It's a blast from the past!
Super Mario World! It's a blast from the past!
In Super Mario World, you got to move fast!
Mario and Luigi, are doing what they can!
Yoshi and the Princess, are giving them a hand!
In Super Mario World, you got to move fast!
Mario and Luigi, are doing what they can!
Yoshi and the Princess, are giving them a hand!
— Theme Tune
Super Mario World (1991) was DiC Entertainment's third and final cartoon based on the Super Mario Bros. franchise, and the game Super Mario World in particular. It relocates the action to Dinosaur World, removed the Real World, dropped Toad (since he wasn't in the game), gave many characters different names, and expanded the cast to include Yoshi and various cave people, most prominently Oogtar (though the original game had no cavemen whatsoever).
The series was originally broadcast on NBC as a side series with Captain N: The Game Master, a treatment that its predecessor The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 also received. It lasted thirteen episodes before it and Captain N were canned, with its time slot getting replaced by local news following the end of NBC's Saturday morning block.
This show has achieved high levels of Memetic Mutation from the final episode, "Mama Luigi", in which Luigi tells the story of how he found Yoshi.
Preceded by The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.
Super Mario World contains examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Wizenheimer is often misnamed, upon which he responds, "That's WIZENHEIMER!!!" Among the various name screwups: Weisenheimer, Wiseacre, Wisecracker, Wizenwhatchamacallit, and Wisenwhatever.
- Adaptational Backstory Change: Instead of Yoshi meeting Mario like in the games (either rescuing him from an Egg in the original game or as a Baby in Yoshi's Island), here's "Mama Luigi", in which Luigi finds and meets him.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In the game, the Wigglers (dubbed "Caterpillars" in the show) were generally docile until they were jumped on, which made them angry and turned a red color. In the show, they are constantly red, aggressive and angry, akin to a dangerous predator.
- Adaptation Distillation: The "Mama Luigi" episode is essentially a shortened adaptation of the video game. The only thing it really omits is the final boss fight with Bowser, which appears in a similar distilled form in Send in the Clown.
- Adaptation Expansion: The cartoon adds more locales and characters to Dinosaur Land, like Dome City and the Cave People. The original game (and following games) have never ever featured cavemen or even alluded to their existence in the Mushroom Kingdom/Dinosaur Land, it was a DIC creation most likely because Dinosaurs are associated with cavemen, though Yoshi is not that kind of dinosaur.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: About a third of the dialogue in "Gopher Bash" is alliterative.
- Age Lift: In the game, Yoshi's age was left vague, but implying that he was independent enough to have his own home (Yoshi's Island would later show that Yoshi is actually significantly older than Mario). In the cartoon, Yoshi is portrayed as much younger and immature, akin to an impressionable child. The flashback episode "Mama Luigi" explains this by the Mario Bros. finding Yoshi when he was a baby, and has only grown slightly in the series proper.
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: The Dino Riders are similar to the Hell's Angels.
- All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: The Cave People.
- Alter Kocker: Wizenheimer the Magikoopa speaks with a Yiddish accent.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Korean version had a different opening theme
, as did the Arabic version. - Animation Bump:
- The animation for the Theme Tune (see below) was done by a different studionote than the episodes proper, and it uses a clear, smooth, professional style. The animation for the rest of the show is less smooth and has many errors, to the point that they can be quite easily spotted even on a casual viewing.
- Koopa rushing to Yoshi near the end of "Rock TV" also gains a sudden burst of fluidity.
- Apple for Teacher: In "A Little Learning", Yoshi and Oogtar give Princess Toadstool an apple with a caterpillar inside. The two think it's funny (and so do Hip and Hop, which inspires them to go to school against King Koopa's wishes), but the Princess doesn't.Princess: That's not funny, Oogtar! I could have eaten that worm!
- Art Evolution: Starting with "Born to Ride", Yoshi's design becomes much more accurate to the games.
- Ascended Extra: In the videogame, Magikoopas were generic enemies found in the castles; the cartoon has Wizenheimer the Magikoopa, who serves as a villain — which was before Kamek was created for the role.
- Ascended Meme: The thumbnails for the official YouTube uploads of Mama Luigi◊ and The Yoshi Shuffle◊ are of particularly memetic scenes.
- Aside Comment: "This is easier than talking Kootie Pie into a shopping spree!"
- Badass Boast: "Oogtar eat ghosts for breakfast!"
- Balloon Belly: Yoshi is shown bloated a few times when he overindulges himself.
- Between My Legs: Mario, Luigi, the Princess, and Yoshi appear between Kootie Pie's legs in "Fire Sale".
