purplehpurple
DIC spared nearly every expense with this show. The animated segments are full of animation errors. Hooded Robin is a tour de force for what not to do in animation. It's really quite stunning what got missed in this show. That being said, the show is endlessly entertaining, even if it's mostly on accident. Danny Wells does a good job as Luigi, and while I wouldn't say Lou Albano does a good job, I love his Mario anyway. The main character you want to hear least is Toad, who's squeaky voice seems almost designed to irritate. If you're watching the series these days you're likely watching an edit made after the license ran out for the song parodies, so there will be one action sequence per episode set to stock Mario music that seems out of place and awkward.Don't even get me started on the live action segments. Pee-wee's Playhouse this ain't. The Mario sound effects are always out of place here, the weird transitions are so bad, and "Uh oh" catchphrase is so low effort it hurts. Lou Albano can't quite keep up with his co-star, and in many segments resorts to just shaking his body in place of properly emoting. Every episode also fills some time with an out of context clip from the Legend of Zelda cartoon, which always begins with an intro that you will memorize if you watch enough episodes.It's honestly a pretty bad series, but I rate things based on how much I enjoy them, not on how good they are. The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! is both fascinating and hilarious in its failures, and I enjoy it a lot.
saffire345
I don't see how anyone can possibly judge the Super Mario Bros. Super Show using today's mindset. The humor, the jokes, the "guest stars" are out of the 80's and 90's, some even earlier. I bought the DVD Zelda set, and it contains some of the live action scenes. I didn't even recognize one of the guest stars at all, and I watched the show when it originally aired.Let's face it, the animation was for kids, if you tuned in religiously, and now look back and wonder why you even bothered to watch something so horrific, the answer is simple: You were a KID! When you're a kid, you didn't need complex humor, artwork that would put the pros to shame, and plots that would out-do the best. You're a kid, you don't require all of that in order to enjoy something. The point of both the Mario and Zelda cartoons was that you had a (at the least vague) connection to the game itself. It was fun to see your favorite video game characters talk. The video game sounds offered only added to the connection. I'm well over 20, and I still enjoy all 13 episodes of the Zelda cartoon series. Granted, I skip over the Mario bros intro and "Do the Mario" ending, but then, those aren't why I bought the DVD set.Why kill Ganon? You do enough of that in the game, and they /do/ kill Ganon at least twice, and he "dies" many other times, however they explain that Ganon and any creature he summons gets zapped to the "Evil Jar" when they die anyways. If they actually killed Ganon, it'd be like the family in Lost In Space actually getting home. The series would end. I'm not sure why the series ended at one season, whether it was due to lack of funds, interest, or a combination of both, but it had potential to go on.Again, the whole thing was aimed towards kids, specifically, towards an age group that doesn't point out every out-of-sync word, animation glitch, or plot. Leave the heavy critiquing for features that hit the big screen.
xeviousJsopwells
I remember being very excited as a young kid that legendary superstars Mario @ Luigi were going to be animated. I was not at all disappointed! The animation, I MUST confess, was horrible at points, and mediocre at best, and there were even points where Mario would accidentally do a Luigi voice and vica versa but the happy-go-lucky plot lines were infinitely amusing. The show would start off as a live action skit with Mario(Lou Albano) and Luigi(someone named Danny?) doing a brief comedy skit, then it would switch to the cartoon, then back for the finalie of the live skit. These guys were simply hilarious! They would have guests such as Sgt Slaughter, Roddy Piper, Magic Johnson just to name a few. But my favorite of these skits was the Sgt. Slaughter Steam Machine episode! That one makes me laugh just thinking about it! The Bros start out fixing a steam machine for the sarge when Mario is hopelessly trapped inside! Luigi becomes angry that mario has disappeared and left him to work for the sarge who makes Luigi do 500 push-ups! When they figure out what has went wrong with the steam machine a mini-Mario pops out ranting and raving how much he hates what has happened! I absolutely loved it and wish more TV would be made like this, the good old fashioned somewhat 3-stooges style hit-you-below-the-belt silly stuff! I loved the show and will NEVER forget racing home from elementary school to watch this zany duo!But the show obviously had some short-comings as it was almost immediately canceled after a one season run. I'm not sure what all led to the demise of this hard to find jewel but the replacement of Lou Alban and Dan with the watered down Bill+Ted versions certainly hit a sour notw with a LOT of people. I remember thinking, "who are THESE guys???" They were OK at times, but just like the Curly VS Shemp, Shemp was OK, but he'll NEVER replace a CURLY! The show simply tried to cash in on a new attitude and failed miserably.All in all I would certainly place this on my TO-GET-LIST for those of us who enjoyed animation in the 80's. This was simply the absolute best!
Movie Nuttball
I always liked to watch this show! I've always been a big fan of the Super Mario video games as well! The Super Mario Brothers Super Show would have a live segment with great wrestling personality "Captain" Lou Albano and underrated actor Danny Wells and guest stars and then show the cool cartoon and then back to the live segment! It was an unusual show but it was always entertaining. Albano even sang in the end credits which was a surprise but it went good with the show! How the kids of today would like it I do not know but if you like the Mario Brothers and can watch this show on TV or able to rent or buy do so because it is really a cool classic!
