Classic Nintendo Cartoons

[Classics19]

Hey Everyone,

I remember back in 1989, when the Super Mario Bros Super Show aired. I remember watching it with my brother and sister. Now almost 30 years old, I recently ordered from GameStop with my Power Up Rewards points two Super Mario Bros DVDs. I have to say, it was well worth the points I spent to relive these classic cartoons. The disappointing thing about the DVDs, is they cut out the skits with the live actors and just show the cartoons. On Netflix, they have 24 episodes of The Super Mario Bros Super Show for instant stream. Sadly, I have to put on my Zelda DVD set because the one on Netflix only shows just the Mario cartoons. Now, I know it sounds pathetic, a grown ass man watching cartoons but these cartoons are more enjoyable than the ones they show today.

I have found a few mistakes (maybe easter eggs?) for example, in one episode Mario gets bitten by a snake that knocks him out completely. When Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach are looking to escape from King Koopa, a caveman shows up pointing to the waterfall. Here's the funny part, it goes to an up close shot of Luigi and his mouth is moving but it's Princess Peach's voice....oops! I also noticed that when Mario and the gang get in trouble there is a song in the background that sounds very similar to the Final Fantasy theme song. They also messed up on some of the story lines as they will cut to a commercial but they never finish what happen or how they got there. Such as in the same episode Mario gets bitten by the snake, King Koopa found the gang's hideout and had water crashing into their hiding place, then it fades to black but when it returns King Koopa and his army is nowhere's in sight and there is no water flooding them out. A little unusual.

Anyways, anybody else remember these classic cartoons or other classic video game cartoons? What was your favorite cartoon, favorite episode and/or favorite moment? I also remember the Donkey Kong and Viva Pinata cartoons which were short lived. 6141

[kupomogli]

On The Super Mario Bros Super Show, I liked the live action content and I liked Zelda, but didn't like Mario too much. I tried watching the cartoons a few years ago and went through the Zelda series, but I watched a few of the Mario series before I quit watching them. I also own a Super Mario Bros Super Show tape with the first episode of Zelda on it. I watched this a lot as a kid. Practically memorized the video I've seen it so much, not just the cartoon, but the Quik commercial, and both live action episodes.

One thing I remember is they used to show Super Mario Bros 3 worlds and stages before the beginning of the episodes as well, but didn't see them on the episodes I watched. Were those late in the life of the tv show or was there another Mario series as well?

I don't remember Mega Man, but watched the first episode on the Anniversary Collection and liked it. I also remember Captain N, but not sure if I liked it. I remember not liking how they portrayed Simon Belmont(or was it Trevor?)

[Rickstilwell1]

If you torrent the series, the live action scenes in between episodes are intact! It's one reason why sometimes bootlegs can be better than re-releases. Buy the new DVDs to support the makers and thank them for the show's existence, but always look for alternate versions for the extra fun that was cut out, or to see if there are any rare versions of the shows. Then there's shows like Muppet Babies where the only way to watch it is torrent because they won't get rights to release it on DVD. After all, it's pretty much people just collectively sharing their VHS rips from when they used to tape these shows from TV. Sometimes it's a miracle how good the tapes still work as those things deteriorate with age.

I think Dragon Ball Z has more DVD versions of itself than any other cartoon or anime I've seen. Ocean dub DVDs with a few episodes per disc, Funimation dub DVDs with a few episodes per disc, Funimation uncut DVDs, Funimation remastered season sets, Dragon Box Z with alternate soundtrack, and now Dragon Ball Z Kai (4 kids dub). I ended up with a bootleg set from ebay containing all Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT episodes for $300, before the remastered season sets existed. For DBZ it gave me Ocean dub for Season 1 & 2 then the Funimation dub from the point where that dub originally started to the end of that series. Pretty much the way it was originally shown on Cartoon Network.

Then there's Dragon Ball which isn't quite as confusing to collect DVDs for, but still has variations: Original heavily censored english dub of first 13 episodes on 2 DVDs, separate funimation sagas excluding the first 13 episodes (censored version shown on cartoon network), and Funimation remastered season sets. My bootleg set had something unusual - Funimation dub for the whole series including the first 13 episodes, none censored at all. I'm not sure where or when that version was obtained from but it comes complete with Bulma's nudity scenes and Goku's unique way of finding out whether a person is a male or female.

