Super Mario Bros. Super Show Episodes 41-43 Review

Bye! Welcome to the latest episode of Pixels

in the Animation. I am one of your hosts, Steve

Jan Mike, and joining me in this latest episode

is TV's Mr. Neil. Mario, where are you? For a

second there, I thought you were going to say,

Mario, where are you? No. That should have been

in the Bad Rap episode. No, there's no particular

reason I saved it for this one. We'll get to

it. So yeah, we are 11 episodes in. We have four

episodes left of Super Show. We're almost home

free, dude. It can only get better from here,

right? I mean, I know you don't like... Mario

3 But for me and I'll say this when we get to

that eventually down the line because we'll be

doing Zelda and Captain and first but for me

Mario 3 was a Breath of fresh air honestly the

game was so damn good and the cartoon But you

know we've talked about this. We've talked about

Super Show emulating Super Mario Brothers and

Super Mario Brothers 2 and how they've mixed

and matched and done this and done that and used

this and used that. Well, Mario 3, at least for

me, it was an interesting premise of how to work

the kids into an actual story instead of just

saying, you go to world one, you face this kid,

you go to world two, you face this, you know

what I mean? So I thought it was a cool way to

introduce the kids, and I'm sure we'll talk about

all this down the line, but oh man, I cannot

wait until we hit Raccoon Mario. Yeah, the Mario

3 cartoon is a better cartoon than this but that

that bar was set low Of course today we're gonna

continue the SMB Super Show reviews as we talk

about the next I think it's three episodes we'll

be doing today So yeah, let's go ahead and get

to the episodes after this Plumbers log number

22 16 we were in the oriental city of Sayonara

Looking for the martial arts master Misaki whose

skills could help us save the princess's kingdom,

but we found trouble first Ruffling rigatoni

what a rose First up today is karate koopa. Yeah.

Oh boy The live -action segment was called a

D. Don't I I watched it I Honest it was not memorable.

Yeah, it was it was that it was a Mario and Luigi

getting ready for a commercial that they're doing

for their Oh, that's right. Yeah, and that's

what made me think of the Atari Mario Brothers

song because it's like If they were gonna do

a jingle they should have done that instead of

what they did in the actual show That's the one

a couple weeks ago when I was talking about there

was some lady that came in it was like a game

show it was her because she's like She's doing

the Vanna poses of, ta -da, look at this prize,

ta -da, look at this paint, that whole female

game show hostess thing. Yeah, I was trying to

figure out why she was, every gesture she made,

it was making game show noises. Maybe it was

the whole thing of... Maybe it was the whole

thing of... The fact that she was a television

star. Oh, I know I know it was because they were

trying to make a commercial Yeah, and she was

playing to the camera. That's that's that's what

it was and Mario had Mario developed stage fright

and In the immortal words of Lin Min May stage

fright go away wait. No, let's just cartoon I

Don't want to talk about this live action segment

anymore When Koopa kidnaps Princess Toadstool

and Toad, Mario and Luigi turn to a karate master

for help. The featured song was Carl Douglas's

Kung Fu Fighting! Oh boy. I remember watching

this as a kid. I remember hearing the - even

though I do - obviously you can't hear it now

because it's not on the DVDs, but I'm sure it's

on the YouTube version or whatever else, but

I remember, uh - watching this as a kid and I

remember hearing that song and the next time

I heard that song after this was in Power Rangers

the movie in 1995 yeah shut up we know you don't

like Power Rangers yeah um this this thing I

I don't even know I honest The the character

was it Miyasaki or I don't know who is he supposed

to be I don't I don't know I he was sort of like

a Mr. Miyagi type character, but I Don't I don't

know every time they said his name all as I kept

hearing was Miyamoto Did you notice he was he

was terrible I mean he was like snatched this

washer from my hand and and Luigi did it very

nonchalantly and He was like good you you've

mastered that and I'm like wait This this guy's

like a joke Yeah, pretty much it's This is not

one of those cartoon episodes that oh my god

um it's horror it it didn't piss me off like

bad rap did it didn't insult me like bad rap

did it didn't make my brain almost bleed like

bad rap did but at the same time it's not a good

episode it just isn't there's so many stereotypes

yeah i'm not one to complain about racism you'll

almost never hear me say something like that

but this was this was really pushing it for me

because because of how The guy was very stereotypically

Japanese. I mean, he pretty much should have

just called Mario his number one round eye, because

that's about how he was being portrayed. He sounded

like Storm Shadow, only worse. Yeah. The only

cool things, because we're just going to eventually

move right into Goombas, but the only cool things...

