Life's Ruff

Life's Ruff is the twentieth episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3; it aired alongside another episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 entitled "Crimes R Us".

Plot Synopsis
Luigi has arrived at the castle of King Windbag in Ice Land. As Luigi enters the dining room, he believes he's being yelled at by King Windbag, and ducks from a cooked turkey that had been thrown in his direction. Luigi then realizes that King Windbag had been bossing his servant around. Right after he properly greets Luigi, King Windbag bluffs about how the floor is dirty, and orders his servant to mop it up.

Luigi tells King Windbag that he'd been sent over by Princess Toadstool so that he could try to make him less of a bully. King Windbag thinks Luigi is bluffing, then pulls out his Magic Wand and threatens to shoot his servant, demanding for him to serve him a cooked duck. As the servant runs off, King Windbag comments that a dog would make a better servant. Overhearing this comment, the servant tells himself that he might as well be a dog due to King Windbag's harshness.

As the servant walks off, Hip and Hop Koopa, who had been hiding behind a pillar, get an idea upon hearing the servant complain, noting that Bowser had told them to follow Luigi so that they could cause trouble for him. After King Windbag yells for his duck, the servant returns with a covered plate, only to be tripped by Hip. While Hip puts on the servant's hat, Hop hides on the covered plate.

When Hip enters King Windbag's throne room disguised as the servant, Hop leaps out from under the covered plate and steals King Windbag's wand from out of his hand. As King Windbag tries to get his wand back, Hop throws it over to Hip, who uses it to transform the king into a bulldog. Luigi tries to take the wand back from Hip, but Hip throws it to Hop, who in turn uses it transform Luigi into a gray mutt.

With King Windbag and Luigi as dogs, the two of them chase Hip and Hop out of the castle and down several flights of stairs to the ground. A Ptooie pops out of a Warp Pipe and tries to shoot Luigi, but it misses. Luigi chases Hip and Hop up onto some platforms, but is assaulted by a Lakitu that throws a Spiny at him. As Hip and Hop climb into a pipe, Hop knocks him back with the wand before they go down it. Left with no other options, Luigi and King Windbag follow Hip and Hop down the pipe.

At the other end of the warp, Luigi and King Windbag find themselves crawling out of a manhole in the Real World, more specifically, Miami, Florida. The two of them hide in the manhole as a trackless train drives over their heads, and when they come out again, Luigi spots Hip and Hop riding on the back seat.

Following the train to a gated hotel, Luigi tells King Windbag to wait for the gate to open for the next car, so that they can run inside with it. King Windbag huffs about how royalty never runs, but he goes along with Luigi's plan. When the train pulls up at the hotel, Hip and Hop steal the hats off of the two ladies sitting in front of them, and run inside, where they smell food. Luigi notes that dogs aren't allowed inside, and decides to sneak in through a dining room window.

Hip and Hop reveal themselves by throwing all sorts of food around the room from a buffet table. As King Windbag jumps onto the table, he crashes into a bowl of lobsters which pinch his body, as Hip and Hop flee. Before the dogs can chase Hip and Hop into the next room, the dog catcher (whose name is Herman) shows up. Herman chases Luigi and King Windbag upstairs, where they jump out of a window, and down a slide into the pool. After crossing the pool, King Windbag gets captured in Herman's net. Luigi chases Hip and Hop to a sports car in the parking lot, but he too is captured by Herman.

While Hip and Hop go for a joyride in the sports car, Luigi and King Windbag are thrown into the back of Herman's truck, where King Windbag and Luigi comment that they'll never get Windbag's wand back and that they'll be stuck as dogs permanently, and be unable to return home. While Hip and Hop drive off, they listen to a report on the radio about a space shuttle launch at the Kennedy Space Center going on the next day, and decide to visit it.

