The Super Mario Bros. Super Show – Volume 2

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C     Episodes: C+

 

 

HEY PAISANOS!  Here we present to you The Super Mario Bros. Super Show: Volume 2, with its plethora of nonsense and nostalgic greatness.  If you missed Volume 1 don’t worry no storyline was missed here.  The Super Mario Bros. Super Show contains two entities, a live segment and cartoon shorts, each containing their own life and form of entertainment.  The ‘Live Segment’ stars Mario (Captain Lou Albano) and Luigi (Danny Wells) with a plethora of guest stars just as seen in Volume One with Cyndi Lauper paying a visit to the Mario Bros. Plumbing Company.

 

This time around wrestling star Rowdy Roddy Piper and the letter spinner (now toucher and turner) herself, Vanna White stop by to pay homage to the Nintendo Originals.  This animated series is by no means fantastic in storyline, animation quality, or voice acting, but it is the nostalgic factor that does contribute to why this series is a must own for all Nintendo fans and children of the 80’s.  While mom and dad were rockin out to Madonna and Bon Jovi us kids were plopped in front of the television watching the most entertaining animated feature the day had to offer.  From 1983-1985 we had He-Man, from 1985-1987 we had Thundercats, 1988 we had Count Duckula (ok not the best example), and then in 1989 came The Super Mario Bros. Super Show.  Other animated series may not hold up as well, though enjoyable, such as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Thundercats due to the sometimes military and serious nature of the animation.  The SMB Super Show, however, does stand the test of time in the sense that the viewer can watch each episode with a light heart and not take any individual piece of the work too seriously.

 

The main problems that exist with this particular set as well as the previous set are the quality of animation and sound found in the DVD transfer, and the little care that was placed into each.  Volume One of the Mario Bros. Super Show had much criticism due to the poor quality in both picture and sound, and between the two sets nothing has changed.  This lack of concern for these aspects of the DVD may have many contributing attributes that can not even be fully comprehended here, but we will try.  One element that exists is that the animation which was originally created for the animated series was never superb to begin with, being pumped out fast and hastily to profit off of the growing Nintendo Video Game crazed youth in society.  Secondly, the original animation is either in such poor quality that Shout! Factory had very little to work with or the original animated film is no longer available to be utilized, having either been lost or sold long ago.  Dic (the company that produced many of the 80’s animated series) did not take very good care of their original animation, for reasons that are unknown to this reviewer, after their original release maybe seeing little or no later profit from the series.  Overall, many features that could have highlighted this set have been lost over the years and Shout! Factory has done little to improve this importantly nostalgic DVD set.

 

Moving forward, the different technical aspects of this DVD set are majorly lacking in the three areas of picture, sound, and extras.  The picture is presented in an unimpressive Full Frame format.  The 1.33 X 1 picture quality is quite bad but not a complete disaster, though the picture’s color is not right, grainy, and often times particles of dirt can be seen flying across a scene.  At times this reviewer did not know if this was a DVD or VHS.  The sound quality is also quite poor at times fading in and out, from very to low to loud.  Also the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo remains inadequate even for this simple animated series.  The extras on this set are comparable to those of Volume One.  Extras include one extra animated episode for each disc, though the ‘live action’ sequences are missing from these shorts, due to unresolved legal issues.  Other extras include an interactive tour of Mario Bros. Plumbing (set), Fan Costume Gallery, and Meeting Mario (Captain Lou): A Fan’s Tale.  All three of these features are interesting for a viewing once but lose their luster quickly.  A final additional feature on each disc is “The Worlds of Super Mario Bros.” a feature that gives a sound guided tour (video game music) of the art that was used for the background scenery for each episode, an overall interesting concept.  Though there was great quantity within this set, quality was missing.  In the end, this set for many reasons needs to be revisited in all areas.

 

The Super Mario Bros Super Show embodies 1980’s nostalgia and though the set is not the best in the areas of picture and sound it holds valuable childhood memories for many.  Any Mario or Nintendo fans out there should buy this set, for nostalgic purposes for sure and the fact that this set has never been available before and may not be available again for quite some time even further emphasizes the need for this animated collection.  Video Games hit it big in the 1980’s and Nintendo was the forerunner for this advancement, this DVD animated collection only is further example of the impact the Video Game Industry has on our youth and how it remains in the minds and hearts of all.  So grab you wrench and magic mushroom to hop, skip, and stomp into this next Super Mario Bros. Super Show installment.

 

 

-   Michael P Dougherty II