Stars in Their Eyes

"Stars in Their Eyes" is the tenth episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!. Its corresponding live-action segment is "Alligator Dundee".

Plot Synopsis
In the depths of space, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool are all aboard a yellow spaceship, which is currently traveling through a swarm of flaming meteors. Maneuvering past several meteors in his attempt to escape enemy Space Troopas, minions of King Koopa, Mario fails to avoid one meteor, which strikes his spaceship.

As Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool are knocked into a bulkhead of the spaceship by the impact of the meteor, Mario, regaining control of his spaceship, turns on his navigation system. Glancing at his activated navigation screen, Mario tells Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool that they are approaching the planet Quirk; unfortunately, due to damage caused by the meteor striking his ship, Mario is forced to induce a crash landing on Quirk.

As the spaceship begins to haphazardly approach Quirk, it steadily begins to break apart, losing fuel and it's door; without a door on it, all the spaceship's supplies are sucked from it into the void of outer space. As Mario begins to bemoan the fate of his pasta, which had been sucked into space, his ship crashes into Quirk.

On Quirk, several Quirks, the planet's native inhabitants, are in the process of pulling barges full of pink rocks down a river. As two Quirks begin to slow down in their work, Mouser, who is in a spacesuit and named as "Astro Mouser", approaches them. Before the two Quirks can react, Astro Mouser suddenly throws a bomb at them and demands they work harder and faster.

After Astro Mouser reprimands these two Quirks, he suddenly notices a loud noise nearby. Looking upwards as his Quirk slaves begin to flee, Astro Mouser can only stand dumbstruck as Mario's fast approaching spaceship begins to plummet directly towards him; before Astro Mouser can react, Mario's spaceship crashes on top of him, burying Astro Mouser under it.

Emerging from the wreckage of Mario's now destroyed spaceship, Princess Toadstool, who is wearing an oxygen helmet, begins to float upwards, due to the lighter gravity of the planet Quirk. Before Princess Toadstool floats too far away, Toad manages to grab her, unfortunately, Toad also begins to float upwards as well. Both Toad and Princess Toadstool are eventually pulled to the ground by Mario and Luigi, who give them several heavy tools from a toolbox to help them stay on the ground.

After successfully anchoring himself by putting a wrench in his overalls, Mario begins to say that he, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool need to somehow find spaceship fuel, supplies and food. Hearing Mario, two nearby Quirks, grateful to Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool for getting rid of Astro Mouser, say they can help them find what they need to survive.

Shortly after these two Quirks appear, Mario notices something sliding out from under the wreckage of his ship. Realizing that whatever is under his ship is a person, Mario offers the person his hand; unfortunately, this person is revealed to be an angry and Bob-omb wielding Astro Mouser, who has been flattened to ridiculous proportions.

As Astro Mouser drags himself from under Mario's spaceship, the two Quirks quickly tell Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool to follow them to their barge. As the flattened Astro Mouser begins to throw flattened Bob-ombs at them, Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and their Quirk guides flee from him and leap onto a nearby river barge filled with pink rocks.

While quickly rowing their river barge away from Astro Mouser, the two Quirks tell Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool that Astro Mouser is working for the wicked Moon Man Koopa. After the two Quirks say this, the still flattened Astro Mouser manages to hit their barge with a Bob-omb, which creates a hole in it, causing it to rapidly flood with water. As the two Quirks begin to panic, Mario, taking a wrench from Luigi, swims below the orange water flooding into the barge and begins to repair the hole made in it.

Later, Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and the Quirks begin to relax in the barge, which Mario has repaired and has attached a shower-like propulsion system too, meaning no more rowing is needed to move the river barge. As Mario relaxes, he begins to say that his spaceship should have been as easy to repair as the river barge; hearing Mario, the two Quirks say that Mario could get everything he needs to repair his spaceship at the Quirk Factory, which is, unfortunately, owned by Moon Man Koopa.

