The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990)

The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros. 3 was the second television show that was based on the Mario games. It was heavily based upon the game for which it was named, and used many of the same characters and abilities presented in that title. However, many of the elements in the show seemed to hint that it was a continuation of the original Mario series: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!.

While the original Mario show has a syndication that allowed it to be broadcast five days a week, The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros. 3 was only aired on Saturday mornings. It was paired with a show called Captain N: The Game Master during its 1990-1991 airing. At the time that it was originally released, it came in a one hour block that had a fifteen minute episode of the Mario show, then a thirty minute Captain N airing, followed by a final episode of Mario. The shows eventually were split and put on at separate times. One of the reasons that The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros. 3 is notable is that it used title cards and narration to introduce the episode rather than utilizing a theme song.

The prequel to this show, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, was mostly concerned with the main cast, Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad, trying to stop the spread of King Koopa’s reign over Mushroom Kingdom. The sequel, The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros.3, was set much after the events of the first show, and dealt with the day to day activities of the main characters.

Unlike the other television programs produced for the Mario series, this show kept very close to the game. They did this by visiting the various worlds that were explored during the game from all around the Mushroom Kingdom. One of the most interesting parts of this television show is that they introduced several of the power-ups that were available in the game, such as super leaves and frog suits. King Koopa’s army was also infused with many of the undead characters such as the Boom Booms and Dry bones. While he is still called King Koopa, the game makes sure to mention that his full name includes Bowser.

One of the chief differences in names was that the seven Koopalings were given different names than in the game. This was due to a communication failure that prompted the writers to come up with names directly before production was started.

Some of the other locations that are shown during the The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros.3 are the Mushroom Castle and Toad’s house. The Koopa’s residence in Kastle Koopa was also shown as the staging point for many air raids which made use of their famous Doomship.

This was the second of the Super Mario Bros animated TV shows and shows the continuing adventures of Mario, Luigi, Princess and Toad and their encounters with the pesky King Bowser Koopa and his Koopa kids. The Koopa kids were named differently in the TV series to the Super Mario Bros. 3 game.

To this day many fans debate the reason behind the Koopa Kids naming differences, we believe however that the reason for the differences in the names is that DiC Entertainment were not given access to the actual naming information by Nintendo soon enough and so had to improvise to get the show on air. It is said that they were potentially using a Japanese copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 in which the Koopa kids were not yet named – the Koopa kids had been named by Nintendo in time for their U.S release of Super Mario Bros. 3.

The official back story for Super Mario Bros. 3 giving info on the story and introducing the Koopa Kids.

The series was aired on Saturday mornings on NBC in the states, it was originally partnered by Captain N: The Game Master & rolled into a one hour package called “Captain N and the Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3”.

In the spirit of keeping in line with the game as well as possible the Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 ensured to visit the worlds from the game as much as possible – Water World, Giant Land, Ice Land etc… it also frequently featured the powerups from the game such as the Super Leaf, Frog suit and power star. The enemies were also well tied in with the game featuring regular appearances from Goombas, the Hammer Brothers, Boom Boom etc – also nearly all of Warts minions were removed from this game – no longer did King Bowser Koopa control Shy Guys etc – as these were really Warts minions and not a part of SMB3.

Unlike the Super Mario Bros. Super Show before it, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 also visited the “real world” and featured real cities such as Paris, New York and London and “real” human beings – there is also an episode where the Princess goes on Holiday to Hawaii. Although the show was more successful than the Super Mario Bros. Super Show in terms of its reception from fans there were only 26 episodes made of it compared to the 52 episodes which comprised the Super Show!

Apart from two familiar voices, the cast was brand new. Walker Boone took over as Mario and Tony Rosato as Luigi, with Tracey Moore as Princess Toadstool, while John Stocker (Toad) and Harvey Atkin (King Koopa) were the only performers to return from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!. Greg Morton directed the voice sessions and also voiced Prince Hugo.

The seven Koopalings were given nicknames that sum up their personalities, from Cheatsy and Bully to the gadget-building Kooky, and were voiced by a mix of established and up-and-coming actors, two of whom are now better known under different names: Tara Strong, credited as Tara Charendoff, played Hop, and Tabitha St. Germain, credited as Paulina Gillis, played Kootie Pie. The uncredited narrator heard over the opening was announcer Ernie Anderson.

