Count Koopula

This article is about The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode named "Count Koopula". For the alter ego that King Koopa uses in this episode, see King Koopa's alter egos § Count Koopula. For the VHS of the same name, see The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!: Count Koopula.

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode
"Count Koopula"
Production number	114
Episode	15
Airdate	September 27, 1989 September 25, 1990[?]
Writer(s)	Phil Harnage
Plumber's Log #	10 - 14 (1014)
King Koopa's alter ego(s)	Count Koopula
Cover song(s)	"Thriller"
Replacement song(s)	"My Karoobi"
Title reference	Count Dracula
Live-action segment	"Magician"
Episode chronology ← Previous "The Fire of Hercufleas" Next → "Pirates of Koopa" List of episodes

“Now will you believe me? Tomato sauce-sucking vampires! Let's get outta here!”

—Luigi

"Count Koopula" is the fifteenth episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! Its corresponding live-action segment is "Magician." This episode is a parody of the story Dracula, with Count Koopula playing the part of the story's titular character and main antagonist, Count Dracula. Additionally, Mousigor is a reference to Igor/Fritz from the Frankenstein series of films, and Turtlevania is a reference to the region of Transylvania, Romania. Finally, Wereturtles are a parody of werewolves.

Plot synopsis

In a dark forest in Turtlevania, Mario, and his friends runs through rain. Princess Toadstool complains about freezing and wonders if she and her friends will find some shelter. Mario tells her not to worry, saying a motel must be nearby.

In the Chateau Koopula, King Koopa, under the alias Count Koopula, glares through a telescope at the approaching heroes. After cackling to himself, he calls Mouser, under the alias "Mousigor," into the room, telling him to prepare some rooms for the Mario and his friends. Koopula then orders a Tweeter Bat on a pole to lure Mario and his friends to his castle.

Under a tree, Luigi tries to convince Mario to share some of his spaghetti, explaining that he had three orders while he only had one. Though initially hesistant, Mario decides to share after some convincing from the Princess. However, just as he gives him the spaghetti, the Tweeter Bat dives down and snatches the box. As the bat begins fly away, Mario jumps and grabs onto the box of spaghetti, with his friends grabbing onto him shortly afterward. However, Mario loses his grip on the box, allowing the Tweeter Bat to fly back to Chateau Koopula with the box.

Following the Tweeter to the castle, Mario and his friends find themselves in front of a door with a demonic-looking door knocker. Luigi says that he will not enter the castle, as there appears to be vampires. Mario scoffs at Luigi's fear, saying that no one believes in vampires anymore, and rings the doorbell. A robed Mousigor opens the door, and Mario asks him for rooms. Mousigor responds that they can stay in the castle, and instructs them to follow him.

As Mario and his friends walk through a hallway, Luigi notices that the paintings have moving eyes. He alerts Mario and the Princess, but is then is shocked to see the paintings have lost their eyes. Mario scoffs at Luigi's beliefs as the group continues down the hallway.

Further down the hall, Mousigor stops at three doors and shows Mario and his friends to their rooms. As Toad inspects his room, a flustered Mousigor calls Toad by his name, prompting him to become suspicious and attack him, tearing away part of his robe. Shoved away, Toad recognizes him as Mouser, only to see him leave the room and lock the door, trapping him inside.

In Mario and Luigi's room, the latter tries to convince the former that there are vampires. Unconvinced, Mario takes a box of ravioli from his overalls, explaining that it is his spare ravioli. A Tweeter Bat suddenly descends from a hole in the ceiling and drains all the tomato sauce from the box. Mario, now convinced that there are vampires, tries to help Luigi open the door, only to find that it is locked.

In Toad's room, he wishes that a nearby gargoyle head on a wall could talk. The head tells him to go away; an insulted Toad lunges at it and knocks away its vase, opening a secret passage. Running down the passage, Toad looks through several holes in the door and sees Mario and Luigi pounding on the door. Calling out to them, Toad pushes the wall forward, telling them that he has found a way to escape.

Following Toad into the secret passage, the two stumble into the Princess's room, telling her that they need to escape. The door is suddenly forced open, revealing Koopula, who announces that dinner is served. Mousigor then appears from the secret passage and taunts Mario and his friends. Panicking, Toad slams the door closed and jumps down a clothes chute, with his friends following, landing in the cellar.

In the cellar, Luigi alerts his friends to some spiders. The Princess grabs a potted Fire Piranha Plant at a window and uses it to blast the spiders away with its fireballs, causing them to scurry away. The Princess puts the Piranha Plant down and pats it as Mario inspects a bottle of tomato sauce on a wooden rack. The Princess alerts her friends that Koopula is having four Koopa Troopas gaze at the moon; as they do, they transform into Wereturtles.

