Little Red Riding Princess

"Little Red Riding Princess" is the forty-fourth episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!. Its corresponding live-action segment is "No Way to Treat a Queenie".

Plot synopsis
Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad have traveled to the Mushroom Woods during the winter season to visit Princess Toadstool's sick grandmother. To deal with the cold weather, Mario, Luigi and Princess Toadstool are wearing earmuffs, a scarf and a red hood respectively. However, Mario remarks that King Koopa has his own agenda, which will assumedly provide problems for them down the road.

The group soon arrives at a nearby village in the woods, where Princess Toadstool locates the cottage of Pine the woodcutter. She then comments that her grandmother's cottage is not much further past the village. Despite Princess Toadstool's eagerness to continue, Mario points out that they need to head indoors to warm up by a fire, since the cold air may freeze them. Arriving at Pine's cottage, nobody answers the door after Princess Toadstool knocks on it. Discovering that the door is unlocked, the group enters and discovers that Pine and his family have been encased in shells of ice. Princess Toadstool tells Mario to build a fire, but Mario realizes that there is no firewood available. Toad then grabs an axe and runs outside, hoping to chop some wood himself.

Upon running outside, Mario's group is approached by King Koopa and two Koopa Troopas, all of whom are riding on snowmobiles. After King Koopa rudely greets Mario's group with delight, Princess Toadstool asks him if he was the one who froze Pine's family. Without answering Princess Toadstool's question, King Koopa pulls out a Bob-Omb and tosses it onto the roof of Pine's cottage. Upon blowing up the roof, the snow that was on it piles on top of Mario's group, trapping them. With his enemies trapped, King Koopa announces to his Koopa Troopas that they have more wood to steal and more Mushrooms to freeze, before they ride off on their snowmobiles.

After the Koopas leave, Toad pops out of the snowbank and mentions that since he did not freeze up, he will rescue his friends. Eventually, Toad manages to start a fire inside the cottage and succeeds in unfreezing his friends, along with Pine's family. Able to speak again, Pine explains that King Koopa stole all the villagers' wood, which they needed in order to keep warm. King Koopa's larceny reminds Princess Toadstool about her grandmother's safety, and she sets out to visit her. Mario, Luigi and Toad try to join Princess Toadstool, but she instead tells them to stay behind so that they can chop more wood and thaw out the rest of the villagers. Toad warns Princess Toadstool that the woods are unsafe, as the Big Bad Wolf lives there. Not afraid of any Big Bad Wolf, Princess Toadstool leaves the cottage.

After passing through the village, Princess Toadstool remarks that she needs to gather some wood for her grandmother before she freezes, and gathers several fallen sticks into her picnic basket. As Princess Toadstool continues through the woods, she is unaware of the fact that she is being spied on through a telescope by the Big Bad Wolf. The Big Bad Wolf notes that "Little Red Riding Princess" is on her way to grandmother's house, and intends to beat her there in his plan to eat her.

Meanwhile, King Koopa spots Princess Toadstool walking through the woods, and is upset that she has been defrosted. However, a Koopa Troopa reports to him that Princess Toadstool is alone, without anyone to protect her. King Koopa then states that he just needs to beat Princess Toadstool to Gramma's in order to trap her.

At Gramma's house, Gramma is cooking some soup over the fireplace, when the kindling suddenly burns out. With no fire to keep warm, Gramma starts shivering, and asks herself about what she will do when she runs out of wood. After removing the soup pot from the fireplace, Gramma is distracted by a knock on her heavily locked front door. Gramma asks who it is, and King Koopa answers that it's "Opportunity knocking". Gramma comments that she does not know anyone named Opportunity, and proceeds to unlock the door, while King Koopa pretends to be a good fellow. Upon opening the door, Gramma sees King Koopa, who has dressed up as a messenger and presents her with a telegram. Reading the telegram, Gramma discovers that she has won a year's supply of wood, and merely has to go to town to claim it. King Koopa pressures Gramma into leaving, but she tells him that an elderly woman like herself cannot walk to town in the cold. King Koopa responds by lending her his snowmobile, which she surprisingly knows how to drive, and drives off with.

