Recycled Koopa

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode
"Recycled Koopa"
Production number	124
Airdate	November 24, 1990 (English) November 22, 1991 (French)
Writer(s)	David Ehrman Sean Roche
Opening curtain	Dark Land
Featured song	"Smelly Town" "Slippin' and Slidin'" (Little Richard) (Italian version only)
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"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 serves as social commentary on pollution and the importance of recycling.

Plot synopsis

The episode begins at Kastle Koopa, as King Koopa marches Bully, Kootie Pie, Big Mouth, Hop, and Hip Koopa outside his castle, instructing them to clean up the assorted trash and garbage surrounding the castle, else they will not be allowed to perform any mischievous deeds for a week. As Koopa leaves, Bully quickly hops into a nearby hammock, telling the others to get to work. Angry at his slacking off, Big Mouth threatens to inform Koopa of Bully's procrastination, though he is unaffected. Just then, Kootie Pie picks up a tin can and tosses it aside, claiming she has broken a nail and is too magnificent to work anyway. Bully hears this and insults her, claiming he thought she was part of the garbage. Kootie retaliates, throwing a handful of sludge into his face. He proceeds to shake it off and picks up a Green Shell, tossing it at her though hitting Big Mouth. At this time, Koopa mentions he hopes they are busy cleaning up. Bully claims they are and proceeds tossing some of it into a Warp Pipe.

Bully getting rid of the trash.

Meanwhile, at Princess Toadstool's Castle, as Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool are walking in the garden, they are hit with the garbage falling out of an overhead pipe. Eventually, garbage stops spewing, though the garden is ruined. When the princess asks who would do such a thing, Mario picks up a statue of King Koopa in response. As they ponder what to do, Luigi sarcastically suggests using a magic wand to clear the rubbish. Mario declares this a good idea and decides to take the wand of one of the Koopalings. They then jump through the Warp Pipe to do so. Back at Kastle Koopa, the five aforementioned Koopalings show Koopa the completely cleared castle grounds, with both Big Mouth and Kootie Pie claiming they contributed the most. Suddenly, the group emerge from the Warp Pipe outside the castle as Koopa and the Koopalings chase after them. Luigi instructs them to hide in a suit of armor they pass. Not only is this successful, Mario is able to swipe Hip's wand as they pass.

As the group begins to flee from the castle, they are noticed by some of the Koopalings, who also notice Hip's wand being in their possession. Mario, Luigi, Toad and the princess all manage to collect Super Leaves from nearby blocks. With their newly acquired Raccoon Suits, they fly away into the distance, as Koopa decides to get his Doomship and follow them. Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool continue to fly through the air, as the Doomship has already caught up with them, firing Bob-ombs. After successfully nailing Luigi in the tail one, Koopa orders Para-Goombas to attack them. As Toad and the princess manage to evade and knock out two of them, they notice the garbage surrounding their castle has started to emit an odor they worry will spread to the rest of the kingdom.

As they land atop the garbage, Mario states an incantation which collects all of the garbage into a giant ball, though the wand is also absorbed. Mario attempts to grab the wand back and is stopped by Luigi, preventing him from getting sucked in as well. At this, the ball of garbage is launched out of the castle and completely onto the Doomship, weighing it down and crashing it along with all of the rubbish back at Kastle Koopa. Big Mouth attempts to parse the garbage as recent, though Koopa is not fooled, and instructs all of them to get rid of it once more, making sure it will not return.

Mario zapping away the garbage.

At Princess Toadstool's Castle, as Mario, Luigi, and the princess walk inside, she mentions she wonders whether they have learned their lesson from the experience. At this, Toad appears and gives Luigi his Plumber's Periscope, suggesting they check on Koopa to ensure this. Mario decides to do so, looking into the periscope through a Warp Pipe only to find Sledge Brothers tossing more boxes of garbage into the pipe. Mario concludes they have not learned after all and informs the others of this. The princess instructs them to go out and stop them while she and Toad stay to guard the castle. The brothers arrive just as Bully is instructing them to continue dumping the trash into the pipe, becoming exhausted from doing so. Mario and Luigi decide to look down the pipe to see where the trash is headed - however, they are accidentally dropped into the pipe by the Sledge Brothers, who do not notice them hidden among the trash in the boxes.