uh... that i liked uh... or the underwater scenes

and that those were it was a good for me it was

almost like playing the underwater levels in

mario one again i thought that was pretty cool

and pretty good animation and kupa's outfit it's

scary as hell but it's interesting uh... i don't

know why it was being called karate kupa it should

it seems like he should have been named uh...

kabuki kumba or kabuki kupa i should say I Don't

know any other thoughts on my overall plot. I

mean, it's your standard Mario episode. Yeah

with karate I mean it it's the standard episode

of save the princess. She's being trapped in

this castle with her her fungus You know And

as with the standard Mario episode it comes with

my standard exasperated sigh I would just I don't

know what to say about this. The only thing it's

missing is, hey look, it's Godzilla. Speaking

of which, there was a Godzilla episode of Mario.

Wasn't Sayonara the name of the town in that

episode too? I think so, yes. I was like, wait

a minute. Wait a minute, they're going back?

Yeah. It was like a totally different place.

Yeah, it looked totally different because of

the... The way the... Coopzilla, that's what

it was. But yeah, no. I can tell between episode

11 now and by the time we get to episode 14,

which will be the last of the reviews, there

may be one or two bright spots, but oh wow, overall.

Oh my god, let's just jump into Goombas. So Mario

karate brothers really when shredder and the

turtles gonna show up That made me think of Mario

is like as uh What was that? What was that game?

That Milton Bradley made it was uh? Not karate.

I don't know you know I was gonna make a joke

here, and I can't remember the name of the game

You are now a plum flu master What the fuck is

plum fu? It's kung fu for plumbers. This show

and plumber jokes and mushroom jokes and all

these bad puns, they're not even funny. No, not.

And half the time I honestly thought that they

were saying plum flu. Like as in you ate a plum

and it gave you the flu. That's honestly what

I was I thought they were saying half the time.

Maybe it's the language barrier. I Don't know

What didn't you like about this one? Oh Everything

the ninja master. It was just He Wasn't even

a character is it was just like every Japanese

cartoon character ever portrayed in the 1980s.

It was You know, I compared it to the character

from G .I. Joe. What he actually reminds me of

is the Transformers episode, The Bird and Hardest

to Bear. There was a Japanese character in that

episode that is pretty much this guy. He's like,

how are you, Autobotsan? And I'm like, oh, my.

And to top that off, they sent it to Japan to

animate. And I'm like, oh, man. That has to be

insult upon injury. Yeah. Oh Wow, that's that's

nuts Yeah, let's just move on I bet this place

is crawling with lions and tigers! And Koopas!

Oh my! It's King Koopa! That's right, Mushrunt!

I decided to go hunting! And it's open season

on Plumbers! Up next is... Tarzan! Oh, I'm sorry.

Mario of the Apes. The live -action segment was

Chippy Chipmunks. So when are Chip and Dale gonna

show up? I wasn't even thinking that I thought

I thought they were doing an Alvin and the Chipmunks

They were but Chippy And honestly if you look

at the his Chipmunk ring, you know, it looks

like to me God no effort. I know the Uh, crap.

Uncle Joey, his woodchuck. Yeah. Oh, Christ.

Um... You know what's sad is that I can't think

of what it's called, but I think I know what

you're talking about. It's, um... Oh, crap. What

is Uncle Joey from Full House's woodchuck called?

Mr. Woodchuck, Mr... Oh, crap. I don't remember.

