Super Mario World (television series)

Super Mario World was the third and final of DIC Entertainment’s animated Super Mario trilogy, loosely based on the game of the same name, premiering a month after its North American release. The cartoon chronicles the adventures of Mario, Luigi and Princess Toadstool in Dinosaur Land. Yoshi and several new characters, such as Oogtar, a blond-haired caveboy, make an appearance as well. Super Mario World was the last of DIC's Super Mario cartoons and originally aired from September 14th, 1991 to December 7th, 1991. The series lasted for only 13 episodes.

Overview
Sometime after the events of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, having banished King Bowser Koopa, the Koopalings, and their minions from the Mushroom Kingdom for good, Princess Toadstool, Mario, and Luigi decide to take a vacation to the Dinosaur World. However, King Koopa and his minions manage to follow them there and kidnap the princess yet again. After adventuring and befriending Yoshi, Mario and Luigi managed to rescue Princess Toadstool from King Koopa's Neon Castle and subsequently decided to stay in Dinosaur Land's Dome City with the cave-people.

Several episodes of Super Mario World often had Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Princess Toadstool, and occasionally Oogtar, a show-exclusive character, trying to stop the schemes of King Koopa and the Koopalings, as well as other villains such as Wizenheimer or the Dino Riders. Toad, who appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, does not appear in the series (nor did he appear in the game it was based on), making it the only Mario cartoon where he does not appear. Because of his absence in the show, he is replaced by Yoshi. Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, King Koopa, and the Koopalings retain their designs from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, although the "L" on Luigi's cap is black instead of green in early episodes, Princess Toadstool has lighter skin and blue eyes instead of black eyes, and Cheatsy's hair is yellow/white instead of dark blue. Also, Mario and Luigi's fire forms in the show are based on their fire from sprites from the game. Walker Boone, Tony Rosato, Tracey Moore, and Harvey Atkin reprised their roles as Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and King Koopa respectively in the show.

Social issues
Due to the introduction of the Children's Television Act in 1990, some social commentary and edutainment was added into the series. Some episodes of Super Mario World can be seen as social commentary for controversial issues, such as street gangs ("Born to Ride"), addiction ("Rock TV"), bullying in school ("A Little Learning"), obesity and capitalism ("King Scoopa Koopa"). Several episodes such as "The Wheel Thing" and "Party Line" deal with the introduction and consequences of introducing new concepts and technologies to others without thinking ahead, in this case, the cave-people of Dome City. One of the more noticable changes made to the series in light of the CTA is the change made to Princess Toadstool's personality, where she is now more of a role model and parental figure for Mario, Luigi and Yoshi.

Differences from the game
Super Mario World, though based on the video game of the same name, included several creative licenses. The cave people and Dome City are both introduced in the television series. Characters retained their color differences from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! King Koopa was only once referred to as "Bowser" and the Koopalings retained their alternate names from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. Many locations and enemies were referred to by different names, likely due to the fact the production studio relied on the Japanese version of Super Mario World as reference material:


 * Boos were referred to as "Ghosts".
 * Banzai Bills were referred to as "Magnum Bills".
 * Bowser's Castle was referred to as "Coney Island Disco Palace" or "Neon Castle".
 * Chargin' Chucks were referred to as "Koopa Football Players".
 * The Forest of Illusion was referred to as "the Enchanted Forest".
 * Mechakoopas were referred to as "Mechkoopas" or "Robot Koopas".
 * Magikoopas were referred to as "Koopa Wizards".
 * Sumo Brother was referred to as "Fire Sumo".
 * Wigglers were referred to as "Caterpillars".
 * Monty Moles were referred to as "Gophers".
 * Power Balloons were referred to as "Magic Balloons".
 * Dry Bones were referred to as "Mummies".
 * What appears to be either Spiny Cheep-Cheeps or Porcu-Puffers were referred to as "porcupinefish".
 * Rexes and Dino-Rhinos were referred to as "dinosaurs".

Airing history
Super Mario World originally aired alongside Captain N: The Game Master on, where it was referred to as Super Mario Bros. 4 in end credit promos and Super Mario Bros. World in commercial bumpers. Super Mario World was also the only Mario cartoon to air in Australia on and, though only on Mondays to Wednesdays on the latter. Oddly, in both the United Kingdom and Australia, the episode "King Scoopa Koopa" aired before "The Night Before Cave Christmas", due to a mishap involving the show's production order and the production order of Captain N: The Game Master.

