Mush-Rumors

Mush-Rumors is the seventeenth episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3; it aired alongside another episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 entitled "The Ugly Mermaid".

Plot synopsis
In Kansas, a family of four is currently in the midst of driving the United States countryside to Wild Waldo's One-of-a-Kind Amusement Park in a station wagon. After the daughter of the family, Missy, continues to pester her father, Norman, about whether they are at the amusement park yet, Norman, flustered, stops the car; after telling Missy that no, they aren't at the amusement park yet, Norman starts to drive again, only to be asked by his son, Bud, whether or not they are lost or not, to which Norman responds to with a somewhat hesitant no. As Norman continues to drive along, the mother of the family tells Bud and Missy that the amusement park is still an hour away and to simply enjoy the scenery. After this is said, Norman drives the station wagon through a tunnel, which is, in actualy, a Warp Zone. Once the Warp Zone is driven through, the family find themselves in the Mushroom Kingdom; as Bud and Missy look around, bewildered, at their new surroundings, their mother calms them down and assures them that Norman, who believes he has somehow entered Iowa, will find a gas station and ask for directions. After his wife tells Bud and Missy this though, Norman, distracted by all the new scenery, accidentally crashes the car into a wall of Blocks. As the car's engine begins to steam, the family is left to panic as Norman, who has lost control of the car, tries desperately to steer it. As the car swerves out of control, it narrowly avoids hitting a nearby Mushroom boy who was fishing by a river; fortunately, the Mushroomer jumps into the river to avoid the car, which he perceives to be a monster. Eventually, the car begins to slow down and eventually crashes into another wall of blocks near the river before stopping completely. With the car having finally stopped, Norman gets out of it to inspect the engine of it. Opening the hood of the car, Norman is shrouded by a large amount of smoke and begins to cough, which frightens the nearby Mushroomer from before who, after being seen and yelled to by Norman, runs away frantically, claiming that aliens have come!

Elsewhere, Hip and Hop Koopa are in the process of setting up a prank, placing a mirror in front of a wall to make it appear as if there is an opening in the wall. As Hop steadies the mirror though, Hop begins to wonder if the prank will work, thinking if there is anybody dumb enough to fall for it. Directly after Hip says this, the Mushroom boy suddenly runs directly into the wall and falls to the ground, dazed as Hip and Hop praise themselves on having pulled another successful prank. Recovering from running into the wall, the Mushroomer proceeds to tell the nearby Hip and Hop to run, saying something about fire belching with four eyes; the Mushroom boy's ramblings cause a somewhat nervous Hip and Hop to ask what he is talking about, getting the response from the Mushroomer that horrible aliens are coming. This revelation about aliens causes a scared Hip and Hop to frantically run away, screaming.

At Castle Koopa, Hip and Hop, still screaming and claiming that something is coming, are knocked backwards by Bully, who asks them who is coming. Hip and Hop proceed to tell Bully about the aliens, which is enough to even terrify Bully, prompting him to tell Kooky about them, who tells Big Mouth about them, who tells Kootie Pie about them, with the Koopalings' stories becoming more and more exaggerated. After being told of the aliens by Big Mouth, Kootie Pie runs to Bowser's throne room, where she tells her father that zillions of heavily armed, fire spewing aliens are going to attack the castle before breaking down into tears, screaming that they are all doomed and that she doesn't have anything to wear. As Kootie Pie sobs in front of him, a shocked Bowser proclaims that he will have to attack the aliens, before they get to him. In the Mushroom Kingdom, the Mushroom boy is still in the midst of yelling that aliens are coming, causing anyone nearby him to instantly panic and make several, somewhat futile, attempts to hide. After being alerted to about the aliens, two Mushroom women, in a panic, accidentally jump into one another and are knocked to the ground. As a crowd gathers near the two fallen Mushroomers, Mario and Luigi appear and help the two to their feet, asking if anyone has actually seen any of these aliens. One of the Mushroom ladies responds she hasn't actually seen the aliens, but tells Mario and Luigi that she was told about them by someone else, which makes Mario question the credibility of the Mushroomers' alien story. As Mario has his doubts about the aliens, the Mushroom boy who started the rumors about the aliens tells Mario and Luigi about what he saw. After the Mushroom boy tells Mario and Luigi about the aliens, Mario concludes that what the boy saw were real worlders, like him and Luigi, though the Mushroom boy still claims that what he saw were aliens. After the boy says this, Mario tells Luigi that they better do an investigation on what is really going on.

