SMBSS 1989 King Mario Of Cramalot Review

So If This Is Cramalot? Why Is Mel Brooks Here, Cast as the Cookie Crisp/Magic Stars Wizard?!?
Really. Today we have special guest star Mel Brooks as the Wizard Mervyn The Magician. A very Jewish Magician… Joy!

The foursome have arrived in the land of Arthurian Legend Lore… Kinda. Cramalot. And they hear bees. Which means raviolis smothered in honey…??? WHY!!!

Nope. It’s another type of Wart Jr.’s minions, under the control of Bowser. They are saved by Mel Brooks. Who fills them in that King Arthur died off screen, and Cramalot is under Bowser’s reign.

Huh? Bowser killed Arthur? No. Apparently the old king passed away, Bowser was passing through, and decided to take over because he had some free time on his claws.

Mervyn takes the gang to test Mario, to see if he’s worthy to be king of Cramalot. How? All he has to do is pull the Golden Plunger from the Golden Sink. To be King of Cramalot. Ugh.

He does, and it’s kinda magic but everyone is still captured by Bowser. Who takes control of the Golden Plunger. Everyone except Mervyn is imprisoned. Maybe Mel Brooks had to stop by Spaceballs for a bit…

Suddenly, while in their roomy tower cell, Mario has the power to make his wishes reality. And he does so by… Wishing death upon the lot of them. Ugh. No this isn’t a power from the plunger, it’s just a gag. It’s over when Mervyn saved them.

He teleported them to a dark forest. Mario quickly gains the plumbing snake Excalibur from the Lady Of The Lake. He also becomes Fire Mario but never uses any Fire Powers.

Luigi somehow gets them into Cramalot Castle, and Mario has to duel Bowser in a plunger vs Excalibur fight. While the rest of the foursome keep stomping and tossing minions.

The fight is ok. The dialogue is a bit witty, and at one point Mario uses Excalibur like a whip ala Indiana Jones. Anyway he defeats Bowser, but he escaped using a SMB2 door creating potion. Hey. That’s nice. Another element of the game worked into story.

Mario is offered the throne of Cramalot. But then he finds out the throne is meant for buff fit individuals. He’s just not King material… So he runs away, giving the Kingdom to Mel Brooks. The end.

Or not. Maybe Mel Brooks retitled Camelot as London and filmed Robin Hood Men In Tights there. Maybe. Anyway that’s the time Mel Brooks was in a Mario cartoon. Fun times.

Tomorrow, the gang go to the land of Arabian Nights, aka back to the desert levels. This is Mario’s Magic Carpet. Hmmm… Oh right. They do have Magic (Flying) Carpets in SMB2. This should be fun.

Anyway Mario gets a Flying Carpets, then forgets to serenade Peach with a song about a whole new world. Also Arabian inspired SMB2 villains incoming, probably. See you.

Super Mario Bros Super Show “The Bird! The Bird!” Review

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.