Are You Ready for Some Football?
Sep. 20th, 2011 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatI'm almost done with the Super Mario World cartoons. Here are two more reviews, and there are only two more to go after this.
Rock TV - We open to the Neon Castle, where Bowser is pacing around his throne room, trying to think of a way to take advantage of the cave people. Note the flowerpot shaped like the Clown Car on the side of the room.
He decides that the most effective way to turn people's brains to mashed potatoes is television.
"By the way, I’m aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it. So don’t bother pointing that out."
To that end, he re-invents television, and shows up in Dome City in the guise of Robby Rockwell.
No one seems to know who he really is, despite the fact that he doesn't disguise his voice and the brand name on the TV sets is "Koopasonic." At one point, Luigi asks why Rockwell's lips aren't moving when he talks, to which Mario replies, "Maybe he's been watching too many cartoons." Get it? The price on the sets is only ten coins, but it costs a coin a minute to watch. Luigi reminds Mario of the time in Brooklyn when the two of them were apparently addicted to a Speak-to-Santa hotline, and Mario reminds them that they just have to bash blocks to make money. Makes you wonder about how economics operate in the Mushroom World. It turns out that the sets work because each one has a Magikoopa inside, and when someone puts in a coin, the wizard magically transmits the broadcast. There's also apparently some hypnosis involved, as the cave people automatically obey Bowser's instructions on the broadcast. The show we see is an exercise program called Koopa Sez, and King Koopa hosts it dressed in aerobic gear.
Among the people we see watching are Oogtar with his parents and sister. If Oogtar has parents, why is it always up to Mario's team to get him to behave?
The set that the Marios have breaks right before Bowser tells the cave people to capture them, which I guess was intentional, but it's not entirely clear. Not only does the TV stop working, but it actually cracks down the middle, although for some reason we don't see the Magikoopa inside. Continuity error! Also, Mario says that the set is "worthless Koopa junk," implying that he knew all along who was responsible. Holy canneloni, this show is confusing sometimes! The inhabitants of Dome City take the Mario Brothers to a wrestling ring and has them wrestle the Tyrannosaurus Twins, one of whom looks much bigger than the other.
Too bad we already saw Mario and Luigi do tag team wrestling in "Tag Team Trouble," or this might actually be interesting. What is interesting is a bit where the dinosaurs throw Mario and Luigi into each other, and their clothes switch colors. That must have been some impact! Yoshi and the Princess hit blocks to help them out, and one of them contains a bunch of tiny Marios that the wrestlers and the Koopalings chase around. I have no clue where this came from, as there's certainly nothing like it in the game. I wonder if it was the inspiration for the mini-Marios in Mario vs. Donkey Kong.
A Cape Feather allows Mario to knock out the Tyrannosaurus Twins (why doesn't Luigi ever get to use a cape on this show?), and Yoshi eats starts to eat Bowser's display, causing it to collapse on the villain. And I guess that's it for TV in Dinosaur Land.
The Yoshi Shuffle - Luigi chisels a football out of stone, and he and Mario try to use football to teach teamwork to three large-headed and disorganized cavemen, one of whom kind of resembles Mr. T.
During the game, Luigi chases a ball thrown by Yoshi into the forest, where he runs into a Magikoopa. This guy sounds the same as Wizardheimer, but it's not clear whether he's supposed to be the same or that's just how Magikoopas talk in this series. The wizard turns Luigi into an egg, and Cheatsy Koopa, who's watching this from behind a bush, informs the less observant viewers of this very fact. Unnecessary exposition, Cheatsy. Yoshi thinks the egg is the ball, and that Mario is trying to tackle him (they're on the same team, but the dinosaur is a little confused about the rules), so the two end up jumping into a warp pipe to Neon Castle. Once there, two Chargin' Chucks who were on guard tackle Mario and Yoshi. I'm not entirely sure why Bowser is using football players as guards, but I had an idea about this in a previous post. Cheatsy tries to wake his dad, but the King is sleeping heavily, so the Koopaling just goes through with his own idea to force Mario and Yoshi into a game of football with the Luigi egg as the ball. I guess forcing the good guys into sporting events has become a thing for this family. And this is before there were any Mario sports games, too! Cheatsy is the referee, Big Mouth the announcer, and Bully a player on the Koopa team. At first he's accompanied by two Chucks, but Yoshi tries eating one of them, only to spit him out when he finds out the turtle tastes like sweat bands. I guess that's why Yoshi won't eat Chucks in the game. So what about Hammer Brothers?
Anyway, during the inevitable song, Mario rides on Yoshi through a corridor of the castle. They pass up a bunch of blocks, but the one Mario actually hits turns out to have a star in it. I guess he has a sixth sense about these things. Mario and Yoshi score a touchdown, but in a turn that surprises absolutely nobody, the Koopas still won't let them go. Fortunately, the three cavemen from the beginning show up again and save them, informing Mario that they followed the Koopalings' footprints to the castle. Ah, nothing like old cartoon tropes that wouldn't work in real life. Upon returning to the Dome City area, the cavemen decide to look for clues as to what happened to Luigi by walking in straight lines, leaing two of them to end up walking right into obstacles. The other one actually manages to find the Magikoopa's wand, which he dropped when he was hit with the stone football, and they turn Luigi back. Hooray! By the way, the Princess isn't in this episode at all, and Bowser sleeps through it.