After the Quirks tell Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool of the Quirk Factory, a rocket, apparently launched by Astro Mouser, flies towards the Quirk Factory and explodes; spelling the word "ALERT" in it's smoke and signifying Moon Man Koopa of the presence of intruders, much to Luigi's chagrin.

Inside the Quirk Factory, Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad, who are all wearing false Quirk noses on their space helmets, manage to avoid detection by Moon Man Koopa's Koopa Troopa minions. After a bit of traveling down a conveyor belt, the barge Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and their Quirk guides are in is lifted into the air by a pair of robotic arms. These robotic arms proceed to turn the barge upside-down, dumping Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, Toad and the Quirks onto a conveyor belt, along with the rocks that were in the barge with them.

Having lost their Quirk disguises, Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad are forced to hide behind the rocks that fell onto the conveyor belt with them; unfortunately, Moon Man Koopa's Koopa Troopas still notice the poorly hidden Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool and, pressing a button, alert Moon Man Koopa of Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool presence in the Quirk Factory.

While continuing to travel down the conveyor belt, Mario, Luigi, Toad, the two Quirks and Princess Toadstool are shocked to see Moon Man Koopa directly in front of them. As Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool begin to try and run away from him, Moon Man Koopa calmly activates a nearby magnet, which proceeds to capture Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool, who become stuck to the magnet due to the metal tools in their clothing.

As Moon Man Koopa begins to taunt the helpless Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool, he also grabs the two Quirks who were aiding them. With Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and their Quirk allies in his possession, Moon Man Koopa calls forth several Koopa Troopas to shackle his captives in chains.

Later, in the bowels of the Quirk Factory, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool are in the midst of creating a giant chain, with Moon Man Koopa and his Koopa Troopas supervising them. As Mario continues to pound chains into shape, he sees the two Quirks who had helped him earlier; giving his sympathies to the Quirks, Mario notices the shackles on their legs aren't fastened properly and tells the two Quirks to run, before Moon Man Koopa notices their loose shackles.

Not listening to Mario, the two Quirks give the sad response that running won't help them, they've always been the slaves of Moon Man Koopa and if they try to escape, he'll just capture them again. Mario, seemingly horrified by the response given to him by the two Quirks, gets on top of a nearby protrusion from the ground and begins to try and rouse the Quirks into starting a rebellion against Moon Man Koopa. Moon Man Koopa, seeing Mario, simply mocks him and says that the Quirks can never escape him, as he controls the shackles on their legs electronically; after saying this, Moon Man Koopa proceeds to press a button on a handheld remote, which causes the shackles on the legs of the Quirks to snap shut.

Later, after all of the Quirks have been sent away from the Quirk Factory in barges, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool sadly wave goodbye to the two Quirks who had helped them earlier, who are the last to be sent away on a barge. Seeing Princess Toadstool's tears over the fate of the Quirks, Moon Man Koopa begins to mock her, saying that now that he has the Quirks as his slaves he can move onwards an invade other planets and proceeds to leave in his nearby spaceship.

Mario, enraged at Moon Man Koopa, leaps on top of a nearby, bizarre looking anvil and begins to pound at his shackles; after several minutes of smashing at his shackles, Mario is knocked off the anvil, which had emitted a noise powerful enough to even rattle Mario's seemingly indestructible shackles. Seeing what pounding the anvil did to his shackles, Mario instructs Luigi to smash the anvil as hard as he can. Doing what Mario instructed, Luigi and Mario begin to bash the anvil, which begins to emit an extremely loud noise which proves to be powerful enough to destroy Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool's electronic shackles.

Free from their constricting chains, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool run to a nearby barge and begin to row furiously down the river, as the alarm of the Quirk Factory sounds around them and laser cannon begins to fire at them. After much rowing, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool manage to escape the laser cannon's line of fire and prepare to gain some supplies and fuel for their spaceship. As Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool sail onward in their barge, they are beckoned by some nearby Quirks, who have all the supplies they'll need, which are stored in several rocks.

