The Unzappables

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode
"The Unzappables"
Production number	136
Airdate	October 25, 1989 (English) November 22, 1990 (French)
Writer(s)	Perry Martin
Plumber's Log #	1929
Cover song(s)	"Beat It"
Replacement song(s)	"Burn Baby Burn"
Title reference	The Untouchables
Live-action segment	George Washington Slept Here
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"The Unzappables" is the thirty-first episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!. Its corresponding live-action segment is "George Washington Slept Here".

Plot synopsis

Dressed up as gangsters, Mario and his friends attempt to enter the Koopa Klub.

Mario and his friends have traveled to Crime Land during the midst of the city's worst crime wave ever, which has been caused by King Koopa, who is now going by the alter ego of Al Koopone. Stepping out of a taxi, Princess Toadstool questions as to why the city is called Crime Land, due to the lack of action. At that moment, they notice Mouser, Koopa Troopa and Tryclyde, now wearing business suits and fedoras, exiting a bank with sacks of money and violin cases.

Mario suggests that they should stop the Koopa Pack, and chase the criminals back to their car. Mario threatens the Koopa Pack by announcing a citizen's arrest, but they instead reveal the Snifits hiding inside their suitcases, which fire bullets at Mario's group. Mario's group manages to dodge the bullets by ducking, although the Koopa Pack eventually retreats into their car and drive off. Princess Toadstool then comments that she's certain that the crooks are obviously working for Al Koopone. Mario then decides that they need to teach Al Koopone that crime does not pay.

Meanwhile, at a soda bar called the Koopa Klub, Al Koopone comments that the place is perfect for his new headquarters. Sitting at the desk in his office with his feet raised, Al Koopone content that Mario's group won't be able to get inside. The Koopa Pack then enters Al Koopone's office, carrying several stacks of pink boxes. Tryclyde informs Al Koopone that the boxes are his latest order from the Gangster Supply Store, much to his delight. Al Koopone orders his henchmen to place the boxes down, but they all stumble over and fall, revealing the hats that had been inside them. Koopa Troopa isn't very impressed by the hats, but Al Koopone informs him that they are magical, and orders the Koopa Pack to wear them. Al Koopone then pulls a Snifit out of his violin case and fires at the frightened Koopa Pack, only for the bullets to ricochet off of them unscathed. Al Koopone laughs that his new hats work, as they make the wearer invulnerable to any attack. He then tells the Koopa Pack to get ready for an upcoming Koopa caper.

Back on the streets of Crime Land, Mario reads on a wanted poster that Al Koopone is public enemy number one. Princess Toadstool mentions that if they ever hope to catch him, they'll need to know what his next caper will be, but Toad comments that nobody in town will tell them, as they are all to scared to squeal on Al Koopone. Mario claims that they need a stool pigeon, and is called over by a voice from a nearby alley. Luigi points out that they've been called by a Stool Pigeon, and they all run over to him. The Stool Pigeon agrees to tell the group what the caper will be, provided they pay him. Toad pulls out a bag of chicken feed, prompting the Stool Pigeon to reveal that Al Koopone will be robbing the First Mushroom Bank.

"Al Koopone"

At the First Mushroom Bank, Al Koopone and the Koopa Pack barge in through the front door, threatening to shoot all the Mushroon People inside with Snifits. After Mouser intimidates the citizens, he notices the bank's vault. Al Koopone pulls out a limbless Bob-Omb and bowls it down towards the vault door, blasting it open, and sending the Gold Coins within flying across the room. Before the Koopas can react, Mario's group exits from the vault, startling them. Al Koopone asks Mario's group to do their worst, prompting them to toss Vegetables at the Koopas. When the Vegetables all bounce off the Koopas due to their Unzappable Hats, Mario attempts to attack Al Koopone with his plunger, but instead gets thrown back by the power of the hat. Al Koopone then orders Mario's group to raise their hands in the air, and upon being asked by Mouser as to what they should do with their hostages, tells Mouser to take them for a ride.

Some time later, now atop bridge over a river, Al Koopone and the Koopa Pack stand before Mario's group, who have been fitted in cement shoes and tied up in rope. Princess Toadstool demands to be freed, but Al Koopone mocks her plea. Toad comments that his cement shoes are hard to walk in, and asks for someone to take his off. Koopa Troopa offers to help, but Al Koopone angrily grabs him, stating that Mario's group is supposed to drown in the cement shoes, not walk in them. With that, Al Koopone kicks Koopa Troopa and sends him flying across the city. Al Koopone then pulls a lever, opening a trapdoor in the bridge that Mario's group falls through.

