The History of Nintendo's Mascot Costume Commercials - KCL Productions Collection (1999-2013)

the world of Nintendo commercials is vast wild and most importantly memorable a lot of effort is put into the advertisements of Nintendo games and that results in many unforgettable ads from over the years many of you likely grew up seeing these on TV and one set of ads you probably remember are the ones with mascot costumes introducing the Worx of kcl productions for over a decade they worked with Nintendo to produce engaging entertaining and now iconic commercials for some of their hottest games the company's main focus is producing mascot costumes and they have done so for many franchises and brands these mascots are often used for commercials as is the case with these somehow somewhere Nintendo took interest in the company's work and for years these guys became Nintendo of America's go-to people for commercials they got their start in the late 90s with their Super Smash Bros commercial but their history goes far beyond that in this video I'll be going over all the commercials this company has made in their partnership with Nintendo as well as go into some interesting behind-the-scenes content the company has released over the years while their partnership has slowed in recent years their commercials have certainly left an impact on Nintendo and its fans and are worth paying tribute to with all that said let's get into their first commercial which is arguably their most famous I'm sure if you're watching this video you've at least seen this one the commercial opens with Pikachu Yoshi Mario and Donkey Kong skipping across a sunflower Fiona with the cheerful licensed song happy together by turtles playing in the background went out of nowhere Mario kicks Yoshi in the leg and the Super Smash Bros began [Music] go lucky world of Nintendo this commercial is honestly near-perfect it geniusly showcases the absurdity of these happy Nintendo characters fighting each other and sure it's commonplace now but when smash 64 was released the concept of Yoshi's smashing DK with a hammer made no sense this commercial also shows just how talented the designers at kacl productions were for 1999 or well 1998 standards as this commercial must have started production before the release of the original smash bros these costumes look great and in future Nintendo commercials kcl productions would reuse these guys with little changes as they're so good I'm sure Nintendo was beyond impressed with the work they did with this commercial if there's a reason why when people talk about these commercials this is the one they always bring up it was unlike anything people had seen before and no doubt sold a ton of copies of Smash Bros they did such a great job with this ad it's downright iconic at this point and it was clear this was not the last time we'd be seeing casio productions collaborating with Nintendo here's one I didn't even know existed until I started researching for this video while technically not a first party game banjo tooie got its own KCl commercial one thing I really like about these commercials is that they always advert expectations I mean one second is the Nintendo buddies jumping around flowers and the next it's them beating each other up just to watch the opening of this commercial and you'll see what I mean the commercial starts and you'd think it's for some skydiving place or something but then out of nowhere the famous banjo kazooie from Sonic & Sega all-stars racing comes in and then he gets thrown out of a plane with only his backpack on don't worry though Gazoo he's just chilling out by the pool right under where a banjo jumped out from the plain meaning kazooie knew her friend was about to jump out of a plane and did nothing to save him and buddies okay in the end anyway so it's all good actually let's talk about kazooie she's on screen for no more than three seconds and yet kcal productions took the time to plan design and produced a fully detailed beautifully made costume of the character that goes to show just how dedicated this company is to their job and that's awesome another thing of note is the concept of the commercial itself some do dress the banjo costume jumped out of a plane and other people had to jump alongside them to film it that's insane and it makes for quite the unique commercial and don't worry that shot of him slamming on the ground it was faked the actor was perfectly fine all right here's my favorite set of commercials these guys ever did for Nintendo these are ones like the Smash Bros commercials as I'm sure a lot of you have already seen these before for the US release of Animal Crossing for the Gamecube kco productions produced three different commercials to promote the game now how do you sell a game as unique as Animal Crossing a game about talking to people and fishing and doing chores well they decided the best way to do it would be to parody MTV's the real world over the course of three commercials we get to follow the daily lives of famous Animal Crossing characters Jeff Leslie Kelly and Rob okay these commercials are phenomenal I first watched them probably over a decade ago and they are still hilarious they're full of meta jokes about the game great interactions between the villagers and more why am I always the one organizing the treasure hunts maybe I'd like to sit around blasting techno music all day these are fantastic if you somehow haven't seen these before I totally recommend them you think I'm a chump at the time kcal productions were still just getting started with Nintendo commercials but these have to be my favorite of theirs nice outfit garbage don't oh my gosh Leslie you can't just do Kelly like that also Tom Nook even shows up he doesn't speak and only shows up for a few clips but they made a costume for him I also love the clips of the characters interacting with no dialogue these are so funny they clearly had a ton of fun with these and it all paid off can we get a full Animal Crossing TV show like this please okay this next commercial is a little intense for a Mario Kart