Koopa Kid
From Freepedia
A Koopa Kid — also known as a Koopaling, although this term usually refers to the first seven koopa kids that appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3 — is a character from the Super Mario Bros. series of video games. As far as it is known, there are eight Koopa Kids, all the children of King Bowser Koopa. Nothing else is known about their origins. The first seven originally appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3, and subsequently appeared in Super Mario World, Yoshi's Safari, and Mario Is Missing!. More recently, they appeared in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. They are always world bosses, except for Mario & Luigi where they are minibosses in Bowser's castle. Oddly, in their appearance in Mario and Luigi, the Koopa Kids never speak. The eighth Koopa Kid is Bowser Jr., who first appears in Super Mario Sunshine, and in later Mario sports games.
The Koopa Kids have wild punk hairstyles and dress. It is said that each Koopaling was personally designed by a different member of the production staff of Super Mario Bros. 3. Explains Shigeru Miyamoto: "This is another way we give recognition to the many people who help make the games successful." [1] A unique quality about these characters, however, is that Nintendo did not initially name them for their debut in the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 3. Instead, the game's American translator named them after western celebrities. The names stuck, so Nintendo of America apparently played a hand in shaping Mario mythos. [2]
Each of the first seven Koopa children are named after celebrities. In the Mario cartoons, they were given different names in order to reduce the amound of money the show's producers, DIC, had to spend on buying the rights to copyrighted character names. In a similar fashion, the Koopa Kids' father, Bowser, is always referred to as "King Koopa."Contents |
Ludwig von Koopa
Ludwig von Koopa was named after and resembles Ludwig van Beethoven and they are both composers. According to Super Mario World he composes "Koopa symphonies" in his castle. He first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3 as the boss of the seventh world, the Pipe Maze. In Super Mario World, Ludwig is boss of the Twin Bridges are. He is the oldest of the koopalings.
In the cartoon series he was named Kooky von Koopa and was the typical mad scientist character, speaking with a German accent and inventing wicked devices for his dad, Bowser, to use, such as a time machine to help prevent the Mario Brothers from even coming to the Mushroom Kingdom (because, in the series, the brothers were from Brooklyn, New York, in the "real world") or a robot look-alike of Princess Peach that was programmed to turn the Mushroom Kingdom over to Bowser.
The only major physical difference between Ludwig and Kooky is that Kooky has untamed hair.
Lemmy Koopa
Lemmy Koopa was named after Lemmy Kilmister, singer for the rock group Motörhead. He has lazy eye and balances atop a ball. In Super Mario Bros. 3, Lemmy was the boss of the sixth world, Iced Land. In Super Mario World, Mario fought him in the subterranean Vanilla Dome area.
In the cartoons he was named Hip Koopa and he often hung out with his similar-looking brother Hop (Iggy). The two of them shared most of their sentences (a la Donald Duck's nephews) and were usually seen pulling pranks. There are three major differences between Lemmy and Hip: Hip's hair is far thinner; Hip has an overbite; and while Lemmy is the second oldest Koopa Kid, Hip and Hop are twins and are also the youngest of the bunch.
In the comic books, he was quite stupid but could somehow understand Larry's picture-only dialogue. He also appeared in a story without any of his brothers or sister, titled "Meet the Koopa Kids", where he and Bowser infiltrate a Dirk Drainhead comic convention dressed as the super villains Pipe Ooze and Muck.
Roy Koopa
Roy Koopa was named after Roy Orbison and both he and Orbison wear trademark sunglasses. In both Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, Roy is the boss of the fifth area — the sky world and the Forest of Illusion, respectively.
In the cartoons, he was named Bully Koopa and he acted just as his name implied. Also, he spoke with a gruff Brooklyn accent. Names aside, Roy doesn't seem to have any significant differences from his cartoon counterpart. The comic books, however, did not carry the accent trait over, as Roy spoke in a standard English dialect in his one major Nintendo Comics System appearance. Incidentally, in the comics, it was revealed that he had a pet bunny named Pookie, whom he would often beat for Bowser's amusement.
Iggy Koopa
Iggy Koopa, named after punk rocker Iggy Pop, is bespectacled and demented and has a green shell. He's the boss of the Land of Giants in Super Mario Bros. 3, but he faces Mario in the first area of Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island.
In the cartoons, he was called Hop Koopa (Lemmy, his brother, was named Hip, a play on hip hop). There are only two significant differences between Iggy and Hop. One is that Hop has an overbite. The other is that while Iggy is the middle child of the Koopalings, Hop is Hip's twin, and the two of them are the youngest.
The artwork for Super Mario Bros. 3 portrayed Iggy with blue eyes, but later depictions (including Super Mario World and Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga) show him with eyes that are swirls instead, possibly to indicate the thickness of his spectacles.
In the Super Mario Bros. movie, one of King Koopa's cousins is also named Iggy.
Wendy O. Koopa
Wendy O. Koopa is the only female Koopa Kid and is named after Wendy O. Williams, singer for the punk group the Plasmatics. In Super Mario Bros. 3, Wendy conquers the island kingdom of Sea Side. In Super Mario World, however, she is the boss of Chocolate Island.
