User:Mister Wu/Cute Features in the Reptiles

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The Super Mario games have a lot of reptiles in them, also thanks to Bowser and his army. One interesting thing about these reptiles is that often their design presents features that I might, for simplicity, relate to cuteness (althoguh we might also argue that they might have a broader aim in making the character more pleasant and easy to relate to). It's no surprise that the reptiles seen in the Super mario games have many cute features, but it's interesting to see the common and recurring ones to better understand how in the design of the characters a fine balance between cuteness and other traits such as aggressivity (manifested through claws) is obtained through these features. Without furrther ado, let's begin!

Fat

This is not a specifica feature but rather a general design direction and it must not be taken too literally, as by design only a few characters are meant to be fat, e.g. the Sledge Bros.

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  A Sledge Bro in New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Still, most reptiles in the Super Mario games, even if they are not meant to be fat in that their design doesn't exaggerate the traits linked to fatness, still presents traits typical of characters who are not slim, such as wide legs, muscles not being visible with arms presenting straight lines, rounded borders where the skin is found. This makes them cuter, as it gives more an impression of softness rather than brute force.

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  A Beach Koopa in Super Mario 3D World

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  Bowser

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  Ludwig von Koopa in New Super Mario Bros. U

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  Yoshi in Yoshi's Safari

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  A Dino Rhino in Super Mario World

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  Birdo in Mario Party 8

In the case of Plessie this fatness is even exploited to create a pleasant animation while outside of the water, as the dinosaur slide on its belly.

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  Plessie sliding on its belly in Super Mario 3D World

Short legs

Most reptiles in the Super Mario games have short legs, likely due to most real life reptiles (e.g. lizard, crocodiles, turtles) having short legs as well. This trait is observed even in reptiles that are supposed to be tall:

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  Glydon in Super Mario Odyssey

• Iggy.jpg

  Iggy Koopa in New Super Mario Bros. Wii

• WiiU SuperMario scrn04 E3.png

  Plessie in Super Mario 3D World

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  Bowser

Beside being linked to real life reptiles, short legs are also a typical trait of newborn babies and as such they can also be linked to cuteness.

Padded feet

This is one of the most widespread features of the reptiles in the Super Mario games. Pads are actually a soft part of the paws of some mammals and are used for various purposes, such as increasing friction and acting as cushions. Reptiles are not meant to have them. Yet it's impressive to see how many characters feature them, this being just a selection:

• KoopaParaSMBGreen.png

  A green Koopa Paratroopa in Super Mario Bros.

• SMBDX Hammer Pic.PNG

  A Hammer Bro in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe

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  A Spiny in New Super Mario Bros. 2

• BuzzybeetleNSMBU.png

  A Buzzy Beetle in New Super Mario Bros. U

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  A Spike in Mario Party 10

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  Bowser and Bowser Jr. playing the Nintendo Switch

• Birdo MP9.png

  Birdo in Mario Party 9

Since they are typically distinguished through a different color and in recent artwork they are shown to display a different pattern with repsect to the scale-based pattern of the rest of the skin, I guess their aim is creating variety as well as cutesy by indicating an area meant to be soft - as mammals pads are.
Some characters, such as Larry Koopa, feature quite a few artwork images showing said feature:

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  Larry Koopa in Super Mario World

• NSMBU LarryKoopa.png

  Larry Koopa in New Super Mario Bros. Wii and New Super Mario Bros. U

• Mk8larry.png

  Larry Koopa in Mario Kart 8

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  Larry Koopa in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U

Not to say that even characters who were initially designed with shoes on their feet and are almost always seen with them, such as Yoshi, feature pads, showing their importance in terms of design:

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Bright underbelly aera

This trait presents itself as a bright (typically white) area that spans the lower part of the body, covering at least the belly but typically spanning the whole lower part of the body, from the lower part of the muzzle until the lower part of the tail:

• Yoshi2 MP9.png

  Yoshi in Mario Party 9

Glydon, a lizard featuring said trait, revealed that the skin said area indeed has a different pattern which doesn't feature the scales seen in the upper part of the body, showing that again this trait is linked to softness, while also creating variety and also acting as a pleasant way to underline the layout of the body if it spans the whole lower part of the body.

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  Glydon with Mario in Super Mario Odyssey

While the various turtles often don't feature this trait possibly due to the shell covering the belly, defeating its aesthetic purpose, it's still not uncommon among the other reptiles:

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  Mario on Dorrie in Super Mario Adventure Game Picture Book 6: Three Treasures

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  Plessie in Super Mario 3D World

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  A reznor in New Super Mario Bros. 2

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  Birdo in Mario Party 7

Big and round upper end of the muzzle

This trait was made famous by Yoshi who has a distinct upper part of the muzzle:

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  Yoshi in Mario Hoops 3-on-3

Still, other reptiles feature it, in particular the friendly ones, Dorrie and Plessie:

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  Plessie in Super Mario 3D World

• Dorrie 1.JPG

  Dorrie in Super Mario Odyssey

Considering the friendliness of all these reptiles, I think it might be again related to the impression of softness that a big, round object confers.

Protruding teeth

This is one of the few traits which are officially acknowledged to be cute. Among the most famous characters who feature protruding teeth there are of course the Koopalings:

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  Ludwig von Koopa in the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros.

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  Roy Koopa in the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros.

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  Iggy Koopa in the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros.

