The Super Mario Bros. Super Show Recap Review

Coming to Grand Rapids, Michigan on September

21st and 22nd 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 Check out unpublished games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 GrandCon. For more information,

please visit www .grand -con .com. You can call

us on the double. We're faster than the others.

You'll be hooked on the brothers. It's over.

We're done. It's recap time, ladies and gentlemen.

Today in episode 15 of Pixels and the Animation,

we're going to be recapping Super Mario Bros.

Super Show. There might be few and far between

in some of these categories, but we have several

categories we'll be going through. Favorite moments?

Least favorite moments? favorite characters,

least favorite characters, episodes we love,

episodes we hate, and that's about it. It's going

to be interesting when we get to episodes we

love, because, oh boy. That's going to be a short

conversation. I don't know. You know, as I've

said before, I always, as a kid, I always, and

I know you're different, you analyzed everything

when you were a child, but for me, I always held

this show as a kid in high regard at the time.

I know I was lame, but I just can't believe.

I know I've said this in the past, including

the episode zero, 16 episodes of the podcast,

but I just can't believe. how wrong I was of

how good I thought this show was. Yes, there

are several episodes that I actually really do

enjoy, but that's probably maybe... Let me actually

look here and see. That's probably 11 episodes

out of 52 that I actually enjoy. That's pretty

bad. I'm sure you have even less, but... We are

gonna take a quick break. We are also going to

as I said be recapping Super Mario Brothers Super

Show Before we start searching for the legend

of Zelda We'll be back after this The first category

is favorite moments from Super Mario Brothers

Super Show Most of not all of them, but I do

enjoy most of the live -action segments. I do

enjoy the Chemistry and camaraderie between Danny

Wells and Captain Lou As Mario and Luigi, I really

enjoy that. As far as the animation goes, any

time Firepower is used, I really did enjoy that.

I'm trying to think. The Birdos, I like when

they attack. I don't know, the favorite moments,

it doesn't like... Like, when we get to Zelda

and Captain N and Mario 3, I will have more favorite

moments in those recaps because, as we've said

before, this animation was a combination of Mario

1 and Mario 2. Like, I think if they would have

just stuck with one game, I know they probably

couldn't because they probably couldn't use as

many villains, but you know what I mean? It's

like, it's just one of those things where, I

don't know, did you have any favorite moments

from this series? Yeah, I was mostly going to

say the live action segments, especially with

certain guests, like mostly any of Lou Albano's

wrestling buddies or his personal friends that

came on the show because there was clearly a

lot more camaraderie on those episodes. Oh, yeah.

Sergeant Slaughter and Roddy Piper. Slaughter

and Piper. Oh, my God. This is so funny. And

the funny thing is, the very first Sgt. Slaughter

episode had nothing to do with Captain Louie.

He went off in the steam machine. And it was

all Danny Wells and Slaughter. It was so awesome.

It really, really was. And Rowdy Roddy, I honestly

wish they would have had, like, episodes that

they had, like that opera singer thing, they

could have thrown any of his other wrestling

buddies on that episode or something. You know

what I mean? It would have been so much better.

I did really enjoy Magic Johnson showing up even

though it's in mirror. I still thought that was

really really cool. For me in least favorite

moments, I know you're probably gonna have a

long list, but I only have two really for the

entire series. Anything to do with Toad. That's

going to come up a lot in this recap when it

comes to least favorite or most hated things.

Toad is easily the worst character in the entire

series, as far as the cartoons go. He just is.

He doesn't, like... The whole time I was watching

Koopa Claus, I wanted to basically fry him up

and toss him in the river. And then the other

thing that I really don't like that nearly scarred

me for life as a 33 -year -old adult, Mario and

Luigi, well, specifically Mario, In drag no,

no, I forgot about that. I tried to erase that

for my mind What about you for least favorite

moments yeah, I gotta say squeak toy squeak toy

toad and Mario and Luigi and drag and Just the

overall animation I mean there I Did not like

the animation in this cartoon at all except for

like a few select episodes Yeah, um just I Don't

know the the villains were kind of cheesy that

I like Koopa but like the other ones like Mauser

and triclide or just annoying Yeah, well triclides

voice was annoying. Yeah It's this like high

-pitched half male half female kind of voice

and it's like For favorite characters, Mario,

Luigi, and Koopa. Oh yeah. The Princess has her

moments, but she doesn't grow on me until later.

