Kootie Pie Rocks

"Kootie Pie Rocks" is the sixteenth episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3; it aired alongside another episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 entitled "Do the Koopa". Milli Vanilli guest stars, voicing themselves.

Plot synopsis
One evening in the Mushroom Kingdom, Cheatsy Koopa is climbing up the side of the Mushroom Castle, and peeks in through a window, hoping to spy on whatever Mario and Luigi are up to. Looking in, Cheatsy sees that Toad is helping Mario fit into a tuxedo, when Luigi questions why they have to wear dumb "penguin suits". Toad explains that Princess Toadstool will be all dressed up herself, as Toad got word she is attending a concert in the real world, so being a princess it clearly must be some kind of symphony. The Princess makes her grand appearance, but they are shocked to see that she is actually dressed to go to a pop concert, wearing a jersey with "Milli Vanilli", whom she remarks is her favorite band, printed on the front, and torn jeans. Toad comments that he does not understand the real world's "weird customs", and Princess Toadstool points out that everyone at the concert will be too busy looking at Milli Vanilli to notice them. With the knowledge of Princess Toadstool going to a Milli Vanilli concert, Cheatsy retreats back to Kastle Koopa, wondering what Kootie Pie will think.

Upon Cheatsy's return to Kastle Koopa, Kootie Pie is throwing a temper tantrum because Princess Toadstool can go to a pop concert in the real world, while she cannot. After throwing some random objects at King Koopa, Kootie Pie screams until he gives in, and even offers to let her keep Milli Vanilli as well, which he mispronounces as "Silly-the-Willies" and "Filli Banilli". When Kootie Pie runs off to change into a dress, Cheatsy comments that he cannot wait to see Koopa pull off his plan, only for Koopa to order him to fire up the Doomship, and because he instigated all this, he is coming along to see that the kidnapping succeeds.

At a stadium in New York City, which has been set up for the concert, Milli Vanilli run onto the stage, introduce themselves, and toss a rose into the audience, which Princess Toadstool catches. Mario and Luigi cannot stand the screaming audience, and cover their ears. Milli Vanilli then begin to sing "Blame it on the Rain". After a while, the Doomship flies over to the stadium, and Koopa fires a beam at part of the stage, lifting Milli Vanilli up into the air with it. Soon, Milli Vanilli disappears, and Koopa laughs as the Doomship warps away. Mario figures even in the real world that Koopa causes trouble, and that they need to get back into the pipe headed for Dark Land, specifically Kastle Koopa. Princess Toadstool fears Milli Vanilli is in great danger as Koopa's hostages.

At Kastle Koopa, Milli Vanilli is reluctantly introduced to Kootie Pie. She develops a crush on Rob, and Kootie Pie kisses him several times, which disgusts him. Rob and Fab try to leave, but Kootie Pie tells them that they cannot, and demands for them to perform a private concert just for her right away. When they refuse, Kootie Pie pulls out her magic wand, and threatens to transform Rob and Fab into a pair of accountants, to which the two laugh "Accountants? That is a good one!" Annoyed, Kootie Pie makes good on her threat and transforms Milli Vanilli into accountants, to which they shout out, "No! We are nerds! We are dweebs!" Fab tells Kootie Pie to turn them back to normal, but Kootie Pie refuses and tells them that they are stuck in Dark Land forever. Rob and Fab try to escape, but two Sledge Brothers block the exit.

Kootie Pie threatens to turn Rob and Fab into beetles if they refuse to perform a concert, and Fab is fine with that, saying "Who wants to be a band from the 60s"? Kootie Pie then considers turning them into Ptooies, but Rob has never heard of a band by that name. Fab reasons with Kootie Pie that no matter what her transformations, they are unable to perform a concert with just vocals, they need a backup band, so Kootie Pie remarks that they have to stay as accountants until they can find one.

Princess Toadstool, who is spying into Castle Koopa through a window with her friends, explains that she will never hear her favorite music again if they cannot get Milli Vanilli back to normal. Mario reassures Princess Toadstool that they will save Milli Vanilli from Kootie Pie, but Luigi questions how. Mario then remembers Fab's remark about needing a backup band, so he decides that they should pose as one.

Dressed as a rock band, Mario and his friends enter Castle Koopa through a Warp Pipe, and head for the throne room, while Kootie Pie throws a temper tantrum about how Koopa forgot to bring her a backup band in addition to Milli Vanilli. Toad worries that they have no musical ability, but Luigi says this is the best they can do on short notice, their sole mission to rescue Milli Vanilli. After Mario's group arrives, Fab recognizes Princess Toadstool from the audience at their concert back in New York City, and she whispers that they are here to save them. Mario introduces his group to Kootie Pie as the traveling backup band "Backups 'R' We", whom Kootie Pie is thrilled to see have arrived so suddenly. Princess Toadstool asks who will sing while their group plays "...these two accountants?", and tricks Kootie Pie into using her magic wand to revert Milli Vanilli to normal.