In the cartoons she was named Kootie Pie Koopa, was apparently sixteen years old, and often whined about everything. There is little physical difference between Wendy and Kootie Pie. The only difference that really stands out is that Kootie Pie's bow is more pointy.
Other than Lemmy, Wendy is the only Koopaling to appear in her own story in the comic books; in "Fins and Roses" she is setting up a trap for Mario when she attracts the attention of Stanley the Talking Fish.
Wendy is one of the first Nintendo characters to distinguish herself as female by wearing a bow on her hairless head, and the first to do so in a game; other characters who wear a bow include Birdo, who wears a similar bow on her head, and Lady Bow from Paper Mario, who wears a smaller bow on each side of her head. Although Birdo appeared first, she only wore her bow in promotional materials, and didn't appear with a bow in a video game until Super Mario Bros. 2 was remade for the SNES compilation Super Mario All-Stars.
Morton Koopa Jr.
Morton Koopa, Jr. is named after Morton Downey, Jr. and appears to be modeled after Paul Stanley of KISS. In both Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, Morton is the boss of the second area — Desert Hill and the Donut Plains, respectively.
In the cartoons he was named Big Mouth Koopa, ostensibly because he was more talk than action. Aptly, in the Super Mario World cartoon, he occasionally served as an announcer. There are a few physical differences between Morton and Big Mouth: Morton's shell is gray and Big Mouth's is purple; Big Mouth has much larger eyes and purple eyelids; and the star-shaped birthmark on Morton's face is darker around the cheek, while it's just one solid color on Big Mouth.
The fact that Morton's name ends in a "Jr." has made some fans wonder if Bowser's actual first name is "Morton" as well. This is not the case. This curious nominal suffix is merely a nod to Morton's namesake, just as the "von" in Ludwig von Koopa is a nod to Beethoven. Any speculation into other possibilities — brown-skinned Morton being adopted into the yellow-skinned Koopa family, for example — has no basis in Nintendo fanon, as Nintendo has never opined on the issue, one way or the other. In fact, the editors of the magazine Nintendo Power once claimed that when they asked Bowser why Morton Koopa was called "Jr.", he responded by pelting them with Bob-ombs.
Larry Koopa
Larry Koopa was named after talk show host Larry King, and is the youngest of the Koopalings. Although Larry is the first boss Mario faces in Super Mario Bros. 3, he shows up in the last stage of Super Mario World, the Valley of Bowser.
In the cartoons, he was named Cheatsy Koopa and was usually scheming up the Koopa's next plan, sometimes with Kooky. A very common animation goof regarding Cheatsy was that his green head was often colored orange or purple, the same color as the rest of his body. There are several physical differences between Larry and Cheatsy: Larry's hair is pointed upwards but Cheaty's hair was flatter and much more untamed; Cheatsy was almost always seen squinting and was given an overbite; and, during the Super Mario World cartoon, his hair was a very light shade of green rather than blue.
In the comic books published by Valiant, he didn't speak English; instead, his dialogue balloons contained various pictures. Only Lemmy was able to understand him.
Bowser Jr.
Bowser Jr. was the main villain in Super Mario Sunshine, in which he used an alter ego known as Shadow Mario (shown to the left) to frame Mario of vandalizing Isle Delfino using his magical brush made by Professor E. Gadd. He has since then appeared in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Power Tennis, Mario Superstar Baseball, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, the last of which inexplicably features his alter ego, Shadow Mario, as well.
In Super Mario Sunshine and Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Bowser Jr. was shown as covering his face with a drawing of Mario's distinctive nose and moustache (as pictured), presumably for his role as Shadow Mario. In future appearances however, this is replaced with a drawing of a set of fangs, which he can wear over his mouth — as it is in Mario Power Tennis — but is often shown as hanging loosely from his neck — as in Mario Kart: Double Dash and Mario Superstar Baseball. He only has two small fangs at the top of his mouth, and presumably he can use these images of fangs, when needed, to make himself look more menacing, and more like his dad.
Bowser Jr. is often confused with Baby Bowser who appears in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Story. This character, however, is the infant form of Bowser, rather than a child of his.
Other characters that seem to be similar to Bowser Jr. have appeared in several of the Mario Party games under the names "Mini Bowser," "Baby Bowser", "Koopa Kid" and "Bowser's Cohort." However, these games, created by Hudson Soft, don't follow the plotline of other Mario games, and the Bowser-related characters have larger horns.
Bowser Jr. has yet to appear in a game with any of his siblings, such as Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. Therefore, some have theorized that he is a young Ludwig, who remains unnamed so that he would not seem like a "favored" Koopaling. However, the scene in Super Mario Sunshine where FLUDD analyzes Mario shows images of past games, including the fight between Mario and Larry in Super Mario World, which indicates that Sunshine takes place after World, and therefore Bowser Jr. could not be one of the original seven Koopalings.
References
- ^ "Shigeru Miyamoto interview". Mario Mania Player's Guide, Nintendo Power. URL accessed on May, 1991.
- ^ "Theoretical Origin of the Koopalings' Names". Super Mario Bros. Info Station message board post. URL accessed on December 5, 2003.