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  Morton Koopa Jr. in the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros.

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  Larry Koopa in the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros.

Said trait is so relevant that it appeared even in their preliminary sketch:

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  Preliminary sketch of Morton Koopa Jr. found on page 65 of the Nintendo Official Guidebook of Super Mario Collection

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  Preliminary sketch of Iggy Koopa found on page 65 of the Nintendo Official Guidebook of Super Mario Collection

Curiously, despite the prtotruding teeth being acknowledged to be cute, many friendly reptiles lack them completely, possibly to display friendliness as the teeth are still related to bites:

• SMO Glydon screenshot.png

  Glydon in Super Mario Odyssey

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  Yoshi in Mario Party Island Tour

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  Plessie in Super Mario 3D World

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  A purple Dorrie in Super Mario Odyssey

Blue eyes

Even though they might be related to ice and thus a cold personality, blue is also the color of the sky and thus a sign of positivity. Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach have blue eyes:

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  Mario

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  Luigi

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  Princess Peach

But so do enemies like the Hammer Bros:

• Hammer Bro-NSMBU.png

  A Hammer Bro in New Super Mario Bros. U

Two interesting cases are those of Bowser and Yoshi. The former was given blue eyes after his first redesign and maintained them until the American release of Super Mario World, where the eyes were reverted to red:

• Bowser SMBLL flyer cropped.png

  Bowser in the Family Computer Disk System version of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

• Bowsersmb3.png

  Bowser in Super Mario Bros. 3

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  Bowser in the American manual of Super Mario World

Three Koopalings too have this trait, and maintained it even after Bowser's eyes were changed to red again:

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  Larry Koopa

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  Wendy O. Koopa

• IggyNSMBU.png

  Iggy Koopa in New Super Mario Bros. U

In the case of Yoshi, he initially featured completely black eyes and his hand-drawn artwork stilldepict him with black eyes:

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  Yoshi in Super Mario World

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  Yoshi in a 2015 coloring book

However, with the new computer graphics artwork images, a light blue iris started to appear and the pupil itself started having a blue color in the center revealing that the eyes are indeed blue:

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  Yoshi in Mario Party 10

Blue eyes is also one of the two traits that appear in the captured creatures in Super Mario Odyssey, showing its importance in terms of character design:

• SMO Glydon Captured.png

  Glydon captured by Mario

Big oval-shaped vertical eyes

This traits is common in the reptiles of the Super Mario games and it's also one that affects the face significantly, often preventing the presence of eyebrows:

• Smb2 redkoopa.png

  A red Koopa Troopa in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

Big eyes are used to enhance the cuteness of the characters and as such is used in various friendly reptiles:

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  Yoshi in Mario Party DS

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  Plessie in Super Mario 3D World

• Dorrie 1.JPG

  [[Dorrie in Super Mario Odyssey

but also in those that are meant to be enemies of Mario (but often are more or less implicitly cute as well):

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  A Hammer Bro in [[Paper Mario: Color Splash]

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  Iggy Koopa in [[Paper Mario: Color Splash]

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  Larry Koopa in [[Paper Mario: Color Splash]

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  Lemmy Koopa in [[Paper Mario: Color Splash]

Feline mouth

This trait is characterized by the upper part of the mouth being shaped like a "3" rotated by 90° to the right and centered on the nose:

• Emblem lry mk8.png

  The emblem of Larry Koopa in Mario Kart 8

It is borrowed from cats and as such is a form of cuteness through relation with common pets, it's nonethless featured in some reptiles, notably Bowser and some Koopalings:

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  Bowser in Super Mario Bros. 3

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  Larry Koopa in Super Mario Bros. 3

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  Morton Koopa Jr. in Super Mario Bros. 3

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  Roy Koopa in Super Mario Bros. 3

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  Ludwig von Koopa in Super Mario Bros. 3

Final notes

I started thinking about this review of cute features of the reptiles when I recently saw a Pokémon-themed jigsaw puzzle who had right in the center this popular Pokémon, who also happens to be my favorite one, Charizard:

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  Charizard in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U

Looking at his design, even in this artwork that slightly enhances the aggressive apsects, in particular the muscles of the arms, with respect to the current hand-drawn artwork, reminded me of many features I had already seen in the Super Mario games, and now I can even list most of them:

1. Fat
2. Short legs
3. Padded feet
4. Bright underbelly area
5. Protruding teeth
6. Blue eyes

This shows that indeed, while Charizard's design might enhance the aspects related to mightiness (wings, horns, big size) and aggressiveness (claws, sharp teeth, ability to breathe fire), it actaully retains a lot of cute elements, allowing it to reach what I find a delicate balance between cuteness, mightiness and aggressiveness. More importantly, this shows how the features we have seen before in the Mario franchise can be successful also in other franchises, indicating how relevant they can be. As a side notice, the most recent Super Mario game, Super Mario Odyssey, features two reptiles that pretty much don't feature most of the aforementioned cute features in thir design, the T-Rex and the Ruined Dragon:

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  T-Rex in Super Mario Odyssey

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  Ruined Dragon in Super Mario Odyssey

It's interesting to note how their design stands out with respect to the design of the other reptiles, being often stated to be more realistic due to the higher detail of every part of their body and, indeed, the aforementioned traits not being followed in favor of designs that recall actual reconstructions of the Tyrannosaurus Rex of around twenty-five yers ago and modern Western dragons, respectively.