Cartoons a little bit. Specifically when she

falls in love with those lip -sinkers. But Mario,

Luigi, and Koopa are easily the three best characters

out of this series. What about you? I'm gonna

say the same. Yeah, if we're gonna talk about

like side characters or henchmen, as I said in

a couple episodes, I love the albatross. I do

like the Koopa Troopas. I think what they do

with some of them, like the Unzappables, how

they made them gangsters, I thought that was

kind of cool. I know you don't like the voice.

the generic one voice for every Koopa Troopa.

I kind of liked it because the whole point is

they're a troop of soldiers. They're supposed

to be interchangeable and that's kind of like

the game. You look at Super Mario Bros. The Goombas,

they don't have eye patches or belts or something

to distinguish them from the other Goombas in

the game. Same thing with the with the Koopa

Troop is. The turtles, they're all... Okay, the

turtles in later games have different color shells,

and I think even in Mario 1, there's red and

green ones. I think there's... But, I mean, like,

they're all the same, so I didn't mind the fact

that the Koopa Troop is in the cartoon. It was

one voice actor for every single one of them.

Yeah, but they're almost like clones, you know?

Yeah, pretty much. Koopa sent out order 66 Yeah,

that's what I was going for Yeah, individuality

among the Koopas and the Goomas don't really

start showing up the like paper Mario Yeah Yeah,

yeah For least favorite characters for me. There's

just one toad Just like There's absolutely I

know you told me this in a previous episode,

but what good was he in Mario 2? He was the fastest

coin picker. If you were in the subspace, he

could pick coins the fastest. So he was good

if you wanted to play that slot machine game.

Right, right. But as far as the actual gameplay,

he ain't worth crap, right? No, he was pretty

good. He was fairly average. He was he wasn't

the highest jumper, but he was You know what?

He could lift things and it wouldn't affect his

overall stats Like if you're Luigi and you pick

something up that it totally cripples his jump

With toad that doesn't happen. So a lot of people

like playing with toad Yeah, see I would rank

those characters in the game princess number

one Toad maybe number two Mario number three

and Luigi number four Luigi always seemed like

the worst one out of them all. Well, the Princess

totally breaks the game. I mean, the original

Doki Doki Panic game didn't even have a run button.

So when they added it and you combine it with

the Princess' floaty jump, there are entire stages

where she could just skip over stuff. Yeah, exactly.

All right. Do you have any other least favorite

characters from the cartoon? No. Alright, we're

gonna take a quick break and we're gonna come

back and talk about the episodes. The great Dr.

Toby knows about it. You could call it a gift.

You could call it a power. And a curse. I've

developed a super plant growth formula to save

your dying plant. Wow. Thanks, Doc. Will it keep

us from getting in trouble with Mama? Yes, but

it's still in the experimental phase. Read the

instructions carefully. You may be tested. Now,

I know this is going to be a scratch, but it

is time to talk about episodes we liked or loved.

For me, as I said in the beginning of the episode,

I have 11 out of 52 that I absolutely really

enjoy. Wow. I know. Breaks your brain, doesn't

it? Butch, Mario, and Luigi Kid. There are certain

elements to that episode that are just... pure

comedy to me, and I really enjoyed it. Brooklyn

Bound, I thought that was great. As I said last

week, I think that could have easily have been

the series finale episode. Do You Princess Told

Still Take This Koopa? That's just good comedy

fun. It was. That was one of the better ones.

It really is. I mean, because, you know, you've

got Koopa being underhanded and sneaky, the princess

actually trying to trust him, and just the...

the... just overall. Number four. On Her Majesty's

Service is so much better than that crappy James

Bond movie. Oh, I just absolutely love everything

about that episode. I love how they... I don't...

