Captain N: The Game Master - Movie Edition (Now released!)

"Captain N: The Game Master", an NBC Saturday morning cartoon series that ran from 1989 to 1992, is one of my fondest childhood memories. I was with it since almost the beginning. Sometime in season 1, anyway. I started the Captain N Internet fandom on February 27, 1997, when my site, The Unofficial Captain N Home Page, went online. It's still up, but I'll have to find a new host. It's been on Tripod since 1998, but they've screwed up their interface, so it's unuseable for me.

Anyway, the DVD set came out on February 27, 2007, the exact 10th anniversary of my site. Actually, the DVD set, while called The Complete Series, actually contained only the first two seasons. Season 3 was released separately.

There are too many issues to get into with the DVD sets and the history of the series. I'll gladly provide more details if anyone's interested.

For now, suffice it to say there were many permutations and alterations to the episodes, mostly due to later syndicated airings but also sometimes even in the NBC airings. It sometimes gives me headaches trying to document all of these little oddities.

Anyway, I'd been thinking for a while that it'd be fun (and fitting) to do a fan edit of Captain N, but I'd been stuck on how to approach it. However, this afternoon, inspiration hit, and I worked out the details while daydreaming at work (it's okay, I work in retail).

Seasons 1 and 2 consist of 13 episodes each (Season 2 has an odd clips episode in addition, but it's not on the DVD set). Season 3 has 7 original episodes (which are half-length) and filled the other 6 weeks with repeats of older episodes. That comes to a total of 33 unique story episodes.

All three seasons were animated by a different company. Season 3's animation is very subpar.

The main premise of the series is a 15-year-old Valley kid named Kevin Keene is brought to another universe called Videoland in fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. He becomes Captain N and fights with the N Team against the villainous Mother Brain and her minions.

There are numerous problems with the series, but the main ones are character inaccuracies, poor quality control, a ton of slapstick humor, idiot plots, and just a general feeling that the war isn't that big of a deal (the N Team spends an awful lot of time watching TV or playing sports).

What I aim to do is create a feature-length film that focuses on the war. The big stuff is what matters, meaning episodes where Mother Brain starts trouble somewhere (but it's contained to one world), merely wants to destroy Captain N, or just doesn't appear at all (the N Team had quite a few random side adventures) will be cut.

I narrowed the list down to seven episodes from season 1, two episodes from season 2, and one episode from season 3.

Then I started thinking about it more. The only notable things regarding the war that happen in season 2 is the N Team gets a new member called Gameboy (he's annoying), and Princess Lana meets up with her missing (and previously unmentioned) brother, Prince Lyle, who had run off two years earlier. It seems he might take his rightful place as ruler of Videoland, but he ultimately doesn't.

Season 3 is mostly random side adventures. Mother Brain appears in only one episode, where she's seemingly defeated (or at least you can assume so). Game Boy barely appears in it, so I thought I can cut the two season 2 episodes and the shots of him from the season 3 episode.

Then I thought I'd remove the season 3 episode entirely (the animation style is so different that it'd be distracting) and turn one of the season 1 episodes into Mother Brain's defeat.

Then I thought I was keeping one on the season 1 episodes only because they find Lana's missing father, King Charles (they fail to rescue him), and he's the one that sends them Gameboy in season 2. If Gameboy is gone, I can remove that season 1 episode (which doesn't include Mother Brain).

Then I thought I can alter one of Lana's lines in the pilot episode. Instead of saying her father disappeared, she breaks down and sobs (just copy the audio from earlier in the episode).

The king is dead. Princess Lana is an only child and, now, an orphan.

Season 1 of Captain N as a feature-length film. Let the games begin!

holy crap dude! i loved Capn N! though clearly not as much as you (i can give you a complete dissection of M.A.S.K. though). i hope your project goes to fuition because you've got my nostalgia excitement peaked.
plus, there aren't nearly enough cartoon/animated edits on here.

I just hope that you can address the fact that, well, Megaman isn't blue. Other than that, good luck on your project.

