Morton Koopa Jr.

Morton Koopa Jr. (also known as Big Mouth Koopa Jr.) is one of Bowser's eight children and is the second youngest Koopaling. Although he is the largest of the Koopalings, Morton isn't as powerful as some of his other large brothers, like Ludwig or Roy. Once defeated in Super Mario World in 1990, he returns again in later titles, such as Mario is Missing in 1993. This may just be due to the fact that he is one of the younger Koopalings, and needs to grow some more.

Unlike his siblings, many of Morton's features are unique, and are not shared traits. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, his brothers and sister have their own shell colors, and as a result, the shell color is no longer unique to Morton. Also, Morton and his brother, Larry Koopa, have a star-shaped birthmark on their heads.

Super Mario Bros. 3
Morton's first appearance was in Super Mario Bros. 3 where he, along with his siblings (minus Bowser Jr.) aided their father in an attempt to take over the Mushroom World. Morton usurped the sultan of Desert Land and took over. He used the same attack pattern as his brother Larry, but in the end he was defeated by Mario.

Super Mario World
Morton appeared again in Super Mario World helping his family in an attempt to take over Dinosaur Land. Morton's Castle is located in the second area, the Donut Plains. Morton attacks Mario by climbing the walls and ceiling of his room and dropping down, but once again, the battle ends in the Koopaling's defeat as he is stomped to death amongst the head. The battle ends and the narration states that he "is now just a memory." However he is apparently given a 1-UP behind the scenes and reappears in Mario is Missing, three years later.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Morton appears as a boss once again, this time in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. He is fought in World 6 on a platform with the ends of each side slightly raised up, set in a sea of lava. When Morton sees Mario, he stamps his foot and growls, then begins to fight.

Morton's main method of attack is shooting energy blasts that can be targeted in any direction. He can also do a Ground Pound similar to that of Roy Koopa, that will stun anybody who is on the ground. However, Morton's casting speed is extremely slow compared to Roy, but magic blast speed is second only to Iggy. Whenever Morton is damaged, he will jump into his shell and spin to attack. However, this attack is much faster than those of the other Koopalings. Fortunately, it can be easily avoided if the player jumps on the raised ground. However, spiked pillars will come down from above and land on the two raised platforms, damaging anyone that they hit. Once Morton has been stomped on three times, he will retreat to his castle.

In his castle fight, it appears it is be very alike to the attacks Larry used. Then, Kamek flies in and sprinkles magic, and nothing looks different. Morton will then ground pound and the platforms on either side of him will rise up and hit the ceiling. He will jump around and repeat this tactic throughout the battle. Getting squished will defeat Mario and company in one hit. It is strongly noted that Morton hardly ever uses his magic in the castle fight, and he doesn't start spinning around as long as the pillars are up.

Morton survived the battle, however, and was seen along with the other Koopalings getting Bowser back up, only to have Bowser's castle fall on top of all of them.

On a side note, unlike in the past titles, players fight Morton after Roy Koopa in this game. Also, in Super Mario Bros. 3, he is the boss of a desert world, while another desert world (though still the second world) is given to Roy in this game, and Morton gets a mountain level instead. In addition, neither Roy or Morton get the cloud level, but it is rather given to Ludwig.

Super Mario anime series
Morton, along with the other Kooplaings appeared in two of the Japan-only Super Mario anime videos. In Momotaro, they try to defend their father's castle, only to be defeated by Mario and his friends in their quest to rescue Princess Toadstool. In Snow White, Morton and the other Koopalings play a similar role, once again, being defeated by Mario as he attacks Bowser's Castle.

Cartoons
In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World cartoons he was renamed Big Mouth Koopa Jr. (although the "Jr." part was only mentioned on the bonus disc of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 DVD set released by Shout! Factory. Thus, he is commonly known simply as Big Mouth Koopa), ostensibly because he was more talk than action. Aptly, in the Super Mario World cartoon, he occasionally served as an announcer.

There are a few physical differences between Morton and Big Mouth: Morton's shell is gray and in the Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon, Big Mouth's is purple. Big Mouth has much larger eyes and purple eyelids; the star-shaped birthmark on Morton's face is darker around the cheek, while it's just one solid color on Big Mouth. Lastly, Big Mouth is shorter and thinner than Morton.

Sometimes, Big Mouth's name is spelled as Bigmouth. He was voiced by Dan Hennessey.

Mario is Missing!
In this game, Morton travels to Earth to help Bowser steal artifacts from around the world. Bowser intended to sell the artifacts in order to raise funds to buy hairdryers from Hafta Havit Mail-Order, which he would then use to melt Antarctica, thus flooding the Earth.

Morton and most of the other Koopalings guard Bowser's Antarctic fortress and battle Luigi as he searches for Mario and strives to foil Bowser's plot. Luigi easily defeats the Koopaling by stomping on his head repeatedly (or, in the PC version, hit him with a fireball).

Yoshi's Safari
In Yoshi's Safari, Morton helped his family invade Jewelry Land and steal the jewels that maintain the stability in the kingdom. Bowser entrusted one of these jewels to Morton, who then watched over the area known as Spirit Mountain. He attacked in a giant, blue, mechanical frog built by Iggy, but Mario and Yoshi defeated him with the aid of a Super Scope.

