The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3
The opening title curtain for The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3
General information
Developer(s)	Reed Shelly Bruce Shelly
Director(s)	John Grusd
Seasons	1
Episodes	26
Production
Production company	DiC Entertainment
Distributor(s)	WildBrain
Runtime	23–24 minutes
Broadcast
First aired	September 8, 1990
Last aired	December 1, 1990
Chronology
Predecessor	The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (1989)
Successor	Super Mario World (1991)

“It is a legend no one will forget. Everyone thought King Koopa had left the Mushroom Kingdom. And then... his Doom Ship attacked! King Koopa was back! With the greatest danger ever known...His Koopa Kids! Using their new super powers, the Super Mario Bros. rescued Princess Toadstool, and beat back the evil Koopa family.”

—Opening narration

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, also known as Super Mario Bros. 3, is the second cartoon of DIC Entertainment's Super Mario trilogy, loosely based on the game Super Mario Bros. 3. Aired Saturday mornings on NBC alongside Captain N: The Game Master, the show served as a bit of a turning point to the Super Mario trilogy, where unlike The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! before it, the Mushroom Kingdom is shown in a more peaceful state, there is no live-action segment at the beginning and end of the episode and King Koopa does not use alter egos or employ any of Wart's minions. Numerous enemies from Super Mario Bros. 3 carry over into this series, such as the Koopa Kids, who are portrayed with solid personalities, and original names to reflect them. The series has been released on DVD by Shout! Factory and MRA Entertainment, also responsible for the DVD releases of the Super Mario World cartoon series. This series has 26 episodes.

Overview

Unlike The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, which was broadcast weekdays in syndication, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 was aired on Saturday mornings on NBC, alongside Captain N: The Game Master for the 1990–1991 season. The two shows originally aired in a one-hour package entitled Captain N & The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, which consisted of a half-hour episode of Captain N: The Game Master sandwiched between two fifteen-minute Super Mario episodes. The two shows were then split up for later airings. The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 was the only animated Super Mario franchise to use episode title cards and also the only one to open with a narration instead of a theme song. The show was originally titled Super Mario Bros. III! as shown in a poster that featured radically different designs for the Koopalings, Tryclyde (this time blue), and a previously unseen yellow monster.

Title card for Captain N & The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.

While The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! mainly dealt with Mario and Luigi helping Princess Toadstool and Toad trying to stop King Koopa from taking over the Mushroom Kingdom and other lands, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 took place some time later, after the events of the game, when the Mushroom Kingdom was in a more peaceful state.

Luigi, Toad, Mario, and Princess Toadstool

As it was based on Super Mario Bros. 3, the feel of the Mushroom Kingdom changed to better resemble the game. The various worlds of Super Mario Bros. 3 were visited regularly, and new Power-Ups such as Super Leaves and Frog Suits appeared. King Koopa also changed his army, losing Wart's minions, but gaining more of his own, including Boom Booms, Boomerang Brothers, Sledge Brothers, Dry Bones, and many more. Also, King Koopa no longer goes through various alter-egos and wears costumes, and although characters continued to call him King Koopa like they did on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, his full name, Bowser Koopa, was mentioned in a few episodes. Furthermore, none of the voice cast from Super Show! returned to their roles, except Harvey Atkin and John Stocker.

King Koopa

One notable addition to the cast was Bowser's seven Koopa Kids, who were given alternate names for the show. Although DiC has never properly explained why different names were issued for the Koopalings, their alternate names are descriptive of their characters. Additionally, they hadn't been named by Nintendo of America when the show began production, suggesting the writers had to make up names of their own.

The Koopa Kids. Back row from left to right: Hop, Kootie Pie, and Hip. Front row: Bully, Big Mouth, Cheatsy, and Kooky.

Other locations in the show included Toad's House and the Mushroom Castle, where the protagonists often reside between their adventures. The Koopa family took up residence at Kastle Koopa, located in the heart of Dark Land. In many episodes, the Koopas would use the Doom Ship to launch their attacks.

During the credits, a scene of the episode "Sneaky Lying Cheating Giant Ninja Koopas" is shown, where Mario and Luigi hit a giant block. In the episode, the block quickly vanishes when the Bros. hit it. However, in the credits, the block is still there, even after being hit.