- Big Damn Heroes: The cavemen end up being the ones to save the Marios in "The Yoshi Shuffle" when the heroes are cornered by the Koopa Kids and some Chargin' Chucks, taking out the opposition with some joint tackles.Caveman: Ooka-Looka! Block! Teamwork!
- Big Eater: Yoshi, obviously, eats a lot, to the point where he makes Mario look like he's on a diet. This is lampshaded at least a couple of times.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Bully delivers a monumental example to Big Mouth in "The Yoshi Shuffle" when the latter won't stop being his Motor Mouth self.Big Mouth: Oh, the excitement, building now, folks, it's-
Bully: AAAHH, SHADDAAAP! We'll never get started! - Bindle Stick: Yoshi carries one in "Born to Ride".
- Boom in the Hand: In "The Night Before Cave Christmas", King Koopa steals Mario's bag of presents that Oogtar stowed away in. Oogtar discovers that one of the presents is a Bob-omb that Koopa planned to give to Bully, one of his children. Oogtar sets the Bob-omb off and hands it to Koopa, who says, "Stop! You're not supposed to go off till' Christmas...", and it explodes in his face before he can say "Morning".
- Calling the Old Man Out: Oogtar does this to King Koopa when he discovers he's giving Bob-ombs to the Koopa Kids as Christmas presents.
- Canon Foreigner: Oogtar and the cavepeople have never been seen outside this cartoon as the original game (and following games) have never ever featured cavemen or even alluded to their existence in Dinosaur Land, it was a DIC creation most likely because Dinosaurs are associated with cavemen, though Yoshi is not that kind of dinosaur.
- Capitalism Is Bad: "King Scoopa Koopa" had King Koopa open a fast-food joint, Scoopa Koopa's. The food was addictive, calorie-filled, and had nasty side-effects that turned customers into chickadactyls. Koopa's ultimate plan was to turn everyone into chickens and open a second restaurant to sell them as fried chicken, gloating that you can't be too rich or too evil.
- Cassandra Truth: In "The Yoshi Shuffle", Mario and Yoshi score the game-winning touchdown and Cheatsy the referee promptly calls them out for cheating. However, you can see Mario and Yoshi clearly go out of bounds to score, giving Cheatsy reasonable evidence to accuse them.
- Casting Gag: Since Toad was left out of the animated series, the production team had John Stocker voice his replacement, Oogtar.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Subverted in "The Yoshi Shuffle". The Marios get away with winning the football game despite cheating to score a touchdown.
- Christmas Episode: "The Night Before Cave Christmas".
- Circus Episode: In "Send in the Clown", King Koopa stages the Koopaling Bros. Circus, and invites the cavepeople to see it for free. Mario, suspecting it may be a trap, travels to Koopa's neon castle to see the circus for himself. After a performance from Koopa's mooks, it is revealed that the circus is indeed a trap, and Koopa captures Mario, his friends, and the cavepeople. With help from Princess Toadstool, Mario escapes and battles Koopa's mooks, leading to a battle with Koopa himself, reminiscent of the final battle from the game the show is based on.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Koopa actually seemed to have a profitable, legit business going in "King Scoopa Koopa". Even the Mario Bros. were impressed. Of course, Koopa just had to go turn everyone into Chickadactyls For the Evulz. It’s explained in the episode that the transformation was a side effect of the egg sandwiches Koopa sold. Even Koopa wondered what to do when his customers fully changed.
- Demoted to Extra:
- While still a prominent presence throughout the series, the Koopa Kids appear less frequently in this series than in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, allowing for other evil-doers such as Wizenheimer and The Dino Riders to take the stage. Some episodes even had Koopa scheming on his own with little or no help from the Koopa Kids.
- Koopa was subject to this as well. He was completely absent in four episodes and made brief cameos in three others.
- Digital Destruction: Every copy and DVD release of "Send in the Clown" goes out of sync in the scene where Big Mouth demands respect, likely due to the master being damaged.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Invoked when Princess Toadstool threatened to have Oogtar clean the wooly mammoth stable if he didn't make Hip and Hop feel comfortable at school.
- Dumb Dinos: Yoshi is good-natured, but isn't particularly bright, though this is justified because Yoshi is much younger here than he is in the game. According to Princess Toadstool, he's still a baby. The other dinosaurs, however, are stupid and predatory toward the native cavepeople.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In "Fire Sale", Yoshi doesn't talk like a baby. Also, assuming that the "Ice Land" featured in that episode is the same as Super Mario Bros. 3's Ice Land, it's the only time in this show that the protagonists travel outside of Dinosaur World.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Mario, Luigi and Princess Toadstool laugh at the end of "Gopher Bash" after Yoshi burps.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Princess Toadstool asks if Kootie Pie is okay at the end of "Fire Sale".
