TheMario media franchise extends out of video games into non-game media. Mario and themes related to the franchise have appeared in television shows, anime, films, comics and manga, merchandise, and musical performance.
Saturday Supercade is ananimated television series produced forSaturday mornings byRuby-Spears Productions. It ran for two seasons onCBS, beginning in 1983. Each episode comprised several shorter segments featuringvideo game characters from theGolden Age of Arcade Games.Donkey Kong,Mario andPauline (from theDonkey Kong arcade game) were featured in the show.
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! is the first American TV series based on theMario NES games. It was broadcast insyndication from September 4 to December 1, 1989. Based onSuper Mario Bros. andSuper Mario Bros. 2. The show was produced byDIC Entertainment and was distributed for syndicated television byViacom Enterprises (full rights have since reverted to DiC throughNintendo).
King Koopa's Kool Kartoons is alive action children'stelevision show broadcast inSouthern California during the holiday season of 1989/1990. The show starred King Koopa (also known asBowser), the main antagonist of theMario series. The 30-minute program was originally broadcast during the after-school afternoon time-slots onLos Angeles-basedKTTV Fox 11.[1]
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 is the second TV series based on theMario NES games. It aired onNBC from September 8 to December 1, 1990. Based on theSuper Mario Bros. 3 video game, the cartoon shows Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad fighting against Bowser and hisKoopalings, who went by different names on the show. It was part of a 1 hour block withCaptain N's second season, structured such that 2 episodes of Mario 3 would bookend the longer Captain N episode that made the "meat" of the sandwich.
The Super Mario Challenge is a game show which aired onThe Children's Channel. It ran from 1990 to 1991 and aired at 4:30 p.m. every weekday. The presenter,John Lenahan, was a lookalike ofMario, and dressed in his clothes. Two guest players had to do tasks, all of which involved playing theMario video gamesSuper Mario Bros.,Super Mario Bros. 2 and, after its release in 1991,Super Mario Bros. 3. Rounds included challenges to see which player could complete a level in the fastest time and who could collect the most gold coins on a certain level.[2]
Super Mario World is ananimated television series based on theSNES video game of the same name. It is the third and currently lastSaturday morning cartoon based on theMario series. The show was originally aired on Saturday mornings onNBC in the 1991–92 season. It was featured in a half-hour time slot with a shortened version ofCaptain N: The Game Master. Episodes ofSuper Mario World were later shown as part of thesyndication packageCaptain N & The Video Game Masters. Afterwards, the series was split fromCaptain N altogether and shown in time-compressed reruns onMario All-Stars.
Mario Ice Capades is a television special featuring a Mario-themedIce Capades skating show, broadcast onABC on December 28, 1989.[3] It starredChristopher Hewett as Bowser.[4][5][6]Jason Bateman andAlyssa Milano also appeared in the special.[4]
Bowser and theSuper Mushroom appeared in the 2012 Disney animated filmWreck-It Ralph;Mario is mentioned by Felix but not seen in the film. Mario's original arcade game appearance inDonkey Kong makes a cameo in the 2015 science fiction action comedy filmPixels.[7]
Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach![n 1] is a 1986anime film based on theSuper Mario Bros. video game. Directed by Masami Hata and produced by Masakatsu Suzuki and Tsunemasa Hatano, the plot centers onMario andLuigi, who go on a quest to savePrincess Peach fromBowser. It is notable for being the firstfilm based on a video game, predating thelive-actionSuper Mario Bros. film by seven years.
Super Mario Bros. is a 1993 Americanscience-fictioncomedyadventurefantasy film[8] based on the Japanese video game seriesof the same name byNintendo and distributed byThe Walt Disney Studios throughHollywood Pictures, thus becoming one of several rare occasions where Disney and Nintendo have collaborated. The film was directed byRocky Morton andAnnabel Jankel, written by Parker Bennett, Terry Runté andEd Solomon, and starsBob Hoskins,John Leguizamo,Dennis Hopper,Samantha Mathis,Fisher Stevens,Fiona Shaw andRichard Edson. The story revolves around the titular Mario brothers, as they find aparallel universe, ruled by the ruthless dictator King Koopa, who seeks to merge the two dimensions so that he can rule both worlds, leaving it up to Mario and Luigi to join forces with Princess Daisy, the daughter of the world's displaced King, to stop Koopa.