Mario's group sinks to the bottom of the river, where Luigi complains to Mario that he's gotten them into yet another fine mess. Mario then notices a glimmer and directs his friends' attention over to a nearby Starman lying on the floor of the river. Mario forces himself to fall down face first next to the Starman, and manages to grab it with his mouth. Using the Starman's power, Mario powers up into Super Mario and manages to burst out of his cement shoes and rope. Taking on the pose of a baseball pitcher, Mario simultaneously tosses three fireballs at the cement shoes of his friends, freeing them. Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad then manage to untangle themselves from their ropes, just as Super Mario's power's wear off. Princess Toadstool then demands to her friends that they get back at Al Koopone and they all swim up to the surface.

Mario's group later arrives outside the Koopa Klub, where Mario announces that he will get them all inside the place. Mario, Luigi and Toad, dressed as gangsters, along Princess Toadstool, dressed like a showgirl, approach the front door of the Koopa Klub and knock. Opening a lookout window, Mouser asks the group for their identity. In a scratchy voice, Mario tells Mouser that they are Aface and his gang. Mouser then asks them for the password, but none of them know what it is. Fed up with their slow response, Mouser shouts that it is "cheese balls". Using this information, Mario tells Mouser the password, and he foolishly allows them to enter the Koopa Klub.

Toad realizing that this place is amazing.

Inside the Koopa Klub, Mario and his friends take a look around. A Koopa Troopa is serving three drinks to Tryclyde at the soda bar, while an Ostro and Birdo couple dance to music played by a Shyguy on double bass, Goomba on piano and Pidgit on saxophone. After Toad admires the place, Mario comments that they need to find out where the Unzappable Hats are being held. Princess Toadstool then notices the coat check room and suggests that they check it out. Mario's group then sneak into the coat check room and take out the Koopa Troopa that's guarding the place. Removing their disguises, Mario and his friends each don an Unzappable Hat and prepare to face Al Koopone.

Sitting at a table, Al Koopone asks himself the question "Who says Koopa Crime Doesn't Pay?". Mario answers the question by saying that his group does, much to Al Koopone's annoyance. Al Koopone then orders the Koopa Pack to attack them with their Snifits, but the bullets do no damage whatsoever. Mario and his friends then toss several Vegetables against the crossfire of the bullets at the Koopas, causing Al Koopone to hide behind a turned table and cower. The Vegetables eventually hit Mouser, Koopa Troopa and Tryclyde, knocking them all aside. Princess Toadstool then grabs the soda sprayer from the soda bar and uses it to blast away the band. Al Koopone tries to make a break for the exit, but Mario jumps in front of him, telling him to give up. Al Koopone then pulls out a Magical Potion and tosses it, creating a door which he enters to escape from the Koopa Klub via a Warp Zone. Luigi is mad that Al Koopone got away, but Mario points out that at least he's finally gone from Crime Land.

Having taken off their Unzappable Hats, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad exit the Koopa Klub, and fret over the fact that they've been unable to find Mario. From atop a ladder, Mario calls down to his friends and announces that he's changing the name of the Koopa Klub since they've chased Al Koopone from Crime Land. Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad ask what the new name is, and climbing down the ladder, Mario turns on the new sign he set up, revealing that the new name is Mario's Pasta Palace. Mario then mentions that up until this point that Crime Land didn't have a single Italian restaurant, which in his belief, really was a crime.

Characters

• Mario
• Luigi
• Princess Toadstool
• Toad
• Al Koopone
• Mouser
• Tryclyde
• Koopa Troopas
• Snifits
• Bob-Omb (limbless)
• Ostro
• Birdo
• Shyguy
• Goomba
• Pidgit
• Mushroom people
• Stool Pigeon

Cast

• Lou Albano — Mario
• Danny Wells — Luigi
• Jeannie Elias — Princess Toadstool
• John Stocker — Toad, Mouser, Koopa Troopa, man
• Harvey Atkin — King Bowser Koopa, Tryclyde

