DVD Review: Captain N and the New Super Mario World
Captain N: The Game Master premiered in 1989, and me being a hardcore Nintendo fan watched every episode even though I didn't really think it was all that good. I hated the way they made Simon Belmont, the hero from the Castlevania game, into a pompous jerk who only cares about how he looks... AND not only that, but they made him a COWARD! This is a hero character that I played all the way through the awesomeness that is Castlevania, and they makers of this show completely destroyed him in a way worse than any vampire could!
That was my biggest gripe with the series, but not my only one by far. I didn't like how Kid Icarus added "-icas" to the end of every freakin' thing he said, I hated Mother Brain's voice, which always sounded whiny to me, and I disliked how they made King Hippo look like some kind blue-skinned monster. But still, I adamantly watched every episode. Why? Because I was obsessed with Nintendo. Let this be a lesson to all of you out there, obsessions are bad. It doesn't matter what the obsession is, all obsessions are bad. Enjoy, but please for the love of all that is good in this world, DO NOT OBSESS!
Besides all the gripes I have with characters in the series, the actual stories were also pretty lame. They were very simple, and were obviously made for young children. And I'm embarrassed to say that I was not that young when I watched it... think high-school age and you'll have a good idea of where my embarrassment comes from. Now, the DVD I'm sharing with you today is NOT Captain N: The Game Master, but rather what became of Captain N for season 3, which is it was combined with a New Super Mario Bros World cartoon to make the half-hour show Captain N and the New Super Mario World.
This new show, which combined two series into one half-hour block, meant that each series got less than 15 minutes (since you have to factor in time for commercials and credits) of time, so the simple stories of Captain N became uber-simplistic stories. For instance, a greddy king steals money from his subjects, Captain N and gang witness this, then fight the king in a tournament and that's the end. As I said, it's totally for kids, though since it was cancelled after this season I guess that not even kids found it that good of a show.
The Super Mario Bros portion of the show felt a bit better done than the previous Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which was also pretty lame. The art seemed a bit better, and more characters were added such as Yoshi and some child caveman named Oogtar. Both of these characters used simple caveman-speak, which gets annoying pretty quickly. As with Captain N, this cartoon also does not hold up for adult viewing. It works on only one level, a very childish one.
For extra features, there is a storyboard-to-screen for the opening title sequence, and there is some concept art for Yoshi. This is a two-disc set, and the total running time clocks in at about four hours. A nice feature is that you can choose to play only the Captain N segments, only the Super Mario Bros. segments, or all of the episodes. If you choose the Captain N segments, you're not subjected to the show's intro each time, but choosing either of the other two options will play it every time.
Captain N and the New Super Mario World was released by Shout! Factory on DVD starting November 13, 2007.
