Since
I was a child I've always had a fascination with the lyrical artwork
of the Super Mario Bros. Universe. Being a cartoonist I tended to be
more aware of the artistic changes the series went through over the
years. With the recent resurgence of the classic Mario artwork
through the release of Super Mario 3D World I thought it would be
nice to take a look at the evolution of the 2D Mario art style since
it's inception in Super Mario Bros. The purpose of these articles are
to also make the modern day public aware of some of the rarer artwork
that existed in the early Nintendo days, and to point out some of the
stylistic changes the characters have gone through in the earlier
games.
It
would be unfair to talk about Mario's artwork without mentioning the
two people who were responsible for the art direction of the series.
Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario's creator, was responsible for setting the
foundation of Mario's world. Yoichi Kotabe, was a former animator from Toei, who developed the game
artwork into the cartooning style most people are familiar with
today.
For
the sake of this article the majority of my resources come from the
original Japanese releases in the order the became available in
Japan. I'm also including the anime movie, Super
Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen (The Great Mission to
Rescue Princess Peach) because it confirms
several design choices that did not have corresponding official
artwork at the time. The reason this article is not covering Donkey
Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario Bros. is
because they came before Nintendo decided that the Mario franchise
needed visual consistency therefore I omitted them from this art
study.
Super
Mario Bros. Release
Date- September
13, 1985
There
are two pieces of artwork that define the original Nintendo game. The
main piece is illustrated by Shigeru Miyamoto and was the cover art
for the Japanese and Europeon release of the game. Mario is in his
classic “Super Mario” pose that tended to be cut a pasted on the
majority of Nintendo's 80's merchandise (including being slightly
altered for the cover of the US release of Super Mario Bros.2).
Almost all the other characters look completely different from their
modern designs. Bowser originally sported a look that was inspired
from the Ox King in Toei's Saiyuki anime movie (1960). All the enemy
characters have a rougher, more simplified design. What's really
noticeable is Princess Peach looking like a child and having brown
hair. In fact, Peach's design had many visual inconsistencies in the
early game artwork. While later on her design would be refined it took the
colorists some time before they made a final decision on her official
hair color and if she wore her opera styled gloves consistently.
The
second piece of artwork that has fallen into obscurity is one which
has Super Mario in the same pose and opposite to him is Luigi. This
is the earliest example of Luigi's official art. Of course in this
picture it's simply a recolor of the Super Mario design with Luigi's
in game colors. The other visual difference is here Mario and Luigi
are depicted with black hair as opposed to the brown hair he has in
the artwork starting with Super Mario Bros. 2 USA.
Super
Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels Release Date- June 3, 1986
Known
as the originally Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan this game had some
very rare artwork. The first piece is a Japanese ad featuring Mario
and the Princess. Unlike the Super Mario Bros. illustration this
piece features the Kotabe designs and there is already a distinct
visual difference between the characters depicted here and in the
first illustration. While originally I thought this was the only
piece of artwork associated with the Japan-only Mario 2 when I was
looking through my Nintendo Sticker Album from my childhood I came
across an interesting discovery.
Back
in 1988 Nintendo released several sticker sets of the Mario
characters. Three of those stickers were full illustrations from Super
Mario Bros. Upon closer study I have reason to believe that these
illustrations were actually corresponding to the Japanese Mario 2. In
two of the illustrations there is a mushroom that looks like the evil
twin of the Super Mushroom. Mario 2 Japan featured the debut of the
poisonous mushroom so my deduction is that all three of these
illustrations were originally used to promote Mario 2 in Japan.
Visually the style has a consistent watercolor look that dominated
most of the earliest Mario artwork. While these posters utilized the
Kotabe designs they also have a more anime-esque feel which leads me
to believe they may have been handled by a different illustrator.
While this artwork was prevalent in much of Nintendo's early
merchandise it has all but fallen into obscurity in today's times.
Super
Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!
Release Date- July 20,1986
I
bring up this anime movie mainly because it is the earliest example
of Luigi beginning to transition into his modern design. In this
movie Luigi is taller than Mario but his mustache and hair style are
similar to his brother's. Also, Luigi's color scheme is a navy blue hat
and overalls over a yellow shirt as opposed to the green and blue
style he later adapts. This is also the earliest example of the
Princess and Bowser having their modern color schemes, something the
official artwork would continue to be ambiguous about until Super
Mario World.
Super
Mario Bros All Night Nippon Release
Date- December
1986
This
is a obscure game that was released as a raffle prize for the
Japanese radio program All-Night Nippon. It is basically Super Mario
Bros. with altered sprites of various celebrities associated with the
program. The artwork is important as it seemed to be the last piece
of classic artwork from this era and another early depiction of
Luigi. Most of the characters have their designs from the original
Super Mario Bros. poster while Luigi dons a light blue cap and
overalls with a green shirt. He still has Mario's design but this
illustration does put him closer to his standard color scheme.
The
next article will discuss the later NES era and early Super NES era
designs. As well as commentary on how Nintendo subsequently went back
and touched up the earlier artwork from Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) and
3.