cousin "Evil Eric" would come on). Damn, that was funny stuff...