Rock TV - We open to the Neon Castle, where Bowser is pacing around his throne room, trying to think of a way to take advantage of the cave people. Note the flowerpot shaped like the Clown Car on the side of the room.
He decides that the most effective way to turn people's brains to mashed potatoes is television.
"By the way, I’m aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it. So don’t bother pointing that out."
To that end, he re-invents television, and shows up in Dome City in the guise of Robby Rockwell.
No one seems to know who he really is, despite the fact that he doesn't disguise his voice and the brand name on the TV sets is "Koopasonic." At one point, Luigi asks why Rockwell's lips aren't moving when he talks, to which Mario replies, "Maybe he's been watching too many cartoons." Get it? The price on the sets is only ten coins, but it costs a coin a minute to watch. Luigi reminds Mario of the time in Brooklyn when the two of them were apparently addicted to a Speak-to-Santa hotline, and Mario reminds them that they just have to bash blocks to make money. Makes you wonder about how economics operate in the Mushroom World. It turns out that the sets work because each one has a Magikoopa inside, and when someone puts in a coin, the wizard magically transmits the broadcast. There's also apparently some hypnosis involved, as the cave people automatically obey Bowser's instructions on the broadcast. The show we see is an exercise program called Koopa Sez, and King Koopa hosts it dressed in aerobic gear.
Among the people we see watching are Oogtar with his parents and sister. If Oogtar has parents, why is it always up to Mario's team to get him to behave?
The set that the Marios have breaks right before Bowser tells the cave people to capture them, which I guess was intentional, but it's not entirely clear. Not only does the TV stop working, but it actually cracks down the middle, although for some reason we don't see the Magikoopa inside. Continuity error! Also, Mario says that the set is "worthless Koopa junk," implying that he knew all along who was responsible. Holy canneloni, this show is confusing sometimes! The inhabitants of Dome City take the Mario Brothers to a wrestling ring and has them wrestle the Tyrannosaurus Twins, one of whom looks much bigger than the other.
Too bad we already saw Mario and Luigi do tag team wrestling in "Tag Team Trouble," or this might actually be interesting. What is interesting is a bit where the dinosaurs throw Mario and Luigi into each other, and their clothes switch colors. That must have been some impact! Yoshi and the Princess hit blocks to help them out, and one of them contains a bunch of tiny Marios that the wrestlers and the Koopalings chase around. I have no clue where this came from, as there's certainly nothing like it in the game. I wonder if it was the inspiration for the mini-Marios in Mario vs. Donkey Kong.
A Cape Feather allows Mario to knock out the Tyrannosaurus Twins (why doesn't Luigi ever get to use a cape on this show?), and Yoshi eats starts to eat Bowser's display, causing it to collapse on the villain. And I guess that's it for TV in Dinosaur Land.
The Yoshi Shuffle - Luigi chisels a football out of stone, and he and Mario try to use football to teach teamwork to three large-headed and disorganized cavemen, one of whom kind of resembles Mr. T.
During the game, Luigi chases a ball thrown by Yoshi into the forest, where he runs into a Magikoopa. This guy sounds the same as Wizardheimer, but it's not clear whether he's supposed to be the same or that's just how Magikoopas talk in this series. The wizard turns Luigi into an egg, and Cheatsy Koopa, who's watching this from behind a bush, informs the less observant viewers of this very fact. Unnecessary exposition, Cheatsy. Yoshi thinks the egg is the ball, and that Mario is trying to tackle him (they're on the same team, but the dinosaur is a little confused about the rules), so the two end up jumping into a warp pipe to Neon Castle. Once there, two Chargin' Chucks who were on guard tackle Mario and Yoshi. I'm not entirely sure why Bowser is using football players as guards, but I had an idea about this in a previous post. Cheatsy tries to wake his dad, but the King is sleeping heavily, so the Koopaling just goes through with his own idea to force Mario and Yoshi into a game of football with the Luigi egg as the ball. I guess forcing the good guys into sporting events has become a thing for this family. And this is before there were any Mario sports games, too! Cheatsy is the referee, Big Mouth the announcer, and Bully a player on the Koopa team. At first he's accompanied by two Chucks, but Yoshi tries eating one of them, only to spit him out when he finds out the turtle tastes like sweat bands. I guess that's why Yoshi won't eat Chucks in the game. So what about Hammer Brothers?
Anyway, during the inevitable song, Mario rides on Yoshi through a corridor of the castle. They pass up a bunch of blocks, but the one Mario actually hits turns out to have a star in it. I guess he has a sixth sense about these things. Mario and Yoshi score a touchdown, but in a turn that surprises absolutely nobody, the Koopas still won't let them go. Fortunately, the three cavemen from the beginning show up again and save them, informing Mario that they followed the Koopalings' footprints to the castle. Ah, nothing like old cartoon tropes that wouldn't work in real life. Upon returning to the Dome City area, the cavemen decide to look for clues as to what happened to Luigi by walking in straight lines, leaing two of them to end up walking right into obstacles. The other one actually manages to find the Magikoopa's wand, which he dropped when he was hit with the stone football, and they turn Luigi back. Hooray! By the way, the Princess isn't in this episode at all, and Bowser sleeps through it.
