Recycled Koopa

"Recycled Koopa" is the twenty-fourth episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3; it aired alongside another episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 entitled "True Colors". The episode is a social commentary on pollution and the importance of recycling.

Plot Synopsis
At Castle Koopa, King Koopa himself is in the middle of marching Bully, Kootie Pie, Big Mouth, Hop and Hip Koopa outside of his castle, which is surrounded by assorted trash and garbage. While the Koopalings stand at attention, Koopa informs them that, unless they get rid of all the junk surrounding the castle, they will be banned from doing anything mischievous for an entire week.

As Koopa leaves the Koopalings, Bully, not wanting to work, jumps into a nearby hammock and begins to relax, telling the others to start cleaning. Big Mouth, angered by Bully's display of laziness, begins to bad mouth him and threaten to tell Koopa on him, which Bully is completely indifferent to. As Big Mouth and Bully argue, Kootie Pie picks up an old tin can, only to throw it away, claiming she's broken a nail and also exclaiming she's too magnificent to be doing any kind of work. Hearing Kootie Pie's complaints, Bully approaches her and insults her, claiming she isn't beautiful and that he thought she was a part of the garbage. Kootie Pie, highly offended, subsequently throws a handful of cold sludge on Bully's face, to which Bully retaliates to by trying to hit Kootie Pie with a nearby Green Shell, only to hit the nearby Big Mouth instead. As a dazed Big Mouth shakes his head, Koopa's voice echoes from nearby, telling the Koopalings that he hopes they're getting rid of the junk around the castle. Hearing Koopa, Bully claims that they are and begins throwing trash into a nearby Warp Pipe.

At Princess Toadstool's Castle, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool are walking in the castle's garden; as they walk, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool find themselves bombarded with a stream of garbage, which is being dumped from a nearby Warp Pipe. Eventually, garbage stops pouring from the Warp Pipe and, as Princess Toadstool inquires as to who would pour garbage into a beautiful garden, Mario finds a statuette of Koopa, inscribed with the sentence "World's Repulsivest Reptile," in a garbage pile. As Mario surmises that Koopa is behind this garbage dumping, Princess Toadstool laments that all this garbage could choke the life out of the Mushroom Kingdom. Hearing Princess Toadstool, Luigi asks what they should do and sarcastically suggests using a Magic Wand. Thinking Luigi's comment to be a good idea, Mario formulates the plan of obtaining a Koopaling's Magic Wand and using it to send all the surrounding garbage back to Castle Koopa. After explaining this, Mario, along with Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad, jump into the Warp Pipe that the deposited the garbage.

Back at Castle Koopa, Big Mouth, Bully, Kootie Pie, Hip and Hop are in the midst of showing King Koopa that they got rid of all the garbage, with both Big Mouth and Kootie Pie claiming that they were the ones to get rid of the most trash; as Koopa tells Kootie Pie and Big Mouth that he doesn't care who got rid of the most garbage, he notices Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool exit a nearby Warp Pipe and quickly orders the Koopalings to capture them. Fleeing from Koopa and the Koopalings, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool enter the castle; inside, Luigi notices a large suit of armor and tells Mario, Toad and Princess Toadstool to hide behind it with him. Doing so, the group goes unnoticed by Koopa and the Koopalings, with Mario grabbing Hip's wand as he passes by.

With Hip's Magic Wand in their possession, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool flee from the castle, only to be noticed by Koopa, Bully and Hip, who also notice Mario is clutching Hip's Magic Wand. As Bowser, Bully and Hip chase them, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool, who, after finding some Super Leaves in some Brick Blocks and a Jump Block, gain Raccoon Suits and quickly fly away. Seeing the group flying into the distance, an enraged Koopa exclaims that he will get his Doomship and hunt them down.

