Mario and Joliet

Mario and Joliet is the twenty-third episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!. Its corresponding live-action segment is "Fake Bro". "Mario and Joliet" is a clear parody of the tragic play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare; who the episode's Plumber's Log, 1601, also references, as 1601 was the year William Shakespeare wrote another one of his plays, Hamlet. Additionally, the title and ending of this episode are unique, resembling an advertisement of sorts for a play.

Plot Synopsis


In the Land of Romance, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool, who had been called to the Land of Romance by a friend of Princess Toadstool, are currently trapped in a rapidly crumbling build by several Snifits, half of whom are wearing red, the others wearing blue, who are shooting explosive projectiles at each other. As the Snifits continue to blast surrounding buildings with their exploding missiles, several Beezos appear and begin to swoop downward at Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool, who quickly run away into a nearby hole in the ground, causing the Beezo to miss impaling Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool with their spears.

As the Beezos fly away, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool stick their heads out of the hole they are in, with Princess Toadstool stating that she needs to find her friend Joliet and discover what is causing all these reported feuds in the Land of Romance. As Mario, Toad and Princess Toadstool leave the hole they are in, Luigi decides to stay in the hole, only to be scared from it by having a wayward Snifit's missile almost hits him and by having a large amount of dusty debris fall on him.

After digging himself out of a pile of dusty debris, Luigi catches up to Mario, Toad and Princess Toadstool, only to discover that Mario, Toad and Princess Toadstool are all in an alley, which leads to a dead-end. At this dead-end, Luigi suddenly points out an Albatoss carrying a Bob-omb, which is rapidly approaching him, Toad, Mario and Princess Toadstool. Swooping downward, the Albatoss drops the Bob-omb it is clutching right on top of Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool; before the Bob-omb hits Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool though, the ground beneath them opens up, dropping Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool into the sewer below the street.

Getting up, off the floor of the sewer as explosions echo above him, Mario says that he, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool only narrowly manage to escape disaster that time. Evidently hearing Mario, Joliet and her fiancée, Romano, who are nearby, reveal themselves to Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool. Seeing Joliet and Romano, Princess Toadstool asks them what is going on in the Land of Romance, only to get the response from Joliet that she and Romano were going to get married, until King Koopa came to the Land of Romance and started a feud between her and Romano's fathers, making them hate oneanother. Hearing Joliet and Romano's story, Princess Toadstool decides that, as the official princess of both Joliet and Romano's fathers, she could order them to stop their feud.

Sometime later, Toad, after moving a tile in the ceiling of the sewer, is raised above to the streets of the Land of Romance by Mario and Luigi; on the streets of the Land of Romance, Toad sees that the red and blue robed Snifits are still battling eachother. Accidentally falling back into the sewer and on top of Mario and Luigi, Toad tells Princess Toadstool that the Snifits are still battling eachother. Hearing Toad say this, Princess Toadstool has Mario and Luigi give her a boost to the streets of the Land of Romance, where Princess Toadstool, upon landing on the ground, whistles for both the red and blue robed Snifits to stop battling oneanother.

As the Snifits stand in place, muttering to themselves in a confused manner, two men, carrying shields, which they drop, exit buildings opposite oneanother. Asking the two men to see Joliet and Romano's fathers, Princess Toadstool learns that the man commanding the blue robed Snifits is Romano's father, while the man commanding the red robed Snifits is Joliet's father. Angered that his battle against Joliet's father has been interrupted, Romano's father, after introducing himself, sarcastically asks if Princess Toadstool actually is Princess Toadstool and gets the response from Toad that she is.

After Toad introduces her, Princess Toadstool tells Romano's father and Joliet's father that Romano and Joliet love oneanother and wish to get married. Repulsed by Princess Toadstool saying this, both Romano's father and Joliet's father refuse to allow Joliet and Romano to marry, only to be told by Mario that Princess Toadstool wasn't suggesting that Romano and Joliet be allowed to marry, she was ordering that they be allowed to marry. After Mario states this, Princess Toadstool makes a decree stating that the feud that is occurring is officially over and that Romano and Joliet are going to be married. As the Snifit minions of Joliet's father mull over this decree, Princess Toadstool orders Romano's father and Joliet's father to shake hands, which the two hesitantly do, each one trying to crush the other's hand by squeezing it.

Elsewhere, in a castle, King Koopa begins to be enraged by the sight of Romano's father and Joliet's father, who he is watching through a mirror, shaking hands. After realizing that Princess Toadstool was the one who stopped Romano's father and Joliet's father from feuding, King Koopa pulls a lever on his mirror, which shows his reflection, which actually begins to talk on its own. King Koopa's reflection begins to tell King Koopa that he has to stop the wedding of Romano and Joliet, which reminds King Koopa that, if Romano and Joliet manage to marry, his war profiteering scandal will be ruined, with King Koopa being unable to sell Snifits, Albatosses and Bob-ombs to Romano's father and Joliet's father. Eventually, after some talking with his reflection, King Koopa is told by his reflection that he could maybe kidnap Joliet and blame Romano's family as the kidnappers of Joliet, an idea which King Koopa agrees to be brilliant.

In a church, Toad, opening the door to her room, greets Joliet and tells her to hurry in her preparations, saying the wedding will happen soon. As Joliet begins to sing to herself while gazing in the mirror and holding her bouquet of flowers, an Albatoss suddenly swoops into the room through a nearby window. Seeing the Albatoss approaching, Joliet begins to panic while Toad attempts to battle the Albatoss, only to be knocked to the floor. As Joliet runs from the Albatoss, she is grabbed by the talons of the Albatoss, who hastily begins to leave through the window it came in. As the Albatoss furiously flaps its wings and soars away with Joliet, Toad makes an attempt to tackle the Albatoss, only to fall on his face and be left to watch as the Albatoss flies away with the captive Joliet.

In the main hall of the church, Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, Romano's father, Joliet's father, as well as their Snifit soldiers, all are waiting for Joliet to appear with Romano. Suddenly, Toad rushes into the church's main hall and informs everyone present that Joliet has been kidnapped. Hearing of his daughter's abduction from Toad, Joliet's father begins to accuse Romano's father of being the one to have kidnapped Joliet. These wild accusations soon cause Romano's father to begin to bicker with Joliet's father; this bickering eventually escalates into a fight, which in turn, leads to Romano's father and Joliet's father to order their Snifit minions to begin to attack.

As the Snifits begin to shoot barrages of explosives, Toad, Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Romano can only watch as the church begins to crumble from being hit by wayward projectiles. As the Snifits battle, Toad begins trying to convince Romano's father and Joliet's father to stop their Snifit minions, saying that the battle between the Snifits could cause the church to collapse on top of everyone; Romano's father and Joliet's father simply ignore Toad though, being to engaged in battle to notice him yelling. As the church crumbles and Luigi begins to panic, Romano quickly grabs the handle of a trapdoor on the ground and pulls, opening the trapdoor. As Romano holds the trapdoor's lid open, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Mario and Luigi quickly jump into the hole beneath the trapdoor's lid, with Romano following them. Just as Romano falls through the trapdoor, a large amount of debris falls on to the trapdoor's lid, burying the trapdoor. In the sewers beneath the Land of Romance, Romano tells Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool that Joliet must be rescued and begins to contemplate who could have kidnapped her, only to be told be Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool that it must have been King Koopa who did it.

At King Koopa's castle, Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and Romano are disheartened to see that the drawbridge of the castle is up and that the castle's moat is filled with voracious Trouters. Getting an idea on how to cross the Trouter infested moat, Mario jumps on a nearby pile of logs, knocking them loose. Rolling on top of these logs, Mario manages to use them as stepping stones to cross when they crash into the moat. Using the logs to pass the moat and reach King Koopa's castle, Mario tells Luigi, Princess Toadstool, Toad and Romano to use the logs as stepping stones to reach King Koopa's castle as well. Doing as Mario says, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Luigi and Romano use the logs as stepping stones, unfortunately, only Princess Toadstool, Toad and Luigi reach King Koopa's castle, with Romano having fallen off the logs and into the moat. Flailing around in the water of the moat, Romano sees a Trouter quickly approaching him and Romano, in a panic, manages to narrowly avoid the Trouter and hop on several nearby logs, which he uses to reach King Koopa's castle.

As Romano rejoins Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and him, Mario congratulates Romano on having reached King Koopa's castle; after Mario congratulates Romano though, a net is suddenly dropped from the sky by an Albatoss, who uses its net to capture Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and Romano, who they Albatoss begins to fly upwards with.

In the dungeon tower of King Koopa's tower, Joliet begins to wonder and ask where Romano, only to get the response from King Koopa that he is right there; after saying this, King Koopa has Grunt, his Super Troopa assistant, throw Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and Romano into the tower dungeon with Joliet. After Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and Romano are thrown into the tower dungeon, King Koopa and Grunt, who King Koopa has charged with guarding Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Romano and Joliet, leave. As Romano and Joliet kiss, Mario and Luigi watch as Grunt lifts a set of heavy weights and begin to wonder how they will escape Grunt. Hearing Mario and Luigi's concerns about how they will get past Grunt, Toad gets an idea and has Mario lift him to the barred window of the dungeon tower's door. Peering through the window, Toad begins to taunt Grunt, saying that he doesn't look to strong. As Grunt continues to lift a set of weights, Toad ridicules him, saying he has seen a Koopa Troopa lift twice as much as Grunt. Lifting two sets of weights, Grunt is tricked into lifting a third weight with his mouth by Princess Toadstool; as Grunt struggles to hold the weights in his hands and the one in his mouth, the floor beneath him begins to crack and eventually collapses under the combined weight of Grunt and the heavy weights he is holding. With Grunt having fell through the hole he made in the floor, Mario tells Toad his idea was great, but goes on to say that Grunt was the one who had the key to the door he, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Romano and Joliet are stuck behind.

As Joliet absentmindedly plucks some of flowers from her bouquet, Princess Toadstool suddenly notices that Joliet's bouquet is composed entirely of Fire Flower. After hearing Princess Toadstool say this, Mario grabs Joliet's bouquet and immediately transforms into Super Mario. Now more powerful, Mario blasts the door keeping him, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Romano and Joliet captive with a fireball, destroying it. Now free from their imprisonment, Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Romano and Joliet quickly begin to descend a nearby staircase, only to encounter King Koopa and his Koopa Pack, which consists of several Koopa Troopas. Seeing Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Romano and Joliet, King Koopa instantly orders his Koopa Troopa followers to attack. As the Koopa Troopas approach him, Mario tells Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Romano and Joliet to finds another way to escape King Koopa's castle as he fights the Koopa Troopas. With the Koopa Troopas quickly approaching, Mario attempts to blast them with several fireballs, only for the Koopa Troopas to remove their shells and use them as shields against these fireballs.

Realizing his fireballs are ineffective against the Koopa Troopas, Mario, after shooting one more explosive fireball, flees up the stairs, at the top of which, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Romano and Joliet in the process of lowering a door on to a pair of weights. After setting this door on the weights, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Romano and Joliet rush forward on the vehicly they have created as Mario continues to run from the Koopa Troopas. Just as Mario loses his Super Mario form, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Romano and Joliet come careening down the stairs and their vehicle, which Mario jumps on to. After narrowly crashing into several Koopa Troopas, Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Romano and Joliet encounter King Koopa, who begins to run from them. Reaching a nearby lever, King Koopa pulls it, which causes the draw bridge of his castle to begin to raise. Before the draw bridge rises completely, Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Romano and Joliet ride up it and use it as a ramp for their vehicle to leap across the Trouter infested moat. As Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool, Romano and Joliet ride away, waving to him, King Koopa is left to only roar in frustration atop his castle.

Back in the ruined church of the Land of Romance, Princess Toadstool is just finishing pronouncing Romano and Joliet husband and wife. After Romano and Joliet kiss, both Romano's father and Joliet's father shake hands and claim that Romano and Joliet's happiness mattered more than their pointless feud. Hearing Joliet's father and Romano's father state this, Mario, Luigi and Toad say that in the end, everything worked out; its only after Mario, Luigi and Toad state this that they notice Romano's father and Joliet's father fighting once more, this time, over who Romano and Joliet will live with. Eventually, this fight escalates into a new feud and both Romano's father and Joliet's father begin a food fight, throwing several nearby pizzas at oneanother. As Romano's father and Joliet's father fight, Mario, who has a large amount of spaghetti on his head, can only stand nearby, saying that this is his kind of feud, before eating some spaghetti taken from on top of his hat.

Animation and Continuity error

 * When first seen, the Snifits working for Romano's father are depicted as wearing blue robes, instead of red ones.

Trivia

 * Official summaries of the episode refer to Romano as Romero.
 * This episode has a different title design unlike other episodes, making it the only episode to have that feature.