A Brief Comparison of "The Super Mario Christmas Special" and "Citizen Kane"

Do you remember The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! ? It aired from 1989 to 1991, and during that brief time its developers managed to create one of the most cynical kids' shows ever to grace the airwaves, and one of the best.

The utter contempt the writers had for their source material--and their audience--is what makes this show great. I don’t think any episode captures this spirit better than the Super Mario Bros. Super Show Christmas Special, titled, simply and elegantly, “Koopa Klaus.”

You can view part of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-ezi643bpk&feature=related

With this seminal episode, the writer, Jack Olesker, ignored the network's narrow expectations for a "kiddy show" and somehow constructed a poignant tale of lost innocence within the confines of a weekly animated cartoon series. “Koopa” follows a lonely anthropomorphic turtle, named Koopa Klaus, on his quest to destroy Santa’s Workshop, and in the process, obliterate the child inside him that still yearns for earlier, happier days.

You might notice the title “Koopa Klaus” has a strong similarity to Citizen Kane. This is quite apt, since both “Koopa” and Kane chronicle the rise and fall of a troubled tycoon. The protagonists are not all that different when you get down to it: Charles Foster Kane is a giant in yellow journalism who searches for his lost toy sled, and King Koopa Klaus is a giant turtle who is green and likes to smash toys.

But Olesker certainly has a more approving attitude towards his creation. Whereas Orson Welles, the writer of Citizen Kane, seems to condemn the excesses in the life of his titular hero, Olesker seems to embrace Koopa Klaus’ bombastic, bravura nature. Whereas Kane, who dies in the first scene of the film, is doomed to never find the sled he lost as a child—the symbol of his youth, his former self—there is no Sword of Damocles hanging over the head of Koopa. Olesker pushes the talking turtle to continue on his quest to seal away his innocence forever, and it seems, at least from the outset, that he may succeed.

Perhaps this is because while both Kane and Koopa deal with childhood issues, Kane wants to regress, to recapture his younger days, and Koopa wants to move on. Welles uses Kane's regressive--and ultimately destructive--tendencies to teach us an important lesson: we can never get back our youth: the past is gone, the path has grown over. But Olesker wants us to admire Koopa, and perhaps, to follow him. He seems to tell us, through the story of Koopa, that we can conquer our childhood fears and yearnings, if we can conquer the child within ourselves.

Of course, Koopa is never allowed to succeed. Even though great writers such as Olesker attempted to elevate the art form, “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show” is, at the end of the day, still a kids' show, and so the “hero” must win at the end of the day. The “hero” is Super Mario, a fat, red, disgusting plumber whose ample girth makes it appear that he engages in quite hedonistic practices despite his humble profession.

Although Olesker (no doubt caving to pressure from the suits at the network) must reaffirm the status quo and show us Super Mario’s unlikely triumph over the regal King Koopa Klaus, we can still excavate the life-affirming messages Olesker implanted in “Koopa Klaus,” his flawed masterpiece.