Princess Toadstool for President

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode
"Princess Toadstool for President"
Production number	111
Airdate	September 22, 1990 (English) October 11, 1991 (French)
Writer(s)	Matt Uitz
Opening curtain	Grass Land
Featured song	"Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis)
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"Princess Toadstool for President" is the fifth episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. It aired alongside another episode entitled "Never Koop a Koopa."

Plot synopsis

Toad comes running out of his house to find Mario, Luigi, and Princess Toadstool, who are fishing at a pond, and warns them about how King Koopa has brought a plague of Para-Goombas to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Koopa and Cheatsy wheel a cage full of Giant Land Para-Goombas to the top of a hill. Koopa tells Cheatsy that he intends to have the Para-Goombas eat up the local crops so that the Mushroom People will have no food and so that Princess Toadstool will be forced into giving him her kingdom in exchange for his food.

As soon as the Para-Goombas are unleashed, Mario and Luigi arrive and try to tell Koopa to put the Para-Goombas back in the cage, but he instead throws the cage at them. Mario and Luigi manage to jump on the cage and make quick work of four of the Para-Goombas, while the last two shut themselves in the cage. Princess Toadstool then confronts Koopa, telling him that if he is so desperate to rule her kingdom, that he should do it properly. She informs him of an upcoming election, and that he should run in it. That way, the citizens will be able to elect their next leader, and the loser will agree to leave the kingdom. Mario doubts that Koopa would actually enter the running, but he surprises him by agreeing to Princess Toadstool's suggestion, and shakes her hand.

King Koopa talking to Cheatsy about how Princess Toadstool could win the election easily.

Having returned to his throne room at Castle Koopa, Koopa whines to Cheatsy about how nobody in the Mushroom Kingdom would ever vote for him, because Princess Toadstool is a "goody-goody." Cheatsy suggests being nice, but Koopa claims that he has never been nice in his life, stating that he is "allergic to nice." Kooky then enters and sprays his dad with a strange, blue chemical, which suddenly forces him to act nicely. Kooky explains that the substance is a Nice Guy Potion, and with it, Koopa stands a chance against Princess Toadstool.

Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Toadstool is giving a one-sided debate against Koopa, when Koopa and his kids arrive as a marching band. Koopa tosses Gold Coins out to everyone, telling them all to have a nice day. He then goes on to toss more freebies down to the Mushroom People from his Doomship: free toys for the children, free flea collars for the pets, and free false teeth for the elderly. Back at Toad's House, Mario and Toad (the latter of whom is wearing a Koopa T-shirt himself) worry that all of Koopa's offerings will persuade people into voting for him, so Princess Toadstool plans to give a speech about what she has done in the past at the Mushroom Kingdom Founder's Day Picnic. Cheatsy and Kooky, who are spying on them through a window, realize that they need to deal with Princess Toadstool's plan.

Kooky setting off the firecracker to ruin the Founder's Day fireworks.

At the picnic, Princess Toadstool starts to give her speech, when Kooky sets off a firecracker, which hits a mountain of blocks, causing it to collapse. The blocks scare Princess Toadstool into falling off a cliff, but when Mario and Luigi go down to find her, they learn that she hid in a Warp Pipe.

Meanwhile, Koopa is sweet-talking to a baby, when he slowly stops acting nice. Kooky figures that the Nice Guy Potion is wearing off, so Koopa orders him and Cheatsy to return home and create some more before his final election speech. Mario and Luigi, who were spying on the Koopas, head after them.

Mario and Luigi soon arrive in Dark Land, where they are ambushed by Tanks and Rocky Wrenches. They escape into a Warp Pipe leading underground, but find themselves in a fire pit. In the pit, the brothers are chased around by Fire Chomps, Hot Foots and a Firesnake, but they manage to avoid them and get to the other side.

Luigi distracting Cheatsy and Kooky.

Mario and Luigi soon make it inside Castle Koopa, and arrive at the entrance to Kooky's lab, where Kooky and Cheatsy are preparing more Nice Guy Potion. Luigi gets the Koopalings' attention by dropping a glass beaker on the floor, and they chase him out of the lab. While they are gone, Mario walks into the lab and pours the Nice Guy Potion down the drain. Cheatsy and Kooky return to the lab without finding Luigi to see that the potion is gone. When Koopa finds out, he is furious, because the election is about to start.

After Princess Toadstool gives her final speech, Koopa is reluctant to give his, as he is still angry. Kooky and Cheatsy tell him to fake his way through his speech, so he attempts to do so. As he gives his speech, Princess Toadstool claims that he used a Nice Guy Potion to try to win the election. Koopa claims that he would never need such a potion to be nice, and ironically threatens to pound anyone who opposes him into mush.

Afterwards, Mario reveals the final vote count, announcing that Princess Toadstool won by a landslide, and Koopa is shocked to learn that out of 6,436,213 voters, he only received one vote: his very own. When Koopa ponders as to how that is possible, Cheatsy and Kooky explain that Princess Toadstool was so nice, that they had to vote for her. Koopa growls, and chases his kids as they run away.