A full list of episodes of the The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 are below including the air date, if you click on the title of the episode you will be taken to that episodes guide page including a synopsis and images from that episode.

Our playlist of every episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, plus bonus videos such as character concepts and the back story, from our YouTube channel.

DIC again led production, this time with Italy’s Reteitalia as co-producer and Nintendo of America on board, while the animation was handled by Sei Young Animation in South Korea. Bruce and Reed Shelly developed the series for television, John Grusd produced and directed, Andy Heyward and Robby London were executive producers and Michael Tavera composed the score. Rather than a theme song, the opening uses narration, which makes it the only animated Mario series to do so.

On NBC the show did not air on its own. It formed part of an hour-long block, Captain N & The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, in which a full Captain N: The Game Master episode was sandwiched between two Mario stories. Like the Super Show, several episodes used covers of licensed pop songs, and one broadcast featured two Milli Vanilli tracks; these were later removed after the duo’s lip-syncing scandal.

The series was first developed under the title Super Mario Bros. III!, as seen on an early poster with different Koopaling designs. Writer Perry Martin has described several stories that were pitched but never produced, including “Kowabunga Koopa!”, “Lotto Trouble” and “You Bet Your Lasagna!”, while an episode called “Frog Feats” never aired.

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Reptiles in the Rose Garden

• The doom ship appears for the first time on TV in “Reptiles in the Rose Garden”.
• After the Mario Bros. tell the angry sun to go look for those pesky plumbers behind that cloud, the angry sun disappears before reaching the cloud.
• Toad does not speak in this episode despite featuring in it.
• Mario mentions that he is unable to escape from the Bird Cage, shortly before escaping from it.
• The Cheep Cheeps featured in this episode are Spiny, whereas the ones in Super Mario Bros. 3 are not – in the game they also come in both red and green varieties.

Sneaky Lying Giant Ninja Koopa

• When Mario loses his Raccoon ability, he goes straight down to small Mario – in the Super Mario Bros. 3 game itself (with the exception of the Japanese version) this would not be the case, he would first go down to Big Mario.
• When Bowser shrinks Prince Hugo into a “miniature Poodle” – he is still huge in comparison to everyone else who isn’t currently a giant.
• There is no reference or appearance of the doom ship in “Sneaky Lying Cheating Giant Ninja Koopas”
• The colours of Prince Hugo’s parrot change throughout the episode.
• As Princess Toadstool is tricking Koopa into turning Mario into a giant Ninja, Luigi’s clothes change from green to red.

The Beauty of Kootie

• When Kootie Pie is in her human form, her tail is the same colour as her human skin (in the scene where Luigi is trying to look at her tail).
• Cheatsys Head is the same colour as the rest of his body throughout this episode
• There is a scene in which Kootie Pie’s head is not attached to her body.

Mind your Mummy, Mommy Mario

• King Koopa mentions in this episode that the two youngest Koopalings are Hip & Hop (aka Iggy and Lemmy) but according to Nintendo publications since the youngest of the Koopaling is actually Larry/Cheatsy.
• Throughout this episode the colour of Hops (Iggy’s) hair changed from blue to yellow, to pink and finally to all three. I guess he just couldn’t decide…

Princess Toadstool for President

• The episode plot is a little doomed to begin with in that the Mushroom Kingdom is ran by a Princess (Monarch) directly and not by a government – therefore there would not be need for an election… but hey luckily its just a cartoon… 😉
• As Princess Toadstool discusses the upcoming election the scenery which was behind her appears briefly in front of her.

Never Koopa a Koopa

• There are various points throughout this episode where Cheatsy’s beak is the same colour as his head.
• When Toad notices Boss Bass to Luigi, Luigi’s leg turns red.
• When Koopa hands over the key to Castle Koopa to Princess Toadstool their are three of his Koopalings behind him; Kootie Pie, Hip and Bully. When Koopa jumps down the warp pipe he is followed by only two of them; Kootie pie and Hip – Where did Bully go?
• The Mario’s and Toad were hiding in a dresser – but when Princess Toadstool gives the scroll to Cheatsy it disappears.