Super circuit they made one of the most brutal Mario commercials I've ever seen it stars Mario a slightly revised DK costume as well as newcomer toad as they race over the course of the commercial one by one the three racers get eliminated Donkey Kong is the first to go with a pre placed banana spinning him out and then uh yeah that happens but watch out Mario and the gang aren't alone there's a car chasing behind them and it launches a blue shell wiping toad out poor toad he made his kc own de beauté here and now he's dead and when I say that I mean he's totally actually dead now just watch [Music] that just leaves Mario but he doesn't last long as the car rams into him sending him into orbit who could possibly be behind all of this destruction it turns out it's just for kids playing Mario Kart Super circuit only for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance understandable this commercial has a lot of weird things going on in it not only is it very uncanny not just because of its use of mascot costumes but the scenes after DK and toad wipeouts could totally scare a little kid this is one commercial I'm sure stuck in the mind some many who saw it on TV when they were younger one last thing to note about this commercial is that several cuts of it exist is the highest quality one is this 45 second extended cut but 30 and even 15 second cuts of it also exist which mostly cut out the more extreme content commercial like that let's take a load off and take a well-deserved vacation while the original Super Mario World was released way before kcl productions and Nintendo collaborated Super Mario advanced to Super Mario World was able to get its own commercial and they took the dinosaur island vacation theme all the way this commercial parodies vacation getaway adverts and it leads to some pretty incredible visuals like look at this shot let's just analyze what's going on here we've got the rocks the waves crashing on said rocks the sunset in the background clouds rolling across the sky and the center of it all luigi with his super cape phrasing in the air luigi then lets go of the cape symbolizing letting go of all of life's troubles it's a near perfect shot let's be honest it's clear this company cared less about representing the games themselves perfectly and instead focused on making something unique an iconic while still somewhat relating to the games and I mean what other commercial has Mario and Luigi swimming through the water like dolphins yeah you heard me right [Music] Cheers life and never waste oh no not this commercial look it's not the faults of kco productions at all but I have some dark memories with this commercial I'll get into those later though because I gotta say this commercial is pretty great Super Mario Sunshine is a happy summary game and this commercial showcases that perfectly it's got an original catchy song Mario ascends which is a pretty advanced shot by 2002 standards and it highlights the game's eco-friendly nature the Mario costume here is the same one as seen in the Super Smash Bros commercial as though his eyes have been resized to matches design more closely and of course flood has been added to his back the company would end up getting a lot of use out of this specific Mario costume as it's the one they used for a majority of their ads this commercial stands out in the kc o nintendo portfolio as it's one of the most in-depth is they had to write a song for it hire all of these actors who all had to act in unison to get these perfect shots and of course they had to get the shot of mario using floods hover nozzle now this wasn't done through the use of some superpower 2002 water jetpack instead they skillfully used a crane to lift mario off the ground and then added in the water and edited out the crane and editing it looks pretty believable they did a great job and I can't imagine a shot like this was an easy feat back then this is one of kacl's best - mario commercials but unfortunately I have some bad memories with it if any of you watching saw this and immediately shot back in your seat in absolute horror you know exactly what I'm talking about March 16 2008 YouTube superstar the Joey fan uploads a video by the name of scary Mario commercial me being the smart kid I was I clicked on it it opens with one of the most devastating and heartbreaking recounts of a tragedy I have ever read one day when I was checking my email the screen froze then this video appeared Mario I will never look at you the same way again after wiping away your tears from reading such a story as the commercial plays yeah that is some grade a 2008 quality footage if you couldn't have guessed it by now at the end of the commercial there's an edited in jump-scare is the car zombie one you all know it when I was a kid watching that that terrified me to my core I watched it ignored the hypercam logo in the corner as well as the fact that at the end of the video for a full second you could see the end of video screen that used to be on YouTube I ignored all of that and was terrified of this Mario Sunshine commercial for years keep in mind I was pretty young when I saw this but I didn't watch this commercial for years because it genuinely creeped me out and of course it's a hilariously bad edit looking back at it now but at the time it sure got me I'm really glad that for the most part we're out of the age of jump-scares like this I mean sure they still exist and there's always going to be terrifying content you can find online but ok while we're here let me tell you about the only other one that I can remember I can't find the video for the life of me but maybe someone out there also remembers it if there was this video called something like how to get a rainbow puffle in Club Penguin being the Club Penguin superfan I was I just had to watch it this was way before they officially introduced the rainbow puffle and back in the day it was a huge Club Penguin Orban legend and what did she know it it ended with a jump scare I remember it literally said something in the video like ooh come on get close-up look at