Cast

• Walker Boone — Mario
• Tony Rosato — Luigi, Man #2
• Tracey Moore — Princess Toadstool, Lady
• John Stocker — Toad, Man #1
• Harvey Atkin — King Bowser Koopa, Man #3
• James Rankin — Cheatsy Koopa
• Michael Stark — Kooky von Koopa

Animation and continuity errors

• In almost every transition, the sound played with it is missing.
• The background music for this episode is entirely muffled with the exception of the "Mega Move" theme.
• Toad can be seen smiling for a brief moment before he alerts his friends.
• When Mario fishes, a shot of Princess Toadstool is shown twice.
  • After the first shot, Toad is missing, and shortly after, the second shot zooms out for a split-second before cutting to the next scene.
• While pulling the cage, King Koopa constantly switches between two designs while Cheatsy's animation loops incorrectly.
• The color of King Koopa's stomach briefly changes to the color of his body while pulling the cage.
• When King Koopa and Cheatsy pull the cage up the hill, part of the cage is already open.
• When Cheatsy opens the cage, a Paragoomba's eyebrows are missing.
• Throughout its appearance, the cage changes color and size several times.
• When the Paragoombas are munching on the crops, they are mirrored for a split-second.
• When King Koopa starts to push the cage towards the Mario Bros, Cheatsy is missing.
• When the cage is rolling towards Mario and Luigi, it is nearly touching them, but when they jump onto it, it is just reaching them.
• After Mario and Luigi stomp on some Paragoombas a second time, they briefly reappear.
• When Cheatsy says, "Are you kidding?", one of his spikes flashes. This also happens with one King Koopa's fangs.
• When Princess Toadstool tells King Koopa that the election is coming up, the hills in the background overlap her.
• If the Mushroom Kingdom is a monarchy, then it would never have any primary elections; all leaders would be decided by birth.
• When King Koopa sits down in his throne, the screen is blurry.
• When King Koopa says that he has never been nice, one of his nails turns the same color as his body. This also happens when he clears his eyes after being sprayed by Kooky's Nice Guy Potion.
• When Kooky comes in, Cheatsy is suddenly right next to King Koopa's throne.
• When Kooky says that King Koopa would never win the election unless he is under the effect of the Nice Guy Potion, his tooth disappears several times.
• When Princess Toadstool says that she challenged King Koopa to an election, her earrings are black instead of blue, while the trims on her dress are the same color as the rest of the dress.
• During the Koopaling marching parade, several of the Koopalings' heads flash, along with Hop's glasses and Hip's drum.
• When King Koopa tosses coins to the Mushroom People, his basket of coins fills back up.
• When the Mushroom People cheer for King Koopa after he says that there will be more nice things if they elect him as their ruler, a Mushroomer's face is not fully colored in.
• When Kooky and Cheatsy peak into Toad's window, Kooky's head is completely tan.
• In one scene during the picnic, Toad's shirt is missing.
• When Kooky and Cheatsy laugh when ruining the fireworks, Kooky's shell flashes.
• When Cheatsy says that King Koopa should not let the public see him not acting nice, King Koopa's eyes are white instead of yellow, while Cheatsy's head is colored orange instead of green.
• When King Koopa tells Kooky and Cheatsy to go to Kastle Koopa, part of his underbelly disappears.
• When the Tanks chase Mario and Luigi, the background shakes.
• When Mario and Luigi run away from the Fire Snake, the fire at the bottom of the screen disappears.
• When Mario and Luigi look at the Fire Snake from the pipe, Mario's hair is black like Luigi's instead of brown.
• When Kooky holds the potion, his hands are colored like King Koopa's.
• When Kooky tells Cheatsy not to rush, the stirring rod he was holding disappears.
• When Cheatsy says that he is helping, his face is completely green.
• When Cheatsy and Kooky look at Luigi, Kooky holds the potion in his left hand, but when they chase after him, it is in his right.
  • In the same scene, the potion inside of the beaker disappears.
• When Cheatsy and Kooky run back to the lab, Kooky reacts about the potion being gone despite not reaching the lab yet.
• After King Koopa finds out that the potion is gone, his shell flashes.
• When Cheatsy says that King Koopa is the biggest fake around, his nostrils are missing.
• In Koopa's final speech, when he thanks the Mushroom People, nothing is in front of him, but after he is confronted with the Nice Guy Potion rumor, a mushroom appears.

• 

  The overlap error

• 

  Kooky's miscolored hands

• 

  Cheatsy's miscolored face

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Dutch	Prinses Paddestoel voor president	Princess Toadstool for President
French	L'élection de la Princesse	The election of the Princess
German	Wahlkampf	Election Campaign
Italian	Il Regno dei Funghi	The Mushroom Kingdom
Portuguese (NOA)	Elegendo a Princesa (original dubbing) Princesa Cogumelo para Presidente (re-dub)	Electing Princess Princess Toadstool for President
Romanian	Prințesa Ciupercuță, președintă	Princess Toadstool, president
Spanish (NOA)	La Princesa Seta para la Presidencia	The Princess Toadstool for President

Trivia

• This is the first appearance of the Big Paragoomba, which would make an official debut in the games in Super Mario Galaxy 2, almost 20 years later.
• King Koopa is referred to as "Bowser Koopa" twice in this episode.
• In the Swedish dub, when King Koopa is hit by the child, he says "Din jäv...", but stops himself. In Swedish, "jäv" is the first part of the Swedish word jävla, with the "v" being where the person in question stops, if they do so, which is considered profanity and comparable to the English word "fuck" when the latter is used as such.
• From this episode onward, Mario has brown hair, based on the later Super Mario games, instead the black hair he had in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and the first four episodes of this series. However, Luigi's hair remains black.
• This is one of two episodes that were not included in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 single DVDs, the other being "Mind Your Mummy Mommy, Mario".
• The plot is similar to that of "Sonic is Running" from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, another show produced by DIC Entertainment. In both cases, the villains (Koopa and Dr. Robotnik, respectively) decide to run for a position of leadership and use unfair advantages to gain support: Koopa with a Nice Guy Potion, and Robotnik with Hypnovision. However, both Mario and Sonic catch up with the schemes and cause the villains to ruin their final speeches. In both cases, the villains are beaten by landslides and received only one vote, their own, and it is revealed that their own family voted for the other side instead of them.