With Rob and Fab restored, Rob tells Mario to play "Girl You Know It's True". However, Mario and his friends cannot play their instruments at all, and everyone but Kootie Pie cannot stand the music. Koopa comes in to complain, but Toad's drumstick goes flying into his mouth, and he flees from the bad music, as do some Sledge Brothers and Goombas. Still playing, Mario and his friends lead Milli Vanilli out of the room, and head for the Warp Pipe. Kootie Pie, upset over the loss of her concert, runs to tell Koopa, and threatens to scream if he does not bring it back. Koopa, who is wearing earmuffs, refuses to do so. Putting his foot down, he prefers her screaming than that racket. Kootie Pie claims that she will just bring them back herself, but Koopa grabs her, and threatens to throw her in the dungeon unless she promises to forget about the band, to which Kootie Pie agrees.

Back at their real concert, Milli Vanilli are back on stage, and announce that their next song is dedicated to a real princess, as they start to play "Girl You Know It's True". Watching from backstage, Princess Toadstool starts looking at them dreamily. Mario and Luigi, who are now in their usual clothes, also watch the concert, albeit more grounded. Mario makes a comment that if they keep up their band they can become as big as Milli Vanilli. Toad and Luigi are not too keen on that, and when Mario asks the Princess for her input, she makes no remark, simply watching dreamily as her favorite group plays.

Cast

 * Walker Boone &mdash; Mario
 * Tony Rosato &mdash; Luigi
 * Tracey Moore &mdash; Princess Toadstool
 * John Stocker &mdash; Toad
 * Harvey Atkin &mdash; King Bowser Koopa
 * James Rankin &mdash; Cheatsy Koopa
 * Paulina Gillis &mdash; Kootie Pie Koopa
 * Catherine Gallant &mdash; girl
 * &mdash; himself
 * &mdash; himself

Animation and continuity errors

 * At the beginning of the episode, when Cheatsy is spying on the Mario Brothers, Toad, and Princess Toadstool, his face is colored orange when he leaves.
 * This also happens when Cheatsy asks "What good side?"
 * When Princess Toadstool states "Next stop, the real world!" at the beginning of the episode, her right ear is flashing.
 * In some parts of the episode, Rob and Fab's voices are switched.
 * Despite Koopa telling Cheatsy he is going to help him capture Milli Vanilli, Cheatsy does absolutely nothing to help him; he only appears in the Doomship.
 * During the concert, some of the audience members' clothes flash, such as one lady's pants going from dark green to bright green, but that could be due to stage lighting.
 * Some of the audience members have no nose, though this is usually intentional for characters who are farther away from the screen.
 * When Mario says, "How come we don't get this kind of applause when we do good plumbing?", Luigi's sideburn is painted green when he turns his head to face Mario.
 * In both the beginning of the concert and the ending, a sign outside mistakenly says "Preseting Milli Vanilli" instead of "Presenting Milli Vanilli".
 * Luigi's pink bow tie stays the same color for all of the scenes where he is shown with it on, except for the scene when Princess Toadstool exclaims "Whoa, what an exit!", where it is green.
 * When Milli Vanilli are brought to Castle Koopa, Cheatsy says "Welcome to Kastle Koopa!" However, he is not seen in the next shot; in fact, he does not appear in the episode at all after the kidnapping in New York.
 * When Kootie Pie says to Rob "I really dig your dreadlocks", her eyes are black with white pupils instead of blue with black pupils as they usually are.
 * When Kootie Pie threatens to turn Rob and Fab into accountants, the wand is teal, but while they are laughing, the wand turns pink. After transforming them, the wand turns teal again.
 * At the end of the episode when the stadium sign is shown, "PRESENTING" is misspelled as "PRESETING".

Edited reruns
"Kootie Pie Rocks" was aired just before it was revealed that Milli Vanilli only lip-synched their songs while taking credit for other people's singing. As a result, the songs were cut from reruns of the episode, replaced with the Mega Move instrumental that also replaced several other songs in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. Several other changes were made as well, such as any mention of or reference to Milli Vanilli's songs (such as the first half of Koopa's line "Blame on the rain? HA HA! Blame it on King Koopa!", a reference to Milli Vanilli's ) and Mario's line about starting their own band at the end of the episode. However, the original scenes and music remain uncut in the Greek, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and Brazilian Portuguese versions (the Brazilian Portuguese version even has the songs translated).

Trivia

 * This episode does not open on an in-game screenshot of Super Mario Bros. 3, like every other episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. Instead, it appears on a shot of two clouds. This is also one of the two episodes where the Grass Land intro is played with a down-tempo mix, with the other being, "Oh, Brother!" when Luigi asks Mario if he is okay after the Lame Brainer flies out of his head.
 * This episode initially was going to be named "Strawberry, Chocolate, or Vanilli?"
 * After being transformed into accountants, Rob and Fab are threatened again to be turned into beetles. In response, Rob quips, "Great, who wants to be a band from the 1960s?" a reference to.
 * The stadium where the concert takes place looks like in New York City, which was the home of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964-2008.
 * Mario's made-up traveling backup band, "Backups 'R' We" is a spoof on the toy store chain and its spinoff stores.