Dinosaur Delinquency
Sep. 7th, 2011 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatBorn to Ride - Mario and Luigi are trying to install a sink in the Dome Castle. Well, at least they call it a castle, even though it doesn't appear to be an actual seat of government, and doesn't look much different from the other dome houses. Maybe the Princess refused to live in a building that wasn't a castle. They use bamboo for the plumbing, but Yoshi eats it. So the brothers yell at him, and he runs off and meets up with a motorcycle gang called the Dino-Riders. There had been a line of toys and cartoon series called Dino-Riders a few years prior to this, and they were also dinosaurs on motorcycles, so I suspect that's where they got the name. There appear to be only three members, the leader Duke, the big dumb guy Rock, and the biker babe Lulu.
I have to wonder how they obtained their bikes when Mario just introduced the wheel to Dinosaur Land a few episodes ago, and also what they run on, but these issues are never addressed. The Dino-Riders think Yoshi is a wimp (gee, I wonder why), but when they find out he knows the Mario Brothers, they pretend to be his friends so that they can get their hands on the plumbers. Their intention is to give them to King Koopa (who, by the way, doesn't appear in this episode) for the reward money. Why would Bowser bother offering a reward when he's had the Marios imprisoned approximately fifteen billion times before, and they've always escaped?
Well, anyway, the Dino-Riders spring their trap at the Tar Pit Milk Bar, and offer the brothers something called Goomba Quiche as their last meal. Mind you, a quiche is a pie, and this food clearly isn't, but I guess I should be impressed that dinosaurs can cook at all. When Yoshi finds out he's been had, he takes one of the Dino-Riders' bikes to get the Princess, and the two of them free the Marios. What follows is a chase sequence with Mario and Luigi on one motorcycle, Yoshi and the Princess on another, Rock on a third, and Duke and Lulu on a fourth. (Lulu, by the way, spends the sequence doing her nails. Women! Especially talking dinosaur women!) There were only three bikes in previous sequences, so I'm not sure where the fourth one came from. Also, we see Yoshi push over one of the Dino-Riders' bikes to gain some time, but they pick up TWO toppled motorcycles. Sloppy animation, anyone? The chase scene is accompanied by a song that sounds enough like "Born to Be Wild" for the audience to recognize it, but far enough from it that they don't have to pay any royalties. Rock falls into a pit of flaming magma and the other two Dino-Riders crash into a wall of blocks, yet they're all okay about a minute later. To make a short story even shorter, the good guys get away through a warp pipe, and the Dino-Riders don't bother chasing them anymore. Then Yoshi plays a hilarious joke where it looks like he's eating the plumbing again, but it's actually just an unrelated piece of wood and the sink works just fine. Oh, Yoshi, you regular cut-up!
The Fractured Fantasy of Captain N - Well, here it is, the last episode of Captain N, and it resolves absolutely nothing. Another interesting thing about this one is that I believe it was the only animated version of Final Fantasy that existed for a while. Eventually the Japanese turned out some anime based on the series, as well as a movie that doesn't appear to have anything to do with the games beyond its name, but those were later. The plot of this Captain N episode is based on what I still tend to think of as Chapter 2, because that's how the ElfLand part was identified in the old Nintendo Power strategy guide. It starts with Princess Lana going to have lunch with the Prince of ElfLand, who's an old friend of hers, and taking along Kevin, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus. (I guess Simon's reputation preceded him, and he wasn't invited.) Kevin is jealous of the Prince for some reason that isn't fully explained, and this jealousy is exploited by Astos.
Yeah, that guy. The dark elf hypnotizes Kevin, causing his irises to disappear and his voice to become robotic. He uses a potion to put the Prince to sleep, then goes off with Astos to train his warriors. He uses his Power Pad and Zapper in this training, because the warriors all have Power Pads and Zappers of their own, and can hence imitate his movements. No, wait, they don't. Lana, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus meet up with the witch Matoya, who in this cartoon isn't blind.
Her crystal still exists, though, in the form of the Light Crystal, which can reveal people's true selves. It turns out that Astos stole it from the witch, so the heroes sneak into the villain's castle with the time-honored method of disguising themselves in uniforms that just happen to cover the entire body. Lana uses the Light Crystal to break the spell on Kevin, and it also reveals the true forms of Astos and his henchmen.
