Collection Oddities: Dr. Mario Witch Doctor Commercial Animation Cel

Almost our entire cel collection could be a collection oddity as they're one of a kind and while others might have similar cels, rarely will there be an exact copy. This cel though is rarer than most as it's from a commercial which by nature are short and even when fully animated don't have a lot of artwork available and it's from a commercial that's mostly live action. The animation section where this cel comes from  is on screen for less than a full second!

So here it is in all it's glory:

We don't want to know what Mario's plans for that thermometer are.

This is from the most well remembered of the 3 US Dr. Mario commercials, the Witchdoctor. Which I seem to remember also being a print ad. This is a really well composed shot considering that Mario spends part of his half second screen time squinting his eyes shut while stomping and we had previously bought a very rough sketch from that part of the sequence a year prior to getting this cel. We also have this cel and it's matching animator's sketch available for viewing in our cel gallery.  To check out Mario's brief appearance you can watch the commercial:

For obvious reasons we wouldn't have expected to get any art from such a short sequence let alone 2 sketches and a cel. We're incredibly happy to own such a unqiue piece of Video Game and Commercial History.

If you're interesting in owning your own piece of video game commercial history we currently have several sketches and even a cel from the original 1983 Donkey Kong Cereal Commercial available for sale in our shop.

~Stephanie

Don't forget to stop by our shop: