Toad (Mario) - Concept and Creation

Concept and Creation

Toad and the mushroom people were first seen in the game Super Mario Bros. where the species was revealed to comprise the majority of the population of the Mushroom Kingdom. Toad's design was made directly from the power up the Super Mushroom, as well as the game's general association with mushrooms. Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of the Mario series, reasons that Toad's creation was that of being a character that has a simplistic design; yet, still appears cute and lovely and pleasing to everybody. In the game, the peaceful Toads of the Mushroom Kingdom had been turned into various objects such as bricks and pipes by the evil King Bowser; however, some of Princess Toadstool's loyal servants, known as the "Mushroom Retainers," were simply kidnapped.

During the development of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the developers at Nintendo decided between four characters to be playable in the game: Princess Peach, Toad, Wario and Waluigi (all suggestions made by fans). Two Toads (Yellow and Blue) were eventually included as playable characters in New Super Mario Bros. Wii due to their physical similarity to Mario and Luigi.

Toad's name appears to have been inspired by the word "toadstool", a word used to describe mushrooms including those featuring umbrella-like cap-and-stem form characteristics which Toad's design portrays along with the character's general resemblance to a mushroom. Toad's Japanese name "Kinopio" appears to be a mixture of the Japanese word for mushroom ("kinoko") and the Japanese name for the character Pinocchio ("Pinokio") which both roughly blend together to form the meaning of "a real mushroom boy" (as evidenced through Pinocchio's desire to become a real boy in his own tale).