A History of the World Cup in Mascots

World Cup fever is taking hold. The sticker album is being filled up. Newspapers are being scoured for squad news. Previews are being read mercilessly and videos of previous World Cups being watched religiously.

32 teams will compete in Brazil for the right to call themselves World Champions and be added to the list of World Cup legends. Names like Pele, Cruyff, Maradona and Ronaldo have become synonymous with the World Cup competition.

There is another list however that receives less fanfare though they have been a mainstay of the World Cup for nearly fifty years. They are the mascots. Sometimes loved, sometimes loathed or ridiculed. Invented by the English. Here follows a list of all the World Cup mascots from 1966 to the present day.

1966 England – World Cup Willie

The original and the yardstick by which all future mascots would be judged. When Willie was first created in 1965, a behemoth was unleashed on the world.

A whole new world of merchandising was opened up to the World Cup. Mugs, key-rings, tea towels, t-shirts. You name it, Willie’s face was put on it.

Willie was used to advertise a wide array of products, he was put in comics. He even had his own single, performed by Lonnie Donegan (a Scotsman of all things), reminding us ‘We all know his name.’ Oh, we most certainly do.

Did he inspire his team to glory? All the way to World Cup victory. We all know what happened in the final. Fitting that the first World Cup mascot should be the first World Cup winning mascot in the home of football.

1970 Mexico – Juanito

After the massive success of World Cup Willie it was always going to be a hard act for Mexico to come up with something to match his brilliance. So, what did they come up with? A slightly podgy kid in a sombrero. Underwhelming doesn’t cover it. At least Mexico wouldn’t have to wait too long to get another crack at it.

Did he inspire his team to glory? Not quite. Mexico made it to the quarter finals before being thumped 4-1 by Italy.

1974 West Germany – Tip and Tap

The Germans were doing tippy-tappy football before that was even a thing. Tip and Tap are the first dual mascots. They look rather like an adolescent Laurel and Hardy but unfortunately couldn’t afford a proper size shirt between them. Tip and Tap followed on from Juanito in having an exposed mid-riff. Must be a 70’s thing.

Did they inspire their team to glory? Against all odds, Tip and Tap became the second World Cup winning mascots when West Germany upset the ‘Total Football’ of Holland to win their second World Cup.

1978 Argentina – Gauchito

A boy in a cowboy hat carrying what looks like a riding whip kicking a football. The classic image of Argentina.

There’s not much to say about Gauchito other than to note he was the last human World Cup mascot.

Did he inspire his team to glory? Amid all the usual accusations of skulduggery that plague the Argentinean national team, Argentina did win the 1978 World Cup defeating the unfortunate Dutch 3-1 after extra time.

1982 Spain – Naranjito

It’s an orange. They grow oranges in Spain. So, it’s a Spanish orange with a face. It’s not a reject Letterland character like you thought and is the only fruit to have represented his country in a World Cup.

Did he inspire his team to glory? Not quite. The unusual nature of Spain 82 meant Spain played five games but only won 1 match and were even beaten by Northern Ireland. Arguably, Naranjito is the least successful of all the World Cup mascots.

1986 Mexico – Pique

After a rather lacklustre attempt in 1970 with Juanito, Mexico were given a second attempt in 1986.

This time they came up with a good one when they revealed Pique, a green Mexican bandit chilli complete with comical moustache. I like him.

Did he inspire his team to glory? Probably Mexico’s best performance in a World Cup when they got to the quarter finals but were eliminated on penalties by (who else?) West Germany. A few more chillies in their diet and who knows what could have happened.

1990 Italy – Ciao

Think of weird mascots and this is the one that comes most immediately to mind. Ciao is not a mascot. Ciao is the early sketches of a mascot but then the designer thought to himself ‘I can’t be arsed with this, I’ve got a risotto to cook. This will do.’

Maybe it’s apt that what is regarded as the most lacklustre World Cup tournament should have the most half-cocked mascot.