EmilBorg said:

I just hope that you can address the fact that, well, Megaman isn't blue. Other than that, good luck on your project.

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No can do, unfortunately. Heck, in the pilot episode, Kevin immediately recognizes Simon Belmont, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus, despite the fact that they look nothing like their game counterparts.

It's my theory that the games on Kevin's Earth are different than our games, and the characters really do appear like that in his games. There's lots of evidence in the series to support this theory.

The episode "How's Bayou" shows Kevin, on Earth, playing an obviously-made-up version of "The Adventures of Bayou Billy", where Billy looks like he does in the episode.

Also, Kevin makes mention in another episode of an area of Castlevania called the Forest of Forgetfulness (which doesn't exist in our game).

Back in the pilot episode, Kevin indicates he'd played a game that involved the N Team having to go to Metroid to rescue Lana (which seemingly indicates there's a "Videoland" game on his Earth).

Later in the episode, when they're on the jungle world of Kongoland, Kevin says "I've played 'Donkey Kong' enough times to know what I'm doing. Trust me." However, in "Videolympics", Kevin is practicing in a life-sized "Donkey Kong" simulator (with himself in Mario's role and Lana in Pauline's role), and it's laid out just like the arcade game (these episodes were written by the same writer).

That doesn't explain, however, why King Hippo is blue in Videoland but peach-colored in the "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!" footage that Kevin is shown playing in the pilot episode. Yeah, peach-colored, not yellow. It seems they animated the game footage instead of using the actual game footage (the stats also disappear from the screen in one shot).

baileym43 said:

holy crap dude! i loved Capn N! though clearly not as much as you (i can give you a complete dissection of M.A.S.K. though). i hope your project goes to fuition because you've got my nostalgia excitement peaked.

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Thanks! I'm glad that someone is interested in seeing this edit!

As I said previously, there are only two season 2 episodes with universe-spanning implications:

Gameboy - King Charles sends the N Team a new member, a supercomputer called Gameboy. He's kidnapped, brought to Mother Brain, and reprogrammed. With help from Kevin's dog, Gameboy saves the day and is welcomed by Lana to the N Team.

The Trouble with Tetris - The N Team is out, playing a game in space, when their ship is pulled down to the cube-shaped world of Tetris by a powerful force, the Sacred Square. They meet up with Lana's brother, Prince Lyle, who's a Keeper of the Square (he sits around in the Chamber of Tetris on "guard duty"). Lyle decides he wants to rule Videoland, which concerns Lana. Mother Brain goes to Tetris to get the Sacred Square, so she can use it to conquer Videoland. After a period of arrogance, self-doubt, and finding his purpose, Lyle saves the day at the last second, and Mother Brain leaves Tetris empty-handed. Lana offers to co-rule Videoland together with Lyle, but Lyle declines and prefers to remain on Tetris as its protector.

There was only one season 3 episode involving Mother Brain, a stupid 10-minute story called "Battle of the Baseball Know-It-Alls", which involves Bo Jackson and evil, sentient, anthropomorphic baseball equipment. Mother Brain sends Bo and most of the N Team into the Cellar (where the "bad equipment" is locked up). She takes Lana to the Palace of Power and enslaves her. Eggplant Wizard declares Mother Brain is now Queen, even though she's shown only having gotten into the palace, and only the narrator states that she's bringing Videoland to its knees (right before it shows Eggplant Wizard training Lana to scrub the floor with a toothbrush). Lana (with zero help from Gameboy, who doesn't even talk) frees the N Team and sends Mother Brain and her minions into the Cellar. It's my theory that Lana would then, logically, close the warp and trap them there. That's what I prefer to think, since this is Mother Brain's final appearance and the closest thing to a resolution that we got.

As I mentioned previously, I'm removing the seasons 2 and 3 episodes from this edit (yes, that means even the popular Zelda episodes are gone) and focusing entirely on season 1, which was entirely written by Jeffrey Scott, the grandson of Moe Howard of The Three Stooges.