Koopula orders the Wereturtles to capture Mario and his friends, but to not to hurt the Princess. As the Wereturtles head towards the castle, Toad decides to cover the floor with tomato sauce, telling his friends to help him. The Wereturtles burst through the door, only to slip on the puddle of tomato sauce and crash into a rack of tomato sauce bottles, which falls on them.

With the Wereturtles incapacitated, Toad finds a trapdoor. As Luigi worries about going down the stairs, saying that there are spiders, a Wereturtle prepares to attack Mario and his friends, but Toad throws a tomato sauce bottle into its mouth, causing it to choke. Mario and his friends flee through the trapdoor.

As Mario and his friends descend the stairs, they trip and are sent tumbling down, crashing into a tomato sauce factory. Mario and his friends see several zombie Goombas nearby, who are crushing tomatoes on a conveyor belt and depositing them into a vat of tomato sauce. Seeing that they are distracted by their work, Mario and his friends try to sneak by them. However, Mario decides to taste some of the sauce and, after saying that it needs more garlic, accidentally alerts the Goombas to their presence.

Attempting to run from the Goombas, who are throwing tomatoes at them, Mario and his friends find the exit blocked by Koopula and his Wereturtles. Koopula orders his minions to take them to "Count Koopula's Torture Chamber, Wax Museum, and Dungeon of Horrors."

In the room, Mario and his friends are all strapped to various torture devices: Toad is on a stretching rack; Luigi is strapped to a wall while being tickle tortured by a feather, and Mario receives waterboarding. Koopula taunts the Princess, saying that she will soon be a tomato sauce vampire like him. He then drags her up some stairs as she claims that she hates tomatoes.

Mousigor enters the room and taunts Mario; seeing him enter the room, Toad begs him to stop his torture. Taunting Toad, Mousigor begins to spin the wheel on his rack, causing it to stretch him. As he continues to spin the wheel, the crank's pawl breaks loose, causing the wheel to spin rapidly and fling Mousigor backwards into a wall, freeing Toad.

Up in Koopula's chamber, he prepares to turn the Princess into a vampire. Outside, Mario and Toad discuss on how they can defeat Koopula. Toad initially suggests that a stake be driven into his heart, though Mario misinterprets him and believes he means a steak. Toad decides use garlic against Koopula after remembering that the tomato sauce the Goombas were making did not have any. Mario takes some garlic from his overalls and gives some to Luigi and Toad.

Toad, after eating the garlic.

Mario and his friends barge into the room, where Koopula is clutching the Princess. As Mario yells at him to unhand the Princess, Toad pulls the curtains from a window, bathing the room in sunlight and causing Koopula to stumble back into his coffin in pain. As he tumbles forward, Count Koopula runs into Mario and threatens him, only to be hit by his garlic breath. Koopula begins to act insane, stumbling into walls and the ceiling; he then crashes into his own coffin. He then transforms into a large bat and flies out a window, vowing revenge on Mario and his friends. Mario and his friend flee from the castle as it begins to collapse and into the woods.

Mario and his friends leave Turtlevania, which the Princess is glad to be out of. Mario, realizing it is lunch time, pulls a box of cantellini from his overalls and begins to eat as Luigi declares him as the "pasta vampire."

Gallery

• 

  Title card

• 

  Mario eating garlic to make his breath smell like garlic to defeat Count Koopula

• 

  Luigi eating garlic

• 

  Toad eating garlic

Characters

"Count Koopula"

• Mario
• Luigi
• Princess Toadstool
• Toad
• Count Koopula
• Mousigor
• Koopa Troopas
• Wereturtles
• Tweeter Bat
• Spiders
• Magic Piranha Plant
• Goomba zombies
• Talking gargoyle head

Cast

• Lou Albano — Mario
• Danny Wells — Luigi
• Jeannie Elias — Princess Toadstool
• John Stocker — Toad, Mouser, Koopa Troopa #1, Koopa Troopa #2
• Harvey Atkin — Count Koopula, Talking head

