Format
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 focuses on Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool, who reside in the Mushroom World. Most of the episodes revolve around the four characters' efforts to prevent the attacks made by King Koopa and his seven Koopalings to take over Princess Toadstool's Mushroom Kingdom.
Like The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, the animation was done by Sei Young Animation Co., Ltd.; however this show was co-produced by Reteitalia S.P.A., hence the slight differences in character design.
Since the show was based on Super Mario Bros. 3, the enemies and power-ups were also seen in the show. In addition to being more faithful to the Mario gameplay, the series was given an established sense of continuity, something that the previous series lacked. The show was also known for having many of its episodes set in "the real world", with "actual" human beings appearing from time to time. Episodes took place in locations such as London, Paris, Venice, New York City, Cape Canaveral, Los Angeles and even Washington, D.C. One memorable episode entitled "7 Continents for 7 Koopas" was about the Koopalings invading each of the seven continents.
This cartoon was originally shown in the hour-long Captain N and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 programming block along with the second season of Captain N: The Game Master on NBC. All further airings of the series separated it from Captain N when Weekend Today came on the air.
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