Did ‘it’ inspire its team to glory? While opposition teams were struggling to understand what Ciao was meant to be, Italy roared to the semi-finals but unfortunately Argentina recovered their senses in time to eliminate them on penalties. Italy would go on to claim third-place however after beating England.

1994 USA – Stryker

For the first World Cup to be held in a country that had always regarded ‘soccer’ with an air of suspicion, USA 94 sold itself on the image of a character who looked like he was straight out of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

The first animal mascot since Willie, it is perhaps not surprising it took until the World Cup hit America for someone to truly re-realise the marketing potential of a mascot. The on field action might have sold the game to the public at large but Stryker sold it to the kids.

Did he inspire his team to glory? Expectations weren’t high for the USA but qualifying from a tough group and a narrow defeat by Brazil in the second round weren’t a bad return for the old dog.

1998 France – Footix

Footix is a French Cock.

Childish giggles out of the way, Footix is probably the best mascot since World Cup Willie from what some would consider to be the best ever World Cup tournament.

Stryker laid the ground work four years earlier, Footix perfected it. Footix put his face on everything and was a massive success for the French marketing team.

Did he inspire his team to glory? Footix became the fourth World Cup winning mascot when France beat Brazil 3-0 in the final. Rumours that Footix nobbled Ronaldo before the final are vigorously denied.

2002 Japan & South Korea – The Spheriks (Ato, Kaz and Nik)

One World Cup. Two hosts. Three mascots.

For the first World Cup in Asia, the mascots chosen were to invoke images of the manga/anime style that the region has become known.

Unfortunately, they look more like Pokemon rejects. The tournament was a great success. The mascots, not so much.

Did they inspire their teams to glory? The Spheriks, as they are collectively known, were only able to take Japan to the second round but had more success with South Korea who made it to the semi-finals and a creditable fourth place. Ato, I choose you!

Germany 2006 – Goleo VI

Germany were given another crack at a World Cup mascot, so what did they do? They tried to steal Willie and make him German. After all, that is the German way.

The interesting thing about Goleo is the ‘VI’ in his name, which begs the question: what happened to the other five?

Did he inspire his team to glory? An imitator will never be as good as the original and so it proved as Germany fell at the semi-final stage. Third place isn’t bad but it’s no World Cup Willie success.

South Africa 2010 – Zakumi

Zakumi has a special status, as indeed does the 2010 World Cup. For this wasn’t just the South African World Cup, this was the World Cup for all of Africa.

So it was that the green haired Leopard had the hopes of a whole continent heaped upon him.

Did he inspire his team(s) to glory? Depends how you look at it. If you take him as solely representing South Africa, he would be an abject failure as they became the first hosts to exit in the first round. But if you take him as representing all of Africa, you’d point to Ghana who were robbed of a place in the semi-finals by that great model of sportsmanship, Luis Suarez.

Brazil 2014 – Fuleco

I know little about armadillos. There, I said it. Mock me with your superior armadillo knowledge if you must but that’s the truth of it.

I remember an old Harry Enfield Dime bar advert and I have found out recently they are an endangered species but that’s about it.

Fuleco reminds me a little of Sonic the Hedgehog with his ‘tude. And that’s cool.

 Will he inspire his team to glory? It remains to be seen but signs are good with Brazil’s impressive victory in last year’s Confederations Cup and maybe Fuleco will add his name to the list of World Cup winning mascots rather than being relegated to the dustbins of history along with Juanito, Gauchito and Ciao.

A special mention should be given to Bulldog Bobby. He wasn’t a mascot for a whole World Cup but he was the mascot for England’s 1982 World Cup side who went out in the second group phase.

Always finish on a song, so here’s World Cup Willy:

Having done a couple video game movie reviews, now for something similar but different. A movie about video games.

The Wizard is not a movie however. The Wizard is a 90 minute Nintendo commercial showing off all their wares. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), their games, peripherals (we’ll get to one in particular later on), magazines and the Nintendo hotline (a gaming advice phone number) are all present. Nintendo were going to use this opportunity to the fullest.