In the Mushroom Kingdom, which has multiple, large piles of trash covering it, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool continue to fly through the air, only to notice the Doomship, which is shooting volleys of Bob-ombs, is chasing them. After successfully hitting Luigi with a Bob-omb, Koopa orders his Paragoomba minions to attack them; after he and Princess Toadstool dodge a pair of Paragoombas, Toad notices that the trash that has been dumped in Princess Toadstool's garden has begun to emit a horrible smell, which is beginning to spread to the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom, which Princess Toadstool believes will be decimated by the horrid odor of Koopa's garbage.

As King Koopa, through a megaphone, orders Mario to give back Hip's Magic Wand, claiming it's rightfully his, Mario, after saying he will, says an incantation and and zaps the nearby garbage in Princess Toadstool's garden with the wand. After being zapped, the garbage begins to be sucked together into a giant ball, which also absorbs the Magic Wand after pulling it out of Mario's hand. After reaching its maximum size, the ball of garbage flings itself at the Doomship, hitting the vessel with enough force to fling it all the way back to Dark Land. After his Doomship and the ball of garbage crash into his castle, King Koopa, digging himself out of a pile of waste, instantly tells the nearby Big Mouth to shut up when the talkative Koopaling begins to say how neat all the garbage is, not realizing it is the same garbage from before. After quieting Big Mouth, Koopa tells him and Roy to get rid of the garbage again and to this time, put it somewhere where it won't come back.

In Princess Toadstool's Castle, Mario, Luigi and Princess Toadstool are going on another walk, with Toadstool saying she hopes Koopa learned his lesson about keeping his garbage to himself. As the princess says this, Toad suddenly appears, carrying a box with Luigi's Plumber's Periscope in it. After Luigi grabs the periscope, Toad says that he should check up on King Koopa, which Mario proceeds to do, using Luigi's Plumber's Periscope to look into a nearby Warp Pipe which leads to Castle Koopa. Through this Warp Pipe, Mario sees several Sledge Brothers unloading boxes of garbage into a nearby Warp Pipe, as Bully, Kootie Pie and Big Mouth sit nearby. After retracting Luigi's Plumber's Periscope, Mario informs Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool that the Koopalings are unloading their trash into someone else's land now. Hearing Mario say this, Princess Toadstool tells him and Luigi to go and stop the Koopalings, while she and Toad stay behind to guard the Mushroom Kingdom.

At Castle Koopa, Bully, after directing Sledge Bros. to dump garbage into a Warp Pipe, yawns and exclaims that its hard work ordering the Sledge Bros. around. Nearby, Mario and Luigi, from behind a heap of trash, decide to look into the Warp Pipe to see where all the Koopaling's garbage is being dumped. Hiding in some boxes of garbage, Mario and Luigi are accidentally dropped into the Warp Pipe by some Sledge Bros.

After being deposited from the Warp Pipe, Mario and Luigi find themselves in a garbage filled street, which Mario instantly recognizes as being a part of Brooklyn. As litter falls from the sky, Mario and Luigi grab a pair of trashcan lids and use them as makeshift umbrellas. Looking around, Luigi sees what appears to be the wriggling tail of King Koopa sticking out from behind a corner; rushing to this twitching tail, Mario and Luigi grab onto it and begin tugging on it, only to notice that the tail isn't attached to Koopa, rather a lookalike wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase. As Mario and Luigi stare, shocked, at this Koopa doppelgänger, the creature, apparently not noticing Mario and Luigi, wonders away, moaning in a monotone voice.

Afterward, Luigi, seeing a nearby cab driver touch some of the Koopaling's garbage and mutate into a Koopa lookalike, realizes that all of the Koopaling's trash is changing people into Koopa Zombies. The brothers rush to the city hall of New York City, where the mayor, who Mario and Luigi believe can help them, resides. Reaching the door of the city hall, Mario and Luigi are shocked to see that the mayor of New York has been changed into a Koopa Zombie, who quickly flees the scene and joins his zombified brethren. Realizing that the mutating trash of the Koopalings can spread to all of Earth, Mario and Luigi begin to collect with plungers and bags.