Gallery

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  Concept art

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  Concept art

Animation and continuity errors

• Princess Toadstool erroneously refers to the coat check room as the hat check room.
• When Luigi thought they robbed the bank, Mouser is saying the words from his mouth.
• Luigi's gloves first appear to be orange as he, Mario, Toad, and Princess Toadstool go incognito to infiltrate the Koopa Club, but become white when Mouser requests the password, and revert back to orange when a frustrated Mouser tells them the password.
• Although all the coins were blasted from the bank vault toward the Koopa Pack, the coins are scattered everywhere when Mario's gang enters the crime scene.
  • After the smoke clears, the coins appear to be coming out of thin air.
• As Mouser, Koopa Troopa, and Tryclyde bombard Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad with Snifit bullets, Tryclyde's mouth is unexplainably vibrating.
• Albeit stashing bags of coins in the getaway car, none are seen when the vehicle drives up close to the screen.
• The light on Al Koopone's desk vanishes before he tests the power of the Unzappable Hats on Mouser, Koopa Troopa, and Tryclyde.
• The flyer that says Al Koopone is public enemy #1 lacks detail after the screen zooms out as the gang wonders of his whereabouts, next it completely vanishes when Mario suggests they ask a stool pigeon for assistance, and finally it reappears without detail once the stool pigeon beckons the gang to come to him.
• When the stool pigeon grabs the bag of chicken feed from Toad, the bag is completely empty (the pigeon did not eat any from it when Toad offered it to him), and later appears to be full of feed again
• When Al Koopone prepares to "bowl" the Bob-Omb into the bank vault, all three of Tryclyde's heads have orange eyes
• The woman in the bank has different eyes before the robbery occurs, having almost human-like eyes before gaining Koopa Troopa-like ones.
• It is not clear how the Bob-Omb could explode if it was never lit before Al Koopone bowled it.
• When Al Koopone tells the Koopa Pack to take Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad, one of Tryclyde's heads is lacking visible eyes.
• The bridge is much larger than in context when the screen shows a bird's eye view of Crime Land.
• Before Al Koopone pulls the lever to drop Mario's gang into the river, there is no "space" where the lever can shift up or down.
• When a bewildered Mario is reminded that there's a password for the Koopa Klub, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad are not shown.
• As the gang ponders about the Koopa Club's password, Princess Toadstool is blinking unusually fast until the shot switches to Mouser.
  • Also in that same shot, Luigi's neck kerchief is flashing.
• The Goomba playing the piano vanishes for s frame then reappears as the gang examines the Koopa Klub's interior.
  • The Goomba is also much larger than normal when the camera is zoomed-out, being about as big as the Pidget, but when the screen zooms in on the Goomba, it is much smaller, only about half the size of the piano's upper panel.
    • The Pidget playing the saxophone is also a much lighter shade of blue when seen from a distance.
      • The bass playing Shyguy loses its right leg whenever it plucks a string.
• The Koopa Troopa running the coat room dons a maroon suit before it is plundered by Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad and tied up, where it is completely naked until the gang takes their disguises off, where the Koopa Troopa now has a light purple suit for the shot, then becomes naked again when Princess Toadstool remarks "Now we're The Unzappables!".
• In some versions of the episode, the audio becomes much more muffled after Mario answers Al Koopone's comment right before the battle starts.
• When the battle begins, Mouser's sunglasses are flashing as he uses the Snifit as a machine gun.
• When Al Koopone first pulls out the Magical Potion, the "rim" around the top of the vial is the same color as the cork, but when he lobs it at the wall, it becomes its original colors.
• The leaf of the door (the hinged wood) vanishes when Al Koopone flees into the Warp Zone.
• When Luigi laments that Al Koopone has escaped into a Warp Zone, the diner in the background is ironically completely clean, despite the large battle that just took place.

Profiles

• Netflix: Crime reigns on the mean streets of Mobsterland, where the evil gangster Al Koopone lords over the quaking residents of the city.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
French	Le Gros Corruptible[?]	The Big Corruptible
Italian	Gli invulnerabili[?]	The invulnerable
Spanish (NOA)	Los invencibles[?]	The Invincibles

Trivia

• The name "Unzappables" is based on the real-life law enforcement agents "the Untouchables", who were famous for bringing down Al Capone, a powerful criminal from the Prohibition Era. Similarly to how the Unzappable Hats make their wearers immune to attacks, the Untouchables' nickname was derived from their refusal to take bribes from mafiosi like Capone.
• This episode and "Rolling Down the River" are, for unknown reasons, not included in the Australian box set.