Super Mario Bros.: Mario Mania!

Super Mario Bros.: Mario Mania! is the second DVD release of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!. It was released on July 6, 2004, by Sterling Entertainment. Labeled as a "Collector's Edition", it features the first week's worth of episodes, including The Legend of Zelda episode "The Ringer", with all episodes accompanied by their respective live-action segments.

The cover is an altered version of the illustration used on the "Mario's Monster Madness" VHS and "Mario's Greatest Movie Moments" DVD. Mario and Luigi are seen running out of a movie theater with shocked expressions while King Koopa appears behind them. The marquee features a "Super Mario Bros." logo design, while on the bottom left of the marquee is the text "MARIO MANIA!" in a yellow font, with a black outline and a green/yellow shadow effect. A ticker that resembles King Koopa's shell appears on the bottom right, reading "JOIN THE MARIO BROS. IN THEIR FIRST 5 ADVENTURES!".

The DVD is labeled as "Volume 1", but a second volume containing the second week's worth of episodes was never made.

Blurb

Collectors Edition 1 - Featuring the First Full Week of Episodes Aired!

Dastardly King Koopa and his laughable minions are hatching another diabolical plan to capture Princess Toadstool and take control of the Mushroom Kingdom. Now, it's up to the Plumber Brothers from Brooklyn, Mario and Luigi, and their little friend, Toad, to save the Princess, defeat King Koopa, and restore peace... if Mario's appetite doesn't get in the way. These exciting animated episodes come with the original live-action features with wrestler Lou Albano as the world's most famous plumber superhero.

Episodes

1. The Bird! The Bird! (Original Air Date 9-4-89) - While venturing in a snowy world, Toad is kidnapped by a near-sighted Bird who is convinced that he is her missing baby.
2. King Mario of Cramalot (Original Air Date 9-5-89) - Koopa takes over Cramalot and the Mario Brothers have to work with a clumsy magicican named Marvin to save the city.
3. Butch Mario & The Luigi Kid (Original Air Date 9-6-89) - Koop the Kid has kidnapped the Princess and hidden her in the Old West, so Mario and Luigi must ride into town to save her.
4. Mario's Magic Carpet (Original Air Date 9-7-89) - The Mario Brothers wage a wild magic carpet battle to save the Princess from being forced into King Koopa's harem.
5. The Ringer (Legend of Zelda) (Original Air Date 9-8-89)- Ganon uses his powerful magic to disrupt an Amateur Magician's Contest in the Castle of Hyrule.

Episodes

The episodes are presented the same way they were streamed on Yahooligans! TV earlier that year. As a result, the first four episodes' live-action segments do not include their previews for the Zelda episode. Also, as with later releases, the Family Channel version of "King Mario of Cramalot" is used. However, this is also the only North American DVD release of the live-action episode "Slime Busters", which did not appear on Shout! Factory's Complete Series release for The Legend of Zelda.

• "Neatness Counts" / "The Bird! The Bird!"
• "Day of the Orphan" / "King Mario of Cramalot"
• "All Steamed Up" / "Butch Mario & The Luigi Kid"
• "Marianne & Luigeena" / "Mario's Magic Carpet"
• "Slime Busters" / "The Ringer" (The Legend of Zelda)

Bonus Features

The DVD contains two bonus features, the first is an option for the viewer to watch the individual live-action segments, without the animated segments. The second is a featurette titled "Ask Andy", in which executive producer Andy Heyward answers questions asked by fans. A similar featurette, complete with the same introduction, was featured on the Inspector Gadget DVD "The Gadget Files", which was released on the same day, also by Sterling, and was also released as a "Collector's Edition".

Ask Andy Transcript

Opening

• "My name is Andy Heyward. I'm chairman, CEO, and chief complaint taker at DIC Entertainment."

#1

• Q: "Who Created Super Mario Bros.?"
• A: "Well, Super Mario Brothers, of course, came from the... Nintendo game Super Mario Brothers. And it was created by a group of people. Uh, the key members of the team were... myself, Robby London, and Mike Maliani."