The Mario cartoon DVDs aren't free from this confusion either. There are the "complete series" sets but there are also the random episodes sets where they have random picks containing episodes from all three Mario cartoon series, usually following a theme. From the looks of the data files on the discs, most of these DVD sets of shows based on game characters emerged in or around 2007.

[XYXZYZ]

I think the Super Mario Bros. cartoon is one of those that didn't hold up over time, Zelda as well. I find them both pretty difficult to watch. Have you seen the Japanese movie from 1986?
http://k-plus.biz/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/a2.jpg
http://img5.blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ybi/1/3c/15/kswff553/folder/954489/img_954489_17383584_3?1222872922
It was pretty good, actually.



I think Dragon Ball Z has more DVD versions of itself than any other cartoon or anime I've seen. Ocean dub DVDs with a few episodes per disc, Funimation dub DVDs with a few episodes per disc, Funimation uncut DVDs, Funimation remastered season sets, Dragon Box Z with alternate soundtrack, and now Dragon Ball Z Kai (4 kids dub). I ended up with a bootleg set from ebay containing all Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT episodes for $300, before the remastered season sets existed. For DBZ it gave me Ocean dub for Season 1 & 2 then the Funimation dub from the point where that dub originally started to the end of that series. Pretty much the way it was originally shown on Cartoon Network.

I'm not a DB/DBZ fan, but just out of curiosity can you get it uncut and subtitled with Japanese audio?

[JSoup]

I think the Super Mario Bros. cartoon is one of those that didn't hold up over time, Zelda as well. I find them both pretty difficult to watch. Have you seen the Japanese movie from 1986?
http://k-plus.biz/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/a2.jpg
http://img5.blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ybi/1/3c/15/kswff553/folder/954489/img_954489_17383584_3?1222872922
It was pretty good, actually.


I'm not a DB/DBZ fan, but just out of curiosity can you get it uncut and subtitled with Japanese audio?

I don't have the link just off hand, but there is a decent fandub (not sub, dub) of this movie on Youtube somewhere.

[BricatSegaFan]

I used to watch these. I remember liking sonic more though.

Super Mario world was pretty cool too but sonic Sat AM was awesome.

Ahh Saturday mornings were great. Ninja turtles, beakmans world, street sharks, megaman, reboot the list goes on.

[retroguy]

There are some good cartoons on today. Green Lantern, Young Justice, the new TMNT series, Tron Uprising, The Looney Tunes Show, Phineas and Ferb, Thundercats (if they ever bring it back from "hiatus"), My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.....

The 80s and 90s were the golden age of TV animation, and the last decade or so hasn't been very good, but those shows I mentioned show that there is hope. I think it's because the kids watching all the really good cartoons have grown up and they're the ones making cartoons now so with any luck, we just might see a return to the kind of quality we always lament the loss of.

[Ro-J]

There are some good cartoons on today. Green Lantern, Young Justice, the new TMNT series, Tron Uprising, The Looney Tunes Show, Phineas and Ferb, Thundercats (if they ever bring it back from "hiatus"), My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.....

The 80s and 90s were the golden age of TV animation, and the last decade or so hasn't been very good, but those shows I mentioned show that there is hope. I think it's because the kids watching all the really good cartoons have grown up and they're the ones making cartoons now so with any luck, we just might see a return to the kind of quality we always lament the loss of.

Taking away "My Little Pony" and adding in Ben 10, The Avengers, Batman: The Brave & The Bold, Wild Kratts (for younger kids) ..... I'd say cartoons have been just as good over the last decade as they have ever been, it's just that newer cartoons don't have that nostalgia factor.

Back on topic, I've tried many times to watch old episodes of Saturday Supercade and have never been able to get back into it. I loved it as a kid, but as an adult it just doesn't hold my interest outside of the aforementioned "nostalgia factor". Unfortunately I've found that true for most cartoons from my youth.

[Edmond Dantes]

I'm not a DB/DBZ fan, but just out of curiosity can you get it uncut and subtitled with Japanese audio?

Yep.

For DBZ, look for the "Dragon Box. (http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Box-Seven/dp/B00576U97Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1358703141&sr=1-1&keywords=Dragon+Box)" Umm... I'd get them while they're still available. The Dragon Box sets are the BEST way to experience DBZ. Their masters are taken from the same ones used for the Japanese DVDs, which are pretty much the best you can ask for (Funimation's own "remastered" sets are just DVNRed crap, but are good if you're on a budget).

For Dragon Ball, look for what fans call the "blue bricks. (http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Season-One/dp/B002FOQXTQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358703114&sr=8-1&keywords=Dragon+Ball+Season)"

And don't even bother with DBGT. It just sucks.

Now, why are we talking about DBZ in a topic about cartoons based on video games?

[Classics19]

On The Super Mario Bros Super Show, I liked the live action content and I liked Zelda, but didn't like Mario too much. I tried watching the cartoons a few years ago and went through the Zelda series, but I watched a few of the Mario series before I quit watching them. I also own a Super Mario Bros Super Show tape with the first episode of Zelda on it. I watched this a lot as a kid. Practically memorized the video I've seen it so much, not just the cartoon, but the Quik commercial, and both live action episodes.

One thing I remember is they used to show Super Mario Bros 3 worlds and stages before the beginning of the episodes as well, but didn't see them on the episodes I watched. Were those late in the life of the tv show or was there another Mario series as well?

I don't remember Mega Man, but watched the first episode on the Anniversary Collection and liked it. I also remember Captain N, but not sure if I liked it. I remember not liking how they portrayed Simon Belmont(or was it Trevor?)

The Super Mario Bros 3 came out later than the series of The Super Mario Bros Super Show. I did get to see an episode of Super Mario World entitles "Ghosts R Us" and was very disappointed on Yoshi's character (as Yoshi is my favorite Nintendo Character). The voice of Yoshi was not only a little girly but sounded like a child. Although they kind of captured his characteristics with him being scared of things but they made him too lengthy. The Zelda series was probably the better out of the two, I had a cartoon crush on Zelda from the cartoons lol. As I watched the skits last night they had Sargent Slaughter from WWF and Cyndi Lauper as guest stars. Sargent Slaughter seem to be a frequent character in the skits which was cool, but disappointing that he lost to a current wrestler on WWE just recently (I lost a little respect for him). Back to the subject, Mega Man cartoons were good too but my brother use to watch them more as they didn't hold my interest for too long.

[Classics19]

I used to watch these. I remember liking sonic more though.

Super Mario world was pretty cool too but sonic Sat AM was awesome.

Ahh Saturday mornings were great. Ninja turtles, beakmans world, street sharks, megaman, reboot the list goes on.

LMAO! You just sent me way back! I remember all of them, I started getting into reboot towards the end of the series. There was also Monsters under the bed which was a clay series. But I even remember a little further back with G.I. Joe cartoons and He-Man cartoons (never really saw the She-ra cartoons) and Captain Planet. Got these flashback make me feel old!

[Classics19]

I think the Super Mario Bros. cartoon is one of those that didn't hold up over time, Zelda as well. I find them both pretty difficult to watch. Have you seen the Japanese movie from 1986?
http://k-plus.biz/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/a2.jpg
http://img5.blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ybi/1/3c/15/kswff553/folder/954489/img_954489_17383584_3?1222872922
It was pretty good, actually.


I'm not a DB/DBZ fan, but just out of curiosity can you get it uncut and subtitled with Japanese audio?

Where can I find this movie dubed? I don't have torrents as my laptop can't hand it (as it's a older model of a dell Inspiron). I would love to see this movie.

[Edmond Dantes]

There are some good cartoons on today. Green Lantern, Young Justice, the new TMNT series, Tron Uprising, The Looney Tunes Show, Phineas and Ferb, Thundercats (if they ever bring it back from "hiatus"), My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.....