- During the "Rocking the High School" sequence in "A Little Learning", Yoshi and Oogtar see the giant piranha plant chasing Hip, Hop and King Koopa and point as if to say, "Hey, look out!"
- Extreme Omnivore: Yoshi, even moreso than in the games. In this series, he can eat fireballs, blocks and wood. He even eats and spits out Mario, Hip, Hop and King Koopa.
- Eye Pop:
- Hip's reaction to his volcano project going out of control.
- Cheatsy turns this trope up to 11 when he catches Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi have snuck into his hideout under the fields outside Dome City.
- Forced Transformation: Luigi, Yoshi and the cavepeople turning into Chickadactyls in "King Scoopa Koopa", and Luigi being turned into an egg in "The Yoshi Shuffle".
- Funny Background Event: "A Little Learning": At the beginning of the "Rockin' the High School" sequence, a cave person jumps toward the ceiling, going airborne while the everybody else dashes for the exit.
- Gasshole: Yoshi burps several times in the series, mostly after eating.
- Gilligan Cut:Mario: What're they gonna do, banish us to the lava pits?
[Cut to Mario and Luigi being thrown down a pipe to a cavern]
Mario: Okay, so they banished us! - Grand Finale: "Mama Luigi" serves as a fitting finale for the cartoons as a whole.
- Hand Wave:
- One episode provides an explanation for why Yoshi doesn't eat certain enemies in the game, like Chargin' Chuck: They taste nasty to him.
- Another episode reveals Yoshi won't go in ghost houses in the game because he's afraid of them.
- Heel–Face Turn: Hip and Hop seem to have one of these in "A Little Learning". However, they soon turn out to be Devils in Plain Sight who throw fireballs at children. Hip and Hop did seem to have good intentions. Unfortunately it was King Koopa who snuck lava into the Dinosaur World.
- Help, I'm Stuck!:
- Kootie Pie gets stuck in a block of ice at the end of "Fire Sale".
- Princess gets tangled in a bunch of telephone vines in "Party Line".
- Mario tries pulling himself through Neon Castle's bars in "The Night Before Cave Christmas" only to get stuck doing so.
- Koopa becomes trapped underneath the blocks to his giant television set at the end of "Rock TV".
- Idea Bulb: Koopa has three lit candles that played the NBC chimes.
- Inflating Body Gag: Happens to Mario in "Gopher Bash" and Luigi in "Mama Luigi", when they activate P-Balloons.Luigi: Good thing I found a Magic Balloon!
- I Fell for Hours: The Trope Namer, named for Luigi's overly long fall down a chasm in "Mama Luigi", with nothing below him but boiling lava. Luckily, he fell on a skull raft.Yoshi: Oh, hours long time!
- If It Tastes Bad, It Must Be Good for You: "How come everything I don't like is good for me, and everything I do isn't?!"
- It's All My Fault: "Luigi says this after Cheatsy steals the crops.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Oogtar. As selfish as he gets, he does have a good heart.Oogtar: Me know Oogtar bad. Cause Santa big trouble. Me no deserve present. But Oogtar thankful Santa save him from dinosaur. That present enough.
Santa Mario: Why, Oogtar, this isn't like you!
Oogtar: 'Course, if Santa want leave Oogtar present, Oogtar be very happy.- And In "A Little Learning", he rushed to Yoshi's aid when Hip and Hop charged him for eating their backpacks.
- Karma Houdini: Koopa in "King Koopa Scoopa". While his business got ruined by Mario and Toadstool, he still got to keep all the money he conned from everyone.
- Lame Comeback: "Who's an egghead, eggface?"
- Large Ham: Luigi. "It's ALL MY FAAAAAAAAAAAULT!" "Good thing I found A MAAAGIC BALLOON!" "I came face to face with a FIIIYA SUMO!" "Mario, wherever you are, HEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPP!!!"
- Leitmotif: Since the show re-arranges most of the music from the first two Mario games, the tunes are indicative of the character or type of environment that is currently on-screen. Examples: The Valley of Bowser theme playing when Koopa's castle is shown.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.
- Limited Animation: It's an Early-90's DIC cartoon, so what else were you expecting? It sometimes gets to the point where you can't tell if what's happening is intentional or not.
- Lovable Coward: Luigi and Yoshi, who get scared easily, but still pull through. Yoshi has faced his fear of water and ghosts when his friends were in danger.
