Misadventures in Babysitting

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode
"Misadventures in Babysitting"
Production number	108
Airdate	October 20, 1990 (English) September 27, 1991 (French)
Writer(s)	Doug Booth
Opening curtain	Grass Land
Featured song	"Sizzle"
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"Misadventures in Babysitting" is the fourteenth episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. It aired alongside another episode entitled "A Toadally Magical Adventure." This episode is one of the few episodes where Princess Toadstool, Toad, and King Koopa do not appear. It is also the only episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 where the Koopas are not last seen failing or lamenting their failure. The title of the episode is a reference to the movie Adventures in Babysitting.

Plot synopsis

The episode begins in the living room of a Brooklyn home, where the mom and dad, who are getting ready to go out for the night, are waiting for a babysitter to arrive to look after their son, Junior, who breaks two vases and lets the family cat take the blame.

At that moment, Mario and Luigi come out of a Warp Pipe underneath the kitchen sink and realize that they must have taken the wrong pipe. When Mario looks out the window, he sees the Brooklyn Bridge in the background, and realizes where they now are.

Mario and Luigi are then spotted by the mom, who assumes that they are Junior's babysitters. Mario and Luigi are unable to talk their way out of babysitting Junior and the parents, who are desperate to get going, hire the pair on the spot. They ask that Junior take a bath before they return. As soon as the parents leave, Junior asks if they can play hide and seek. The Mario brothers barely agree when Junior says they are "it."

Junior crawling under the sink.

Junior goes to hide under the sink and crawls into the Warp Pipe, which warps him to the Mushroom Kingdom, where he takes an instant liking to the bizarre atmosphere of the place. Several Boomerang Brothers. attack Junior with a boomerang, but Junior manages to catch it, throw it, and slice a tree in half with it, which crushes the attackers. Junior is then spotted by Kooky von Koopa, Bully Koopa, and Cheatsy Koopa. When they learn Junior was hiding from the Mario Bros., they convince him that they are his friends, since they are all enemies of the Mario Bros.

Mario and Luigi arrive in the Mushroom Kingdom to look for Junior and hear him calling for help. They see Junior riding piggyback on Bully's back and assume the Koopas have abducted him, although it was just a ploy to lead them to some attacking Ptooies, which they have to fight off.

Junior asking the Koopalings if their plot is just for fun.

The Koopalings use Junior to lure Mario and Luigi inside a volcano, where they trap them behind rocks and boulders in a cave. However, Junior starts to worry when Kooky prepares to flood the cave with lava using a special pump, as he just wanted to play around with the Mario Bros., not to actually harm them. Annoyed with Junior's complaining, the Koopalings toss him down a pipe, warping him to the Pipe Maze.

Stranded in the Pipe Maze, Junior soon finds himself having to avoid Thwomps, Boo Diddlies, and a Boom Boom. Now that he is lost, Junior is desperate to return home.

Luigi scaring Boo Diddlies.

Meanwhile, Mario and Luigi escape from the rising lava by chiseling away at the wall. They then flee the volcano and spy upon the Koopalings laughing about what they just did. Mario realizes that Junior was used by the Koopas. The Bros. warp to the Pipe Maze, and deal with the enemies by dodging the Thwomps and stomping on the Boom Boom. Luigi then startles the Boo Diddlies by making a surprisingly scary face at them.

Meanwhile, Kooky starts to flood the Pipe Maze with lava, forcing the inhabitants, the Mario Bros. and Junior to flee. Mario and Luigi both find Super Leaves, transforming them into Raccoon Mario and Raccoon Luigi. They then grab ahold of Junior and fly into a Warp Pipe to escape from the lava, returning to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Mario points out that the volcano is about to erupt, so he, Luigi, and Junior set up a boulder on a makeshift catapult out of a tree. They then use the catapult to launch the boulder at the volcano's summit to plug it, stopping the lava.

Junior's mom pleased to see Junior taking a bath.

At that point, Luigi points out that Junior's mom and dad will be home in fifteen minutes, so the group warps back to Junior's house. Just as they do, Junior's mom and dad get back. Since Junior's mom wanted Junior to take a bath, Mario and Luigi scramble to get Junior upstairs and into the bathtub, just before his mom enters the bathroom. Mario and Luigi still have their raccoon ears and tails when they return to Junior's home, so they splash themselves with suds to hide their appearance.

Junior's mom is so pleased that Mario and Luigi managed to get Junior to take a bath, that she asks them if they had be willing to babysit the following Friday. Junior is pleased with this, but Mario and Luigi are less than enthusiastic.