the screen of really closely come on eight-year-old Pat Mac don't you want to get right up and close for the jump scare I was a very smart kid we're getting off topic though if this commercial well okay at least the non scary version of it is pretty nice it's cheesy its corny but I'm sure they knew that making it if they just wanted to make a fun light-hearted commercial for a fun light-hearted game and they succeeded so the sunshine commercial was all about representing the fun nature of the gainer was based off of for Mario Party for they won in the complete opposite direction but first off here we see the introduction of the Princess Peach costume and she looks really good this is definitely one of their best Nintendo mascots she looks great and holds up well even today as for the commercial itself well yeah this is an accurate depiction of Mario Party I can only imagine being a kid in the early 2000s and seeing an ad that starts with Mario skiing off the roof of some random guys house what an experience that must have been like I mentioned earlier there's a lot of behind the scenes content that's available online for these commercials this Mario Party 4 ad is special because not only do we have images from its production if there's a video uploaded on YouTube by someone who I assume worked on it titled simply Nintendo that shows many bloopers outtakes and general oddities from this ad in particular you can see Luigi kill Yoshi in real time you can see how they fake - Mario skiing off the roof or whatever is going on here I highly recommend you watch this there is some great content here and it's fascinating to see how these commercials came together especially one as amazing as this continuing with the Mario Party theme they also made an ad for Mario Party 6 in 2004 this one focuses on a group of kids abusing Bowser enjoy alright so this one's really good we've got a mother and daughter ready to cross the street right next to them Yoshi is the girl comments on how Yoshi is cute the mother unlocks her car the Yoshi is and throws an egg at the car instantly destroying it and that's it that's the whole commercial I mean if you were given the task of making a commercial for the Game Boy Advance port of a Yoshi game would you not think to do the same so this is the Japanese commercial for Kirby canvas cars for the DS it showcases not only Kirby being a ball but also the rainbow ribbon mechanic as well in a unique and creative fashion it's not the most exciting commercial but I'm sure it enticed to many people to go down to their local store and pick up a copy of touch Kirby now the American commercial well [Music] I say here we see the best of friends Kirby and finger and yes that is its officially given name as they go throughout their day if they apparently spend a lot of time together finger wakes up Kirby if they go for a stroll they go on the swings finger persuades Kirby to go on the rainbow path hey that's something vaguely resembling the game okay I know the finger is supposed to represent you use in the touchscreen to guide Kirby and it's a pretty unique way of showing that but it technically doesn't work because you use a stylus not a finger and on top of that it just looks weird I like this scene where Kirby and finger come across a manhole and instead of just walking around it Kirby's steps on finger to cross over it I gotta say though this is a pretty advanced Kirby mascot costume look at how much movement he's got in his feet it's also impressive that for the opening shot of finger waking Kirby up Kirby has his eyes closed is that some solid attention to detail if this commercial also gave way to wanna kcl productions best behind the scenes images it's an image of the crew posing with their favorite character finger the next few commercials we'll be looking at are based off of Mario sports games namely Mario superstar baseball and Super Mario Strikers Mario superstar baseball made way for three commercials all with different subject matters and characters our first one starts with Bowser using a spiked baseball bat attempting to hit the ball he fails and in a fit of rage tackles the baseball pitching machine I'm really glad that at some point during production the guy inside this Bowser cost you must have been told okay so get this you're in this huge Bowser costume and you gotta slam down on this pitching machine got it well I'm sure they did it cuz they did a great job with it with that said though fear not fans the pitching machine it got its revenge on Bowser in the end the second commercial involves Mario hijacking the baseball stadium organ to do what else play the classic Super Mario Bros theme it's wild kids when he gets Mario superstar bees he then gets hit by a baseball I really like the sound effect they play once Mario regains his composure thanks is the third commercial and in my opinion the best of the lot is best experienced for yourself now that's funny on its own but things get really spicy on an outfield when it's revealed that that was a Luigi's car come on peach what if he doesn't have car insurance anyway Super Mario Strikers also got a commercial and with the game with as much style and energy as this you can only imagine what they did for the commercial for it Mario is here playing a mean game of soccer and in his never-ending quest to reach the goal he just starts tripping and hurting people what a fun Nintendo commercial I do feel like they could have done a little more with this with more characters though they did already have a slam fest commercial two of them so another one wouldn't feel as original now with the only copy of this commercial we have online isn't in the best quality but it's interesting to note that it seems like they're using the older smash 64 mascot suit of Mario with the smaller eyes that's probably because they were using both of them at the same time as the larger eyed one is in the baseball commercial and both commercials were likely made around the same time given the game's release dates after those two games commercials kcl productions took a bit of a