The 80s and 90s were the golden age of TV animation, and the last decade or so hasn't been very good, but those shows I mentioned show that there is hope. I think it's because the kids watching all the really good cartoons have grown up and they're the ones making cartoons now so with any luck, we just might see a return to the kind of quality we always lament the loss of.

See, to me that's exactly the problem with cartoons today: They're written by nerds.

Cartoons in the 1980s were written by people who had lives and backgrounds outside of cartoons. They came from all sorts of experiences such as the Vietnam War, Boy Scouts, who knows how many rallies and scouting trips... basically, these people had real effing lives and actually knew people. Your typical shut-in nerd doesn't have these kinds of experiences, so they struggle to tell any real kind of story at all--because storytelling draws from life.

That's why today, we have all these talks about "tropes" and "conventions." Writers are so far removed from reality that they see their works not as something that could actually be happening in another reality, but as some sort of cosmic chess game they're playing. This is simply a shitty way to tell a story. You can't write people as people if you're thinking of them as a flowchart or a plastic toy, and you can't write compelling, believable situations if you're not looking at a situation wholistically.

[retroguy]

I see your point, Edmond. However, I would argue that because the current crop of cartoons are being written by "nerds", they know exactly what a fan of that type of show would want to see. I would trust them with the future of the animation industry rather than a corporate boardroom. Example: The 2011 Thundercats revival was a wonder to behold because the writers focused on storytelling first and selling toys second. Unfortunately, although there's still hope for a second season, the show is in serious danger of being cancelled altogether because the toys aren't selling. Sigh. That's what you get when executives who don't know anything run the show.

[Jorpho]

People keep talking about the live action Mario segments, but no one ever seems to mention the "Club Mario" segments that replaced them. Which is probably for the best, because they were supremely godawful and it saddens me that any fraction of my life might have been wasted sitting through them. Nonetheless, they seem like a primary candidate for a thorough and proper roasting by any newbie Youtube reviewer seeking to make a name for himself, so it seems odd that they do not come up more often. I gather they were never released on video?


I have found a few mistakes (maybe easter eggs?) for example, in one episode Mario gets bitten by a snake that knocks him out completely. When Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach are looking to escape from King Koopa, a caveman shows up pointing to the waterfall. Here's the funny part, it goes to an up close shot of Luigi and his mouth is moving but it's Princess Peach's voice....oops!Yeah, it got really sloppy in places.


Cartoons in the 1980s were written by people who had lives and backgrounds outside of cartoons. They came from all sorts of experiences such as the Vietnam War, Boy Scouts, who knows how many rallies and scouting trips... basically, these people had real effing lives and actually knew people. Your typical shut-in nerd doesn't have these kinds of experiences, so they struggle to tell any real kind of story at all--because storytelling draws from life.Dude, they were glorified toy commercials. Have you tried watching these things lately?

I watched an episode of the old GI Joe for the first time in ages recently, and I had not realized that the "Cheat Commandos" toons at Homestarrunner.com really are spot-on parodies.

[Aussie2B]

Most video game-based cartoons have been pretty terrible, but some are good, schlocky fun.

Oh, and thank God the Donkey Kong Country CG cartoon was short-lived. That was DREADFUL.

[retroguy]

Most video game-based cartoons have been pretty terrible, but some are good, schlocky fun.

Oh, and thank God the Donkey Kong Country CG cartoon was short-lived. That was DREADFUL.

Well, the stories weren't too bad. The reason DKC sucked was the lame attempt at making it a musical show. Ugh.

[Aussie2B]

No, the stories were absolutely terrible too. Nothing ever happened, just endless obsessing over the crystal coconuts. Even as hilariously awful as the animation, acting, and singing is, the humor of that can only last for so long, so about half an hour into the tape of the four or so episodes that were made, I was struggling to stay awake it had gotten so painfully dull.

[SpaceHarrier]

I remember watching the various Mario Bros. cartoons as a kid, but find them a bit hard to watch now. I still enjoy Sonic SatAM though, and actually enjoy the weekday "Adventures of" more than I did when I was younger.