From the writer's bible

The Mushroom Kingdom was finally free of King Koopa's tumultuous troublemaking. Mario and Luigi had chased the rascally reptile into a Banishment Zone and sealed the entrance with ten-thousand bricks. Then, after posing for hero statues and being feted with a kingdom-wide gourmet victory feast, our brave plumbers returned home to Brooklyn. But when the peaceful Mushroom People least expected it, King Koopa escaped. Vowing to finally get his villainy right this time, Koopa blasted back to the Mushroom Kingdom in his flying battlewagon, the Doom Ship, and revealed the wildest, weirdest, wackiest danger any Nintendo world has ever faced: King Koopa's kids. Bully Koopa, Big Mouth Koopa Jr., Kooky von Koopa, Cheatsy Koopa, Kootie Pie Koopa, and the last of the litter, twins Hip and Hop. Now, it was Koopa plus seven Koopa Kids, and the peaceful Mushroom Kingdom faced seven-hundred times the pandemonium. Princess Toadstool sent an urgent call for help. Only the Super Mario Bros. could stop the royal Koopa and his obnoxious offspring from wreaking their half-baked havoc. And Super Mario 3,^[sic] the Super Marios' super mirthful adventures had begun.

Meet the Marios and the Koopas

Our stories can start in several ways. First, they can begin with our heroes and heroine: Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad, i.e. they set out to rescue a troubled Mushroom Kingdom citizen, or on a personal quest, and then quickly find their lives complicated by King Koopa and his kids. Or, we can start our stories at Kastle Koopa, when King Koopa announces his latest wicked and wacky scheme, then selects which one of his Koopa Kids he'll take along as his assistant. Depending on the specific evil talent required for the Koopa caper, à la Mission Impossible. And then it's up to our heroes to stop them.

Since there's never been a more rivalrous group of siblings, the Koopa Kids clamor to win King Koopa's favor, and sabatoge one another in order to be chosen. When the riot ends, King Koopa and the kid, or kids of his choice, set out to create havoc in all the rich, new levels of the Mushroom Kingdom. From Grass Land to Desert Land, Water Land to Giant Land, Sky Land to Ice Land, and Pipe Land to Dark Land.

And it's not just the good folk of the Mushroom Kingdom who are in danger. Loading up his giant, flying battlecraft, the Doom Ship with Koopa Troopas and Paragoombas, King Koopa and his off-the-wall offspring even mount occasional surprise assaults on the un-Mushroom Kingdoms of the Real World's New York City, Hollywood, Fort Knox, London, Paris, or Hong Kong.

If that isn't trouble enough, the Koopa Krew has a whole new assortment of malicious and madcap minions to help them harass our heroes and heroine. Boo Diddleys, pesky ghost heads with big teeth and short tempers. Thwomp, a monumental hunk of menacing rock with the ambition to be Mario's tombstone. Ptooies, mouth-headed mercenaries who spit spiked cannonballs. And Rocky Wrench, a sneaky turtle with severe overbite who hides in manholes and ambushes unsuspecting plumbers.

In every corner of this colorful land, we find appealing three-dimensional personalities, who truly deserve a Mario Bros. rescue. No matter how much we want to laugh at the comedic appearances of our Nintendoish cast, they come complete with hearts, minds, dreams, feelings, and all the indentifiable human conflicts essential to rich storytelling.

Broadcast history

US

• NBC (1990-1991)
• The Family Channel (1992-1993)
• USA Network (1995)
• PAX Network (1999)
• Starz Encore
  • Kids and Family (2016-2020)
• Paramount+ (2021-present)
• Pluto TV
• Tubi
• Kartoon Channel
• NCircle TV
• Sling TV
• The Roku Channel

The series was formerly available to stream on Netflix, but was removed on March 31, 2021.

Canada

• Global Television Network (1990)
• WildBrainTV
• VMedia
• RiverTV

Denmark

• TV 2 (1992)

Mario and Luigi as portrayed in the Danish live action segments.

The Danish dub of the show was notable for featuring new live-action segments starring Mario & Luigi bookending the animated episodes. The brothers were portrayed by Lennart Johannessen and Jørn Rosenville respectively.

UK

• Channel 4 (?-1999)
• The Children's Channel
• Disney Channel UK
• POP! (2004–2010)
• ITV2
• The Roku Channel

The series was formerly available to stream on Netflix, but was removed on March 31, 2021.