- Mass Hypnosis: Koopa's plot in "Rock TV".
- Mind Screw: The episode in which Luigi is turned into a football.
- Mixed Metaphor: "Like they say in Brooklyn: early to bed, early to catch the worm. Or is it the bagel?"
- Mood Whiplash: "Gopher Bash": Before fading to black, it goes from Luigi's disappointment at Yoshi eating the all rescued crops to Yoshi belching and everyone laughing at him.
- Mutagenic Food: Eating enough Chickadactyl Eggs will turn the consumer into one themselves.
- Naturally Huskless Coconut: When coconuts are shown hanging from a tree, they're depicted without a husk.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "Gopher Bash", The Mario Bros. succeed in rescuing the crops from Cheatsy but Yoshi eats the entire sack, meaning they have to plant everything all over again.
- Noodle Incident: Luigi's narration in "Mama Luigi" briefly notes that, at some point after the preceding show, the heroes had successfully ended King Koopa's threat to the Mushroom Kingdom and banished him. In turn, Koopa found a way to escape this fate and arrive in Dinosaur Land.
- Paper-Thin Disguise:
- Happens in "Send In the Clowns", where Mario and the cavemen don't realize the clowns in King Koopa's circus are actually Rexes until one of their noses falls off.
- Also happens in "Rock TV" when Koopa is in a paper thin disguise promoting the titular product. No one can tell it's him even though several of the shows he mentions even have the name Koopa in the title.
- Phrase Catcher: Upon correcting people about his name, Wizenheimer often gets a "Weisen-whatever!" as a response.
- Pragmatic Adaptation:
- While not for the whole series, the episode "Send In the Clowns" explains why King Koopa would use the Clown Car.
- "Mama Luigi" explains why Yoshi is notably immature: he was just a baby when he was found, and is still grown up.
- The episode "Ghosts R' Us" also provides an explanation for why Yoshi doesn't normally enter Ghost Houses. He's afraid of ghosts.note
- Prehistoria: The entirety of Dinosaur Land.
- Restaurant-Owning Episode: In "King Scoopa Koopa", King Koopa opens up a fast-food restaurant called Scoopa Koopa's, and makes a lot of money from the cavepeople, Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi. Unfortunately, anyone who eats the Egg Scoopa Koopa sandwiches gets turned into a Chickadactyl, and this gives Koopa the idea to open a Fried Chickadactyl restaurant, using his own customers as the food. Since Mario and Princess Toadstool didn't eat any of the Egg Scoopa Koopa sandwiches due to the former not liking eggs and the latter not eating Koopa's food at all, it's up to them to shut down Scoopa Koopa's and save their friends.
- Running on the Spot: Deconstructed in "A Little Learning". While being chased by a giant Piranha Plant, King Koopa, Hip and Hop do this and the plant swallows them whole.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Cheatsy's Monty Moles from "Gopher Bash" apparently don't understand Cheatsy's sarcasm. When he says, "Don't just help him! Stand there!" they wind up doing just that.
- Saved by the Platform Below: Happens in "Mama Luigi" when Luigi retells Yoshi the story of how they first met. Luigi was attacked by a Sumo Bro ripping open the ground where Luigi "fell for hours" until he finally landed on a skull raft floating down a lava river below him. But, he goes over a lava fall and jumps off the raft where he falls and gets saved again by landing on a ledge with blocks.
- Say My Name: In the aforementioned scene in "Fire Sale", Luigi shouts Mario's name as he plummets to the ground. Mario shouts his name back.
- Science Fair: In "A Little Learning," naturally, with the Mario Bros. as judges overseeing the cave children, Hip and Hop.
- Scooby Stack: Mario, Luigi and Yoshi do this in "Gopher Bash" before finding Cheatsy with the stolen crops.
- Second Episode Introduction: King Koopa makes his first appearance in the second episode, "The Wheel Thing."
- Shockingly Expensive Bill: In "Rock TV", a flashback occurs to when the brothers got into trouble with the 'Speak to Santa' Hotline back home in Brooklyn:
- Short-Runners: Easily the shortest of the three Mario cartoons.
- Shout-Out:
- "Now go home and eat some vegetables! Dr. Mario’s orders!"
- One of the Dino Riders in "Born to Ride" is named Rockman.
- Show Within a Show: Subverted/parodied by having Bowser make up several shows of his own, such as his own exercise program, in "Rock TV".
- Space Whale Aesop: "King Scoopa Koopa". Better stay away from fast food; if you don't, you'll turn into a crazed chicken-zombie thing.