God, I don't know what the musical term for it

is. It's not, um... It's not auto -tune. It's

it's it might be 8 -bit music or I forget what

the term is, but how they were able to Generous

I make the bond theme generic, but still sound

like the bond theme Yeah, it's like a sound alike.

Yeah, I really didn't enjoy that Even though

I said, and I still maintain it, Snoopy did it

better. I did kind of enjoy Mario and the Red

Baron Koopa. The Unzappables. That was just awesome.

It was. The Koopa, the Ten Koopa Manments. I

enjoyed that. Koopas are coming, the Koopas are

coming. I enjoyed that one. Plumbers Academy.

First appearance of Wario, or what looks to be.

what Wario will become later. An Escape from

Coupatras. I really did enjoy that one as well.

What about you? Any episodes you enjoyed? Let's

see. There were two that you didn't mention that

I wanted to bring up. The first one, the Bird

the Bird, just because the animation is the best.

I kind of like that. It seemed like they had

pretty much hit all the characters the right

way in that episode. and Sadly that that was

the first episode that'd probably be the best

animated episode of the entire series. I did

like See what was it was the Trojan Koopa just

because it turned into kind of like a like a

skit cartoon where they're the Mario Brothers

are trying to get into the castle and the and

the the Hammer Brothers just weren't having it

and The only episode we had the Hammer Brothers,

I believe it was Wow. That's crazy. So they're

also very rare in this cartoon, anyway. Let's

see. There was like a Christmas episode that

was... Koopa Klaas. Yeah, Koopa Klaas. That,

again, was one of the better animated episodes.

And story -wise, it wasn't too bad. I'm trying

to think if there's any more. That might just

be it. We're gonna take another quick break and

we'll come back with episodes we hate after this.

More episodes we hate outside of Trojan Koopa

and The bird the bird would you mentioned for

episodes you liked and loved or whatever else?

Bad rap and everything else that wasn't mentioned

in the episodes. We love is what I wrote down

for episodes We hate yeah, I was gonna say bad

rap he leads the pack Yeah, pretty much I Don't

know how that I don't know how that episode got

made. I don't even know who put the idea in someone's

head to write that out. Like I said when we reviewed

that episode, it felt like every single verse

was 15 minutes additional onto the episode of

the overall show. Even though I know it's not,

it just made it feel so much longer than what

it is. any episode that was that was a western

episode i didn't i didn't start out hating them

it was just that they kept going back to it so

often that by the time it got to the provolone

ranger i was ready to scream wow see the quest

for pizza was yeah that was extremely bad You

know what honestly we're talking about stuff

that's bad in this show was episodes specifically

but This there's a select few that don't do this

and I don't remember which ones they are but

every single episode that they are constantly

throwing junk food down our throats and What

was worse, as I mentioned it, I forget which

episode it was, but a couple weeks ago on a podcast

I mentioned it. The Koopa Troopers are like,

ew, vegetables, yuck. We get it. It was the late

80s. We get it. Television was making children

obese, specifically this show. This show, and

I know it's parents' choice, and I agree. Video

game violence, you don't go out and shoot people

because of a video. Well, you do, but your parents

should teach you not to be. For me, I always

knew the difference between make -believe and

real life. Like, I can go right now after we

stop. the recording, and I can shoot a bunch

of people in Grand Theft Auto IV. At the same

time, am I going to go out in the middle of the

street and start shooting stuff up? No! Duh!

That's something you don't fucking do! And I

get it. It's, as I said, it's parental choice,

but cartoons, television, music, movies, games,

they're all influences on people in this world.

