The Super Mario Brothers Super Show - Mario's Greatest Movie Moments
Published by Lion's Gate Home Entertainment and Trimark Home Video on March 6, 2002. Approx 85 minutes. Unrated. Recommended for ages 6 and up. Retail Suggested Price: $14.99
Well, I can say that this DVD is something I was never expecting to be released. It was, um, interesting to rewatch the Super Mario Bros Super Show in more than a decade. There was some good here, and a lot of bad. But I'll cover that later...
Video Transfer B
DVD video hands down beats old VHS tapes recorded on LP (long playing) mode. Overall, the video quality is decent and there aren't a lot of problems like rainbows or shimmering, which a lot of animated DVDs suffer from. My main complain was that there were a least four instances on the DVD, there was total picture drop out on the video, in other words, I'm watching the video, and all of a sudden, the picture jitters and then turns black for about 1/3 of a second. This was probably caused by damage to the source material and cannot be fixed. American animation company like DIC never thought they'd be releasing cartoons on video, so they have a bad track record of preserving source material. Oh well, I'm not holding it against them much.
Audio B
The audio is a clean stereo track, but since this is a cartoon show from 1989, there isn't a lot of movement between the two channels. It's good though.
Packaging C-
I don't like the DVD cover at all.The picture of it is at the top of this page. Simply put, Mario and Luigi look nothing like how they were animated in the series. It's easy for artists to redraw characters in the original style, so I don't know why they didn't do just that. The back cover also lists the episodes but in incorrect order. Opening the DVD case, you'll find a booklet of Trimark DVD releases, which have nothing to do with SMBSS or are even marketed to the same audiences - they're just a bunch of crappy direct-to-video releases which blow, so I can't figure out why Trimark didn't put in a booklet detailing the other DIC cartoons they're releasing.
Menus B+
Menus are simply but easy to use. Inspector Gadget will also pop up and explain how to use the menus if you ask him to, which is a creative and neat feature.
Extras B
Extras here come in the form of English subtitles (which me understand the lyrics to the theme song), but there are some errors on the subtitles where the characters and the subtitles say different things. More importantly, there is a trivia game. It is fairly easy, but once you get all the questions right, you'll be treated to a bonus episode of Mario, a live-action segment, and a zelda preview. Good stuff.
Content C-
The Super Mario Bros Super Show is considered to be the first and best of all the Nintendo-based cartoons of the 90's and early 90's. However, rewatching these episodes, all of which I saw over 10 years ago, proves to me nostalgia is not always a good thing.
First of all, the episodes on this DVD are, in order:
52. Robo Koopa (ironically the last episode of the series is first on the disc)
13. Toad Warriors
49. Raiders of the Lost Mushroom
The Legend of Zelda Episode 4. Kiss 'N Tell
15. Count Koopula
21. Koopenstein
28. Mario meets Koop-Zilla
The Legend of Zelda Episode 12. The Missing Link
BONUS EPISODE AFTER WINNING TRIVIA GAME 18. The Adventures of Sherlock Mario
Unfortunately (or fortunately) depending on your viewpoint, the live-action Mario segments that accompanied the 15-minute long cartoon segments have been deleted, bringing the running time of this disc to about 85 minutes. Since I'd like to see all of Mario released in correct episode order (although the episodes are stand-alone), I don't like how the random episode selection for this volume. I wrote to LGF and suggested that they release all the episodes in correct episode, but they haven't returned by letter. They probably never will. The scary thing is that these episodes are "the great moments" from this series. NOT GOOD. About the live-action Mario segments... they are truly God-awful. Painfully bad. Sure, I liked them when I was seven years old, but this... the DVD only contains the latter half of one of the live-action segments. It is the second part to the plumber who comes and inspects the Mario Bros' operation before they are given the plumber of the year award. It's a bunch of really stupid sight-gag jokes with a phony laugh-track inserted. Despite all its hideousness, I really do wish the skits were on the DVD for the sake of purity to the show. Strangely enough, the ending theme segment with the live-action Mario is kept intact while Mario is (mostly) not on the disc. Also interestingly enough, the DVD only contains two opening credits during the episodes and they are the shortened versions.
As for the episodes themselves, I suddenly realized how repetitious and stupid this program was. Every episode is a parody of some kind of movie or book with King Koopa launching some stupid plan, dressed up as a stupid parody of a villain (like Godzilla in the last episode). Mario always makes stupid jokes about how he wants something to eat... it's all bad here. Most of the acting was decent, the characters just needed better lines. However, rewatching the show, I realized that the actress for the Princess was not very good at all. I will have to rewatch SMB3 and World to see if she improved at all. But overall, this program hurt my brain to the point where I could feel my brain cells getting ready to commit suicide. I could only watch two episodes in a row before I'd have to take a break. Zelda was much better, thankfully. Sure, you knew Ganon was going to lose, but Zelda was written in a much more entertaining way that Mario with more plot variation. Looking back, I think it would have been better to have made 52 episodes of Zelda and 13 episodes of Mario. Overall, this was not a good viewing experience. Having rewatched Captain N recently, I think that it, despite its own lame writing, was a better series than SMBSS. Still, at a price of $14.99, at if you shop around you can get it for as little as $10, this DVD may be worth it, if just to remind yourself what this show was really like.