I am just thankful I missed whatever this atrocity was.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjAKntjSa1s

[Edmond Dantes]

I see your point, Edmond. However, I would argue that because the current crop of cartoons are being written by "nerds", they know exactly what a fan of that type of show would want to see.

No. Nerds know what *the nerd* wants to see. That doesn't exactly translate to being good entertainment. Just look at fanfiction.

In fact, that's my problem with a ton of revivals--they feel like glorified fanfics. Thundercats and Pony were pretty much the only ones I found pleasing.


Dude, they were glorified toy commercials. Have you tried watching these things lately?

I just bought an anniversary Box Set of He-Man and have been quite enjoying it.

It's true that the majority of eighties cartoons don't hold up that well. It's no different than how the majority of NES games absolutely suck, but its still a classic system. Besides, the majority of cartoons from ANY decade don't hold up, and it's not like the blatant toy commercials ever stopped.

[BricatSegaFan]

He man was fantastic!!! I grew up on heman and fraggle rock.

[Edmond Dantes]

He-Man really is fantastic. Still the best north american cartoon ever made IMO.

You know what gets me? The episode "Teela's Quest" begins by giving us Queen Marlena's history--it then goes on to be about Teela wondering who her mother is and going to see an oracle. It also introduces that Mer-Man has a grudge against Man-at-Arms, that the Sorceress is Teela's mother, that there's such a thing as Shadowbeasts and a "Crystal Sea" and a sea demon named Bakkul and just SO MUCH STUFF, and it all flows naturally from one to another and never feels contrived or rushed.

All in 21.30 minutes.

And yet, whenever you look at an episode in our very own Pony thread--or any topic for any cartoon really--you see a lot of people saying there was just "too much story to fit in one episode." Yeah, bullshit. So a cartoon from 1983 can do it but a modern glitzy cartoon made with computers can't? This isn't even a recent problem either--I had the same issue with the original Thundercats and Batman the Animated Series. I mean those are both good shows, but seriously, in a lot of episodes it felt like nothing happened.

(To be fair to Pony, it is aimed at younger audiences and is trying to be more visually appealing rather than have depth of writing, so I can cut it some slack for being a little shallow. As long as Rainbow Dash is still best pony)

[chrisbid]

btw, the Super Mario Bros Super Show is available on Netflix instant, with the live action sequences intact... along with the live action intros for the legend of zelda previews, and the previews of zelda themselves.... but no sign of the zelda episodes.

[alec006]

It would be nice one day to get that Super Mario Brothers anime on a brand new VHS and transfer it to high quality digital video with a high quality codec using my professional VCR setup. Then maybe find some fansubs for it so I can apply the .ass subtitle files to it, that or just learn Japanese.

Ask for classic video game cartoons, I did grow up with the Super Mario Brothers Super Show in 1999 & 2000 when they reaired it on my then local WB station at 6:30 AM before Kids WB went on at 7AM. I actually had a VCR that recorded most of the episodes since 6:30 AM was hard to wake up to on Saturday morning. I still have those tapes even thou the complete series is out on DVD boxsets. I keep the tapes for the nostalgia factor, not to mention they were my first of many VHS recordings and they have some amazing late 1990's early 2000's commercials that just bring you back in time. :)

Ask for the Sonic cartoons, my first was The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog around 1997 then Sonic Underground in 1999 and around 2003 Sonic SATAM, which all of them I love for different reasons, especially Sonic SATAM since it has a great dark story for a kids cartoon, and yes, I did have a crush on Princess Sally as a young teen. xD

Sonic X, couldn't stand, not only because of the 4Kids dub, but just I don't like the new generation Sonic where he's in a city interacting with humans rather than being on Mobius interacting with animals like in the three now Cookie Jar cartoons.

And since it is video game related, I loved the Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego cartoon as a kid, taught me a lot about history and yes I did love the opening theme song that of course Carmen stole that too, sneeky Carmen Sandiego. I was glad they released the complete series for $5 last year, it was a great addition to my DVD library.