Docking their barge, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool watch as the Quirks begin loading all the supplies into the barge. When the Quirks finish this, Princess Toadstool begins to tell the Quirks that she, Mario, Luigi and Toad will free them from their chains. The Quirks refuse this offer though, as Moon Man Koopa is drawing closer, so there won't be enough time to remove the chains.

As the Quirks say this, Moon Man Koopa, riding his giant magnet from earlier, appears; chasing Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool, who are trying to escape in their barge, Moon Man Koopa activates his giant magnet, which slowly begins to pull the barge backwards. The Quirks, seeing Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool, rush towards Moon Man Koopa's magnet and selflessly throw themselves into the path of it, their chains attaching them to the magnet; the magnet, completely covered in Quirks, loses it's pull on Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool, who sail out of the Quirk Factory, while giving a sad look to the Quirks who saved them.

In the desolate fields of Quirk, Mario is preparing to lift-off in his recently repaired spaceship; while flying through the air, Mario is told by Princess Toadstool that the Quirks can't simply be left in the clutches of Moon Man Koopa and his henchmen. Mario responds to Princess Toadstool's comment by saying that he will help the Quirks, but first Moon Man Koopa, who is quickly approaching in his ship, will have to be defeated.

As Moon Man Koopa begins his attack on Mario's spaceship, by firing flaming meteors at it, Mario has Luigi take the control's of his ship, as he begins to load the ship's ammunition, spaghetti and meatballs. As Moon Man Koopa continues his barrage of fiery meteors, Mario manages to counter his every move with blasts of spaghetti. Unfortunately, Mario's ship begins to lose speed as Moon Man Koopa's ship begins to catch-up to it, preparing to ensnare it in his ship's openable "mouth".

Trying to escape from Moon Man Koopa, Mario has Toad and Princess Toadstool dump everything unneeded from the spaceship. This proves futile though, as Moon Man Koopa continues to approach Mario's spaceship. Having dumped everything from the ship, Mario surmises that the only thing left to throw from the ship is the emergency pasta rations. As Mario prepares to dump the emergency pasta rations, he relents, stating that he just can't do it; Princess Toadstool, grabbing Mario's hammer, smashes the case the emergency pasta ration is in, which causes it to be dumped out of the ship's exhaust port.

Sent tumbling into space, the emergency pasta rations accidentally fall into the "mouth" of Moon Man Koopa's ship, causing it to malfunction and slow-down, allowing Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool to escape. With his ship malfunctioning, Moon Man Koopa begins to try and land back on Quirk; only to be stopped by the Quirks, who, having removed their shackles by humming, unite together and begin to hum as loud as possible. The noise emitted by the Quirks causes Moon Man Koopa's ship to breakdown, forcing Moon Man Koopa to retreat, screaming revenge threats. The Quirks, now free from Moon Man Koopa, give Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool one last goodbye as they fly overhead.

Trivia

 * Unlike Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, Astro Mouser, Moon Man Koopa and his Koopa Troopas, Toad does not show the need to wear an oxygen helmet while on the surface of the planet Quirk; this leads to the possibility that Toad's physiology may be vastly different from these other characters.
 * The song hummed by the Quirks to defeat Moon Man Koopa is the theme song of the game The Legend of Zelda. Koopa even states he hates that game.
 * Mario makes an allusion to The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx during his speech to the enslaved Quirks. He states: "Honk-noses of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!" This quote is a re-working of the last couple sentences of The Communist Manifesto: "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!" The Quirks later re-work Mario's speech when they decide to block Koopa's magnet in order to allow Mario, Luigi, Toadstool, and Toad to escape. They say "Quirks unite!  We have nothing to use but our chains!"
 * The title is a reference to a verse from the song "Juke Box Hero" in which the singer says "...he's a juke box hero... with stars in his eyes..."
 * The Quirks are very similar to the aliens from the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.