Earlier this month, MeTV announced that it would start airing the classic Super Mario Bros. Super Show on its TV and streaming channels. And yesterday, the station began airing the beloved Mario series, but fans quickly noticed that the show has been slopped up and “improved” using AI upscaling.
On March 30, MeTV Toons aired its first episodes of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show. The timing is obvious: There’s a new Mario movie coming out, so why not get people watching MeTV by spending money to license and rebroadcast the classic Mario cartoon-and-live-action hybrid show from the ’80s? Seems reasonable! However, MeTV seems to have decided to run the classic series through some AI upscaler, and the end results have been spread online via some awful-looking screenshots.
The Super Mario Super Show has started airing on MEtv using some kind of AI upscaling ,and the results are as good as you’d expect pic.twitter.com/WrdFbOe2iW
— Super Mario Wiki (@SMWikiOfficial) March 31, 2026
Let’s be clear, the original series wasn’t some incredible production. It featured cheap animation, off-model drawings, and other issues. Still, comparing the original show on YouTube with the AI-upscaled version on MeTV shows that the AI has straight-up changed details and smoothed everything over in a weird, ugly way. It even changed the show’s name in the intro sequence from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show to The Suele Mario Bros. Super Show. Yikes!
You can find more examples online of people sharing screenshots of how bad it all looks, like these screenshots shared by a user in the “Cartoon Research” Facebook group.
“This is why you should never use AI to ‘restore’ a cartoon,” said cartoon fan Matt Hunter. And I have to agree with Matt, because this shit looks bad. It almost looks like MeTV wasn’t given any original tapes or anything like that and just had to AI upscale some YouTube videos instead. Rough stuff.