Ireland

• RTÉ Two (2001-2003)
• POP! (2004-2010)

AUS

• Nine Network (1991)
• KidsCo (2009-2014)

Romania

• KidsCo (2007-2014)

In Romania, KidsCo are said to have purchased "over 3,000 half-hour series" (likely referring to individual episodes from across multiple series) from producers DIC Entertainment and Nelvana, which included The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Super Mario World television series.

Italy

• Italia 1 (1990)
• FOX Kids (1990)
• K2
• Frisbee
• Planet Kids (2013)
• Netflix (2016)

The Italian dub uses an instrumental version of the intro sequence without the opening narration.

Latin America

• Etc TV (?-2014)
• TaTeTi (?-2016)

Brazil

• Rede Globo (1991, 2000-2001)

There were three different Brazilian Portuguese dubs. The first dub by Herbert Richers S.A. does not use the original background music in the first two episodes and in all of the episodes that come after the 14th, being replaced with Isao Tomita's compositions. The second dub was made by BKS only for distribution in VHS format and Toad was renamed to "Mushroom" for unknown reasons. The third dub was made by Uniarthe exclusively for distribution in DVD, and Toad was this time renamed to "Todd".

Middle East and North Africa

• Spacetoon (2000-)

The Arabic dub by Venus Centre included episodes from both The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World presented as a single series.

Greece

• Vergina TV (2012-)

Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan

• REN TV (2003-2004)
• Jetix (2006-2007)
• STS (2010-2011)
• KidsCo (2012-2013)
• 2x2 (2015-2016)

Philippines

• Net 25 (1999-)

Production staff

Main article: List of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 staff

DiC chairman Andy Heyward served as the series' executive producer, with John Grusd serving as the producer and director. Production was supervised by Brian Miller, the scripts by Lori Crawford, and development of the series for television was done by Bruce and Reed Shelly. The art was directed by Frank Ridgeway, and the animation supervised by Julian Fries. Characters original to the series were designed by Paul Wee, Fred Carrillo, Sandy Kopitopulos, and Phil Weinstein. Music for the series was supervised by Joanne Miller and composed by Michael Tavara. Overseas animation was provided by Sei Young Animation Co., Ltd. of South Korea. The series was co-produced with Reteitalia S.p.A.

Characters

Main protagonists

• 

  Mario

• 

  Luigi

• 

  Princess Toadstool

• 

  Toad

Main antagonists

• 

  King Koopa

• 

  Cheatsy Koopa

• 

  Big Mouth Koopa

• 

  Kootie Pie Koopa

• 

  Hop Koopa

• 

  Bully Koopa

• 

  Hip Koopa

• 

  Kooky von Koopa

King Koopa's army

• 

  Goomba

• 

  Piranha Plant

• 

  Fire Piranha Plant

• 

  Ptooie

• 

  Hammer Bro

• 

  Boomerang Bro

• 

  Dry Bones

• 

  Para-Beetle

• 

  Thwomp

• 

  Angry Sun

• 

  Bob-omb

• 

  Nipper Plant

Casting

All character voice actors and actresses for The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 were based in Canada, directed by Greg Morton, and cast by Paul F. Quinn. Various voice actors from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! were recast with new actors.

• Walker Boone as Mario
• Tony Rosato as Luigi
• Tracey Moore as Princess Toadstool
• John Stocker as Toad
• Harvey Atkin as King Koopa
• Tara Strong as Hop Koopa (credited by her maiden name, Tara Charendoff)
• Stuart Stone as Hip Koopa
• Tabitha St. Germain as Kootie Pie (credited as Paulina Gillis)
• James Rankin as Cheatsy
• Michael Stark as Kooky
• Gordon Masten as Big Mouth
• Dan Hennessey as Bully
• Greg Morton as Prince Hugo and additional voices
• Bonnie Brooks as Mushroom Nanny and additional voices
• Rod Coneybeare as King Mackerel and additional voices
• Diane Fabian as Holly Mackerel and additional voices
• Catherine Gallant as Junior's mom, Madzilla's Mom, Queen Mushroomkhamen and additional voices
• Jonathan Potts as Cutter, Madzilla and additional voices
• Susan Roman as additional voices
• Linda Sorenson as additional voices
• Marlow Vella as additional voices
• Ernie Anderson as opening narrator (uncredited)