Either way, that's what the chipmunk ring looked

like to me. As far as the cartoon Mario suffers

from amnesia yet again how many episodes do we

have that Mario gets knocked in the head by something

and He's convinced by an ape couple that he is

their child I Think it's interesting that they

had Captain Lou do this. I thought that was kind

of cool seeing you know hearing him voice a Tarzan

-like imitation. Did you catch the names of the

parents? No. June and Ward. Oh, yeah. As in the

Cleavers? Yes, yes. This episode... You have

anything you want to say before we just jump

straight to goombas? Wasn't wasn't there a bugs

bunny plot that was almost like this wasn't an

amnesia episode, but it was like He gets adopted

by gorillas and it was gorilla my dreams Yeah,

and that was that's what it was reminding me

of it first, but then I went into this whole

amnesia thing and you know John Kay said said

something like cartoon producers in the 80s believe

that there are only like seven stories ever and

The amnesia story definitely wasn't one of them.

And that's why you see it repeated in this cartoon

Yeah Well, what I find really interesting over

this over so far the series of Super Mario Brothers

is how many Looney Tunes references I've been

able to put in this show We might as well just

call this the looney animation hour or something

and just review looney tune shorts because Yeah

You know, I would I would rather watch like the

worst Bob McKimson cartoons than this This that's

an argument for another day Let's go ahead and

jump straight into goombas Alright, first Stomping

on the Goombas. We weren't even five seconds

into this episode and there's like five cliches

right in a row. Just immediately right in a row.

And really a Marzan Tarzan ripoff, really Marzan

is the best. the writers could come up with this

is definitely not an episode they needed to do

and if you're supposed to be pretending that

you're an ape if you have amnesia and think you're

an ape why are there so many goddamn pasta references

last time I checked apes monkeys orangutans whatever

the hell don't eat pasta Yeah, but the answer

to that is this was probably written in like

five minutes That's the answer to all these cartoons

seriously I know for a fact that a lot of these

guys who wrote these cartoons including Captain

N and and the Zelda cartoon and the Sonic cartoon

they literally just slap these out and like Rapid

order. It's just it these these are not a high

these are not high art they're not really they

aren't really plotted out the way a Bugs Bunny

cartoon would be so they're just kind of very

cliche not very well thought out the jokes fall

flat and it's just it's getting harder and harder

to to really examine these cartoons in depth

because they all have the same problems Yes,

they do sadly they very much do and but what

was what was with Mario's monkey girlfriend in

like the middle of the episode I I'm kind of

I'm kind of like blanking on that. It's like

it it was something but I don't know what what

relevance it was the whole plot The only thing

I can think of is that and I know this happened

way after the super super show did And I think

I've told this story before on other GCR and

shows There was a time was it night? When did

the Disney tar is it 99? Yeah, it must have been

99 Yeah, yeah, cuz I wasn't yeah, I was in Mississippi

at that point December December 1999. I was living

in Biloxi, Mississippi and some personal stuff

was going on and I just had to get away. So guess

where I went? I went to the local mall and I

sat in Sears and watched Tarzan over and over

and over again, just like as a kid when my mom

didn't want to deal with me, she stuck me in

front of Batman 89 in JCPenney. I watched Tarzan

over and over and over and over again. The only

thing I can think of is it's a reference to Turk,

his little ape friend. But I don't know because

I don't obviously Super Show happened before

that movie happened. I don't know the rest of

the legend of Tarzan. I don't know if he had

a little ape friend that was I don't know. I

know he had a little ape friend, but this was

like a female gorilla. I don't know. I think

I think I'm just blanking on it because I was

watching it and like thinking what the hell is

going on and. At one point my brain just stopped

trying to analyze the plot and I just let the

episode end and I was like, okay. Yep, next one.

Pretty much. The very last observation I made

was that, of course, what restores Mario's memory?