Falling out of the pipe, Mario and Luigi find themselves in Brooklyn. As litter continues falling from the skies, the brothers use trash can lids to shield themselves as panicked citizens pass by. It is then Luigi notices a tail resembling that of Koopa's around the corner. As he and Luigi yank the tail, however, they discover it is not Koopa himself, rather a lookalike in business attire, who simply wanders away, moaning "Koopa" in a monotone voice. Seeing a nearby cab driver pick up some of the garbage and mutating into another lookalike immediately after, they realize the trash is turning the citizens into Koopa Zombies. They rush into the city hall of New York City for the mayor, only to realize he too is about to become a zombie. Upon realizing the trash can spread to all of the real world, the brothers hurry to clean it up.

While on the Doomship, Bully, Kootie Pie and Big Mouth inform Koopa of the power the garbage has on the inhabitants of the Real World. Big Mouth begin to rant about how the want Koopa to be their leader, only for him to have a can stuffed onto his head. As he struggles to remove it, Koopa orders them to continue dumping trash into the real world, which he intends to conquer. Upon arriving in the real world, King Koopa orders the zombie hoard to attack Mario and Luigi, as shown on a banner. To assist them in doing so, he dumps a load of garbage, along with certain weapons, such as Bloobers. The hoard proceeds to notice and chase after the brothers, alongside several other enemies, such as Bob-ombs, Dry Bones, and Firesnakes. A montage ensues in which the brothers are chased through various locations, Mario through a sewer and Luigi into the subway station. Both of them then hide in a pile of garbage, evading the hoard entirely.

Mario transformed into a Koopa Zombie.

After leaving the pile, Mario laments about Koopa, not realizing he has sprouted a tail resembling that of Koopa's. Luigi notices and informs him, to Mario's panic. Mario declares they must get rid of all the trash before he is completely transformed. Ruling out magic, the brothers agree on one solution. Meanwhile, Koopa begins to fire his Crud Cannon to launch garbage all over Brooklyn atop his Doomship, hovering over the Statue of Liberty, modified to resemble him. As the cannon spews rubbish throughout the city, various creatures are transformed (turning birds into Paragoombas and fishes into Spiny Cheep Cheeps), including Mario, while he and Luigi are working on their Trash Smasher. Before Mario is completely transformed, he asks Luigi to complete the Trash Smasher.

The Statue of Liberty commenting on Mario and Luigi.

With the Trash Smasher complete, Luigi boards the cockpit and proceeds to vacuum garbage throughout the city, recycling it into new appliances while reverting the residents to their human selves, including Mario. However, this appears to be for naught as Koopa resumes dumping garbage over Brooklyn. Determined to stop him for good, the Trash Smasher is modified to fly, allowing Mario and Luigi to board it and chase after the Doomship. They are successfully able to chase him out of Brooklyn, as the regular State of Liberty comments "Those Mario brothers are super!", this ending the episode.

Cast

• Walker Boone — Mario
• Tony Rosato — Luigi
• Tracey Moore — Princess Toadstool, Statue of Liberty
• John Stocker — Toad
• Harvey Atkin — King Bowser Koopa, zombie #2, zombie #3
• James Rankin — singer #1
• Dan Hennessey — Bully Koopa, zombie #1, zombie #4, singer #2
• Gordon Masten — Big Mouth Koopa, mayor, singer #3
• Paulina Gillis — Kootie Pie Koopa, female singer