Reign Storm

• When Princess and Toad see Kooky and realise something is wrong they head back to the Mushroom Kingdom, he follows BEHIND them, in the next scene he is shown with all the other Koopa Kids – but he doesn’t arrive back through the warp pipe until its to late which is a scene or two later! do’h!
• When Kooky comes back through the warp pipe and hits the Robot Princess – he knocks its head off, the head disappears completely in the air.

Kooky better ask King Dad for a new watch for his koopday!

Toddler Terrors of Time Travel

• When Kooky is telling Koopa about them going back in time to the day the Mario’s went down the drain he says that the Doomship will arrive on a day in 1983 just before noon, when infact the time shows as 14.00hrs when the Doomship does arrive.
• When Toad jumps toward the doomship he is a baby yet, when he lands on it he is back to normal and stays that way until the end of the episode.

Tag Team Trouble

• When Mario & Luigi grab the Star Men that Princess gives them to win the match – their wrestling costumes disappear, they also stop flashing when they get into the ring despite still being invincible.

Oh, Brother!

• Mario’s favourite record that he is playing before Luigi burns it is actually a song that is used in Episode 19 – Crimes R Us later on in the series!

A Toadally Magical Adventure

• In the scene where Kootie Pie points the wand at the other Koopalings Bully and Kooky swap places just for that one scene and then swap back.

Misadventures in Babysitting

• There are three Boomerang brothers – one of which throws a boomerang at Junior, but when Junior catches it and throws it back at them they’ve switched from Boomerang Bros to Hammer Bros!
• Mario kind of half-thanks Junior at the end for his co-operation despite that Junior at one point collaborated with the Koopa Kids!?!

Do the Koopa

• Toad and Luigi pulled out the crank handle of the Doom Dancer but the last time you see it, its still there.

The underwater city where the Ugly Mermaid lives, covered by a fishbowl to ironically, keep the water out.

The Ugly Mermaid

• When out of water and on land, the Ugly Mermaid has a fishbowl on her head, so as still to breathe – yet when her underwater city is shown – that’s in a giant fishbowl too keeping the water out – so surely she wouldn’t be able to breathe in her home city?

Crimes R Us

• Luigi grabs a fireflower – but his colours remain unchanged.
• Mario’s favourite record from “Oh, Brother” plays again and is the first song to be played twice in the series.

An angry looking Lakitu riding a Black Cloud, guess he must need the bathroom. Making standing beneath him even worse than usual!

Lifes Ruff

• Hip and Hop drive a blue sports car but the TV Reporter mentions it being red.
• There is a Lakitu in this episode whose cloud appears black.

Up Up and a Koopa

• The song “I’m a hurricane” is played for the second time in the series.

7 Continents for 7 Koopas

• Mario restores South America to it’s original jungle-like state whilst Hop is in a tree overlooking, in the next scene its Hip whose in the tree.

True Colours

• The time is set at approximately midnight when this episode begins – yet its quite blatantly still light out!

More trivia

• The Koopalings have different names from the games because the show entered production before Nintendo had named them.
• It is the only animated Mario series to open with narration rather than a theme song; the uncredited narrator was Ernie Anderson.
• Only Harvey Atkin (King Koopa) and John Stocker (Toad) returned from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!.
• On NBC, each hour paired two Mario stories with a full Captain N: The Game Master episode in between.
• Mario does not appear in “Crimes R Us”.
• There is only one airship in the show, the Doom Ship, and Kuribo’s Shoes are called “Karoobis”.
• Bowser’s castle is surrounded by water instead of the games’ lava.
• The show’s working title was Super Mario Bros. III!.
• Licensed pop covers in the original broadcasts were replaced with “Mega Move” from Captain N on the complete-series DVDs.
• Unmade episode ideas described by writer Perry Martin include a surfing contest (“Kowabunga Koopa!”) and Toad winning the lottery (“Lotto Trouble”).