Food. I'll be okay. I know for a fact don't don't

get us wrong ladies and gentlemen We've we've

had ten episodes of this podcast previously That

are actually actually the review part of the

shows And don't get us wrong. We get it late

80s early 90s animation writing was not what

it is you know you're not like if they did this

show today and they had a strict continuity to

fall like if they actually followed the glee

can you imagine neil if we had a mario cartoon

that actually followed the events of one of the

games that you know as far as story based wise

i get it back then it wasn't like that it was

episodic it was you know it wasn't meant to be

a continuous thing but you're right these people

are just pulling a hey let's do a tarsen episode

hey let's do a godzilla episode hey let's do

you know mr miyagi in tokyo town you know it

just and i know i've said this multiple times

before on the show i don't get what my nine ten

-year -old brain was there i i i kinda get it

but like i think back then when i was a kid i

was more thinking of hey This is a cartoon about

the games. They're gonna show us the game, you

know, they're gonna show animated versions of

the game levels and eventually that's what we

evolved to with Mario 3 and Mario World, but...

I don't know. I just... I think it's more a problem

is... I observe this problem with other Deke

shows is that Deke had a weird issue with like...

with like the writing department and the storyboard

department and how they don't really seem to

gel very well. And I'll actually get into this

with the next episode. But that's kind of my

observation with them is that their cartoons

were never quite good, except for like Inspector

Gadget and The Littles, where the quality was

at its best and that wasn't really a problem.

But after that, it just slowly went downhill.

Yeah, pretty much. It pretty much did. So let's

move on to the final episode of the day. Plumbers

Log, number 1989. We've found Koopa's secret

summer castle, complete with swimming pool, barbecue,

patio, and a greenhouse. And one more thing.

Us as prisoners. Where's Louis Tully when you

really need him? Princess, I shrunk the Mario

Brothers. I Am the key master I am the gatekeeper.

Oh my god if they had done that Although we still

have like like what nine episodes of the Super

Show left, maybe maybe it's in there There may

be a Ghostbusters reference The live -action

segment was a basement divided basically what

happens in the live -action segment is Mario's

a fat slob Luigi's a skinny clean freak and they

can't Luigi can't stand living in Mario's mess

so they do the age -old trope of drawing a line

in the sand or putting a large piece of black

tape across the room and they each sit on their

own side yeah it's basically the divide the apartment

in half Storyline that was pretty much in every

ABC TGI Friday sitcom ever because that And I'm

sure even predates that I'm sure like sitcoms

have been doing that 70s. I mean Even made fun

of that in an episode of clerks the animated

series Yeah, this this is just like Sitcom writing

101 this episode Yeah I mean, hell, Three's Company

was this the entire series pretty much with the

roommates, so I mean, yeah. For the cartoon,

Princess I Shrunk the Mario Brothers, a wizard's

potion intended to shrink Koopa is spilled bytoad,

dumbass, and ends up shrinking the Super Mario

Brothers. Episode is based on, obviously, Honey

I Shrunk the Kids. I honestly didn't find this

one to be that like it would didn't offend me

that much but at the same time it's not like

this for me it falls somewhere in the middle

of like where I ranked on her majesty server

service so high versus ranking bad rap the lowest

of the low this is somewhere in the middle of

that it's not So bad there are times where it's

really bad, but no plot was interesting of course

You know toad just comes in and it doesn't even

ask the wizard to see the damn damn potion He

just snatches it right out of his hand fucking

thief. Oh my god fucking fungus. Oh Yeah, and

told us am I wrong but is was Danny Wells the

voice of the wizard Because it sure sounded like

it Yes, he was. Oh. Okay. You may have been doing

other voices in this cartoon. I just wasn't noticing

it. Yeah, well, you know, if you listen to a

lot of the Mushroom People, it's, um, what's

his name that does Koopa? Yeah, I know. Oh, yeah,

he's all over this cartoon. I noticed that a

lot. Yeah. Um, but yeah, Danny Wells was the

was the voice of the wizard. So that was very

interesting thoughts on the plot, sir The plot

there was a plot It it was pretty straightforward,

I guess it was Mario Brothers gets shrunk Koopa

does bad things until Until the other good guys

can make a new potion and bring them. I don't

know I'm I'm struggling to see what the plot

was. I know there's a basic idea here, but it

was The basic idea is they're ripping off honey.