break from Nintendo likely due to Nintendo's uh distinct advertising tactics with the Wii it's too bad as I'm sure they could have done some excellent ads given what they had to work with but in any case they came back for Mario sports mix and they came back with a bang no Mario mascot costumes were used here instead we got brand new costumes based off of meze these commercials are a parody of sports commentator shows with our two hosts being these to me characters Mario Princess Peach we got quite a bit of content from these guys from TV spots to a 10-minute interview with Mario himself well it's truly a rare and special occasion when you get the chance to sit down with a modern-day legend and an even rarer one when he agrees to answer questions no holds barred our own Michael got the chance did she just say Michael as in Michael but a me that's his name Michael kcl productions even a decade after the smash bros commercial you're still killing it this interview with Mario is some quality stuff it's similar to those meet Mario and Luigi in person events Nintendo has Tendo and why Charles Martin a voices a CGI Mario answering various questions relating to the game I highly recommend you watch this interview it's a little long but it's full of some great moments we've got Mario making fun of Luigi on two occasions so how then did this amazing game with four sports and all these stars come together ah the hardest part was to get all of these all-stars on a board some they were easy dude he's always a hanging around giving me advice and the Luigi well he's in my bro he's got nothing to do and he was up for it if the reveal that Wario of all people is enticed by a mad game of dodgeball he's crazy but once imma mention it was not just a volleyball basketball and hockey but also the Dodger ball he was always sad in fact I think he said I'll do it have a rotten day something like and more unfortunately though our Casio Nintendo story is almost coming to an end Mario sports mix was released in 2010 and after that it wouldn't be until 2013 or Nintendo finally commissioned them to make one more costume what was it well for a Super Mario 3d World commercial if they made a cat Peach fur suit that's it that's the final costume that's a little underwhelming don't you think I guess it's cuz during the Wii U Nintendo was going pretty soft with their advertisements so stuff like this was no longer wanted with the switch bringing back a more edgy Nintendo I hope we see a return of them someday it would be awesome to see another creative commercial by them using these nostalgic costumes unfortunately though it seems like two Nintendo at least the works of kcl productions aren't seen as needed or even desired anymore take this recent Mario Tennis ASIS commercial for example with the advancements in CGI technology and given how much of a budget these Nintendo ads must have why would they use cheaper costumes to represent the characters when they could make it seem like the actual characters are there I think these mascot costume commercials have a lot more charm than stuff like this but I can see why Nintendo would want commercials like this as opposed to this still though maybe for some sort of throwback commercial we'll see the return of these guys while some of you may see these commercials as just funny wacky advertisements there really is an art to all of this designers had to work together to accurately create mascot costumes that not only look good but aligned with what I'm sure we're very strict guidelines set by Nintendo kcl productions take a lot of pride in their work as over the years they have shared many looks into their creative process these include original design drawings for the mascots which were drawn in a one-to-one scale with how big they'd be as well as early rough passes of the mascots themselves and of course various fun onset images for example here's an image of Toad before being brutally injured here's an image of the smash 64 cast truly being so happy together funny given what we all know happens in that commercial same for this image of the Mario Party forecast if they've also posted some images of the costumes in mid production here's some images of the toad costume while we was still being finalized Animal Crossing had to be a set of ads they were most proud of as they released tons of behind-the-scenes images for it these include lots of cool on set images we get a clearer look of Tom Nook and here are some images of the cast partially in their costumes Kelly where are your arms here's a really interesting image showcasing early tests of the Leslie and Jeff costumes Leslie's outfit is all white if their face proportions are different and Jeff's horns are more rounded than on the final costume interesting stuff it's really cool they'd release all of these for the public to see I wouldn't have been nearly as interested in these commercials if I had never seen the development process you can find all of these images and more on Ocasio productions website and YouTube channel I got to give a huge thank you to all the people who have helped preserve these commercials and of course to kcl productions for well making the commercials as well as uploading all the information I use to make this video all of my sources including links to the full commercials themselves can be found in the description I'm sure many people are nostalgic for these commercials and have fond memories of being mesmerized by them on TV and it's great we can still appreciate them long after their initial run with these ads Nintendo set out to find a team who could create iconic commercials and with kcl productions they absolutely succeeded how they tossed the dice it had to be the only one for me is you and you for me so happy together [Music]

Channel: PatMac

Views: 373,270

Rating: 4.9523292 out of 5

Keywords: Nintendo, Commercials, Costumes, Super Mario, Kids, Toy, Luigi, Pikachu, Kirby, Banjo Kazooie, 90s, Educational, Mascot Costumes

Id: aK03V5RKqIk

Length: 24min 6sec (1446 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 28 2018