In my next post, I'll detail my choices for episode inclusions and exclusions.

baileym43 said:

plus, there aren't nearly enough cartoon/animated edits on here.

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Agreed!

Okay, here are my thoughts on each season 1 episode as it pertains to this edit. If the edit ends up running shorter than expected (enough room for the edit and trailers), then I might add a non-important episode or two to fill it out. I'm going by Jeffrey Scott's original written order:

Kevin in Videoland - The pilot episode. Kevin Keene is brought to Videoland and becomes Captain N. Gotta include this.

Mr. and Mrs. Mother Brain - Princess Lana invites Mother Brain to the palace to sign a peace treaty. This is soon abandoned as Simon Belmont accidentally shoots himself with a love arrow, falls in love with Mother Brain, and helps her conquer Castlevania. This episode is relevent for only the peace treaty aspect, which at least shows Lana trying SOMETHING to end the war.

How's Bayou - Mother Brain lures Kevin to Bayouland and tries to keep him there. This is just a "defeat Captain N" episode. I'm hesitant to cut it, because it features one of three instances of Lana setting out to save Kevin (she does so in seasons 2 and 3 as well). There's also some nice Lana/Simon interaction. Still, the unfinished, rushed-to-air version of this episode made its way onto the DVD set, and the more-commonly-seen completed version has now been relegated to YouTube. I might use my DVD-R of the NBC airing of version 2 in this edit. Consider it a possible wild-card entry.

Videolympics - Mother Brain challenges the N Team to a series of sporting events - with the throne of Videoland on the line. After getting a hesitant "Well, I guess..." from Lana, Kevin is quick to accept Mother Brain's challenge. A pretty stupid episode (the games themselves are more interesting than the stupid set-up and training scenes), but it's the first part of a two-parter (the only one in the series) where Mother Brain gets a massive power source and starts conquering Videoland. It must be included.

Mega Trouble for Megaland - Part 2 of the series' "epic event". With Mount Icarus conquered, Dr. Wily is in the process of conquering Megaland. The N Team splits up and has adventures on two worlds. Much better than part 1. A highlight of season 1 and a universe-spanning event. Hell, yeah, I'm including this.

Nightmare on Mother Brain's Street - Mother Brain traps the N Team in the sleeping world known as the Nightmare Zone, and she takes over the Palace of Power. One of her allies, the evil sorcerer Malkil, calls her Queen Mother Brain, but she hasn't been shown to have conquered Videoland, just get in the palace. I'm including it anyway.

Three Men and a Dragon - Mother Brain thinks it's a good idea to give another villain, Dragonlord, a hypnotic crystal, so he can amass an army of evil dragons and conquer Dragon's Den. The N Team saves the day. An okay episode with some pretty crappy animation (it's theorized this was the first episode animated), consider it a possible wild-card entry.

Simon the Ape-Man - The Count creates an army of zombies to conquer Castlevania. Meanwhile, Simon gets amnesia while skateboarding on an ironing board (yes, really) and thinks he's various things throughout the episode (including "the N Team hunter", thanks to Mother Brain) before deciding he's Donkey Kong, Jr. He finally defeats the Count and then happens to regain his episode just before the episode ends. Mother Brain and her minions feel tacked-on, and she herself never leaves Metroid, sending King Hippo and Eggplant Wizard to brainwash Simon. A confusing, meandering episode, don't hold high hopes for its inclusion.

Wishful Thinking - Kevin's dog, Duke, finds a genie's lamp in the palace's basement. Despite Lana saying she can use it to free Videoland, this never happens, and the rest of the N Team fights over it before Lana locks it up. Kid Icarus steals it and wishes himself into a giant. Mother Brain sends King Hippo and Eggplant Wizard to steal it, and they use its power to enslave her and conquer Videoland. After some moping, Kid Icarus comes to the rescue and turns everything back to normal. He then frees the genie from servitude. NO ONE AT ANY POINT WISHED FOR MOTHER BRAIN'S DEFEAT OR KING CHARLES' RETURN. An inexcusable episode that even fans won't try very hard to defend, I nonetheless have to include it, because it involves the conquering of Videoland.