''Hotel Mario
In Hotel Mario, Morton was given the treetop WoodDoor-Hysteria hotel to run when the Mushroom Kingdom was once again taken over by Bowser. Here, he held Princess Toadstool captive for a short while, but soon became the first Koopaling battled and defeated by the Mario Bros. in this game.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Morton, his brothers and sister reappeared in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga where they guarded Bowser's Castle. Here Morton learned a new attack, sending shock-waves. Despite this new attack, Morton ended up being beaten and has once again disappeared.

Super Princess Peach
Some unused sprites of all the Koopalings were found in Super Princess Peach, but were taken out of the game for unknown reasons.

Characteristics
Morton's skin tone is actually different than the other Koopaling's, having a unique gray tone. The distinguishing features of his skin are the fact his head color is white and the unique star mark on the left side of his face; the star is at the center of his left eye and covers part of his snout and cheek. Morton has four, fang-like teeth in the upper corners of both sides of his snout; they are the same as Iggy's. He also has a three-ribbed, light, padded stomach and tan, padded feet. His mouth is much like Bowser's, having the same overall shape.

He has small, circular-shaped eyes; his eyes are overall the same as Ludwig's. His head is a very simple round shape. Morton is actually one of the tallest of the Koopalings; his body is large and more broad than his sibling's. As his characteristics are very different from most other Koopalings, Morton has many things that set him apart from them, but in terms of body he appears to be most similar to Ludwig and Roy.

Morton appears to be relatively hairless, even though almost all of his brothers have full hair. However, he does have triple, thick, black eyebrows that extend off his face like Wendy's. Morton actually has three, thin, long, black hairs at the top of his head; meaning he is not necessarily bald.

Clothing
Morton is portrayed as wearing very few items of clothing, even compared to his siblings. He wears the same metal, spiked, cuffs the others do, and he also has his own shell design. His shell is black, lined with a white encasing, and the multiple, short, spikes are circled with white rings.

Personality and Traits
Like all the other Koopalings, Morton's personality and traits have been shrouded in mystery, even more so than compared to his other siblings. Although, according to the Nintendo Player's Guide for Super Mario Advance 4, Morton is a grouch with a cantankerous personality.

In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, all the Koopalings were given names to match the personalities they were given and such was the case with Morton, whose name was changed to Big Mouth Koopa. Big Mouth was extremely talkative, to the point of never seeming to know when to stop talking, which continuously forced Roy to interrupt him. However, Morton lacked any speech in most Mario games.

Powers and Abilities
Morton Koopa Jr. prefers to not use magic bestowed upon him by his magic scepter and instead uses his weight. His main ability is to shake the ground with a stunning earthquake. However, he does not cause Earthquakes in Super Mario Bros. 3, which are instead utilized by Roy and Ludwig. Occasionally, when he does use magic he makes a red medium heat fire ball. But mostly it seems as if he does not even know he has magic. Other than that he likes to smash things. His ground pounding earthquakes can launch pillars into the air in his fortress.

Special Abilities
Morton's abilities vary greatly depending upon his appearances in game. In Super Mario Bros. 3 his abilities were average amongst his siblings (jumping and shooting magic blasts), but in Super Mario World and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, he like Roy uses his weight to paralyze or hurt his opponents. And in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, he tends to use his Magic Scepter once his enemies are immobile, but he isn't nearly as reliant on his magical abilities as Roy.

Standard Abilities
Like the other Koopalings Morton has shown the ability to generate magic blasts, as well as walk, run, or jump, as well as spin inside of his shell, making most of his abilities rather standard in general amongst his siblings.He is able to jump in New Super Mario Bros Wii but not very high.

Bio from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 Writers Bible
''Big Mouth just can't stop blabbing, and his twisted talent is insult. His cutting remarks can even reduce his father to tears. Big Mouth's got a chip on his shoulder the size of the Doomship. He would never admit he was wrong, even though he usually is. He thinks he knows everything about everything, but what he knows is all wrong, and he always blames the other guy for his mistakes. Big Mouth loves to stir up trouble, and has a needling probing attitude that always gets it. He holds grudges against the whole world.

Name Controversy
Morton is named after Morton Downey Jr.. The editors of the magazine Nintendo Power once claimed that when they asked Bowser why Morton Koopa was called "Jr.", he responded by pelting them with Bob-ombs. It is possible that "Bowser" is not Bowser's real name. It is also possible that he may be named after Bowser's Father, who is believed to be named Morton. Note that this isn't an issue in the original Japanese continuity, as he is simply named "Morton" and not given a full name.

Quotes

 * "That's Prince Hugo the Huge! The new ruler of Giant Land! They say he's the biggest, toughest, bravest prince ever! Even for a giant, he's a giant." - Sneaky Lying Cheating Giant Ninja Koopas
 * "Yeah, and they're gonna pick you to be their leader! Isn't that always the way? Treat people lousy, dump garbage on their heads and they'll follow you anywhere!" - Recycled Koopa
 * "Have a good time! Have a nice day! Sayonara! So long! Ciao! See you later, alligator! Ciao! Bon voyage! Hasta la vista! Be sure to write!" - Send in the Clown
 * "Let's do an ambush..." - Do the Koopa
 * "You're a royal pain!!! And we need you'r cage for our prisoners!!!" - Sneaky Lying Cheating Giant Ninja Koopas