Why the Mario Bros. cartoon DIDN'T work.

Many of you probably don't know about a little cartoon called the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. Which is a good thing. Because this cartoon wrecks everything about anything good that the Super Mario Bros. universe had going for it.

To start, this show ruins the iconic theme tune as the intro.


While at the time that the cartoon aired, Mario and the rest of the gang's personalities weren't established to their current modern day counterparts, what they did kind of wrecked the series. Mario and Luigi made pasta puns right, left, and center, and that was mostly all the personality that they had. Is it any wonder that this show is part of the Youtube Poop sensation?

Ugh, I'm having such a hard time making myself watch all these clips. Or at least look for them.
The above turns Mario into a jerk, and Luigi just...I don't like these characterizations of my favorite video game icons. And the writing is really weak as well. I mean, Mario is trying to help organize cavemen (Okay, where in ANY of the games have there been cavemen??) to...build the next Stonehenge? I don't know, but it makes no sense, but here comes Luigi with a stone football and OH! Let's use football to teach "organization and teamwork."
Ugh....I hate these cartoons. Why can't cartoons ever be just entertaining? WHY DO THEY HAVE TO HAVE A POINT?!

The Offical characterization of Luigi is that he's a bit of coward, kind of stuck in Mario's shadow. Mario, in my mind, is a bit cocky that he's the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom (which the cartoon never seems to take place in), but at the same time, he's also a big brother, so he looks out for Luigi. And they're not above and beyond a few scuffles now and again...But the cartoon just wrecks this!

I think the biggest issue with the cartoon is that it came far too soon. I think the cartoon, with the right people involved, could have been well done. I mean, look at Pokemon. How many seasons does that show have? Proof that a video game CAN have a good cartoon (at least...until season 4. After that it's like, "Really Ash? You're still not a Pokemon master?")

The video game series was still in its childhood when the cartoon was developed and created. So there wasn't a lot of depth to it...which shows, horribly. The series, and Nintendo as a whole, took off on the N64, which gave a lot of its series lots of backstory/adventure.

Not only that, but Mario got a voice for the first time, the wonderful Charles Martinet gave Mario his classic, "It's-a me, Mario!" Keep in mind, his vocal audition was pretty much improvised on the spot, and he decided to NOT go with a tough New York accent for Mario. He went with a lighter and softer version...and the rest is history.

So what can we learn from this? Just because something is popular doesn't mean it will make a good cartoon. Super Mario Bros was everywhere, so it only makes sense to make a cartoon about it, right? WRONG. This, along with the Zelda cartoon (DO NOT. GET. ME. STARTED), and the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon (not Sonic X. That one was much better), took characters from the video games and turned them into EVERY SINGLE OTHER CARTOON of the day. Y'know the "Here's what you're supposed to learn, today, kids, because you can't just watch cartoons for entertainment, no you must learn something!"

Gosh, this is half of why I hate cartoons today. They're either smacking you upside the head with a message that you need to learn, or they're just so stupid that you feel your brain cells committing suicide. This show is no exception.

Also, this show RUINED the Legend of Zelda, and is probably why they STILL haven't given Link any dialouge. It can be summed up in four words...."Well, excuuuuuuuuse me, Princess." Way to be a jerk, Link. Way to ruin the greatest hero ever, random company playing upon the tender fandom of Mario and Zelda.

...I'm gonna go look up fanart that makes me feel better now...

Resonating

A thing I've noticed about my fandoms is that each thing strikes a cord with me in some way. For my animes, I have always loved the story that each series presents. I love the characters. And in some way, I always find a character or two that I latch onto as my favorite.

I think with Avatar: The Last Airbender universe, I have a thing for child heroes. I love seeing a little kid shoulder responsibilty way before they're supposed to, and they win. Legend of Korra just amps things up. While Korra may be older than Aang, I love a good female protaganist, and they portray her realistically; being girly while at the same time being tough, admitting that she herself has flaws while being awesome. Each character is well developed, and we get enough backstory for each character that we can make our own assumptions why they act a certain way, but we're not given their entire life stories in one sitting.

For video games: I prefer acting out a story with a character than mindlessly shooting down bad guys because I want to watch the blood and guts spill out. To be honest, I don't see the lure of first person shooters. It all seems the same to me. Which is when I'm on an adventure as Mario or Sora or Link or whoever, it just seems more natural to me. It's like reading a book. Only not because I've got a controller in my hand.

I don't know how to explain how each thing just clicks in my brain.

It's either story or characters. Yeah, I'm gonna go with that.