Movies about people playing video games are a rarity and probably with good reason. Video games are an insular activity generally played at home, usually alone.  In movie terms, getting the last hit on the final boss is not as cinematic as the spiralling pass for the match winning touchdown.

Nintendo had a trick up their sleeve though, for 1990 was the year they held the Nintendo World Championships at Universal Studios in California (the films other major sponsor). As you would imagine, the aim was to find the world’s best Nintendo player (who lived in America). Special Nintendo World Championship NES game cartridges were given to some of the contestants who took part. These cartridges are extremely valuable for retro collectors and have sold for as much as $100,000.

Compared to its rivals in the video game industry, Nintendo has a far cuddlier, family friendly image. Cutesy even. With that in mind, The Wizard starts with 8 year old Jimmy who has been put in a mental institution following the death of his twin sister who drowned two years previously and his parents have now divorced. The only word he seems able to say is ‘California’.

His elder brother, Corey (played by Fred Savage from The Wonder Years) busts him out of the institution and they plan to run away. Unfortunately, they don’t have any money and it’s at the bus station where they meet Hayley, another young runaway. They discover Jimmy’s natural talent for video games and Hayley tells them about the ‘Video Games Armageddon’ event taking place in, you guessed it…California! What an amazing coincidence.

Jimmy’s mum hires a bounty hunter to find the boys and bring them back. The father (Beau Bridges) isn’t happy about this and sets off with his other son, Nick (Christian Slater) to find them himself. As you would for any long road trip, Nick remembers to pack his NES and all his games. This leads to the father-son bonding over video games we’ve all experienced in our lives.

They also get into comedic scrapes with the bounty hunter as they try to sabotage the others attempts to find the boys. Dog the Bounty Hunter he ain’t.

Meanwhile, the children are making their way across the country earning money by beating truckers and businessmen at various arcade machine games (Nintendo ones obviously, sorry Sega). Then they meet Lucas leading to what is possibly the most remembered thing in the whole movie: the Power Glove. And it’s bad. So bad.

Many people think motion control is a new innovation but actually Nintendo were developing it back in the 80’s. The Wizard might be the only place you ever see the power glove actually work but it shows even back then Nintendo were innovating with new things.

After a demonstration of Lucas’s skills with the glove, the trio realise they might have bitten off more they can chew. And Lucas likes his Power Glove, he really likes it.

Anyway, after a few mishaps including a near escape from the bounty hunter, the kids eventually make it to California and enter the tournament. And who should they see there but Lucas, unfortunately he is sans glove.

After playing through some Nintendo games, Jimmy wins through to the final. Before that takes place there is time for a quick tour of Universal Studios courtesy of being chased by the bounty hunter. Jimmy eventually makes it back in time for the final where he will be facing, of course, Lucas. There’s a girl there as well, who may well have had a name but she obviously wasn’t going to win so she doesn’t really need one.

There’s a twist though, they’ll be playing a new game. One never seen before. Not just any game though, this is Super Mario Bros. 3. This was actually quite a big deal. Nintendo had been very tight-lipped about their next Mario game and being the pre-internet age, this was as much a surprise for the audience as it was for the characters in the film. And there it was, Mario in all his raccoon-suit wearing glory.

All of Jimmy’s family, including his mother, have now arrived in the audience and are there to shout out advice on a game they’ve never seen before. Which is probably the most accurate thing in the whole film.

In the end, Jimmy comes from behind to beat Lucas and win the $50,000 prize. Lucas was playing with a handicap though, using those antiquated controllers. If he’d had his Power Glove he blatantly would have won.

Jimmy then goes to celebrate with his now reunited family. Nintendo, bringing broken families back together for 25 years.

The Wizard isn’t an especially bad movie, it’s very much your standard family film of the period but the proliferation of Nintendo products throughout is a distraction. Product placement in films is one thing but The Wizard takes it to another level.

It’s also interesting to see for the then rising stars of Christian Slater and Fred Savage. Though if you ever saw an episode of The Wonder Years, you know what you’re getting from Savage.