I sure yeah, I mean that's that's pretty much

the basic idea and Did you ever go to Disney

World around 1995 or so no I did with my mom

and they had this ride and again, this is another

one of my many stories that I've probably told

many times on other shows, but they had this

ride based on Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but instead

of Honey I Shrunk the Kids, it's Honey I Shrunk

the Audience. And it's one of those interactive

things where in the movie like a rat runs across

the floor, so they make the carpet move and uh...

you know they they they don't actually should

they make us feel shrunken somehow i'd forget

how they did it it's so long but it's one of

those things where it it it was really interesting

the funniest part about it was the ending and

it was gross at the time of the end the dog from

movie comes on screen and he sneezes and they

basically spray you with water This is like,

yeah, this, you know, that was almost better

than this. Don't think that I didn't just notice

that you started to say they didn't actually

shrink the audience. You know what, but it's

one of those things, I don't know how to explain

it. I know. It's one of those things where they

did something, but I don't think in 1995 we had

the technology to be able to shrink Ray. We don't

have the technology now. But anyway. Anyways.

Weird thing about this episode, at the very beginning,

they're getting captured and there are two mouses.

Oh, yeah, that's right. I was like, oh, I guess

that's sort of in line with the game because

there were two mouser bosses. In this cartoon,

there was always one and suddenly there's two.

I'm like, OK. Alright, I don't know about you,

but I only had one fire flower moment written

down So I'll say that and then we can move straight

into goombas, but um, I don't know anything Oh,

okay. Well, there you go right after the princess

says rock and roll. I swear. I heard the axle

F theme Like like two seconds of it, but just

like the like I swear to God I heard the axle

F theme Let's go ahead and stomp on some Goombas

after this. In here! Talk about handy! They must

make these drainpipes in all sizes! Speaking

of handy, look! Whoa! This is just too handy!

Wait'll I get my hands on you too! Alright, Goombas.

Bad animation error yet again. Luigi's voice

comes out of Mario's mouth. Yeah. Okay, this

is gonna become a running gag and I'll be so

glad when we move away from this and I know we'll

come back to it at some point with Mario 3 and

Mario World, but This entire cartoon is about

Mario getting fatter and fatter and fatter for

eating all this high cholesterol Junk food. Okay.

I know pasta is not technically junk, but I mean

it's like he's eating all this stuff That's high

in carbs. That's gonna make him fatter and fatter

and fatter. They actively say The troopers say

Vegetables, yeah That's going over boy. Come

on. I get it kids Back then even now kids nowadays

don't like eating their vegetables, but this

cartoon is shaping up to be to me is saying hey

being obese being obese is cool being fat is

good eat all of this really tasty food that's

going to make you look like marvel's blob you

know it just it's just really pissing me off

It really all the food stuff in this show is

just really like I'm I'm getting to a certain

breaking point of holy crap. Well, I had something.

No, go ahead. OK, well, well, you just reminded

me of something else. So actually now I have

to the first thing. Speaking of like of weight,

the way that the animation dealt with the differentiation

between. a character who's small and a character

who's large is to draw the larger character as

being really fat. For example, when the normal

size Koopa Troopas were chasing after the Shrunken

Mario Brothers, whenever they showed it from

the Mario Brothers perspective, they made the

Koopa Troopas look really fat. And I'm like,

why is that your go -to? I don't understand that

animator. And speaking of the animation department,

here's where I get in the... into my criticism

of Deke and how they handle these story writing

and storyboard departments. It's like there's

a wall of separation, and there's one particular

element in this cartoon that illustrates this

very well. It's when the princess, Toad, and

the wizard are tied up, and the wizard's like...