The Most Dangerous Game Master - Dr. Wily creates an android duplicate of Mike Vincent, a school bully that used to beat Kevin up on Earth, to destroy Captain N. Despite some plotholes, this is the stand-out best episode of season 1 and an interesting look into Kevin's past. I'm definitely including it if I have enough room.

Metroid Sweet Metroid - Mother Brain fools the N Team into thinking they've defeated her, and Kevin has a chance to go "home". It's all a ruse, of course, and Kevin comes back to free the N Team. Oh, yeah, it's also a "Videoland is conquered" episode. I'm definitely including it, and it's the episode that I want to end the edit on. I wondered how. At first, I thought to turn the ruse into the real thing, and it ends with Kevin going home, but that's a real downer. I've got to find a way to turn it into a real ending. Maybe insert footage from "How's Bayou" of Mother Brain and her minions de-digitizing into nothingness once Kevin warps them back to Metroid.

In Search of the King - Most of the N Team is tricked into trapping themselves in the Mirror World, where Mother Brain had banished Lana's father, King Charles. The episode has a nice, emotional beginning and ending, but the whole Mirror World and mirror-image opposites (evil doppelgangers that live on the other side of the mirror) aspects are very sloppily-handled. I'm cutting the episode, but I might include the opening scene, where Lana talks to a picture of her father about how "all is safe in Videoland" (minus any indication that he might be alive) as a coda to the film.

Happy Birthday, Megaman - Mega Man is depressed on his "birthday", because it reminds him that he's not human. He goes on a quest to find the Warp of Life. A dumb Wizard of Oz rip-off that doesn't feature Mother Brain and has no effect on Mother Brain for the rest of the series. I'm cutting it.

So those are my thoughts on the individual episodes. Cut lists will come as I edit the episodes down.

How did I miss this show? Guess maybe bikes were more important to me than cartoons at that point.

Yeah, I've never heard of this.

TV's Frink said:

Yeah, I've never heard of this.

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Allow me:

i love these write up's too. i find it fun to take a more mature look and reasoning with cartoons that are clearly made for children in a time when crafting cartoons wasn't taken very seriously.
(before the '90's hit and they started getting better attention. Batman TAS, X-Men TAS, Daria, onto Spec Spiderman)
i've often had long conversations with a buddy of mine about how incredibly inept of a terrorist organization Cobra is and how the Joes really do nothing to prevent them from attacking so much as just returning everything to statuesque.
your line here made me really laugh.

a general feeling that the war isn't that big of a deal (the N Team spends an awful lot of time watching TV or playing sports).

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it makes me think of an episode of GIJoe where the Joes were having a Chili Cookoff.
(it was an episode where i really took notice that each character said the name of whomever they were speaking to. a brilliant conscious effort of the writing team to help sell action figures.)

baileym43 said:

i love these write up's too. i find it fun to take a more mature look and reasoning with cartoons that are clearly made for children in a time when crafting cartoons wasn't taken very seriously.
(before the '90's hit and they started getting better attention. Batman TAS, X-Men TAS, Daria, onto Spec Spiderman)
i've often had long conversations with a buddy of mine about how incredibly inept of a terrorist organization Cobra is and how the Joes really do nothing to prevent them from attacking so much as just returning everything to statuesque.
your line here made me really laugh.

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Thanks. You might want to check out the reviews on my site. I reviewed every episode of Captain N (plus the comic books) and Zelda - plus overall reviews for each season and the series as a whole:

http://ldloveszh.tripod.com/reviews.html

EmilBorg said:

I just hope that you can address the fact that, well, Megaman isn't blue. Other than that, good luck on your project.

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I can deal with Mega Man's suit being a slightly different color. But King Hippo from Punch-Out! is supposed to be human, yet he inexplicably has blue skin on this show -- that I can't understand!