Super Mario Bros. was shot in bothNew York City andNorth Carolina on a budget of $48 million. The film was released on May 28, 1993, in the United States and wasunsuccessful both critically and commercially, receiving criticism for its storyline, characters, dialogue and unfaithfulness to the games. Bob Hoskins later stated in an interview in 2007 that the film was "the worst thing I ever did".[9] However, the film was nominated for twoSaturn Awards (one forBest Costume, the other forBest Make-up).
Years later, however, commentators called it acult film,[10] and has spawned a fan-made website,[11] a fan-made sequel comic,[12] and even aBlu-ray release in the United Kingdom.[13]
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a 2023 animated film adaptation of the franchise, produced byIllumination andNintendo and distributed byUniversal Pictures. It is co-produced by Nintendo fellow and series' creatorShigeru Miyamoto and Illumination founder and CEOChris Meledandri.[14] The film stars the voices ofChris Pratt as Mario,Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach,Charlie Day as Luigi,Jack Black as Bowser,Keegan-Michael Key as Toad,Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong,Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong,Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek andSebastian Maniscalco as Foreman Spike; longtimeMario voice actorCharles Martinet features in a series of cameos.[15][16][17] In January 2020, Nintendo's PresidentShuntaro Furukawa stated that the film is "moving along smoothly" with the film aiming for release in 2023. Furukawa stated that Nintendo would own the rights to the film, and both Nintendo and Universal would fund the production of the film.[18] Meledandri called the film a "priority" for the Illumination animation studio.[19]
The film features anorigin story for the brothersMario andLuigi, Italian-American plumbers who are transported to an alternate world and become entangled in a battle between theMushroom Kingdom, led byPrincess Peach, and theKoopas, led byBowser.
After the critical and commercial failure of thelive-action filmSuper Mario Bros. (1993), Nintendo became reluctant to license itsintellectual properties for film adaptations.Mario creatorShigeru Miyamoto became interested in developing another film, and through Nintendo's work withUniversal Destinations & Experiences to createSuper Nintendo World, he met with Illumination founder and CEOChris Meledandri. By 2016, the two were discussing aMario film and, in January 2018, Nintendo announced that it would collaborate with Illumination and Universal to produce it. Production was underway by 2020, and the cast was announced in September 2021.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released in the United States on April 5, 2023. The film received mixed reviews from critics, though audience reception was more positive. The film has grossed over $1.360 billion worldwide, setting multiple box-office records, including thebiggest worldwide opening weekend for an animated film and thehighest-grossing film based on a video game. It also became thesecond highest-grossing film of 2023 and thefourth-highest-grossing animated film.
On March 10, 2024, as part of Mario Day celebrations, Miyamoto and Meledandri officially announced "a newSuper Mario Bros. movie", along with a release date of April 3, 2026 in the United States and more dates throughout April for other territories.[20] Horvath, Jelenic and Fogel will return as co-directors and screenwriter respectively; Meledandri stated that Illumination's team was in the process of storyboarding and "developing set designs for new environments."[20]
In October 2024, Keegan-Michael Key teased that the sequel will be "broader in scope" and feature "new folks and old favorites and some folks that [he thinks] are really deep cuts".[21] On May 13, 2025, the name of the sequel was revealed asSuper Mario World in a press release released by NBCUniversal.[22] Later in September 2025, the name was confirmed to beThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie.[23]
| Amada Anime Series:Super Mario Bros. | |
 | |
| アマダアニメシリーズ スーパーマリオブラザーズ (Amada Anime Shirīzu Sūpā Mario Burazāzu) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Adventure,comedy |
| Original video animation | |
| Produced by | Shinichiro Ueda |
| Written by | Juri Yagi |
| Studio | Studio Junio |
| Released | August 3, 1989 |
| Runtime | 15 minutes each |
| Episodes | 3 |
Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Bros.[n 2] is a series of three 15-minutedirect-to-videoOVAs produced by Studio Junio, licensed byNintendo, and released by Amada Printing onVHS tapes on August 3, 1989, exclusively inJapan.[24][25] The plot of the episodes involve characters from theMario franchise in the stories of three folktales:Momotarō,Issun-bōshi andSnow White. Its cast includesMiyako Endō (Princess Peach,Kinopio,Morton Koopa Jr.,Wendy O. Koopa),Tōru Furuya (Mario),Masaharu Satō (Koopa,Larry Koopa,Iggy Koopa),Naoki Tatsuta (Luigi,Ludwig von Koopa,Roy Koopa,Lemmy Koopa), andToshiko Sawada (narration).[26] The openings for each video used a soundtrack cue fromOn Golden Pond, namely "New Hampshire Hornpipe". "p:Machinery" byPropaganda and "Snapshot", "Comes and Goes" and "Donna" byArt of Noise were also used.