Elsewhere, on the Doomship, Bully is pointing out to King Koopa the various, chanting zombies on the Doomship's monitors. Seeing the zombies, Big Mouth begins to rant about how they want Koopa to be their leader, only to be quieted by Bowser, who stuffs a can on Big Mouth's head. As Big Mouth struggles to remove the can from his head, Koopa orders him, Bully and Kootie Pie to continue dumping garbage on Earth, which he intends to conquer.

Having travelled to Dark Land in his Doomship, King Koopa, through a megaphone, orders the zombies, after showing them a picture of Mario and Luigi, to attack them; to aid the zombies in their mission, Koopa opens a hatch on his Doomship and dumps a load of garbage and weaponry (as well as Bloobers) on them. Noticing Mario and Luigi nearby, the zombies charge after them, while unleashing various monsters, such as Bloobers, Fire Snakes, Bob-ombs and Dry Bones; after being chased through the sewers and across a rooftop, Mario and Luigi manage to escape the attacking zombies by hiding in an alley, under some garbage.

After leaving the pile of garbage, Mario says that this is another fine mess Koopa has gotten him and Luigi into. As Mario says this, Luigi notices that Mario has grown a Koopa tail, which a shocked Luigi reveals to Mario, who instantly begins to panic. As Mario exclaims that they need to get rid of all the garbage in Brooklyn, Luigi asks him how, saying when magic was used, the garbage only came back worse; after Luigi says this, Mario gets an idea, which Luigi seems to get as well.

At the Statue of Liberty, which has been warped to resemble King Koopa, Koopa, aboard his Doomship, has begun to use his new Crud Cannon to launch garbage all over Brooklyn, as he plans to strike Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx next; as the Crud Cannon spews garbage everywhere, mutating humans into Koopa Zombies, gulls into Paragoombas and fish into Spiny Cheep-Cheeps, Mario and Luigi work frantically on their Trash Smasher. As he works on the Trash Smasher, Mario is hit by a wayward ball of garbage, which fully mutates him into a Koopa Zombie. Before his transformation is complete, Mario tells Luigi that he has to finish constructing the Trash Smasher.

After escaping from a crazed, zombified Mario, Luigi enters the cock pit of the Trash Smasher and uses it to suck up all the garbage in Brooklyn, which the Trash Smasher recycles into new appliances and turning passing Koopa Zombies back into people. After passing by Mario with the Trash Smasher, returning him to normal, Luigi exits the device and greets Mario; unfortunately, Luigi's trash cleaning efforts appear to be in vain, as Koopa simply begins to dump more garbage from his Doomship on to Brooklyn.

Deciding to stop Koopa once and for all, Mario and Luigi enter the Trash Smasher, which, after sprouting helicopter blades, takes flight and begins to fly towards the Doomship. Seeing Mario, Luigi and the Trash Smasher approaching, Koopa panics and begins trying to fly away in his Doomship, only to have Mario and Luigi catch up with him and begin to chase out of Brooklyn.

Animation and Continuity errors

 * Both Big Mouth and Kootie Pie disappear when King Koopa instructs them and Bully to continue dumping garbage on Brooklyn on the Doomship.
 * When King Koopa goes to the Doomship after Hip's magic wand is stolen the garbage is already back at his castle.
 * When the Koopalings are viewing what the garbage is doing to the real world, Big Mouth's head turns green.
 * When King Koopa leaves after ordering the Koopalings to clean up the garbage, Hop and Big Mouth become orange for a few frames.
 * Koopa's arm is orange when he puts the can on Big Mouth's head, and Big Mouth's mumbling afterwards is identical to the speech he gave when Bully laid on the cot.
 * Like in "7 Continents for 7 Koopas," Hop has Hip's hair when they first notice Mario, Luigi, the Princess and Toad.
 * Luigi is harmed by a bomb while in Raccoon form, but doesn't lose his Raccoon powers like he should.
 * When Luigi cleans up all the trash, Mario's tail doesn't disappear until he turns so it can be seen.
 * When King Koopa put a can in Bigmouth's head, his hand looks like a Koopaling's one.
 * At one point, Koopa's snout flashes bright green and then green.
 * When Mario is turned back to normal, he still has a tail for a few seconds