- Spanner in the Works: In "Rock TV", Its a good thing Princess and Yoshi decided to go on a nature walk and not get brainwashed by the Television, or else they wouldn't be able to help Mario and Luigi out in their (forced) wresting match later.
- Split-Screen Phone Call: Parodied with Yoshi and Oogtar.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Oogtar serves as one for Toad, who didn't appear in the original game. They even share the same voice actor (John Stocker).
- Team Mom: Princess (Peach) Toadstool. Generally serving as the feminine voice of reason, as well as being a maternal figure to the much younger Yoshi and Oogtar.
- Team Rocket Wins: "King Scoopa Koopa" ends with Bowser actually getting away with the money he made off his restaurant.
- Tear-Apart Tug-of-War: At the beginning of "The Night Before Cave Christmas", Yoshi and Oogtar have a tug-of-war over a barbecue mammoth rib as they argue over who it belongs to. When Mario tries to intervene, telling them there's plenty for both of them, Yoshi and Oogtar rip the rib in half, causing the sauce from it to splash Mario.
- Tempting Fate: "You can never predict when exactly a volcano is going to erupt!"
- The Song Remains the Same: The show's opening theme song remains intact in English for all foreign dubs (although early editions of the show in Germany used the Plumber Rap from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!).
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: "
That's Mama Luigi to you, Mario!" *wheeze* - Third-Person Person: Oogtar. Yoshi, too.
- Title Theme Tune: Super Mario World gives even the most excessive Title Theme Tune a run for its money. The intro theme consists almost entirely of "Super Mario, Super Mario, Super Mario World" being repeated incessantly by a chorus of deep voices. So much so that it forms the bassline to the song!
- Token Heroic Orc: Mama Fireplant in "Fire Sale" is a good female Piranha Plant.
- Too Dumb to Live: It's a miracle those cave-people got through regular non-Koopa problems before the Mario Bros. and the Princess showed up.
- Uncertain Doom: At the end of "A Little Learning", the Mario Bros. reroute a lava pipe to flow into Koopa's bedroom. He remains trapped in his rapidly flooding castle with no possible escape route in sight. This was his last appearance in the Super Mario Bros. cartoons as a whole, with the last episode "Mama Luigi" being a Whole Episode Flashback. Has King Koopa been defeated for good?
- Very Special Episode: Some episodes dealt with controversial topics:
- "King Scoopa Koopa:" Nutrition and Obesity.
- "Born to Ride:" Street Gangs.
- "Rock TV:" Addiction to Television.
- "A Little Learning:" Bullying
- Villain Song: Cheatsy gets one in "Gopher Bash", called "Cheatsy's Life". Mario, Luigi and Yoshi grab the backup singing Gophers and perfom the final verse which involves them mocking Cheatsy.
- Villainous Crush: While she drops it almost immediately, Lulu first interaction with Yoshi has her calling him cute and a "dino-babe".
- "The Villain Sucks" Song: "Kootie Pie Rap!" in "Fire Sale".
- Was Too Hard on Him: "Born to Ride" in a nutshell.
- A Weighty Aesop: Subverted in "King Scoopa Koopa". Only Mario, Luigi and Yoshi are shown to have gained weight eating Bowser's fast food. Then, the episode turns into a Space Whale Aesop where the victims of Koopa's food turn into Chickadactyls.
- Whole Episode Flashback: "Mama Luigi". Notably, the story told in the flashback is an adaptation of the game, told from Luigi's perspective. To fit 11 minutes, however, the story is greatly shortened.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- Yoshi is terrified of ghosts and water.
- Carrying over from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, Wizenheimer exploits Mario and Luigi's collective fear of Bob-Ombs.Wizenheimer: How do you feel about... Bob-Ombs? (snaps a Bob-Omb into existence) Bob-Ombs~!
Luigi: Those, we're not so crazy about!
- Wild Take: Cheatsy Koopa in "Gopher Bash" when he notices that Mario, Luigi and Yoshi grab his Gopher minions and sing the final verse to mock Cheatsy..
- The World Is Always Doomed: In "Party Line", Mario and Luigi lampshade how dangerous Dinosaur Land is, and invent a telephone system so the cave people can call for help.
- Would Hurt a Child: In "The Night Before Cave Christmas", Koopa ties up Oogtar with vines and suspends him over a hungry dinosaur.
- You Are Not Ready: Every single attempt Mario, Luigi or the Princess make to improve the cave-people's lives end this way; the Fantastic Aesop seems to be that, when it comes to stuff like agriculture and the wheel, that These Are Things Neanderthal Man Was Not Meant to Know.
- You No Take Candle: The cave people and any dinosaur that talks.