Super Mario's Fire Brigade[n 3] is a 1989 shortfire safetypublic safety announcement video animated byToei Animation andJ.C.Staff, directed byTatsuyuki Nagai and starringToru Furuya as Mario,Yoku Shioya as Luigi,Saori Sugimoto as Kaoru,Yumi Tōma as Tatsuya, Chieko Saitō as Kaoru's Mom, andDaisuke Gori as Kaoru's Dad.[27][28] There was also another video produced abouttraffic safety, titledSuper Mario Traffic Safety[n 4].
Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi's Adventure Land[n 5] is a 28-minuteinteractive video anime based onSuper Mario World released forBandai'sTerebikko system in 1991. The Terebikko allowed viewers to interact with the anime using a telephone-shaped microphone to answer multiple choice questions, such as what will hatch fromYoshi's egg. The cast includesTōru Furuya as Mario,Yū Mizushima as Luigi,Yuriko Yamamoto as Peach,Chika Sakamoto as Yoshi andTakeshi Watabe as Bowser.[29][30][31]
Super Mario: ABC Song Video[n 6] is a 15-minuteeducational video produced by Alpha Eihan and released byShogakukan in 1992. The purpose of the video is to teach Japanese childrenEnglish, including learning to master the pronunciation of the alphabet and counting from 1 to 10. In addition, it contains three English songs, "ABC Song", "Ten Little Indians", and "Good Morning" (each with akaraoke version). Mario's voice was provided by Gerri Sorrells, who was well-known for her role inNHK's educational programs.[32][33][34][35]
Mario Kirby Masterpiece Video[n 7] is an 18-minute educational video released byHAL Laboratory in 1995 onVHS exclusively in Japan. The purpose of the video is to teachkanji to children by featuring two adventures starring Mario andKirby separately, with still pictures narrated over byMayumi Tanaka and kanji transcriptions.[36][37][38]
| Super Mario-kun | |
| スーパーマリオくん (Sūpā Mario-kun) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Adventure,comedy |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Yukio Sawada |
| Published by | Shogakukan |
| English publisher | |
| Magazine | CoroCoro Comic |
| Original run | November 1990 – present |
| Volumes | 60 |
Super Mario-kun[n 8] is a Japanesekodomo manga series written and illustrated by Yukio Sawada (沢田 ユキオSawada Yukio) and serialized in the monthly manga anthologyCoroCoro Comic. Individual chapters are collected intotankōbon volumes byShogakukan, who released the first volume on July 27, 1991,[39] and have released 60 volumes.[40] The series has been licensed in Japan; France, published bySoleil Manga [fr];[41] and Spain, published byPlaneta Comic.[42] It followsMario and his friends through the plot lines of manyMario video games, starting inSuper Mario World and reaching as far asSuper Mario Odyssey. Courses created by Sawada forSuper Mario Maker were released in November 2015, with aSuper Mario-kun costume unlocked for players who clear them.[43]
Viz Media released the first English-language publication of CoroCoro's manga series in December 2020 under the titleSuper Mario Manga Mania.[44]
A second manga series of the same title written and drawn by Hiroshi Takase (嵩瀬ひろし) ran for five volumes on Shogagukan's Pikkapika Comics.[45] Because of the identical titles, Sawada's and Takase's series are easily confused.[citation needed]
A third manga series written and drawn by Kazuki Motoyama was published byKodansha inComic Bombom from 1988 to 1998.[46] The series is altogether calledKC Mario by the public in Japan, as volumes are named after newMario games at the time in place of a consistent title.[47] The series is substantially more well known by international audiences for itsself-referential and subversively outrageous humor, with occasional use ofinnuendo not expected from a children's manga series; it also takes substantially more creative liberty than its contemporaries, introducing original characters and power-ups not seen in the games.[48] Luke Plunkett ofKotaku described the work as "a wild ride".[47]
TheNintendo Comics System was a series ofcomic books published byValiant Comics in 1990 and 1991.[49] It features characters from Nintendo'svideo games and the animated series based on them.
