This page explains in detail the interactions between the Indiana Jones series and the Mario series.
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode Raiders of the Lost Mushroom[]
November 27, 1989
Indiana Jones
Mario
Super Mario Bros. Super Show Episode 61 - Raiders of the Lost Mushroom & Cyrano de Mario
The full episode.
The forty-ninth episode of the Mario animated series (sixty-first also counting the Zelda episodes) is about Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad, venturing into Jungle Land to find the Lost Mushroom, a legendary artefact capable of granting the wishes of whoever is in possession of it. With the help of treasure hunter Indiana Joe, the four find the Temple of Koopa, where the object is hidden, so they venture inside, but Indiana Joe is not able to do so, due to his fear of Koopas. After the Mario Brothers find the Lost Mushroom, it is stolen by King Koopa's alter-ego Kolonel von Koop, but they manage to get it back also thanks to the help of Indiana Joe, who overcomes his Koopaphobia.
The episode contains many references to the Indiana Jones series, and it was possibly done because of the third movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade being released a few months earlier. References are in detail:
- The title of the episode is clearly based on the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- The Lost Mushroom, instead of being based on the Ark of the Covenant, as the title of the episode would suggest, is based on the golden Chachapoyan Fertility Idol from the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Its power doesn't seem to reference the Indiana Jones series, though.
- Indiana Joe is clearly based on Indiana Jones, having a simila name, being a treasure hunters, wears almost identical clothes and uses a whip. Also, his fear of Koopas is a reference to Indiana Jones being afraid of Snakes. Oddly, Indiana Joe is portrayed not having a face, and this may be a reference to the first scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones' face is not seen for a while. Indiana Joe's eyes can only be seen for a brief moment in the episode's last scenes, souggesting he actually has them covered most of the time.
- The Temple of Koopa may be a reference to the Temple of Doom, from the second Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, both being undergound temples.
- Kolonel von Koop is likely a reference to Indiana Jones' villains being Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark, doe to his german-sounding name and both him and his henchmen wearing an armband similar to the one worn by Nazis, only with King Koopa's "K" instead of a swastika. The rest of his clothes however don't seem to directly reference the Indiana Jones series.
License[]
DiC, that created the Mario TV show, holds no right over LusasFilm's Indiana Jones, in fact they only parodied the movies, while never directly referencing them.