could use my spells if only I could use my hands

and his hands are clearly free he's only tied

it's only tied around like the chest and his

his his upper arms you know he can use his hands

and this is what I'm talking about is that like

somehow the the story writing department and

the and the storyboard department people are

actually doing the drawings there's like there's

no communication between them and it's like it

creates these like these these moments of disconnect

where it's like Why is this why is this such

a problem for you guys? Why can't you? Communicate

a little better so that you don't have problems

like this in your cartoons and That eventually

solved itself and deep became part of cookie

jar and we don't have cartoons like this anymore

But that that was my major gripe with this episode

it's like the epitome of everything that was

ever wrong with deep is like in like a five second

scene that just drove me nuts oh no it's just

it's just so bad so we're gonna take a quick

break you're gonna hear some ads and some other

audio stuff and we'll come back to close the

show with final ratings like animation come listen

to animation aficionados and if you disagree

with us you could be a guest on a future show

Available on iTunes, the Zune Market, and animationofficialitators

.com is Grand Con Gaming and Comics Convention

presented by Celebration Cinemas. Join us in

playing or chatting it up with fellow enthusiasts

in a community that understands your passions.

Get lost in the adventure of your favorite role

-playing game. Admire costumes and art from vendors

and attendees. Meet the creators behind your

favorite mainstream and independent games and

comic books. Check out unpublished games and

sneak peek at things to come. You can get all

this and more at Grand Con. For more information,

please visit www .grand -con .com. Where am I?

Who am I? I can't remember anything. And who

are you? We're the luckiest apes in the world.

We're your mom and pop, little fella. Oh Lord,

what shall we call him? Ma... Ma... before we

close out the show will be ranking each episode

on a 0 to 5 stars slash starman scale oh boy

um karate koopa what do you give that one i'll

just give it a zero i would this is these three

episodes this must have been like oh a week of

like this must have been like one week of the

original run where it was just they were just

throwing crap at the wall this is like this was

like the week where all the really bad episodes

are like quarantined so this we're off to a to

a roaring start with this one you know my whole

rant at the end of p shrunk the mario brothers

um i realized exactly again why this show is

aiming at, you know, in making children obese.

At the end of Karate Koopa, can you give him

two belts? Are you fucking kidding me? Whoever

wrote this gets a belt across the mouth. Yeah,

zero for me as well. Mario of the Apes, what

about that one? God I'm gonna end up giving this

one a zero, too Yeah, I'm gonna give it a one

I I thought it was There are certain parts about

it that I enjoyed but it's still not one of the

best episodes and finally P shrunk the Mario

Brothers when you give that one I'll give it

a one just because it was a step up from the

other two Yeah, I'm right there with you so thank

you for joining us here on pixels in the animation

there so was in contact with us early feedback

for the show visit the website geocasterradio

.com you can email us feedback at geocasterradio

.com leave the shows feedback in itunes please

do this follow us on twitter at geocasterradio

mayas tfdw and mike what is your twitter? Neil

Sama become a fan on facebook go to facebook

.com slash geocasterradio network you can also

keep up with Neil With his neil's classics gaming

page and you can also keep up with his other

his main podcast animation aficionados Over there

on facebook. What do you guys got coming up?

let's see, we still got a sailor moon episode

in the pike it just There were some audio problems

with that one. So it kind of got kept getting

pushed back Uh, we just well at the time of this

recording. We just put up a star wars episode.

That is It's double length because we had a big

uh comic book rant at the end Well, not really

a rant, just a discussion between me, Ben, and

Pablo about webcomics and stuff. Call the voicemail

and tell us your story leaving the message for

and your name. 502 -526 -5821. Sometimes the

monkeys that hang out around here even pick up

the phone from time to time. We hope you enjoyed

this episode of Pixels in Animation. We'll sure

join us next time when we'll be reviewing three

more episodes of the Super Mario Bros. Super

Show, those being Little Red Riding Princess,

The Provolone Ranger, and Escape from Koopatraz.

For now, I am T .O .J. Mike with... T .V.'s Mr.

Neil. Turn in next week and help us find the

Pixels in the Animation. do the Mario swing your

arms from side to side come on it's time to go

do the Mario take one step and then again let's

do the Mario all together now you got it it's

the Mario Do the Mario! Swing your arms from

side to side Come on, it's time to go! Do the

Mario! Take one step, and then again Let's do

the Mario! Altogether now! Come on now, just

like that!