It’s A Bird(o)… A Mr Magoo Seeing Impaired Birdo, Fused With An Italian Mother…
Ugh. Apparently making fun of the seeing impaired was a rampant thing in 1989. Seriously though why.
But this is indeed some low hanging humor the first Captain Lou Albano Mario toon will pick from. Also it’s the first Mario cartoon. And it’s set during…
Super Mario Brothers 2. Aka the Mario game that didn’t start it’s life off as a Mario game. Originally it started it’s life as… Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic. No relation to the Doki Doki Literature Club game.
So yeah. This show has the villain being Bowser and his Koopas… In control of a lot of the creatures formerly controlled by Wart Jr. Why? Dunno. It’s not like this opening episode explains that.
Well… Not all of the SMB2 enemies work for Bowser. For instance random Birdo. A near sighted, hard of seeing Birdo. She recently lost her little Birdo (Cheepee, no relation to the Cheep Cheep enemies). And she’s been searching for him.
Maybe it’s because this is a snowy environment. All that white and grays. But somehow she has missed her baby being pretty close to home, frozen in a block of ice. Best mother yet.
Worse, she kidnaps Toad (from his duty pulling Princess Peach’s sled) thinking he’s her baby. Oh. This is based on Super Mario Brothers 2 so the main characters are Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toad. Like in the game.
We have enemies from SMB2 here. Like the birds that drop bob-ombs, the snow flurries (with an obscene Bowser paw licking fetish… Yes. Really.) And Koopa troops… Eh.
Ok fine it still doesn’t make any sense as the enemy was Wart Jr.. But then again that whole game took place in Mario’s dreams so… Eh… It’s not supposed to make sense.
The four are trying to figure out how to beat Bowser and kick him out of the Mushroom Kingdom, and find a way back to Brooklyn… Yes. I know I just said this is based on a game set in a dream world. Ok fine. The people who made this cartoon at least tried.
So Princess Toadstool (not yet called Peach?) has Mario and Luigi join her in saving Toad. They run across dive bombing birds with Bob-ombs, and find a Fire Flower.
Strange. Princess Peach’s first explanation of the flower talks about making Mario a Super Mario (with fire powers). But really anyone can use the Fire Flower. Mario uses it though.
Yeah they kept the one rule. If a character with a power up is hit he/she loses that power up. That’s nice. Anyway Bowser sends as many forces as the screen can take to get the three.
Toad? He’s having Misadventures In Birdo Sitting. Being chased by an overtly affectionate Birdo mom. Given fresh milk… I do like the fact she filed a report with Missing Persons when her kid vanished.
She then tries to teach Toad how to fly. By dropping him from a very big height. Luckily his hat can become a parachute. He lands near the trio (and the frozen Birdo youth).
Mario frees him with his fire power, leaving it up to Toad to find the mom and tell her they found her chick. Mario loses his fire power, but before they can be captured it starts to rain turnips.
Mama Birdo and Toad arrives. Also she’s now wearing her glasses. Pissed off Bowser is putting her chick in danger, she and her chick help Road drive off Bowser and his minions.
So mom is reunited with her chick, the villainous Bowser was chased off, and happy ending. Oh well. Next up we go to the Wild West of SMB2 and Butch Mario & The Luigi Kid.
So we should have giant multi segmented cactus enemies and quicksand pits. Right? Guessing that’s the reveal here? Oh well. That’s tomorrow.
Look at the bright side. Sticking to theme after we finish Super Show and SMB2? It’s Super Mario Brothers 3 the Animated Series. Oh… Joy? See you.
Pop Goes the Darke Raven 