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vovatI checked out the bonus material on the third disc of the Super Mario Bros. 3 DVD set. I don't think that stuff really needed its own disc, but what are you going to do? Nothing all that amazing, and the back story was really self-congratulatory (it claimed that the minor characters were all three-dimensional, which is a bit of a stretch), but some of the back stories were cool. I liked the biography of Toad, which claimed he worked as a pizza delivery boy and encyclopedia salesman before coming into Princess Toadstool's service. I really can't buy that the Princess is only seventeen years old, though, and not just because Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time suggests that she's about the same age as the Mario Brothers (because, really, I kind of take issue with that as well; it's really too much of a Muppet Babies scenario for me), but because it seems unlikely. Besides, that would presumably have made her even younger during the Super Show. I guess it WOULD explain her fondness for Milli Vanilli, though (more on that once the relevant episode comes up). The Writers' Bible also identifies Bully (Roy) as the oldest Koopaling, although most other sources seem to say it's Ludwig/Kooky. I'm not sure the birth order has ever been officially established, though, any more than the identity of their mother has. Another interesting thing about the bonus material is that there's concept art of Mario wearing a Tanooki Suit, which he never actually did in any of the cartoons.
Anyway, I re-watched two more episodes last night.
Oh, Brother! - This one is pretty fun, because Kooky was always my favorite Koopaling in the cartoons, and here we get to see four of his inventions: the Power Shower (which generates rain on the Mushroom Kingdom in order to flush all the underground coins into a dungeon), the Koopascope (a periscope that can see through warp pipes), the Plumber Pull (a fishing rod that must be pretty powerful, since Kooky snags Mario with it), and the Lame Brainer (a mind control helmet). It starts out at Toad's house (not sure why the Mario gang is always staying there instead of at the castle, but whatever), where Mario, Luigi, Toad, and the Princess are taking shelter from the Koopa-generated rain outside. Being cooped up makes Mario and Luigi cranky, and when Mario's record (which is playing an instrumental version of "Double Trouble," the song from the episode "Crimes 'R' Us") interferes with Luigi's reading, the two get into a fight. We learn that Luigi's favorite way to annoy his brother is to snap his suspenders, pull down his cap, and mess up his mustache. Anyway, Luigi sets out into the rain, and Mario goes after him, neither one taking the Princess' advice to wear a frog suit in the rain. It's right around then that Kooky's Power Shower springs a leak, and he captures Mario to fix it. Luigi goes after him, after stopping by Toad's to get a frog suit, and he has to swim past some underwater enemies inside a large pipe. During this sequence, a thankfully short song called "Brotherly Love," the first line of which seems to have been ripped off from the Beatles' "Goodbye Hello," plays. Mario, still under the Koopas' control, tries to clobber Luigi with his wrench, but Luigi overrides the Lame Brainer by doing the same mustache-pulling stunt he did earlier. The helmet flies onto Kooky's head, and the Mario Brothers get him to chase after his dad. Oh, and I feel I have to mention one joke that I particularly liked (at least when I was a kid; I don't find it quite as funny in my adult life), in which Bowser refers to Eenie-Meenie-Miney-Mo as "the scientific way" to make a decision.
Misadventure of Mighty Plumber - They used to show two of these cartoons every Saturday morning (they're paired off the same way on the DVD, actually), and there was often a theme connecting the two. This time, it's that both have significant action take place in Pipe Land. While "Oh, Brother!" started with the Pipe Land map and the Grass Land music, this episode gets it right. It starts out with Mario and Luigi (this is another one without Toad or the Princess), who brought a TV set back from Brooklyn in order to watch their favorite show, The Adventures of Mighty Plumber. (I wonder if it was made by the same company as Dirk Drain-Head.) It appears to be a rather poorly edited show, as it shows a woman yelling into the listening end of her phone receiver, the phone itself changing colors, and her kitchen temporarily changing to resemble the interior of Castle Koopa. But then, we also see rain outside the window in one shot and no other, so I'm assuming those errors weren't intentional. Either that, or there was a freak rainstorm in the Mushroom Kingdom. Also, I'm not entirely sure why getting a TV from Brooklyn would let you watch channels from there, unless the Marios had the world's first Slingbox. They apparently get the same channel at Castle Koopa, though. Bowser uses Cheatsy's wand to zap Mighty Plumber out of the set, and tells him that he has to stop two evil plumbers from robbing the Pipe Land treasury. Of course, we all know that Bowser is actually intending to rob it himself (we could have figured that out even if he HADN'T just mentioned it a few minutes earlier), but Mighty Plumber believes him. Hey, wouldn't YOU believe a creepy talking reptile who had just pulled you into another universe? I fear our Mighty Plumber might not be too bright. He does, however, pose a significant challenge to the Marios, who show up in an attempt to stop Bowser's burglary. There's a chase sequence through Pipe Land, during which a song keeps mentioning "Super Plumber." What, the lyricist was never told that the guy was actually called MIGHTY Plumber, even though that name was right in the episode title? Speaking of which, this is the second episode of this series to use "misadventure" in the title, which suggests that the writing staff (or at least the title-writing staff, if that was separate) was running out of ideas. Bowser reaches the treasury, steals some of the coins (not that many of them, actually, but it looks like he didn't have the foresight to bring more than one sack), and locks Mighty Plumber in the vault. Mario and Luigi help him escape, and he helps them to retrieve the gold from King Koopa. Oh, and there's no punchline at the end of this one, just a brief scene of the brothers watching Mighty Plumber on TV while the end credit music from the game plays. That might have been a good decision, actually. While Mighty Plumber was a pretty shallow character, I'd say it's excusable, since he was a fictional character taken out of a TV show, even in the context of the cartoon. I think it would have been interesting if the trick of transporting characters out of the TV had been used again, but I think that would have been too much continuity for this show.