Along with Captain N, Super Mario World was one of the last cartoons to air on NBC as that network began to gradually phase out cartoons on Saturdays. Both were canceled by the fall of 1992 and replaced with a Saturday version of, along with their block, which included such shows as Saved by the Bell and California Dreams. In the mid-nineties, the Super Mario World episodes aired on USA Network, without the Captain N episodes. ', another cartoon based on a video game franchise by DIC, and ', based on the popular fighting game, were also aired on USA Network around the same time.

Due to the nature of its production, Super Mario World is actually one half of a series entitled Captain N and the New Super Mario World, which also consists of the third season of Captain N: The Game Master. Although the "New" suffix was used to promote the Super Mario World game when the show first aired, it is part of the series' proper title, and was never dropped. An episode of this half hour series consists of a Super Mario World cartoon and either a Captain N cartoon, or a second Super Mario World cartoon. Due to legal issues, the third season episodes of Captain N and the Super Mario World episodes are inseparable, and have to be released on DVD in the same set. This also explains why the first two seasons of Captain N: The Game Master were released in a "complete series" set; the third season is part of a separate show. The show can also be seen on ’s Kids and Family channel on weekday afternoons since 2019 as well as on its WildBrain YouTube channels and Paramount+.

In the Middle East, Super Mario World aired on along with  starting in 2005, but in 2007, both it and Earthworm Jim were replaced by The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. Super Mario World also aired on the Middle East version of but is no longer on that channel's schedule. It was also still airing on Spacetoon as of January 1, 2011, along with Earthworm Jim, ', ', and The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! after shut down.

Since 2009, the show sometimes airs on in Australia and since 2010 it has aired on the same channel in Spain and Portugal. It has also aired on in South Korea.

Distribution
The Super Mario World episode "The Night Before Cave Christmas" was released sometime in 1993 for a VHS tape entitled "Super Mario Bros. Super Christmas Adventures"; along with "Koopa Klaus".

Currently, DVDs of every single Super Mario World episode are available in Australia; the episode "A Little Learning" was also available on a VHS tape for a time in the UK.

Due to complications involving the use of Yoshi, it was originally thought that DVD box sets of Super Mario World weren't going to be made. However, those issues were resolved, and Shout! Factory has released a box set containing the complete series, along with the third season of Captain N: The Game Master. The DVD was discontinued in 2012, along with The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: The Complete Series and The Super Mario Bros. Super Show Volume 1 and 2, when Cookie Jar Entertainment merged with WildBrain (formerly DHX Media).

As of 2014, the episodes along with the Captain N segments have been streamed on 's Channel "WildBrain - Cartoon Super Heroes". As of 2021, it is available to stream on.

Voice cast
The voice acting was done in Canada.
 * Walker Boone &mdash; Mario
 * Tony Rosato &mdash; Luigi
 * Tracey Moore &mdash; Princess Toadstool
 * Andrew Sabiston &mdash; Yoshi
 * Harvey Atkin &mdash; King Bowser Koopa
 * Tara Strong &mdash; Hop
 * John Stocker &mdash; Gophers, Koopa wizard, Oogtar, Wizenheimer
 * Tabitha St. Germain &mdash; Kootie Pie Koopa
 * James Rankin &mdash; Cheatsy Koopa
 * Dan Hennessey &mdash; Bully Koopa, evil dinosaur, Rockman
 * Michael Stark &mdash; Kooky von Koopa
 * Gordon Masten &mdash; Big Mouth Koopa
 * Judy Marshak &mdash; Additional voices
 * Catherine Gallant &mdash; Mama Fireplant
 * Stuart Stone &mdash; Hip

Staff
As with the previous show, Super Mario World was produced and directed by John Grusd, with DiC president Andy Heyward acting as the executive producer and creative supervisor. Animation was done by the Chinese studio Pacific Rim Productions, Inc. rather than Sei Young Animation Co., Ltd., except for the opening which was done by Canvas. Inc. The series is coproduced by Reteitalia S.P.A. and Telecinco.

Production
Unlike previous Super Mario cartoons where scripts were produced in a three-steps fashion (starting with the writer submitting an episode premise to the show's story editors, then a multi-page outline, then the full script), all of the episode premises for Super Mario World were written by the show's story editor Phil Harnage and then assigned to various writers of the previous series for the full script, skipping the outline stage - something that writer Perry Martin noted was "never a good idea".

Trivia

 * For the German dub, the intro sequence originally used the German Plumber Rap from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
 * The show's theme song was composed by, frontman of the American post-punk group . Mothersbaugh would go on to compose theme music for a number of other cartoons throughout the 1990's.