After Gramma drives off, the Big Bad Wolf reaches her cottage, nearly out of breath. He then sneaks into the cottage through a window, only to discover King Koopa, who is now wearing in Gramma's nightgown and is pretending to be asleep in her bed. King Koopa and the Big Bad Wolf startle themselves, and ask each other as to what they are doing at Gramma's house. When they both learn that they are both setting a trap for Princess Toadstool, they snarl at each other, until King Koopa orders several Koopa Troopas to enter the cottage, tie up the Big Bad Wolf, and get rid of him. As the Koopa Troopas carry off the Big Bad Wolf, he tells King Koopa that he is making a big mistake, but King Koopa disregards his comment and climbs back into the bed.

Princess Toadstool soon reaches the cottage and upon knocking on the door, King Koopa tells her to enter. Upon hearing King Koopa's voice, Princess Toadstool assumes that Gramma's voice is off and believes that she is not sounding too good, and enters the cottage. Hiding under the bedsheets, King Koopa pretends to greet Princess Toadstool, who has not figured out who he really is. Princess Toadstool questions what a strange voice "Gramma" has, and he responds with the line "The better to talk to you with, my dear.". Princess Toadstool then questions "Gramma" about her big snout, and King Koopa nearly blows his cover, before answering with "The better to smell the goodies with.". When Princess Toadstool questions Gramma about her big teeth, King Koopa jumps out of bed, and reveals himself to Princess Toadstool, stating that his teeth are better for eating her with.

King Koopa chases Princess Toadstool around the cottage, and she manages to avoid him for a while, until she crawls under the bed, giving King Koopa the chance to grab her as she comes out on the other side. Princess Toadstool scolds King Koopa for breaking into Gramma's house and wearing her clothes, only for King Koopa to admire how the nightgown looks on him in the mirror. Princess Toadstool asks King Koopa how her basket of goodies would look on him, and proceeds to toss it onto his foot, hurting it.

In the village, Gramma has arrived at Pine's cottage, where she is explaining to Pine that her telegram says that she won a year's supply of wood. When Pine tells Gramma that they barely have any wood at all, she asks herself as to who would pull a prank like that on someone like her. Mario, Luigi and Toad then return with some more wood, and answer that King Koopa would, just to lure Gramma out of her cottage. Gramma then realizes that it was so that King Koopa could capture her granddaughter. Mario tells Gramma to stay behind, while they head to her cottage on her snowmobile.

Back at the cottage, King Koopa is still chasing Princess Toadstool around a table, and points out that their chase is going nowhere. Princess Toadstool asks King Koopa if he is giving up, to which he answers that a Koopa does not give up, and instead calls for reinforcements. As King Koopa shouts out the window for a Koopa Pack attack, Princess Toadstool uses the opportunity to escape from the cottage. King Koopa chases her, but she slams the gate in his face to buy herself some time as she runs into the woods.

Princess Toadstool soon comes across the river at a point where stepping stones provide the only way across. Stepping onto one of the stones, Princess Toadstool soon discovers that it's actually the oxygen tank of King Koopa's, who had hidden in the river wearing a wetsuit to ambush her. King Koopa tells Princess Toadstool to surrender, but she instead shoves the mouthpiece of his oxygen tank into his mouth and cranks up a valve, causing his body to inflate and float into the air. As Princess Toadstool runs off, King Koopa pulls the mouthpiece out of his mouth, allowing the excess oxygen to deflate from his body, which in turn causes him to fall down into the snow, ahead of Princess Toadstool.

King Koopa leaps in front of Princess Toadstool and prepares to grab her, when the crack of a plumber's snake and Mario's voice startle him. King Koopa grabs Princess Toadstool, and tells Mario to put his plumber's snake away. Mario instead lassos onto King Koopa's leg with his plumber's snake, and knocks him onto his back. At that moment a trio of Koopa Troopas arrive on snowmobiles, one of which is carrying Gramma, who has been tied up. Princess Toadstool tells King Koopa to let her grandmother go, but he instead grabs her and hitches a ride on one of the snowmobiles as they drive off.

Mario, Luigi and Toad follow the snowmobile tracks to a cave, which Luigi fears might be the cave of the Big Bad Wolf. Entering the cave, the trio discover the three snowmobiles belonging to the Koopa Troopa, which they proceed to hijack and drive further into the icy cave with.