Cast

• Walker Boone — Mario
• Tony Rosato — Luigi
• Harvey Atkin — Dad
• James Rankin — Cheatsy Koopa
• Dan Hennessey — Bully Koopa, singer #1
• Michael Stark — Kooky von Koopa
• Gordon Masten — Singer #2
• Paulina Gillis — Female singer
• Catherine Gallant — Mom
• Stuart Stone — Junior

Animation and continuity errors

• In the original version, when Bully says that the lava will finish the Mario Bros. and Junior, his voice is deeper than normal.
• At the beginning of the episode, the lenses in the glasses on Junior's father briefly disappear.
• When Junior balances the vases on his head, the vases flash.
• When the vases shatter on the floor, the shards are blue, but in the next scene, they turn green like the carpet.
• When Junior's parents notice the vases shattering, the bracelet on Junior's mother is missing.
• At the beginning of the episode, the Warp Pipe under the sink is vertical, but when Junior enters it, it is horizontal.
• In several scenes, Mario's hair is colored black like Luigi's instead of brown.
• When Junior's mother is glad that the Mario Bros. have arrived, her dress turns completely light-green.
• When Junior's mother enters the living room when she is leaving, Mario is briefly layered over some stairs.
• In several scenes, Junior has four fingers on each hand instead of five.
• When Junior says that he and the Mario Bros. should play hide-and-seek, the background is the kitchen instead of the living room.
• As Junior runs off to explore the Mushroom Kingdom, he is briefly layered over a stalk.
  • In the same scene, the Boomerang Bros are colored like Hammer Bros, but revert to their original coloration in the next shot. When the tree falls on them, they are colored like Hammer Bros again.
• After Junior says that the Mario Bros. will never find him in the Warp Pipe, his mouth moves, but no sound can be heard. This also happens when Kooky says he is filling the cave with lava.
• When Bully introduces himself, his shell turns completely white.
• When Junior tells the Koopalings to fool the Mario Bros, the spikes on Cheatsy's shackles are missing.
• When Cheatsy says that this could be the start of a new friendship, his eyes overlap his snout.
• When Junior asks if he should yell again, his eyebrows disappear.
• When Mario and Luigi see the Ptooie, its head is green instead of red. This happens again a few scenes later.
  • In the same scene, Mario says "Ptooies" despite only one being present.
    • Additionally, there are no branches on the ground, but when it starts shooting Spike Balls at them, some branches appear.
• When Junior is thrown into the pipe, his shirt covers his undershirt.
• When escaping the volcano, Mario escapes without any problems, but Luigi becomes stuck, despite being thinner than Mario.
• When the Koopalings laugh after throwing Junior into the Pipe Maze, the lava in the pond is light-blue instead of orange.
• When the Mario Bros. start flipping towards the Boom Boom, Mario disappears into thin air.
• When Kooky says he is filling the cave with lava, he is layered over some pipes, and shortly after, Bully is layered over Cheatsy while the rim of his shell turns the same color as his body.
• When Kooky talks to his brothers about filling the Pipe Maze with more lava, Bully's shell is green instead of pink.
• When Mario and his friends see lava in the Pipe Maze, Luigi is briefly layered over a wall.
• When Luigi grabs a Super Leaf, his hair disappears.
• After Junior gets hit with debris, the debris briefly disappears.
• When Mario says that they have to plug the volcano, the screen freezes for a few seconds.
• When Raccoon Mario jumps on the boulder, the "M" on his cap is white instead of red.
• When Mario moves the boulder onto the catapult, it scrapes against wood, but the sound is that of it scraping against metal.
• After Mario plugs the volcano, Luigi's sideburns disappear briefly.
• When Mario says Junior is not bad for a first-time plumber's helper, Luigi does not have a watch, but in the next shot, a watch appears.
• When Mario and his friends run to the bathroom, the house's furniture is missing.
• When Mario and Luigi enter the bathroom, Mario is colored like Luigi.
• When Mario places Junior into the bathtub, Luigi disappears for a few frames.

• 

  The incorrect background

• 

  Bully's miscolored shell

• 

  Mario's miscolored clothes

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Chinese (simplified)	做保姆时的不幸遭遇 Zuò Bǎomǔ shí de Búxìng Zāoyù	Misadventures in Babysitting
Dutch	Oppas avonturen	Babysitting Adventures
French	Les mésaventures des baby-sitters	Misadventures of baby-sitters
German	Schlechter Umgang	Bad Handling
Italian	Mario e Luigi babysitter	Mario and Luigi babysitter
Korean	말썽 꾸러기 아기보기 Marsseong Kkureogi Agi Bogi	Troublemaker Baby Bogeymen
Polish	Nie fortunni opiekunowie	Babysitters' misfortunes
Portuguese (NOA)	Aventura com Babá	Adventure with Babysitter	TV dub
	As Super Babás	The Super Babysitters	DVD dub
Spanish	Desventuras de unas niñeras	Misadventures of some babysitters
Spanish (NOE)	Desventuras de cuidar a un niño	Misadventures in looking after a child	original dub

Trivia

• Mario's line about how he and Luigi "are plumbers, not babysitters" may be a reference to the famous "I'm a doctor, not a..."-catchphrase used by McCoy in Star Trek. This would later be referenced again in the episode "Crimes R Us."