Now I’m going to look on ebay for a Power Glove. It’s so bad.

Trailer:

The Power Glove:

Bad Movie Appreciation Society: Super Mario Bros.

The recent death of Bob Hoskins got me thinking about some of the great films he’s been in and how I should write an article about one of them as a tribute. Then I wrote one about Super Mario Bros. instead.

Bob Hoskins is perhaps not the most well-known actor but he was still a fine one. He does a great job in Hook (along with Dustin Hoffman in an otherwise mediocre flick) and a does a great turn as a mobster in The Long Good Friday. There’s also a film he was in with an animated rabbit.

Unfortunately for him though, this blog is about bad movies so…

Everyone knows and loves Mario don’t they? The most recognisable face in all of video games, Mario has been around over 30 years, first appearing in 1981 arcade game, Donkey Kong, then known simply as ‘Jumpman.’ Two years later, now with his Mario moniker, he now had his own game titled Mario Bros appearing alongside his brother Luigi. When the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was released in America in 1985, Super Mario Bros was one of the pack in titles. The rest as they say is history.

Mario has been the face of Nintendo and they have certainly milked every nickel and dime they can get from him. As well as his core platform games, there’s Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Dr. Mario (a puzzle game), Mario Strikers, Mario Paint and about 1000 others. Mario is so prominent in Nintendo video games you sometimes have to wonder if he’s only been put in as Nintendo don’t think a game will sell without him.

So perhaps it was inevitable, that eventually someone in Hollywood would want a piece of the Mario pie. And in 1993, they eventually did.

It’s generally accepted that video games to movies don’t work but to be fair to the producers on this one, there weren’t many examples around at the time to really make that judgement. Plus Mario had a popular TV series on at the time, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, combining cartoon and live action segments that is still fondly remembered to this day.

Mario was ripe to sell to family audiences with its lovable characters, great music and bright, vivid world’s. So the obvious thing to do is remove all those elements on the film.

The plot of the movie is that there’s an alternate dimension where dinosaurs did not die but instead evolved into people not too dissimilar to humans just with dinosaur rather than mammal dna. King Koopa (played by Dennis Hopper. Koopa is actually the name of the villain in the TV series, in the games he’s known as Bowser) wants to take over both dimensions by merging them using a portal two plumbers from Brooklyn, Mario (Hoskins) and Luigi (John Leguizamo) , accidentally fall through. His plan is then to devolve all the humans on earth back to their primate state using his devolving ray.

Then there’s a sub-plot with Daisy, who is actually a princess of the alternate dimension but has no memory of this as she was sent through the portal by her mother to keep her safe when Koopa seized power and turned her father into a giant fungus. And as every Mario fan knows, when Daisy’s around she’s going to get kidnapped and it’s up to the brothers to rescue her.

 The alternate dimension is your standard dystopian vision right down to the seedy nightclub. Obviously, it’s patrolled by Koopa’s personal police force, the Koopa Troopers. Amongst these are the Goombas. Not the angry little mushroom things from the game, these are giant hulking lizard creatures but with ridiculously tiny heads. And when Mario Bros. are trapped in an elevator with these behemoths, what’s the best way to escape them? Why, make them dance of course.

Mario and Luigi are helped in their quest to save the world by the fungus that grows throughout the world, that we come to assume is controlled by Daisy’s father. It’s always been a curious thing in the Mario world that magic mushrooms are always a positive thing. It’s almost amazing that more of a fuss hasn’t been kicked up about it.

And if a story like that doesn’t win an Oscar, there is no justice in this world.

There are some good things in this movie, like when we learn Mario’s full name is Mario Mario (obvious really, when you think about it). And then there’s er... and erm…what about…hmm.

To give the last word on this, we turn to the man who inspired this review, the late Bob Hoskins. When asked in an interview three questions, ‘What is the worst film you’ve ever done?’, ‘What is your biggest disappointment?’ and ‘If you could edit your past, what would you change?’ his answer to all three was simply, ‘Super Mario Bros.’