VHS
There were a total of 5 VHS releases dedicated solely to episodes of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoons. Many of the VHS’s were named simply after the first episode on the video… not very fair on the other video! Shame on you for not thinking of more creative names Buena Vista Home Video. Anyway heres the list of released VHS:-

• Mind your Mummy Mommy, Mario was released in 1993 by Buena Vista Home Video and contained two episodes: Mind Your Mummy Mommy, Mario (#suprise) and True Colours.
• Misadventures in Babysitting was also released in 1993 by Buena Vista Home Video and contained two episodes: Misadventures in Babysitting and Super Koopa
• Never Koop a Koopa another 1993 release by Buena Vista Home Video and contained two episodes: Never Koop a Koopa and A Toadally Magical Adventure
• The Ugly mermaid was the final Buena Vista VHS release of the Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 (in 1993 when the others came out) and included two episodes: The Ugly Mermaid and Do the Koopa
• The final VHS to feature episodes of The Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon was entitled “King Koopa Katastrophe”. This was released on July 22nd, 2003 by Sterling Entertainment and included a rather impressive (by VHS standards) six episodes comprising: Reptiles in the Rose Garden, Sneaky Lying Cheating Giant Ninja Koopas, The Beauty of Kootie, Toddler Terrors of Time Travel, Reign Storm and Never Koop a Koopa.

DVD

There have been a total of six DVD releases of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon including two seperate releases of whole-series-dvd-sets. The first DVD was released July 22nd, 2003 and the latest was on May 14th, 2013. The full DVD release list is below:-

• “King Koopa Katastrophe” – The DVD version of the last released VHS included the same six episodes: Reptiles in the Rose Garden, Sneaky Lying Cheating Giant Ninja Koopas, The Beauty of Kootie, Toddler Terrors of Time Travel, Reign Storm and Never Koop a Koopa. This was the first released DVD and came out July 22nd, 2003, published by Sterling Entertainment. This DVD also included an episode of a Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon as a bonus feature – the episode is called “Sonic Tonic”.
• “The Complete Series” – The entire series including all 26 episodes of the Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 was released by Shout! Factory on June 26th, 2007. Further down the line Shout! Factory would re-release this complete series and add the first series of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog to celebrate Mario and Sonic’s partnership for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.
• “The Trouble With Koopas” – This releases title was inspired by the classic Star Trek the Original Series episode entitled “The Trouble with Tribbles“. It was released January 6th, 2009 by nCircle Entertainment and the six episodes included were: Dadzilla, Tag Team Trouble, Recycled Koopa, True Colours, Crimes R Us and Lifes Ruff.
• “What a Wonderful Warp” – This DVD was bought out by nCircle Entertainment on the 3rd of March 2009 and included the following six episodes: Misadventures in Babysitting, A Toadally Magical Adventure, Mush-Rumours, The Ugly Mermaid, The Venice Menace and Super Koopa.
• “Koopas Rock!” – This DVD release arrived on the 1st of June 2010 and was the penultimate TAOSMB3 DVD to be released by nCircle Entertainment. The episodes included: Oh, Brother!, Misadventures of Mighty Plumber, Do the Koopa, Kootie Pie Rocks, Up, Up and A Koopa and 7 continents for 7 Koopas.
• “The Complete Series” – The second time the complete series was released on DVD was on May 14th, 2013 by nCircle entertainment.

After its NBC run the show was split from Captain N and, in 1992, folded into Rysher Entertainment’s Captain N & The Video Game Masters syndication package. It later resurfaced on PAX Kids in 1998–99 and has since aired in dozens of countries, with Mario Wiki counting 31 countries and two regions.

Buena Vista Home Video released four two-episode VHS tapes in 1994. Shout! Factory issued the complete series on DVD on 26 June 2007, followed by NCircle Entertainment volumes from 2009, a Complete Series Collector’s Edition on 14 May 2013 and another complete-series release on 14 November 2023. The Shout! Factory and NCircle complete-series DVDs replace the original licensed songs with “Mega Move” from Captain N, although Sterling’s King Koopa Katastrophe disc keeps the original music on three of its six episodes. The series left Netflix on 31 March 2021 and is now streamed on services including Paramount+, Pluto TV and Tubi, with WildBrain as distributor.

This was the series that brought the Koopalings to television, and their DiC nicknames remain one of the best-loved quirks in Mario history. It was followed in 1991 by Super Mario World, which kept most of the voice cast.

A selection of images captured from various episodes of the Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon, for images of specific episodes go to that episodes guide.