Animation and continuity errors

• 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 word, 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. Furthermore, Big Mouth's mumbling while the can is on his head 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.
• Mario has black hair when running away from the Koopalings.
• Luigi is harmed by a bomb while in Raccoon form, but does not lose his Raccoon powers like he should.
• When Luigi cleans up all the trash, Mario's tail does not disappear until he turns so it can be seen.
• At some points, King Koopa's snout flashes light green.
• When Mario is turned back to normal, he still has a tail for a few seconds.
• When Kootie Pie says that cleaning the garbage is no job for her, her shell is green.
• Shortly after the gang returns the garbage to Koopa, Luigi is seen turning light green to green.
• When a Koopa Kid is seen on Luigi's periscope the Koopa Kid next to them cannot be seen; they reappear when they speak, but disappear again afterwards.
• As King Koopa is instructing the Koopa Kids to clean up the garbage at the beginning of the episode, Bully's head turns backwards for a few seconds then becomes normal.
• After King Koopa and his Koopalings were chasing Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad, who hid behind a knight, they were trying to look for them, but then only Hip and Hop were shown following King Koopa.
• When King Koopa puts the can on Big Mouth's head, Bully and Kootie Pie disappear.
• When Hip, Hop, Big Mouth, Kootie Pie, and Bully are marching at start of the episode, Hop's hair is yellow and his glasses lens are the same color as his head.
• This also happens when Bully is on the hammock.
• When King Koopa is walking away at the beginning of the episode, Big Mouth and Hop's bodies are both dark orange, also Hop's glasses lens turn blue.
• When Bully says "We're on it, King Dad!!!" Kootie Pie is shown worried.
• In the same scene, Bigmouth’s star is not on his face.
• When the episode first shows Princess Toadstool's castle, a dot appears.
• When Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad are walking through Princess Toadstool's garden, the warp pipe is shown purple, but in the next shot, it is shown grey.
• In several shots, Dark Land's sky is shown a like normal blue sky.
• When King Koopa spots Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad, Big Mouth and Bully are strangely going up and down while the latter is shown with dark skin.
• When Hip and Hop are running after King Koopa, Hop's hair is pink.
• In some shots, Hip's wand changes color.
• In some shots, Mario is not shown holding Hip's wand.
• When the Doomship was chasing Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad, the parts on the Doomship were shown floating.
• In the Italian dub, most of the Smelly Town instrumental is replaced with the instrumental for Slippin' and Slidin', with only the first three seconds remaining.
• When Mario was sending the trash back to King Koopa, Princess Toadstool's broach was colored incorrectly.
• When the trash was back at Castle Koopa, Big Mouth's star was white.
• When Mario, Luigi, and Princess Toadstool were walking, Luigi's hat and overalls were flashing.
• When Luigi got his periscope, Mario's "M" was really thin.
• In some shots of this episode, Mario and Luigi have no symbols on their hats.
• When the trash is falling from the sky in Brooklyn, Mario and Luigi are shown on the sidewalk, but in the next shot, they are shown in the street.
• On the screen in the Doomship, the Koopafied people are walking forward, but in the next shot, they are shown going backwards.
• When Mario is swimming in the sewers, the Koopafied person squirts two Bloopers out of his bottles, but when Mario goes in the pipe, three Bloopers are shown.
• The Koopafied person chasing Luigi through a rooftop has a red hat and a black suit, but when he lets Firesnakes out of his briefcase, his hat and suit are black.
• After Mario grows a Koopa tail, the screen is shaking.
• When the scene starts with the Doomship parked at the Koopa designed Statue of Liberty, the lever for the Crud Cannon is all orange, but in the next shot, the top is blue.
• When the Crud Cannon turned the birds into Para-Goombas, it was grey, but when it turned the fish into Boss Bass, it was orange.
• The chains on the Koopafied Mario just appear out of nowhere.
• The spikes on the chains of the Koopafied Mario are orange, but when he gets Unkoopafied, they are white.
• When Luigi says "Hey! Now you're being recycled!!" His mouth was not moving.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
German	Wohin mit dem Schrott?	What To Do With The Scrap?
Italian	Attila riciclato	Recycled Koopa
Portuguese	A Reciclagem de Koopa	Koopa's Recycling
Romanian	Koopa reciclat	Recycled Koopa
Spanish (NOA)	Recicla Koopa	Recycle, Koopa
Spanish (NOE)	Koopa reciclado	Recycled Koopa

Trivia

• The taxi cab driver's appearance bears a very close resemblance to the one from "Flatbush Koopa".
  • The "Statue of Kooperty" previously appeared in "Flatbush Koopa".
• In the original NBC airings, Big Mouth narrates the teaser promo saying, "Trash problem? What trash problem? We have took all the toxic Koopa trash, and dumped it into a Warp Zone! Into Brooklyn! Right on the Mario Brothers' heads! What a way to conquer the world!"