And back then, This show is specifically to blame

for any parent that allowed their kid to eat

nothing but junk food. Because how many times

I would like someone that is either listening

to this podcast or has watched Super Show before

to go back and count how many times Mario talks

about wanting to eat lasagna, pizza, Spaghetti

anything talk about it. Like there are so many

episodes where he was eating at the end of the

episode Right, but I'm saying like every Everything

out of Mario's mouth and 95 % of the episodes

is about food. Yeah That and it's not necessarily

I don't know More and more I think about this

show the more and more it pisses me off Two,

I guess we should go ahead and give overall thoughts

on the entire series. You can go first. This

was just not very good. I mean, Deke did do some

good cartoons in the very early 80s, back when

Gene Shelopene was still in the company, but

he got bought out and... deep kind of fell apart

around the mid 80s and made a lot of really bad

cartoons after that and this was one of them

and this might actually be one of the very worst

they ever made the live action segments were

okay the cartoon itself was just kind of oh lord

the cartoon um uh it was sort of faithful to

the to the source material but They didn't really

resemble the games too often, but you know, I

got to cut it some slack because it really wasn't

a lot to work with so Yeah, whatever you had

to do 52 episodes. You had to base it on something.

So a lot of these guys are just Scrambling, you

know, I I'd read an interview a couple weeks

ago some of the guys one of the guys who wrote

for Captain N said that basically he writing

like episodes in a dark room like Two or three

at a time in a single day. So yeah, these guys

were kind of rushing when they were doing this

so that's why a lot of these episodes are kind

of Kind of generic and not really very well thought

out in the end. It's not very entertaining Yeah

That's basically what I have to say about it

Oh wow, I just now noticed this. I don't, I don't,

Toad didn't have like definitive eyes, right?

He just had black pupils, didn't he? Yeah, but

depending on who is animating it, sometimes they

could make it a little more expressive. Yeah,

usually they're just dots. I don't know, and

I'm gonna have to go back and look at one of

the animation picture, animation screen grabs

I grabbed, but I'm looking at the Shout Factory

box sets and Mario, Luigi, and the princess's

eyes are all Pac -Man There it's like someone

took a slice of pizza Out of a full pizza pie

like they have a slit Like from the cornea into

the iris. Yeah, that's how it is in the cartoon

Yeah, I don't like that. Yeah, I think that's

that's a throwback to the 20s and 30s animation

that that's why I said throughout the up about

the episodes is that I think they were trying

to capture some elements of old 20s and 30s animation

with the silly looking horse and the silly looking

lion character that would appear from time to

time. Those are very 1920s -ish. So I think that

was like a theme. Yeah, but I didn't like that

either. And they ditched that for the Mario 3

cartoon, I think. I hope. I will say that...

As I said earlier there are a number of episodes

I do enjoy but overall it was painful To watch

this show again. I and I I went into it ladies

and gentlemen as I've said before I went into

this being really optimistic about it Because

I I hadn't actually Seen this like I didn't buy

the the shut factory DVDs when they first came

out back in 2006 or whatever it was so I hadn't

seen this since I was a kid It's nowhere on reruns

or syndication at this point on television. I

mean hell, it's not even on friggin cubo. You'd

think that cubo would pick this up Yeah, you

know if deep would allow them to but it's not

I will whoever owns them now. Yeah, yeah Wait

cookie jar bought deep. Yeah, they merged I don't

know what the situation is now yeah that's right

i will say that shout factory um brian ward and

his team did a damn good job getting these things

on dvd even though whatever deke sent them for

masters as far as the quality of the animation

and specifically the opening sequence of the

super show itself not not the animated opening

that we get, but like every episode, hey, Paisanos,

it's the Super Mario Bros. Super, shit like that.

That is so grainy and like that title card. That

open title card is so grainy, so bad. And I do

not blame Shout Factory whatsoever. It's whatever

they could get their hands on. I know Brian Ward

generally goes after the best quality that's

available, but the DVD sets are... damn impressive.