Anyway, I re-watched two more episodes last night.
Oh, Brother! - This one is pretty fun, because Kooky was always my favorite Koopaling in the cartoons, and here we get to see four of his inventions: the Power Shower (which generates rain on the Mushroom Kingdom in order to flush all the underground coins into a dungeon), the Koopascope (a periscope that can see through warp pipes), the Plumber Pull (a fishing rod that must be pretty powerful, since Kooky snags Mario with it), and the Lame Brainer (a mind control helmet). It starts out at Toad's house (not sure why the Mario gang is always staying there instead of at the castle, but whatever), where Mario, Luigi, Toad, and the Princess are taking shelter from the Koopa-generated rain outside. Being cooped up makes Mario and Luigi cranky, and when Mario's record (which is playing an instrumental version of "Double Trouble," the song from the episode "Crimes 'R' Us") interferes with Luigi's reading, the two get into a fight. We learn that Luigi's favorite way to annoy his brother is to snap his suspenders, pull down his cap, and mess up his mustache. Anyway, Luigi sets out into the rain, and Mario goes after him, neither one taking the Princess' advice to wear a frog suit in the rain. It's right around then that Kooky's Power Shower springs a leak, and he captures Mario to fix it. Luigi goes after him, after stopping by Toad's to get a frog suit, and he has to swim past some underwater enemies inside a large pipe. During this sequence, a thankfully short song called "Brotherly Love," the first line of which seems to have been ripped off from the Beatles' "Goodbye Hello," plays. Mario, still under the Koopas' control, tries to clobber Luigi with his wrench, but Luigi overrides the Lame Brainer by doing the same mustache-pulling stunt he did earlier. The helmet flies onto Kooky's head, and the Mario Brothers get him to chase after his dad. Oh, and I feel I have to mention one joke that I particularly liked (at least when I was a kid; I don't find it quite as funny in my adult life), in which Bowser refers to Eenie-Meenie-Miney-Mo as "the scientific way" to make a decision.
Misadventure of Mighty Plumber - They used to show two of these cartoons every Saturday morning (they're paired off the same way on the DVD, actually), and there was often a theme connecting the two. This time, it's that both have significant action take place in Pipe Land. While "Oh, Brother!" started with the Pipe Land map and the Grass Land music, this episode gets it right. It starts out with Mario and Luigi (this is another one without Toad or the Princess), who brought a TV set back from Brooklyn in order to watch their favorite show, The Adventures of Mighty Plumber. (I wonder if it was made by the same company as Dirk Drain-Head.) It appears to be a rather poorly edited show, as it shows a woman yelling into the listening end of her phone receiver, the phone itself changing colors, and her kitchen temporarily changing to resemble the interior of Castle Koopa. But then, we also see rain outside the window in one shot and no other, so I'm assuming those errors weren't intentional. Either that, or there was a freak rainstorm in the Mushroom Kingdom. Also, I'm not entirely sure why getting a TV from Brooklyn would let you watch channels from there, unless the Marios had the world's first Slingbox. They apparently get the same channel at Castle Koopa, though. Bowser uses Cheatsy's wand to zap Mighty Plumber out of the set, and tells him that he has to stop two evil plumbers from robbing the Pipe Land treasury. Of course, we all know that Bowser is actually intending to rob it himself (we could have figured that out even if he HADN'T just mentioned it a few minutes earlier), but Mighty Plumber believes him. Hey, wouldn't YOU believe a creepy talking reptile who had just pulled you into another universe? I fear our Mighty Plumber might not be too bright. He does, however, pose a significant challenge to the Marios, who show up in an attempt to stop Bowser's burglary. There's a chase sequence through Pipe Land, during which a song keeps mentioning "Super Plumber." What, the lyricist was never told that the guy was actually called MIGHTY Plumber, even though that name was right in the episode title? Speaking of which, this is the second episode of this series to use "misadventure" in the title, which suggests that the writing staff (or at least the title-writing staff, if that was separate) was running out of ideas. Bowser reaches the treasury, steals some of the coins (not that many of them, actually, but it looks like he didn't have the foresight to bring more than one sack), and locks Mighty Plumber in the vault. Mario and Luigi help him escape, and he helps them to retrieve the gold from King Koopa. Oh, and there's no punchline at the end of this one, just a brief scene of the brothers watching Mighty Plumber on TV while the end credit music from the game plays. That might have been a good decision, actually. While Mighty Plumber was a pretty shallow character, I'd say it's excusable, since he was a fictional character taken out of a TV show, even in the context of the cartoon. I think it would have been interesting if the trick of transporting characters out of the TV had been used again, but I think that would have been too much continuity for this show.
