Episode 2: Butch Mario and the Koopa Kid
Live Segment
Mario and Luigi are in the middle of fixing a steam machine called the Steam-O-Matic for a customer, when the customer calls and demands some hot pizza to be ready when he comes and picks up his machine. Luigi rushes to cook some pizza while Mario climbs into the Steam-O-Matic to fix some inner parts. Finally, the customer arrives, and his name is Sergeant Slaughter. His personality is true to his name, because he starts ordering Luigi around to hurry up with the pizza and complains that his Steam-O-Matic is making funny noises. Luigi takes the pizza out of the oven and shows it to the sergeant, but he isn't satisfied so he makes Luigi drop and do 500 pushups! After that, they open the Steam-O-Matic and find Mario inside, and he's shrunken!Cartoon Segment
Non-Main Character Appearances: Pokey, Mouser, Snifit, Ostro, Tweeter, Koopa Troopa, Bob-ombSummary
Princess Toadstool has been kidnapped again! Mario, Luigi, and Toad are trekking across desert in search of her. They come upon a cactus that has a Wanted poster posted on it. Upon closer inspection, they discover that it's Mario and Luigi's pictures that are on the poster and there's a 10,000 gold piece reward for finding them! Toad wonders why Mario and Luigi would be considered as crooks, and Mario concludes that King Koopa is behind it.
Meanwhile, we see that Princess Toadstool is held deep inside a mine shaft by King Koopa and he has her locked up inside a cage. All she has to eat for the next week are three small beans.
As Mario, Luigi, and Toad near an Old West town, they encounter Mouser and his cronies of Snifits mounted on Ostros! Mouser wants the 10,000 gold pieces pretty badly so he goes after them, sending out his henchmen of Snifits. The Mario brothers and Toad run away, down the long descent into the valley, eventually losing the Snifit troops to a waterfall where the heroes easily cross but the Snifits end up falling to their deaths.
The three heroes then take the now-abandoned Ostros and ride the rest of the way into town, but Mouser has another trick up his sleeve. He sets up an explosion that causes a huge boulder to start rolling down the hill, and it starts chasing the brothers and Toad all the way into town. Mario suddenly notices a building with a sign that reads "FREE ITALIAN FOOD," so he quickly leads his gang into the building just seconds before the boulder rolls through. Unfortunately, upon entering the building, they realize that they have just walked into a trap, because King Koopa is waiting for them! King Koopa throws all three of them into a jail cell and locks them up. Resigned to being a prisoner for life, Toad plops onto the cot and mopes. Mario encourages him not to lose heart because he just came up with an idea. He and Luigi start crying out for water, and after awhile, Mouser comes into their cell with a cup of water, but then he just drinks it himself. Mario gets mad and swipes at Mouser, causing his ten-gallon hat to fall to the ground. While Mouser is scolding them, Toad quietly climbs under the hat and hides. Mouser then puts it back on with Toad in it and walks out. Now Mario and Luigi can only hope that Toad will get them out, too.
Mouser walks into a bar and removes his hat and places it on the floor. Then he orders a drink from the bartender and kicks his feet up to relax. Toad discreetly climbs out from under the hat and sees a bag full of Bob-ombs next to him. He grabs the bag and runs out the door before anyone sees him. Then he takes a Bob-omb out from the bag, lights it, and then throws it into the bar and runs away. The bar bursts into flames, no doubt destroying all of the baddies in it.
In the jail cell, Mario and Luigi are feeling down in the dumps and losing hope when all of a sudden, they hear Toad shouting to them from outside and then the back wall explodes. Mario and Luigi are out! The three of them then rush to the mine shaft to go rescue the princess. They eventually come to a dead-end, but know that on the other side of the brick wall is where Princess Toadstool is staying. Toad picks a bomb plant from nearby, lights it, sets it right next to the wall, and then he and Mario scurry away to take cover. Meanwhile, oblivious to this entire thing, Luigi is still looking for a bomb plant near the wall. Mario and Toad see this and yell at him to get out of there. Luigi looks up confused but before he can say anything, the bomb explodes and Luigi becomes buried under the rubble of bricks. Mario and Toad dig him out and then bring him outside into the fresh air so that they can revive him. Luigi eventually wakes up, but then they find themselves right in King Koopa's path. King Koopa then throws the three of them and also Princess Toadstool into a deep pit with no way out. But Mario and Luigi quickly discover that there are pipes with running water running along the tall wall of the pit, so they use their plumbing skills to turn the water pressure on full blast. A bunch of water comes spewing out of the pipe and shoots the four of them out of the pit, and also shoots King Koopa and his cronies out into oblivion in the process. The four then celebrate their escape.
Review
This episode was the first to parody a classic story- namely the Old Western movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Many more parody episodes were to come after this. After watching this episode and the first, I have come to learn that Luigi is somewhat of a coward. He's always hesitant and the last to take some big risk, such as jumping over a wide pit. I have not seen cowardice displayed by Luigi in any of the video games of this time, so I wonder if his 'fraidy-cat personality in Luigi's Mansion happened to be inspired by these cartoons.
Errata, bloopers, and other inaccuracies
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