There's not a lot of bonus features on them but

what's there is damn cool to see. The fact that

volume one has at the time of release a brand

new interview with Captain Lou before his death

and it's interesting to hear him talk about the

show and the fans and all that stuff. So the

DVD sets are very awesome to have as well. Any

other final thoughts I was just gonna comment

on on the opening on how that looks kind of crappy

I think that was always that way I remember that

kind of being an issue when it first aired to

it was never good quality Because after after

that specific part of the opening it kind of

cleans up um Kind of had another thought and

I completely lost it now Damn it All right, well

while Neil's thinking about that we're gonna

take a quick break and we'll come back to close

the show after this 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 AnimationAficionados

.com. Coming soon from the Command Center Commentaries,

celebrating 20 years of Power Rangers. It's Morphin

Time. Thank you so much, Jason David Frank, for

that ringing endorsement. Yes, that's right,

folks. Starting in Episode 29 from the Command

Center is going back and celebrating 20 years

of Power Rangers with the From the Command Center

Commentaries. We'll be doing 15 episodes from

MMPR Season 1. And after that, who knows? I know

we're doing commentaries from Seasons 2 and 3,

and we'll do a commentary on the film. After

that, who knows? Commentaries could take us through

a number of episodes. There's a very, very, very

long list. So I hope everyone enjoys it. As I've

said before, we will get to Megaforce once that

series completes itself on... Netflix or whatever

else. Thank you so much. And now prepare yourself

for from the command center commentaries, our

way of going back in depth and noticing stuff

we did not pick up on in the original overview

episodes of the podcast or stuff we missed when

we watched them as children. Thank you very much.

Are you looking for a weekly dose of gaming news

and retro? And check out Off the Cuff, available

Fridays on GeekCast Radio Network from the producers

of XRG. New name, same ****. Now back to the

Super Mario Brothers Super Show. We are back

and forgetful Mr. Neil remembered what he was

going to say. Yeah, about the missing footage

on the Shout Factory DVD. Some of it we do know

why it's missing. It's like the one episode where

they sang a Diana Ross song. They couldn't have

it on there because they had to pay a license

to get it. But others, it's not really so clear

why certain episodes are missing, live acting

segments I'm talking about. It could be, and

this would be tragic if this is true, it could

be that some of the tapes are just gone. I know

for a fact that all of the Club Mario segments

are destroyed. And thank you to whoever did that.

Sometimes someone would just either forget where

they left it, or they would erase it and record

over it for something else. And it's really sad

what they would do sometimes before DVD, and

before they realized they had a market for stuff

like this. Yeah. Yup. All right. Why don't we

overall? Man, I don't know if we should do a

0 -5 or 0 -10 for this, holy crap. What would

you rank the series? Alright, let's just stick

with 0 -5, Starman. Overall, Super Show, what

would you rank the entire series? My most common

rating was probably a 1, so I'm gonna give it

a 1. For the whole series? For the whole series.

I could only think of like 3 episodes I actually

liked. Three out of fifty -two. Alright, I'm

gonna give it a three out of five because there

are eleven or so episodes that I really enjoyed.

So yeah, there's that. Thank you for joining

us here on Pixels and the Animation. There are

so many ways to get in contact with us or leave

feedback for the show. Visit the website geekcastervideo

.com. You can comment on each and every one of

our episode posts. You can also join our forums,

forums .geekcastradio .com. Email us, feedback

at geekcastradio .com. Leave the show's feedback

in iTunes, please do this. Follow us on Twitter,

at Geekcast Radio is the network Twitter. Mine

is TFG and Mike, what is your Twitter? Neil Sabo.

Become a fan on Facebook, go to facebook .com

slash geekcastradionetwork. You can also search

out Animation Aficionados and Neil's Classic

Gaming over there as well. Call the waste mail

line and tell us what you're leaving the message

for and your name. 502 -526 -5821. We hope you

enjoyed this latest episode of Pixels in the

Animation. I wish you'll join us next time when

we will be searching for the Legend of Zelda

as Ender from the pull -bag Radio Free Cybertron.

Tformers joins us to find the Pixels in the Animation

with Legend of Zelda. As I said with the first

three episodes, the ringer... Cold Spells and

the White Knight. For now, I am TFDOMike with...

TBSrsniel. Tune in soon to help us find the pixels

in the animation we will talk to you later. Well

excuse me, Princess. This is the Triforce of

Wisdom, Link. The evil wizard Ganon has the Triforce

of Power. If he gets both Triforces, we'll rule

this land forever! You must help me, Link! Hey,

for you, Zelda, anything!