Dinosaur Land



Dinosaur Land (also known as Dinosaur Island on the remake's official site, and Dinosaur World in the cartoon), is the setting where Mario, Luigi and Peach go for a vacation in Super Mario World. Like always, Peach gets kidnapped so Mario and Luigi must defeat Bowser to get her back.

Though Yoshi's Island is a location in Dinosaur Land, it is noted by fans that in the Yoshi series, Yoshi's Island is not the same island as the one in Dinosaur Land, because it is not connected to another piece of land. However, the Yoshi's Island of this game was not connected to another piece of land either, at least until Iggy Koopa is defeated and a bridge appears; it is still possible that Yoshi's Island is one and the same as the one on Dinosaur Land.

Locations

 * Yoshi's Island
 * Donut Plains
 * Vanilla Dome
 * Twin Bridges
 * Butter Bridge
 * Cheese Bridge
 * Cookie Mountain
 * Soda Lake
 * Forest of Illusion
 * Chocolate Island
 * Valley of Bowser
 * Star Road
 * Special World

Also, Dino Dino Jungle from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! seems to take place in Dinosaur Land. However, this is not confirmed.

Geography of Dinosaur Land
Yoshi's Island, the first world of Dinosuar Land, is in the southwest part of the land. It has a mountain which has Yellow Switch Palace on it. Like the first world of many Mario games, it is a grassland-themed world. North of it is the Donut Plains, a large plain with a lake in the center. Donut Plains is also generally grassland-themed, and there are mountains that are shown on the world map. The path leads to the Vanilla Dome, a mountain cave with a lake and underground hills. The top of Vanilla Dome can be acessed from inside Vanilla Dome through secret exits and has two levels. One of the levels (Vanilla Secret 3) is in a lake, and there is also a waterall that the Vanilla Fortress is on. Next to Vanilla Dome is Cookie Mountain, another mountain. There is a bridge (Cheese Bridge) connecting the two mountains. Cookie Mountain is a high mountain, because there are clouds in the background. Down from Cookie Mountain there is a ladder leading to the Forest of Illusion. The Forest of Illusion is a maze of trees. The path leading out from it goes to a small island, and then to Chocolate Island, a chocolate-brown colored island. The island has many hills and obstacles. A path from Wendy's castle goes into the sea to a Sunken Ghost Ship, which is the entrance to the Valley of Bowser, a cave shaped like Bowser's head. This is where Bowser is fought. Somewhere above Dinosaur Land is Star World, a secret world on a star. The connection between Dinosuar Land and Special World is unknown.

Species in Dinosaur Land
Like in Yoshi's Island, this land has Yoshis living here, as well as other kinds of creatures. There are also Koopas, Piranha Plants and some other kinds of dinosaurs.

Protectors of Dinosaur Land

 * Yoshi
 * Yoshis
 * Mario
 * Luigi

Enemies of Dinosaur Land

 * The Koopalings
 * Bowser
 * Koopa Troop

Politics and Culture


In Super Mario World, Dinosaur Land was more or less devoid of culture and even people, although it was known to be at least partially populated by Yoshis (who were known to be able to speak, but had not yet developed a distinctive, established culture). Later, in the Yoshi series (which presumably takes place on Dinosaur Land, although, as stated above, the actual setting is unconfirmed), Dinosaur Land was shown to have more intelligible inhabitants (who were confirmed to be the Yoshis on at least Yoshi's Island) who built tree-like huts and lived together in villages. These games, which gave Dinosaur Land much more culture and limited politics, showed that most of the Yoshis trusted in the main Green Yoshi (for an unknown reason) and had great togetherness, being able to always depend on each other for help.

The Super Mario World television series was one of the earliest forms of media to show an inhabited Dinosaur Land (though here known as Dinosaur World) in-depth, and it revealed (non-canonically) that the world was inhabited by cavepeople (oddly, Yoshi himself was the only Yoshi to ever appear in the show). These cavepeople were seen to have limited togetherness and intelligence, and had even built at least one city; they were, however, rather stupid and seemed to care little about culture and organization. Because of this, several Super Mario World show episodes dealt with Mario and Luigi attempting to popularize modern items among the cavepeople and help them in vaguely political things, although their plans most often went wrong. One of the most interesting and one of the few successful of their capers, though, involved Princess Toadstool opening up a school; this episode even revealed that Dinosaur Land had a flag (a red, yellow, and blue one depicting what appears to be a Yoshi) and a pledge to it. This pledge, which largely parodied the United States' Pledge of Allegiance, went like this: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Lands of Dinosaur World, and to the repulsiveness for which he stands: one Koopa underground, reprehensible, with lizards and Goombas for all." It is likely that the second half of this pledge, which was awkwardly stated by Hip and Hop Koopa, is the Koopas' answer to the pledge, though, as it deals with the Koopa Troop and evil in addition to the fact that the other students gave Lemmy and Iggy odd looks as they said it, although this could have also been due to the fact that the two Koopa enemies had merely just arrived at their school.

The Super Mario Adventures comic also gave Dinosaur Land a surprising quantity of politics and culture even at the age of the Super Mario World game; it introduced Yoshi Village (a Yoshi-inhabited village eerily similar to the one seen in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time) and even stated that Yoshi was the "Chairman of the Dinosaur Chamber of Commerce"; he presumably earned this title through election or another type of political gathering. Finally, some have compared Dinohatten (which has a very deep political story) of the Super Mario Bros. film to be a form of Dinosaur Land, although it is more akin to the Mushroom Kingdom (but may still be a reference to the setting of Super Mario World).

Trivia

 * In issue 4/1992 of the official German Club Nintendo magazine, it is noted that Dinosaur Land is located somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. This implies that Dinosaur Land is a place on Earth, contradicting the common view that it is located in the Mushroom World.