The show has been translated into 22 languages and 6 dialects with each translation having unique voice actors:

• Arabic
• Bulgarian
• Croatian
• Danish
• Dutch
• Finnish
• French
  • Metropolitan French
  • Canadian French
• German
• Greek
• Hungarian
• Italian
• Korean
• Norwegian
• Polish
• Portuguese
  • Brazilian Portuguese
• Romanian
• Russian
• Slovenian
• Spanish
  • American Spanish
  • Castilian Spanish
  • Mexican Spanish
• Swedish
• Taiwanese Mandarin
• Thai

Episodes

First aired	First episode	Second episode
September 8, 1990	"Sneaky Lying Cheating Giant Ninja Koopas"	"Reptiles in the Rose Garden"
September 15, 1990	"Mind Your Mummy Mommy, Mario"	"The Beauty of Kootie"
September 22, 1990	"Princess Toadstool for President"	"Never Koop a Koopa"
September 29, 1990	"Reign Storm"	"Toddler Terrors of Time Travel"
October 6, 1990	"Dadzilla"	"Tag Team Trouble"
October 13, 1990	"Oh, Brother!"	"Misadventure of Mighty Plumber"
October 20, 1990	"A Toadally Magical Adventure"	"Misadventures in Babysitting"
October 27, 1990	"Do the Koopa"	"Kootie Pie Rocks"
November 3, 1990	"Mush-Rumors"	"The Ugly Mermaid"
November 10, 1990	"Crimes R Us"	"Life's Ruff"
November 17, 1990	"Up, Up, and a Koopa"	"7 Continents for 7 Koopas"
November 24, 1990	"True Colors"	"Recycled Koopa"
December 1, 1990	"The Venice Menace"	"Super Koopa"

Songs

Main article: List of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 songs

Each episode contained at least one song; however, the several copyrighted songs included (which are listed in bold) were later replaced by Mega Move.

Episode	Song(s)
"Sneaky Lying Cheating Giant Ninja Koopas"	"Ninja Man"
"Reptiles in the Rose Garden"	"Do The Frog"
"Mind Your Mummy Mommy, Mario"	"Wipe Out"
"The Beauty of Kootie"	"Slippin' and Slidin'"
"Princess Toadstool for President"	"Great Balls of Fire"
"Never Koop a Koopa"	"Sizzle"
"Reign Storm"	"Girls Just Want to Have Fun"
"Toddler Terrors of Time Travel"	"Baby Chase"
"Dadzilla"	"Gonna Stomp My Name on the Walk of Fame"
"Tag Team Trouble"	"Burn Baby Burn"
"Oh, Brother!"	"Brotherly Love" "Double Crossing"
"Misadventure of Mighty Plumber"	"Super Plumber"
"A Toadally Magical Adventure"	"I'ma Hurricane"
"Misadventures in Babysitting"	"Sizzle"
"Do the Koopa"	"Do The Koopa"
"Kootie Pie Rocks"	"Blame It on the Rain" "Girl You Know It's True"
"Mush-Rumors"	"In My Frog Suit"
"The Ugly Mermaid"	"Never Kiss a Mermaid"
"Crimes R Us"	"Double Crossing"
"Life's Ruff"	"It's A Dog's Life"
"Up, Up, and a Koopa"	"What Goes Up"
"7 Continents for 7 Koopas"	"I'ma Hurricane"
"True Colors"	"When Koopas Paint The Town"
"Recycled Koopa"	"Stench City"
"The Venice Menace"	"Speedy Gondola"
"Super Koopa"	"My Karoobi"

Home releases

Main article: List of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 home media releases

Many VHSs and DVDs compiling episodes from the show have been released worldwide, including the following:

VHS tapes

• US: Mind Your Mummy Mommy, Mario, Misadventures in Babysitting, Never Koop a Koopa, The Ugly Mermaid (Buena Vista) and King Koopa Katastrophe (Sterling Entertainment)
• AU/NZ: Princess Toadstool for President, Reptiles in the Rose Garden, Kootie Pie Rocks (Roadshow Entertainment)

DVDs

• One one-disc set by Sterling Entertainment.
• Three one-disc sets by NCircle Entertainment.
• One three-disc set by NCircle Entertainment.
• One two-disc set by NCircle Entertainment.
• One three-disc box-set by Shout! Factory (released 2007).
• One two-disc set by Beyond Home Entertainment (Australia and New Zealand only).
• Four one-disc sets by MRA Entertainment (Australia and New Zealand only).
• Three one-disc sets by Disky Communications (UK, Ireland and Netherlands only)