Mark, more power to you if you can make something good out of this series! It should have been the video game equivalent of The Avengers but it was truly terrible, IMO. If you can turn it into an epic story, that would be well worth seeing!

And for anyone who thought that The Avengers wasn't a very good team-up story, I dare you to watch several episodes of Captain N and then re-watch The Avengers. That movie is everything that a team-up story SHOULD be!

Love this show. It was cheesy, but it was a lot of fun. If you need volunteers for test screenings, I'm in.

Any way to include the Zelda episodes? Seeing Eggplant Wizard and King Hippo with the Triforce is hysterical. I liked seeing Ganon refuse to be Mother Brain's lackey.

Dethryl said:

Love this show. It was cheesy, but it was a lot of fun. If you need volunteers for test screenings, I'm in.

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Thanks!

Dethryl said:

Any way to include the Zelda episodes? Seeing Eggplant Wizard and King Hippo with the Triforce is hysterical. I liked seeing Ganon refuse to be Mother Brain's lackey.

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No, not with Gameboy being prominently included.

I guess I should update everyone on my progress. After three straight hours of editing, I have cut this thing down to just under 2.5 hours. "Simon the Ape-Man" is out. I've also cut "Wishful Thinking", despite Videoland being conquered (King Hippo and Eggplant Wizard did it, not Mother Brain). The N Team is inexcusably stupid in that episode. I've also hacked large chunks out of "Mr. and Mrs. Mother Brain", "Videolympics", and "Three Men and a Dragon".

I remember this show very fondly, but i always remember tuning in hoping for a zelda episode. Those were so epic. Is my memory fuzzy or didnt they do the zelda episodes in the mario show as well?

Back on topic, interested in what you come up with, on the topic of mega man being the wrong color, you could fix that with color correction. Just a thought

juice4z0 said:

I remember this show very fondly, but i always remember tuning in hoping for a zelda episode. Those were so epic. Is my memory fuzzy or didnt they do the zelda episodes in the mario show as well?

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The Mario show is where the Zelda episodes aired - on Fridays. Captain N had two actual Zelda episodes - plus Link and Zelda appeared in two additional episodes.

juice4z0 said:

Back on topic, interested in what you come up with

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Thanks! I cut "How's Bayou" out. The use of an unfinished episode (with non-sequitars, character-movement mistakes, and missing backgrounds) just isn't worth it, and using the completed version from my DVD-R would still result in an episode where Lana simply gets captured while trying to rescue Kevin, and then she gets unjustifiably pissed at him (seriously, it's a WTF? moment).

I've also done some additional trimming to "Videolympics", "Nightmare on Mother Brain's Street", and "The Most Dangerous Game Master" and got the running time down to less than 2 hours and 11 minutes.

When I came home for lunch today, I spent 15 minutes on this edit. I cut "Three Men and a Dragon" and "The Most Dangerous Game Master". I was sad to lose them (particularly the latter), but 3M&D barely involves Mother Brain (and even King Hippo and Eggplant Wizard are defeated around halfway through), and MDGM is a "destroy Captain N" episode with no larger relevence to the war.

I've got the edit down to just under 1 hour and 40 minutes - still a bit too big. I suspect the running time will decrease as I make the more precise edits.

I'm also debating what to use for ending credits music.

Mark Moore said:

When I came home for lunch today, I spent 15 minutes on this edit. I cut "Three Men and a Dragon" and "The Most Dangerous Game Master". I was sad to lose them (particularly the latter), but 3M&D barely involves Mother Brain (and even King Hippo and Eggplant Wizard are defeated around halfway through), and MDGM is a "destroy Captain N" episode with no larger relevence to the war.

I've got the edit down to just under 1 hour and 40 minutes - still a bit too big. I suspect the running time will decrease as I make the more precise edits.

I'm also debating what to use for ending credits music.

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I suggest using some kind of mashup of videogame music for the ending credits.

EmilBorg said:

I suggest using some kind of mashup of videogame music for the ending credits.

