Mario's Magic Carpet

"Mario's Magic Carpet" is the fourth episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!. Its corresponding live-action segment is "Marianne and Luigeena".

Plot Synopsis
In a dry and deadly desert, Mario is guiding a camel carrying Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool through the sand in search of Aladdin's Lamp, which Princess Toadstool believes can be used to defeat King Koopa. Becoming exhausted from the heat of the desert, Mario suddenly sees a waterfall and rushes to it; only to discover that the waterfall is a mirage and that the camel has been licking him repeatedly, much to his disgust. Princess Toadstool proceeds to tell Mario to ignore all mirages, which manifest themselves as giant food items.

Suddenly, Toad sees a swimming pool, which everyone rushes to, only to discover the water in the pool is a blue trampoline, which bounces them into a nearby palace. Princess Toadstool, over-hearing a man brag about how his trap has brought more people to his palace, demands to know who the man is. The man proceeds to say that he is Sultan Pasbah and says that the Princess, along with Mario, Luigi and Toad, are now his slaves. Hearing this, Mario, Luigi, Toad and the Princess begin to flee from the palace throne room, only to be stopped by a guard. Sultan Pasbah then tells the guard to transport Mario, Luigi and Toad to a slave cell and to transport the Princess to his harem, much to her horror.

While being transported to their cell, Mario, Luigi and Toad notice that among the treasure of Sultan Pasbah is Aladdin's Lamp. Mario proceeds to come up with a plan: he, Luigi and Toad sneak out to get the lamp and use its power to save Princess Toadstool and escape. Managing to sneak out of their cell after their guard has gone to sleep, Mario, Luigi and Toad find Aladdin's Lamp, only to see it's inside a glass box. Taking out his pizza cutter, Mario easily slices through the glass and grabs Aladdin's Lamp and goes on to tell Luigi about the genie that supposedly inhabits the lamp.

Suddenly, one of Sultan Pasbah's minions appear and begins to tell the sultan that Princess Toadstool has been causing all kinds of trouble. The Sultan responds that the Princess is more trouble than she's worth and orders that he put out an advertisement for her, planning on selling her to the highest bidder. Overhearing what Sultan Pasbah plans to do with the Princess, Mario and Luigi rush off to find a place to summon the genie of the lamp.

Venturing onto one of the palace's balconies, Mario rubs the lamp and manages to summon the genie, who turns out to be an old and very obnoxious woman who demands to know what Mario and Luigi want. As the genie begins struggling to get out of her lamp, Toad appears to tell Mario and Luigi that King Koopa has shown up to buy Princess Toadstool. As King Koopa begins bartering with Sultan Pasbah over the price of the Princess, Mario begs the genie to save her. Attempting to use a magic spell, the genie only succeeds in creating a horrific odor; suddenly, King Koopa zooms out a palace window on a Magic Carpet, with a Cobrat on the front of it, with Princess Toadstool as his captive.

While flying over the desert, King Koopa begins to taunt the Princess, telling her to prepare for a long and torturous journey. Down below, Mario, Luigi, Toad and the genie begin to try and chase King Koopa, but are unable to catch him. Eventually, Mario, after offering her a gold coin, has the genie give him, Luigi, and Toad the power to fly; though the genie only succeeds in flinging them through the air. Eventually, Toad simply says that maybe they should just buy a magic carpet.

Later, Mario, Luigi, Toad and the genie begin to track down King Koopa in a somewhat shoddy magic carpet; in front of them, King Koopa, having reached his designated area, prepares to push Princess Toadstool from his carpet and into some quicksand below. Seeing King Koopa, Mario has Toad disguise their flying carpet by bouncing up and down, covering the magic carpet in dust and making it resemble a cloud. Unfortunately, the disguise is ruined when the genie sneezes, causing the dust to blow away.

As Princess Toadstool tries to convince King Koopa that it was her who sneezed, King Koopa, having already seen Mario's magic carpet, dumps the Princess from his own and into a pit of quicksand below. With the Princess rapidly sinking, King Koopa begins sucking the dust from Mario's carpet's new cloud disguise and begins to taunt Mario, telling him how he dumped Princess Toadstool in quicksand. As Mario begins to maneuver in the direction of Princess Toadstool, King Koopa calls the Pidgit Express, ordering a dozen Pidgits to attack Mario, Luigi, Toad and the genie.

Having managed to reach Princess Toadstool, Mario has Luigi pull her from the quicksand and place her in the magic carpet. Suddenly, a swarm of Pidgits appear and begin to peck and gnaw on Mario's magic carpet; the genie, having seen enough action for one day, proceeds to enter her magic lamp and throw herself overboard as the Pidgits continue to eat away at Mario's carpet. However, Luigi, remembering he can speak Pidgit, proceeds to grab a nearby Pidgit and speaks to it in its language; the Pidgit proceeds to tell its friends about what Luigi said and it and its companions proceed to swarm onto King Koopa's flying carpet, devouring it. Luigi reveals that he told the Pidgit that if it wants to eat something really delicious, it should try King Koopa's magic carpet. As King Koopa begins to desperately drive away from the Pidgits, the lamp lands in his flying carpet and the genie begins to annoy and badger him, much to the amusement of Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool.

Animation and Continuity errors

 * The color of King Koopa's magic carpet continually switches from being blue to yellow.
 * When King Koopa first appears with Princess Toadstool in his carpet, he is driving on the right side. In all later shots, he is on the left.

Trivia

 * King Koopa orders a dozen Pidgits from the Pidgit Express, though only nine appear.
 * The cover artwork for the episode's original VHS release depicted the characters driving a standard-style magic carpet with a steering wheel, like the one Mario and Luigi used in the later episode "Mario and the Red Baron Koopa". The genie also looks drastically different on the VHS cover.