#2

• Q: "What Do You Think Made The Series So Unique?"
• A: "Well, the series, was, uh, was different to the time because it was a mixture of live action and animation. We had a live action character, uh, Captain Lou Albano, who played the role of Super Mario. And, uh, we had another live action character who played the role of his brother Luigi, and they did little skits. And we had, uh, people who would come in for each of those skips- skits playing cameo roles. And we had all kinds of people, and they were fun people, and they were... local celebrities, sometimes they from the world of sports, sometimes they were from the world of movies, from music, and, uh, those were the bumpers that went at the beginning and the end of every episode."

#3

• Q: "What Was The Origin Of Super Mario Bros?"
• A: "Well, when Super Mario came out as a game it was on the original Nintendo NES 8-bit system. And it was absolutely magical. Everybody fell in love with that. It was one of the- and it remains one of the best video games to this day. And I think a lot of people have a real feel good place in their- in their hearts, uh, when they see this show. And all of the music from the show is and it- it is the music that comes from the game. All of the little melodies, all of the sound effects, we worked very hard on that. And, uh, uh, the show, uh, did very well."

#4

• Q: "What Did The Creators Of Super Mario Bros. Think Of The TV Show?"
• A: "Good question and I couldn't tell ya. The creator of the video game was in Japan... and the series was produced autonomously in the United States. Of course, we tried to be respectful of everything in the video game. I probably lost about ten years of life work on that- on that, uh, series because, uh, we really wanted it to be just spot on in every way. Uh, as I say, the music came from the video game, the character designs were very much based on the video game. The sound effects, uh, the art direction, we wanted it to be faithful to the video game."

#5

• Q: "How Many Live Action Shows Were Taped?"
• A: "All of the live action was shot at one time. We did, uh, uh, approximately fifty-two episodes of live action... wraparounds that were shot in about a two week period. And then they were later edited into the cartoons. The cartoons each take about a year to make."

#6

• Q: "Were Lou Albano And Danny Wells Your First Choices To Play The Mario Bros.?"
• A: "Well, they're both very talented. Lou is kind of a larger than life character. We knew him from uh, the world of wrestling, and he had a tremendous, uh, following at the WWF at that time. And, uh, he just, uh, he looks like Super Mario. When I looked at the character Super Mario, I saw Captain Lou Albano."

#7

• Q: "What Was It Like Working With Ernie Hudson In The Episode “Slime Busters”?"
• A: "We loved Ernie Hudson. He's a well respected character actor and, of course, he was one of the stars of Ghostbusters. So, when we did the episode "Slime Busters", it was natural to try and get Ernie to play a cameo in that role, which he, uh, very graciously did for us."

#8

• Q: "Who Was Your Favorite Guest Star?"
• A: "Well, I loved Magic Johnson. He was wonderful. He probably was my favorite."

#9

• Q: "Who Sings “The Mario Rap” At The Beginning Of The Show?"
• A: "The Mario Rap? Eh, I love, I really love that Mario Rap. The Mario Rap was sung by Captain Lou and Danny Wells."

#10

• Q: "Who Sings “Do The Mario” At The End Of The Show?"
• A: "That was- that was sung by them also."

#11

• Q: "Who Wrote The Song?"
• A: "Uh, I think actually I wrote the lyrics if I'm not mistaken. And the... music was the melodies that were from the video game."

#12

• Q: "Will You Be Coming Out With Future Super Mario Bros. Episodes?"
• A: "Not currently."

Closing

• "Well, the Super Mario Brothers franchise has never gone away. If you look at the top video games at any point in time in the last fifteen or so years, you can go back one year, three years, five years, ten years, twelve years. Every year you will see there was some iteration, some version, of the Super Mario Brothers games... in the top selling video game charts. Now, of course, there was always a new game that came out with a new system. When the 16-bit system came out, there was Super Mario 3. When the Super NES came out, or NES, uh, the 64-bit system, there was Super Mario 4, there was always something different. And then there's Mario Kart, and Mario & Yoshi, and Mario's Birthday Party, and... Mario & Wario, and all different kinds of, uh, versions of it."