Up above, Bowser's Doomship suddenly materializes and floats through the air. Onboard the Doomship, Bowser is instructing Kooky to, when the "aliens" are seen, blast them with all the artillery the Doomship has. As Kooky says that no aliens are going to conquer their kingdom, Bowser tells Kooky he doesn't care about the kingdom; he just wants to survive. At the river, Missy is asking Norman if he has discovered where they are yet, to which Norman says no to, having discovered they aren't in Iowa, but they might be in Nebraska. As Norman fidgets with his map, Mario and Luigi climb a hill and see the family's station wagon, at the sight of which, Mario tells Luigi that he was right, the aliens are nothing more then humans. As Mario tells Luigi this though, Luigi tells Mario to look upward, since Bowser's Doomship has suddenly appeared.

Drawing near, the Doomship begins trying to blast the station wagon with Bullet Bills, while several Rocky Wrenches on-board it throw their wrenches. Luckily, the Doomship's assault fails miserably, with the Bullet Bills missing the station wagon and becoming lodged in the ground while the thrown wrenches fall into the river. Noticing the rain of objects falling towards him, Norman begins to yell upwards at the Doomship as Mario and Luigi rush to his car. Dodging the munitions launched from the Doomship, Mario and Luigi manage to pull the inflatable raft off the car and into the river, before pushing the station wagon itself on to the raft. As the car begins to float away, Mario and Luigi jump on to it, just as the Doomship begins to drop Bob-ombs downwards. Up on the Doomship, Bowser, Bully, Kootie Pie and Cheatsy Koopa are all overseeing the attack on the station wagon. Suddenly, Bully notices Mario and Luigi riding the top of the car, while Kootie Pie also notices that the aliens they are attacking look like humans. After Kootie Pie and Bully mention these oddities to Bowser, he assumes that the evil aliens have taken on a human form to trick Mario and Luigi into helping them and also orders that Chain Chomps will be launched from the Doomship.

At Bowser's command, four Chain Chomps are launched from the cannons of the Doomship and are sent plummeting downwards into the river below. Landing at the bottom of the river, the Chain Chomps stretch upwards and deflate the raft the station wagon is on with their teeth, causing it to slowly deflate and sink. As the raft begins to go underwater, the Chain Chomps grab its tires in their mouths and begin to tug it underwater quicker. As the family roll up the windows of the car, Mario and Luigi slide off it and fall into the water. Swimming through the river, both Mario and Luigi see a Treasure Chest; and as Mario rummages through the chest, throwing away several useless objects, Luigi alerts him to an approaching Bloober Nanny and her swarm of Baby Bloobers. Eventually finding a pair of Frog Suits in the chest, Mario and Luigi put them on and begin to swim away from the Bloober Nanny, Baby Bloobers and a recently appeared Jelectro. As they swim, Mario and Luigi manage to defeat these sea creatures by tricking them into crashing into things, such as a stone wall and each other.

After defeating two Baby Bloobers, Mario swims to the surface and after hitting a few ♩ Blocks, finds a Starman, which Mario grabs and turns invincible with. Going back underwater, Mario grabs the Chain Chomps and tears them off the tires of the station wagon and throws them away, allowing the station wagon to float back to the surface. Unfortunately, the station wagon is grabbed by a large magnet lowered by the Doomship, which begins to tow the car and the family inside, to Castle Koopa, leaving both Mario and Luigi to watch them go in shock.