I think I see now why the soldiers insisted on wearing full-body armor. The four heroes escape from Astos' castle, but leave the villain himself alive and kicking. Matoya uses an herb to wake the Prince, and Kevin says he's learned his lesson and is no longer jealous.
As I said, this was the last Captain N, but there are other Super Mario World episodes. When the show first aired, these Mario cartoons were accompanied by shortened versions of Captain N episodes from the first two seasons. Since there was no point in including these in the box set, the entire rest of it is Mario.
I have to wonder how they obtained their bikes when Mario just introduced the wheel to Dinosaur Land a few episodes ago, and also what they run on, but these issues are never addressed. The Dino-Riders think Yoshi is a wimp (gee, I wonder why), but when they find out he knows the Mario Brothers, they pretend to be his friends so that they can get their hands on the plumbers. Their intention is to give them to King Koopa (who, by the way, doesn't appear in this episode) for the reward money. Why would Bowser bother offering a reward when he's had the Marios imprisoned approximately fifteen billion times before, and they've always escaped?
Well, anyway, the Dino-Riders spring their trap at the Tar Pit Milk Bar, and offer the brothers something called Goomba Quiche as their last meal. Mind you, a quiche is a pie, and this food clearly isn't, but I guess I should be impressed that dinosaurs can cook at all. When Yoshi finds out he's been had, he takes one of the Dino-Riders' bikes to get the Princess, and the two of them free the Marios. What follows is a chase sequence with Mario and Luigi on one motorcycle, Yoshi and the Princess on another, Rock on a third, and Duke and Lulu on a fourth. (Lulu, by the way, spends the sequence doing her nails. Women! Especially talking dinosaur women!) There were only three bikes in previous sequences, so I'm not sure where the fourth one came from. Also, we see Yoshi push over one of the Dino-Riders' bikes to gain some time, but they pick up TWO toppled motorcycles. Sloppy animation, anyone? The chase scene is accompanied by a song that sounds enough like "Born to Be Wild" for the audience to recognize it, but far enough from it that they don't have to pay any royalties. Rock falls into a pit of flaming magma and the other two Dino-Riders crash into a wall of blocks, yet they're all okay about a minute later. To make a short story even shorter, the good guys get away through a warp pipe, and the Dino-Riders don't bother chasing them anymore. Then Yoshi plays a hilarious joke where it looks like he's eating the plumbing again, but it's actually just an unrelated piece of wood and the sink works just fine. Oh, Yoshi, you regular cut-up!
The Fractured Fantasy of Captain N - Well, here it is, the last episode of Captain N, and it resolves absolutely nothing. Another interesting thing about this one is that I believe it was the only animated version of Final Fantasy that existed for a while. Eventually the Japanese turned out some anime based on the series, as well as a movie that doesn't appear to have anything to do with the games beyond its name, but those were later. The plot of this Captain N episode is based on what I still tend to think of as Chapter 2, because that's how the ElfLand part was identified in the old Nintendo Power strategy guide. It starts with Princess Lana going to have lunch with the Prince of ElfLand, who's an old friend of hers, and taking along Kevin, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus. (I guess Simon's reputation preceded him, and he wasn't invited.) Kevin is jealous of the Prince for some reason that isn't fully explained, and this jealousy is exploited by Astos.
Yeah, that guy. The dark elf hypnotizes Kevin, causing his irises to disappear and his voice to become robotic. He uses a potion to put the Prince to sleep, then goes off with Astos to train his warriors. He uses his Power Pad and Zapper in this training, because the warriors all have Power Pads and Zappers of their own, and can hence imitate his movements. No, wait, they don't. Lana, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus meet up with the witch Matoya, who in this cartoon isn't blind.
Her crystal still exists, though, in the form of the Light Crystal, which can reveal people's true selves. It turns out that Astos stole it from the witch, so the heroes sneak into the villain's castle with the time-honored method of disguising themselves in uniforms that just happen to cover the entire body. Lana uses the Light Crystal to break the spell on Kevin, and it also reveals the true forms of Astos and his henchmen.
I think I see now why the soldiers insisted on wearing full-body armor. The four heroes escape from Astos' castle, but leave the villain himself alive and kicking. Matoya uses an herb to wake the Prince, and Kevin says he's learned his lesson and is no longer jealous.
As I said, this was the last Captain N, but there are other Super Mario World episodes. When the show first aired, these Mario cartoons were accompanied by shortened versions of Captain N episodes from the first two seasons. Since there was no point in including these in the box set, the entire rest of it is Mario.