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Yeah, good idea. Maybe a mashup of tunes from the various featured games: Castlevania, Mega Man, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Punch-Out!!, and Wizards and Warriors.

I've been thinking of the order in which to present the episodes. Right now, in the timeline, they're in the order as presented on the DVD set (I've completed editing on "Kevin in Videoland" and "Videolympics" and have gotten part-way through "Mega Trouble for Megaland"). The problem with this order is the "epic event" happens just after Kevin's arrival. After that, we'd have to watch two lesser adventures before the big finale ("Metroid Sweet Metroid").

Let's look at Jeffrey Scott's original written order:

Kevin in Videoland
Mr. and Mrs. Mother Brain
Videolympics
Mega Trouble for Megaland
Nightmare on Mother Brain's Street
Metroid Sweet Metroid

Going by this order, we have high-low-high-low-high in terms of excitement. The biggest problem is Kevin treats the peace treaty in MAMMB as something long-awaited ("We done it, Duke! Peace in Videoland at LAST!"). However, putting this episode second does allow me to correct a continuity error in the pilot:

In "Kevin in Videoland", it's made clear that Mother Brain's minions have been laying siege on the Palace of Power (for the improbably-long time of seven years, but anyway). The palace's shields have been keeping the baddies out (the shields are never seen nor mentioned after this episode, and baddies can enter quite easily). When the Ultimate Warp Zone brings Kevin to Videoland, it drains the palace's power, and the baddies can get in. The N Team has to sneak around to get to a warp outside. The rest of the episode is taken up by adventures in Kongoland and on Metroid. Kevin declares it's "too dangerous" to finish Mother Brain off, and they go back to the palace. No sign of Mother Brain's massive army. It's gone without explanation.

My idea is to insert earlier footage of baddies still surrounding the palace into this spot to make it look like the palace is still under siege when the N Team returns. Then, when Lana invites Mother Brain to the palace to sign the peace treaty in the next episode, we can assume Mother Brain stops the siege.

However, as I said, Kevin seems to be personally excited about the peace treaty as something long-awaited. The episode ends with Mother Brain declaring "You'll pay for this! ALL of you!" While this could be taken as a typical villain threat, moving this episode to just before "Metroid Sweet Metroid" would make Mother Brain's arrest and trial of the N Team in the latter episode as her carrying-out of the threat that she'd made in the former episode.

Any suggestions?

I've gone through four of the six episodes so far. Here's what I've cut:

Kevin in Videoland

*cut episode title; put audio over Captain N series title, which opens the film
*cut Lana's mentions of her father's disappearance and her failure (to make it seem like he's dead)
*cut showdown between Kevin and Eggplant Wizard
*cut fighting among N Team
*cut Simon being unflattened by Mega Man (stupid Looney Tunes physics)

Videolympics

*cut opening scene on Metroid
*cut narrative transition to palace
*cut Kid Icarus' "Nice try, Kevinicus" line (makes no sense; Kevin won)
*cut Kevin suggesting work-out
*cut all training scenes
*cut baddie meeting before games start
*cut score announcement after wrestling match
*cut Mother Brain ordering King Hippo
*cut electric maze dash
*cut King Hippo getting First Sacred Treasure
*cut King Hippo coming back
*cut Mother Brain ordering Eggplant Wizard
*cut Eggplant Wizard getting Second Sacred Treasure
*cut competition montage

Mega Trouble for Megaland

*cut recap of "Videolympics"
*cut opening scene on Metroid
*cut Simon deciding to stay behind
*cut Simon in Kongoland
*cut Lana in Yankee Stadium
*cut Garbage Man

Mr. and Mrs. Mother Brain

*cut episode title; used still image of Palace of Power in its place
*cut target practice
*cut Simon borrowing love arrow
*cut Duke's reaction to room-cleaning
*cut opening of fanfare
*cut Metroid scene
*cut Simon's proposal
*cut all wedding preparations
*cut narration establishing Forest of Forgetfulness
*cut Mount Icarus scene
*cut wedding march
*cut Kid Icarus' two misses