At Castle Koopa, Bowser and the Koopalings are beginning an interrogation of the confused family. Bowser's command for the family to change to their true forms, horrific alien monstrosities, only confuses the family more and prompts Norman to begin trying to question and threaten Bowser. Kootie Pie, becoming annoyed, tells Bowser that the aliens are still trying trick them by staying in Human form; Kooky reassures Kootie Pie and Bowser though, saying that he can get all the information needed from the family by using his new Transmutational Brainwave Analyzer, which can scan the families' minds and reveal their plans of conquest, which can then be used by Bowser to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom; the magnitude of Kooky's actually causes Bowser to cry tears of joy at how proud he is of Kooky. In his lab, Kooky has hooked the family to bizarre helmets which are connected to a machine, which deposits a paper which Kooky grabs. As Kooky begins to look at the paper, Norman, somewhat hysterical, demands answers and that he and his family be set free. As Norman continues to yell at Kooky, a nearby wall is blasted apart by Mario and Luigi, who have donned Raccoon Suits.

As Mario tells Luigi to turn-off Kooky's Transmutational Brainwave Analyzer, Mario begins to free the family from the restraints keeping them in place. After Luigi finishes kicking several levers on the Transmutational Brainwave Analyzer, Mario tells Norman and his family to follow him to their car. At the Warp Zone tunnel, Mario and Luigi tell Norman to just keep driving straight ahead and he and his family should be back on Earth. Thanking Mario and Luigi for all their help and asking them to come see them if they ever come to Wichita, the family leaves through the Warp Zone. The Mushroom boy from before, having seen them leave, begins to run and yell to everyone nearby that the "aliens" have left.

At Castle Koopa, Bowser is telling the Koopalings that it doesn't matter if the aliens are gone and says that Kooky got all their plans. Kooky, somewhat embarrassed, tells Bowser that the aliens weren't actually aliens; they were just humans who were traveling to Wild Waldo’s One-of-a-Kind Amusement Park. This revelation causes Bowser to angrily shout who caused this alien panic in the first place. The Koopalings, not wanting to get blamed, proceed to point to one another and yell "He did!", which causes Bowser to slap himself in the face in frustration.

In Kansas, Norman and his family are driving down a road when Missy quickly asks Norman "Are we there yet?", which causes Norman to slap his own face in frustration as well.

Animation and Continuity errors

 * The young Mushroomer is wearing purple overals with a lilac shirt. When he falls in the water, the shirt turn purple. When he spies the family from behind a hill, he has no sleeves and his shirt turns lilac.When he asks for help, the overalls and the shirt turn into an only piece of clothing colored purple.
 * Oddly, Bowser refers to Kooky as Kootie Pie when inquiring how he can learn the secrets of the aliens. Also, Cheatsy's head and hair color continues to shift in color throughout "Mush-Rumors".
 * When Kooky is telling his rather exaggerated story about aliens to Big Mouth, his head is not connected to his body.
 * When the family are in the Mushroom Kingdom, Bud says "This is cool", the background is the Mushroom Kingdom. However when Missy says "This is freaky", the background is the real world.
 * When Hip is saying the last parts in their sentence, he opens his mouth but Hop says it.
 * When Kootie Pie is telling Bowser about the "aliens", his wristbands become yellow spiked or black, as well regular to the other Koopalings' ones.
 * Norman's shirt changes from purple to yellow in the car, then pink at the end of the show.
 * When the Mario Bros. help up two Mushroomers that had fallen down, Mario's mustache is black. When Luigi asks if anyone had seen the aliens, Mario's mustache is brown. After that, it turns black again.

Quotes
Norman: We're sure not in Kansas anymore. Mushroom Boy: ALIENS! Mario: Sounds like you Mushroomers are spreading mush-rumors. Missy: Are we there yet? (Norman slaps his face in frustration) Missy: This is freaky. Bud: This is cool.

Trivia

 * The name "Mush-Rumors" appears to be a pun on the term Mushroomers. This is even referenced to in the episode, when Mario, doubtful of the stories of aliens, says "Sounds like you Mushroomers are spreading mush-rumors."
 * When Norman drives into the Mushroom Kingdom, he remarks "We're sure not in Kansas anymore", which is a reference to a similar quote from The Wizard of Oz.
 * When Hip and Hop put a mirror in the wall, the checkered ground reflection is a continuation of the real floor.
 * A family of three bearing a strong resemblance to Norman's without Missy can be seen in the Super Mario World episode Rock TV. Bowser spies on them watching Wheel of Fortune in a flashback.