Meanwhile, Herman brings Luigi and King Windbag to the Florida State Poochitentiary, where they're sentenced to a kennel with several other dogs. When King Windbag tries to bully one of the dogs around, he counters Luigi's bickering by stating that he's a king. Luigi tells King Windbag that if they work with the dogs, they can form a pyramid to reach the air vent on the ceiling. Because the dogs won't obey the rude King Windbag, Luigi politely tells them what to do, and then gets a reluctant King Windbag to stand at the bottom of the pyramid. As Luigi makes his way through the vent, another dog's tail causes King Windbag to sneeze, collapsing the pyramid.

Luigi travels through the vent to Herman's office, where the dog catcher is asleep in front of the TV. As Luigi climbs down from the vent on a hanging light wire, a news flash appears on the TV. The reporter is on the highway, where she gives an emergency report about a sports car rampaging through Florida to the Kennedy Space Center, just as Hip and Hop drive past her.

The light that Luigi is on falls down from the ceiling, and hits Herman's head, waking him. As Herman tries to grab Luigi, Luigi leaps onto the control panel, and unintentionally releases all the dogs in the building. As Luigi slips out of Herman's office, Herman grabs him by his tail. However, Herman lets go as all of the dogs come running over him. When Luigi meets up with King Windbag, they run outside, hijack Herman's truck, and drive off.

Later, outside the Kennedy Space Center, Luigi and King Windbag are unable to get over the surrounding fence by jumping. King Windbag points out that they should dig, seeing as how they're dogs now. Meanwhile, as a group of astronauts make their way to the space shuttle, Hip puts the two in the back to sleep with the wand, allowing him and Hop to change into their suits, just as Luigi and King Windbag come out on the other side of the fence.

Luigi and King Windbag are startled by Herman, who tries to catch them with a lasso. Luigi and King Windbag take care of Herman by running circles around him, and he gets tangled up in his rope, allowing them to chase after Hip and Hop. King Windbag tackles Hip and Hop, and stops them from boarding the elevator to the shuttle. As Hip drops the wand, Luigi grabs it and tosses it over to King Windbag.

With his wand back, King Windbag uses it to put all the humans nearby, including Herman, to sleep. He then restores himself and Luigi back into humans. As Hip and Hop try to run off, Luigi grabs them, while King Windbag creates a Warp Zone with his wand, which Luigi drops them into. Looking at Herman, King Windbag feels that he would be a kinder dog catcher if he knew what it was like being a dog, so he turns him into a yapping poodle for a few seconds. King Windbag then uses his wand to wake everyone up, and creates another Warp Zone that he and Luigi enter. As Herman wakes up, he can't believe the "nightmare" he just had, and proceeds to scratch his ear his foot.

Back at King Windbag's castle, King Windbag can be heard yelling "Duck!" to his servant. However, Luigi watches as King Windbag presents his servant with a cooked duck, along with mashed potatoes and peas. King Windbag winks to Luigi, as a reminder of what he learned on their adventure, and Luigi winks back.

Trivia

 * This is the only episode of any Mario cartoon that Mario doesn't appear in.
 * In addition to Mario, neither Bowser, Princess Toadstool nor Toad make an appearance, although Bowser and the princess are both mentioned.
 * This is the only episode of the Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 in which a Lakitu appears. (One was previously seen in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode "Mario and the Red Baron Koopa".)
 * The reporter on the TV mentions that Hip and Hop are driving a red sports car, even though the car itself is actually blue.
 * In one scene there is a Piranha Plant that shoots spikes, yet no such enemy appears in Super Mario Bros. 3 (or any Mario game for that matter).
 * This episode has a similar plot to Super Mario Bros. 3. Just as in the game, the King of Ice Land has his magic wand stolen and is turned into an animal, and a Mario brother has to get the magic wand back. The episode even features the same Koopaling who took over Ice Land in Super Mario Bros. 3, Lemmy Koopa, though in the game he wasn't accompanied by Iggy Koopa.
 * Toad's voice is used for the Servant's scream when Windbag zaps near his feet.