Differences from the game

• The Koopa Kids were known by different names in the series, having new names that reflected their given personalities, and some aspects of their designs deviated slightly from their game artwork.
• Koopa was called "Bowser" in a few episodes, and that name was used regularly in the French dub, which also used the Koopa Kids' game names.
• The character designs for the four heroes and Koopa were retained from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! despite the fact that Nintendo redesigned the main characters in the Super Mario franchise, but after "Princess Toadstool for President," Mario's hair was recolored to its present brown while Luigi's hair stays black, and Toadstool's eyes are black in this series as opposed to their original green.
  • Although the show did not carry over the Mario brothers' current shirt and overall coloration swaps from the game, the orange-and-red color motif from their NES fire sprites, where their shirts were colored like their hats but their overalls were not, was retained when it appeared in "Super Koopa." Also, Mario was portrayed with his current color scheme from the games on the Shout! Factory DVD cover, while in the show, he is still portrayed with his original color scheme.
• There is only one single Airship, which is referred to as the "Doom Ship".
• Kuribo's Shoe is referred to as "Karoobi."
• No distinction is made between standard Super Leaves and P-Wings, with all flight power being near-limitless, and the Mushroom Kingdom and Grass Land are treated as one and the same.
• In order to use the power-ups, Bowser needed to wear a special pendant created by Kooky and be in the real world.
• Bowser's Castle is surrounded by water instead of lava.

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.

• 

  Frog Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad

• 

  Super Koopa

• 

  Kooky von Koopa

• 

  Boom Boom

• 

  Boo

Quotes

Main article: List of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 quotes

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
French	Les Aventures de Super Mario Bros. 3	The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3
German	Die Abenteuer von Super Mario Bros 3[?]	The Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3
Hungarian	Super Mario kalandjai	Adventures of Super Mario
Italian	Super Mario[?]	-	First airings
	Le avventure di Super Mario	The adventures of Super Mario	Subsequent airings
Korean	수퍼마리오 3 Syupeo Mario 3	Super Mario 3
Polish	Nowe Przygody Braci Mario	The New Adventures of the Super Mario Brothers
Portuguese (NOA)	Super Mario Bros.	-
	As Aventuras dos Irmãos Super Mario	The Adventures of the Super Mario Brothers	re-dub
Portuguese (NOE)	Super Mario	-
	As Aventuras de Super Mario Bros. 3[?]	The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3	re-dub
Romanian	Aventurile fraților Super Mario	The Adventures of the Super Mario Brothers
Russian	Приключения братьев Супер Марио 3 Priklyucheniya brat'ev Super Mario 3	Adventures of the Super Mario Brothers 3
Spanish (NOA)	Las aventuras de los Súper Hermanos Mario	The adventures of the Super Mario Brothers	original dub
	Super Mario Brothers 3[?]	-	alternate dub
Spanish (NOE)	Super Mario	-
	Las Aventuras de los Hermanos Super Mario	The Adventures of the "Super Mario" Brothers	re-dub1
Swedish	Super Mario Bros. 3[?]	Super Mario Bros. 3

¹ - The difference between the Latin American (in the original dub) and the Spain re-dub title of the series is this: in Latin America, they are the Super "Mario" Brothers, with Super being an adjective to "Mario" which is their last name, whereas in Spain, they are the "Super Mario" Brothers, with "Super Mario" being sort of their last name. This difference is one of the minor ones between the two dubs, the Spain re-dub having kept many changes and mistakes (particularly regarding to character's names and episode titles) from the Latin American dub, as opposed to the first Spain dub, which went to their own (and more accurate) translation of the English version.

Trivia

• The VHS's distributed by the Argentine company Target use artwork from video games in the box art, which include Super Mario Bros. 2 and Yoshi.
  • The same occurs with the DVDs distributed by the Spanish company Paycom Multimedia, in which the first three volumes use artwork from Super Mario Bros. 3 and the fourth volume uses artwork from Mario vs. Donkey Kong. The back covers of all five volumes use artwork from Super Mario World.

External links

• All full episodes of the show officially uploaded on YouTube, courtesy of WildBrain Spark.