Animation and continuity errors

• When Count Koopula instructs the Tweeter Bat to lure Mario and his friends into his clutches, the heavy rain outside the window is missing.
• When the group notices Chateau Koopula in the distance, the large arachnid-like legs jutting out from it are missing.
• When Mario says, "We've got to get that spaghetti back!", his mouth does not move.
• When Mario explains to Luigi about his spare ravioli he brought with him, his teeth are the same color as his skin for a few frames.
• The Tweeter Bat only sucks the tomato sauce out of Mario's spare ravioli, but the ravioli is missing as well.
• When Mousigor shows Mario and his friends to their rooms, the back of his ears has the same design as the front.
• As the spiders crawl into the cellar, they are crawling in midair.
• As the spiders flee the cellar, their animation reverses for a brief moment.
• When the Princess pets the Piranha Plant, it turns red when Mario says, "We gotta find a way outta here."
  • In the same scene, her hand passes through the Piranha Plant.
• When Toad says that all Mario thinks about is food, Mario's fingernails appear on his gloves.
• The Koopa Troopas that transform into Wereturtles have their necks colored green instead of yellow.
  • On a related note, although only four Koopa Troopas morph into Wereturtles, six are shown when the group is confronted by Count Koopula in the basement sauce factory.
• Despite Toad telling the Mario Bros. and Princess Toadstool to pour spaghetti sauce on the Wereturtles, he does it himself.
  • Another contradiction occurs with Luigi, where he says there are cobwebs in the staircase beneath the trapdoor, despite none being present.
• When Toad throws a sauce bottle on a Wereturtle, it is covered with sauce, but in the next shot, the sauce disappears.
• When Mario says that the tomato sauce needs more garlic, the sauce disappears into thin air.
  • Shortly after, some of the Goomba zombies' eyes are white instead of yellow.
• While Mousigor is spinning the crank with Toad, Toad's vest is black.

• 

  Mouser's ears error

• 

  The miscolored Piranha Plant

• 

  Toad's miscolored vest

Profiles

• Mario's Monster Madness VHS and Mario's Greatest Movie Moments DVD: Spaghetti-sauce-sucking fang-face terrorizes Turtlevania.
• Netflix: Mario and Luigi steel themselves for a spooky adventure when Count Koopula makes plans to turn the Princess into a marinara-loving vampire.
• Robokoopa DVD: Mario and Co have entered Turtlevania, and seek refuge in Koopa's castle. There, they learn of Koopa's evil plot to capture Princess and turn her into a vampire. On top of this the place is swarming with monsters!
• Count Koopula VHS: Our heroes are lured into a spooky castle in the Land of Turtlevania where Count Koopula plans to turn the Princess into a spaghetti-sauce-sucking vampire.

Dub edits

• In the French, German, Hebrew, Mario's mentioning that there must be a motel somewhere is changed to a hotel.
  • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, it is instead changed to a hostel.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, he instead merely mentions that there must be a place somewhere.
• In the German dub:
  • The Magic Piranha Plant is simply referred to as a Piranha Plant.
  • When cornering Mario and his friends in the underground tomato sauce factory, the original version has Koopula telling his minions to take them to Count Koopula's Torture Chamber, Wax Museum, and Dungeon of Horrors. In the dub, he also adds that they should then take them to his wax figures and horror cabinet.
• In the Latin American Spanish dub:
  • In the original version, the bottle of tomato sauce Mario inspects is described as marinara sauce. In the dub, it is described as royal blood.
  • In the original version, when Toad suggests that they drive a stake into Koopula's heart, Mario mistakes "stake" as "steak," asking him if he suggests top sirloin or filet mignon. As the words for "stake" and "steak" are not homophonic in Spanish ("stake" is estaca while "steak" is bistec), the dub instead has him saying that getting a stake is almost impossible.
    • In the French dub, he instead says that driving a stake into his heart is somewhat cruel, asking Toad to come up with another solution.
    • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, he asks if Toad wants to use a hardwood stake.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Bulgarian	Граф Крокола Graf Krokola	"Count Koopula," "Крокола" is a portmanteau of "Кроко" (Kroko, "Koopa") and "Дракула" (Drakula, "Dracula")
Chinese (Simplified)	酷霸大魔王 Kùbà Dàmówáng	Great Demon King Koopa
Chinese (Traditional)	吸血伯爵 Xīxiě Bójué	Count Dracula
French	Monsieur le Comte	Sir Count
German	Graf Koopula	Count Koopula
Hebrew	הרוזן קופולה HaRozen Kupula	Count Koopula
Italian	Il Conte Drattila[?]	"Count Drakoopa," Drakoopa is a portmanteau of "Dracula" and Attila ("Koopa")
Portuguese	Conde Koopa	Count Koopa
Russian	Вампир Купула Vampir Kupula	Vampire Koopula
Spanish	El Conde Drakoopa	Count Drakoopa

Notes

• The numbered rooms are a reference to the Monty Hall problem, a brain teaser based from the American television game show Let's Make a Deal. Toad later asks, "What's behind door number three?", supporting this analogy.
• The bottle of tomato sauce that Mario inspects in Count Koopula's cellar is dated as having been made in 1989, the same year The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! was made.