Deep inside the cave, King Koopa has Princess Toadstool and Gramma tied up together in a lair where he has stashed all the stolen firewood. As King Koopa sits down on his throne, a wolf taps his shoulder and growls at him. Several more wolves approach King Koopa, who scare him into giving up his two captives to them, before he retreats out of the cave. Mario then reveals to Princess Toadstool and Gramma that the wolves were merely costumes that he, Luigi and Toad wore to scare King Koopa, and they proceed to take them off and untie the girls. The Big Bad Wolf then picks up the wolf skins, stating that he'll need to send his spare winter coats to the cleaners. Princess Toadstool then tells the Wolf that he is not such a Big Bad Wolf after all. The Wolf states that while he is still big and bad, he does not like having King Koopa invading his territory. Before leaving, the Big Bad Wolf tells Princess Toadstool to ditch her red hood, as it is not safe to wear in the woods.

Later, in the village, the wood has been returned to Pine's cottage, where all the villagers have gone to replenish their supplies. Pine then thanks Mario's group for recovering the stolen wood, stating that it should last the villagers through to the end of winter. Gramma then tells Princess Toadstool that while she enjoyed having her visit, that next time, she should come and visit her instead. Everyone laughs, and Princess Toadstool responds by giving Gramma a kiss.

Cast

 * Lou Albano &mdash; Mario
 * Danny Wells &mdash; Luigi
 * Jeannie Elias &mdash; Princess Toadstool
 * John Stocker &mdash; Toad
 * Harvey Atkin &mdash; King Bowser Koopa, wood shop owner
 * Diane Fabian &mdash; Gramma
 * Rob Cowan &mdash; Big bad wolf

Animation and continuity errors

 * In the last scene, Mario and his two friends are using their wolf costumes, but four wolves are seen. Possibly the fourth wolf is the Big Bad Wolf, but erroneously drawn without his clothes.
 * Albeit putting sticks and twigs in her basket, small wooden planks fall out of Princess Toadstool's basket when she hurls it at King Koopa's foot.
 * The top of King Koopa's forehead mixes with the base of his nightcap as he is confronting Toadstool.
 * Although King Koopa is donning a wetsuit and a nightgown when he captures Gramma Toadstool, his outfit reverts to his original appearance when the camera is focused on Gramma.
 * This also happens again when he is chasing Toadstool through the woods, where his goggles mysteriously vanish as he emerges from the trees.
 * As the Koopa Troopa's capture the Big Bad Wolf and hold him, the wolf is noticeably hovering for a few frames above the first Koopa Troopa.
 * Although the snow is blasted in front of the door on the woodcutter's house, it has shifted to the side when the scene changes.
 * Even though King Koopa masquerade's his oxygen tank as a stepping stone,it first appears as a ordinary rock in the river.
 * The number of stones in the river continuously changes throughout the scene.
 * The water from the river's current does not splash onto and around the stone that Koopa was covering to trick Princess Toadstool.
 * After the door is barricaded by the snow drift, one of the escaping Koopa Troopas quickly raises his hand for a frame as he races away.
 * As the Bob-Omb is tossed through the air at the snow piled up on the house, it has white feet instead of the usual black.
 * As Princess Toadstool darts under the bed to avoid King Koopa, the bed is messy (from when Koopa leaped out of it), the bed is tidy when King Koopa apprehends the princess.
 * King Koopa's nightcap inconsistently becomes bigger than usual in some scenes.
 * Although Princess Toadstool threw her basket on King Koopa's foot and broke it, the next scene with them running around the table and Koopa calling for reinforcements show her holding the basket around her arm and in perfect condition. It disappears when she flees from the house and it stays that way during the whole episode.

Profiles

 * WildBrain - Cartoon Super Heroes/Super Mario Bros. Super Show! - WildBrain: Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad have traveled to the Mushroom Woods during the winter season to visit Princess Toadstool's sick grandmother.
 * Netflix: In true big, bad wolf style, Koopa preys on the Princess when the Marios travel to Winterland to visit the Princess's grandmother.

Trivia

 * This was the last episode to be produced, although it does not serve as a series finale of any sort.
 * The entire episode is a parody of the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood".
 * Mario and Luigi wear the same scarves and earmuffs from "The Bird! The Bird!."
 * At one point, Princess Toadstool asks "Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" in reference to the song of the same title from the classic 1933 Silly Symphony The Three Little Pigs.