[Masamune]

Anyone remember the Power Team from the early ninties? The team consisted Max Force from NARC, Kuros from The Wizards and Warriors series, Kwirk from the game of the same name, Tyrone from Arch Rivals and BigFoot the monster truck?

I remember watching that show every weekday before I got up to go to school.

[Urzu402]

I at one point watched the Mega Man series. I kinda liked it. But the maker of the cartoon didnt get the memo that Roll and Mega Man are supposed to be kids not young adult/ teenagers, and the Proto Man is a good guy. Though in the shows defence at the time the only game with Proto Man was Mega Man 3 and in that game it's not really clear if he's friend or foe. There is no real defense for the first part I raises. Like I remember the episode when Vile comes from the future with Spark Mandrill and X goes back in time too to stop them. But the problem is I already think the original Mega Man is too muscular but X's appearnance was overkill

[Greg2600]

This is a really good video quality of the SMB Anime. It's Japanese with English subtitles


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN11vCvkIhI

This is a low quality video with a fan dubbed version in English. Unfortunately the fans are terrible voice actors.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Dtaa7FkQQ

[Edmond Dantes]

I at one point watched the Mega Man series. I kinda liked it. But the maker of the cartoon didnt get the memo that Roll and Mega Man are supposed to be kids not young adult/ teenagers, and the Proto Man is a good guy. Though in the shows defence at the time the only game with Proto Man was Mega Man 3 and in that game it's not really clear if he's friend or foe. There is no real defense for the first part I raises. Like I remember the episode when Vile comes from the future with Spark Mandrill and X goes back in time too to stop them. But the problem is I already think the original Mega Man is too muscular but X's appearnance was overkill

Actually, Mega Man 5 was out.

I read an interview somewhere where Joe Ruby said that the muscular designs and the Protoman being evil were forced on them by Capcom, for some reason or other. I think if you search through the Mega Man Homepage (hhtp://www.mmhp.net) there's a link to that interview somewhere.

Despite the changes, it was one of the few cartoons that managed to stay close to the games, unlike most other game-based cartoons which made redonkulous amounts of changes (the various Sonic cartoons having probably nothing to do with the games...)

[Kiddo]

This is a low quality video with a fan dubbed version in English. Unfortunately the fans are terrible voice actors.


It also has terrible audio mastering. Ugh, Peach always cracks the speakers. The sad part is that if they dialed her volume down she'd probably be one of the better voices there.

The voices for Mario and Luigi don't capture the feel of either Lou Albano or Charles Martinet. I could at least do the latter way better.

[Tanooki]

For me I just remember being of the right age so I could see the Super Mario Bros Super Show, then Super Mario Bros 3 followed by World on he Saturday morning runs, and SMBSS did Zelda Fridays which was awesome. I also really loved the interesting take on the games that Captain N did too for the years it ran. It was pretty free with the ideas and took liberties but fun ones and it really was entertaining stuff. It's nice they're on disc but I wish like Boomerang would run the stuff too, same for Pac-Man which was pure awesome but all they're willing on that end to do is the PacMan Christmas special.

[retroguy]

Actually, Boomerang did run Pac-Man awhile back for a couple of months. I don't think it was to promote anything, either. Every few months they drop one or two shows from the line up and put something else in, so if you think "I wish Boomerang would run X", be patient. They probably will eventually.

[Tanooki]

Well if that was in the last few years damn I missed it, but I really don't remember it. I still don't think Nintendo would let their iron grip off their Mario cartoons to allow them on there, it's just wishful thinking.

[Greg2600]

Actually, Boomerang did run Pac-Man awhile back for a couple of months. I don't think it was to promote anything, either. Every few months they drop one or two shows from the line up and put something else in, so if you think "I wish Boomerang would run X", be patient. They probably will eventually.
Pac-Man was Hanna Barbara, which Boomerang (Turner) own.


It also has terrible audio mastering. Ugh, Peach always cracks the speakers. The sad part is that if they dialed her volume down she'd probably be one of the better voices there.

The voices for Mario and Luigi don't capture the feel of either Lou Albano or Charles Martinet. I could at least do the latter way better.I know, it's terrible. The first video though I was stunned how good of a transfer they got.