Tag: Lou Albano

So, in the Luigi’s Mansion 3 trailer, @caz-cina pointed out the stacks of pizza boxes in (what is presumably) Mario’s room in this haunted hotel and the question was raised as to why pizza instead of pasta, which had been long established as Mario’s favorite food.

And that got me thinking… we have seen Mario leave stacks of pizza boxes around before–in the live-action segments of the SMB Super Show, Mario did this all the time, much to Luigi’s exasperation.

…And upon further inspection of this literally 30-second trailer, I found a total of 4 possible shout-outs to the Super Show.

1. The aforementioned pizza boxes

2. The wanted posters of Toad, Luigi, Mario, and Peach–the same lineup as the Super Show, which had been based on SMB 1 and 2.  While the first three have all been in the previous Luigi’s Mansion games, Peach, on the other hand, has never been in one before, so it definitely seems odd to bring her in now, unless they were intentionally trying to do that call-back.

3. The plunger attack.  In the Super Show, the bros used plungers for literally everything–weapons, climbing tools, you name it.  Luigi using one as a weapon against the ghosts also seems to hearken back to that–an interesting choice, when none of the other games, whether main series or spinoffs, have had plungers being used (as far as I know).

4. One could say that the very notion of the Luigi’s Mansion series got started with one of the Super Show’s live-action segments, where Luigi was seen fighting off a Slimer-esque ghost with a broom after it had invaded their apartment.  Fast forward to 2001, and Luigi started using a vacuum against ghosts instead.

…So, yes.  Four possible shout-outs.  Maybe it’s all just a coincidence…

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…Or maybe, just maybe, it’s a nod and acknowledgement of the Super Show’s 30th anniversary??

OK, so… I feel that not enough people are aware of or appreciate the lighthearted hilarity that is The Super Mario Bros Super Show.

“But, Rose!” I hear you say, “It’s just one of those cheesy, meme-filled ‘80s cartoons based on video games!!”

Well… yes and no.  Yes, it’s clearly ‘80s and a bit cheesy, but up until this point, all we had of the Mario Bros were 8-bit sprites.  People complain that Mario is written as a flat character today (which isn’t really true, but that’s a post for another time)–but back then, for him and Luigi?  Nothing, until this show came around.  And the show ended up giving them aspects of their personalities that ended up staying through the current day portrayals–Mario’s naive and leap-before-looking nature and Luigi’s natural-coward-but-will-still-do-the-thing-even-if-scared-of-the-thing nature, for starters.

Now, I absolutely love how Charles Martinet portrays the bros today–no complaints whatsoever.  But my heart still holds a special place for Lou Albano and Danny Wells, who played the bros in this show–they were the first portrayals of the bros I saw, and I love their versions of the bros as much as I love Charles’s.

As for the cartoon itself, it’s your basic Mushroom Kingdom romp with the Bros, Peach, and Toad dealing with Bowser causing the crisis du jour.  While Peach does get kidnapped frequently, she does, however, also hold her own on several occasions, and plenty of eps show her actively governing and being a Royal Who Actually Does Something.

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BUT, in addition to these animated plotlines, there is also a short, live-action sketch where Lou and Danny portray the brothers IRL, which can essentially be described as “What if Super Mario Bros was a sitcom?”

It’s actually fun and amusing.  And the slice-of-life setting allows for the bros to be seen in everyday situations that don’t involve dealing with their usual Mushroom Kingdom duties–family hiccups and work misadventures, though sometimes other shenanigans do happen. 

But it’s also endearing to see the bros acting like typical siblings in a casual setting.  Like, there’s an ep where Mario is on the phone and is saying too much, so Luigi does the Typical Sibling Response of throwing pillows at him while he’s talking–

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Or when Luigi notices Mario having a bad dream, he dutifully wakes his brother up… with a feather duster to the face–

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Basically, when there are no monsters or enemies around, Luigi can be a sassy little smart-alec (Mario has his moments of sass in this show, too)–but since we rarely see them in casual settings in the games, aside from spinoffs, we don’t get to see that side.

There are also a lot of unintentional call-forwards and parallels to future games in both the animated segments and the live-action ones (this is just one example).

And, in case you’re wondering, the bros are every bit as close in this show as they are in the games.  For all the sass Luigi gives Mario, all it takes is Mario coming home late one time for Luigi to break out a periscope and try to find him–

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And you know those adorable bro hugs from the Mario & Luigi RPG series that are so good and pure?

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Yeah, those bro hugs started with this show–

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So, TL, DR; if you’re looking for some amusing and lighthearted Mario Bros content (especially in the light of what the recent Smash trailers have been doing to those poor boys–#JusticeForTheBros), I recommend giving the SMB Super Show a look!