Super Mario Adventures[50] is ananthology of comics that ran inNintendo Power throughout 1992, featuring the characters from Nintendo'sMario series and based loosely onSuper Mario World. The series was also serialized inCoroCoro Comic in 1993.Charlie Nozawa, the artist who created the comics,[51] is also known by the pen name Tamakichi Sakura.[52]Kentaro Takekuma was responsible for the story, which followsMario andLuigi as they attempt to rescuePrincess Peach (known as "Princess Toadstool" in the English comic) after she is abducted byBowser with intent to marry her.
Nintendo Gamebooks weregamebooks released in two series,Nintendo Adventure Books andYou Decide on the Adventure, and based onvideo games created byNintendo.
Nintendo has licensed severalelectromechanical games for use in arcades and casinos, including two popularpinball machines byGottlieb.Super Mario Bros., released on April 25, 1992, was the first Gottlieb machine that included adot-matrix display tracking scores and various animations. The game shared a lot of its art assets withSuper Mario World released for SNES two years prior, and featuredCharles Martinet in his first voice-over role as Mario, for which he was never paid nor credited.[53] 4,200 units were manufactured.[54][55][56][57]Super Mario Bros. Mushroom World released a few months later in June 1992, this time based onSuper Mario Bros. 3 for NES. Only 519 units were produced, making it significantly rarer and more sought after by modern collectors.[54][58][59][60][61]
Other electromechanical games licensed by Nintendo include aMario Kart 64slot machine made by Maygay,[62] as well as a series ofMario Fushigimedal games made byCapcom. TheMario Fushigi series began in 2003 withSuper Mario Fushigi no Janjan Land, thenSuper Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party in 2004,Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party 2 in 2005, andMario Party Fushigi no Korokoro Catcher.[citation needed]
Mario has appeared on lunch boxes, T-shirts, magazines, commercials (notably, in aGot Milk? commercial),[63] in candy form, on shampoo bottles, and asplush toys.[64] Multiple Mario-themed versions of popular board and card games have been released byUSAopoly, includingMonopoly,[65]TacDex,[66] andConnect 4.[67] Nintendo has also released in 2017 apuzzle featuring Mario.[68]
National Mario Day is an annual celebration to commemorateMario on March 10.[69][70][71] This date is chosen because "MAR 10" looks like the name MARIO.[72][73]Gamers can commemorate the occasion by playing games fromthe series, or with Mario-themed events, and coordinating onsocial media with thehashtag #NationalMarioDay.[74][75]
In 2014 theChristian Science Monitor advised parents that Mario Day was an opportunity to bond with their children, and listed Mario Day-themed events parents could take their children to, to encourage that bonding.[76] In 2016, Nintendo created a video about the event, where Mario caused chaos in their American offices;[77][78] and "brought some joy to the monotonous workday in the ways only Mario could."[77] Chad Concelmo ofDestructoid appears in the video.[79]
In March 2013, Nintendo began theYear of Luigi. This included a year of Luigi-themed games likeDr. Luigi,Mario & Luigi Dream Team andNew Super Luigi U. ALuigi's Mansion statue was released onClub Nintendo. On March 19, 2014, the Year of Luigi ended.[80]
In September 2020, Nintendo started theSuper Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary event, which lasted from September 3, 2020 to March 31, 2021. This event began with aNintendo Direct which announced many games, as well as covering already released Mario themed merchandise, clothing and in game events.[81]
Super Nintendo World is a themed area withinUniversal Studios Japan,Universal Studios Hollywood andUniversal Epic Universe, a under construction forUniversal Studios Singapore. The iterations of this area and its attractions are themed to theSuperMario franchise, as well as theYoshi's Island spin-off series, and theDonkey Kong Country series.
TheSuper Mario series of video games has a large amount of music, much of it composed byKoji Kondo. The "Super Mario Bros. theme" is particularly well-known.
TheSuper Mario Bros. theme has been featured in many concerts, including "PLAY! Chicago",[82] theColumbus Symphony Orchestra,[83] Play! A Video Game Symphony,[84] and others.
TheVideo Games Live concert featured the theme performed by Koji Kondo.[85]
英語はネイティブによる完璧な発音・発声で、 マリオの声はＮＨＫの教育番組でお馴染み、Gerri Sorrells（ジェリーソーレス）さんが当てている。 パッケージの「ＡＢＣ」のルビも「エイビースィー」と完璧な発音。
So far, the best celebration I've found was hosted by the DC Public Library in Washington last Saturday and involved kids from local art programs creating various projects and eating Mario-themed cakes.
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