The Great BMX Race

This article is about The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode named "The Great BMX Race". For the VHS of the same name, see The Great BMX Race (VHS).

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode
"The Great BMX Race"
Production number	109
Airdate	September 18, 1989 (English) September 17, 1990 (French)[?]
Writer(s)	Tony Marino
Plumber's Log #	25
Cover song(s)	"Shut Down"
Replacement song(s)	"In My Frog Suit"
Live-action segment	"Mama Mia Mario"
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"The Great BMX Race" is the ninth episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! Its corresponding live-action segment is "Mama Mia Mario."

Plot synopsis

Mario and Luigi meet Team Koopa: Tryclyde, Mouser, and Koopa Troopa.

In the Desert Kingdom, Mario and Luigi are riding a tandem motorcycle, which is pulling a bathtub carrying Princess Toadstool and Toad in it. As Toad begins to perform acrobatics around on the bathtub's showerhead, much to Princess Toadstool and Luigi's amusement, Mario continues to drive through the Desert Kingdom; unbeknownst to them, though, they are being watched by Fryguy, who is hiding behind a cactus.

As Mario's group begin to approach him, Fryguy begins to shoot fireballs at them; with a swarm of fireballs coming at them, Mario and Luigi are forced to stop their motorcycle. This sudden stop of the motorcycle winds up launching Toad through the sky. After traveling through the sky, Toad lands near Fryguy, who begins trying to hit him with fireballs. Managing to evade Fryguy's fireballs, Toad learns from Fryguy that he owes him sixty Gold Coins, which Toad needs to pay back to Fryguy before sunset, or else.

Hearing Fryguy's threat, Princess Toadstool approaches him and says that Toad can't pay him, as all his money was taken by King Koopa. Hearing this, Fryguy says that maybe Toad can get his money another way, such as by winning the Great BMX Race. After saying this, Fryguy leads Toad, Luigi, Mario and Princess Toadstool to a nearby cactus with a poster advertising a bike race on it. After looking at the bike race poster, Mario and Luigi decide to enter it so they can win the prize money to pay off Toad's debt to Fryguy.

Later, the Mario Brothers approach the starting line of the Great BMX Race's track and begin to wonder where their racing opponents are. As the brothers look around, the ground suddenly begins to rumble, signifying the approach of their racing opponents: Mouser, Tryclyde, and a Koopa Troopa. Seeing Mario and Luigi, Mouser begins to taunt the two, much to Tryclyde and the Koopa Troopa's amusement. Unfortunately for Mouser, his jeers at the Mario Brothers make himself, Tryclyde and the Koopa Troopa laugh hard enough to allow the brothers to drive away unnoticed.

It is only when Mouser falls off his motorcycle from laughing so hard that he notices them driving away. Getting back onto to his motorcycle, Mouser commands Tryclyde and the Koopa Troopa to begin driving, with him riding closely behind. Shortly after Mouser, Tryclyde and the Koopa Troopa begin to race, Toad and Princess Toadstool, who are in a nearby wooden stand, begin to cheer for Mario and Luigi. As Toad continues to cheer, the Princess notices Mouser, Tryclyde and the Koopa Troopa and surmises that the only way Mario and Luigi could lose the race is if King Koopa somehow interfered in things; soon after saying this, the Princess is shocked to see King Koopa and two Koopa Troopas through her binoculars. Seeing King Koopa and his Koopa Troopas causes the Princess to become instantly suspicious, and she and Toad decide to see what King Koopa is doing in the Desert Kingdom.

At his camp, King Koopa begins to tell Mouser, Tryclyde and the Koopa Troopa, referred to as "Team Koopa", to attack Mario and Luigi when they reach Dead Man's Curve; after telling them to do this, King Koopa begins to gloat in front of his two Koopa Troopa henchmen as Toad and Princess Toadstool eavesdrop on him.

On the racetrack, the Mario Brothers continue to travel at the steady speed of sixty miles-per-hour. As Mario begins to increase the speed of the motorcycle, Luigi begins to feel somewhat sick. As Mario asks Luigi if he is okay, Toad and Princess Toadstool run onto the Desert Kingdom track and begin trying to get the brothers' attention. Unfortunately, they fail, and the two simply drive by them.

As Mario and Luigi drive onward, believing Princess Toadstool and Toad to have been simply cheering for them, the Princess and Toad find themselves directly in the path of Team Koopa. Mario and Luigi, believing Team Koopa to be far behind them, decide to stop and get some lunch at the nearby Pasta Pit. Unbeknownst to Mario and Luigi, Toad and the Princess have been captured by King Koopa and Team Koopa and are now being held in King Koopa's basecamp by a large Cobrat.

On the racetrack, Mario and Luigi have just finished having a large meal at the Pasta Pit and are beginning to race again. As they begin to pick up speed on their motorcycle, though, they hear a taunting Mouser behind them, who quickly drives past them with Tryclyde and the Koopa Troopa. Knocked from their motorcycle by Team Koopa, the Mario Brothers manage to climb back on their motorcycle and start racing again.

Seeing the Mario Brothers driving up a cliff, King Koopa instructs Team Koopa to give them a scare. Hearing King Koopa's commands, Mouser, Tryclyde and the Koopa Troopa turn their vehicles around and begin driving towards the brothers. With Team Koopa fast approaching them, Mario and Luigi lose their focus on the race and subsequently hit a rock, which causes them to lose control of their motorcycle and fall off the cliff.

As he and Luigi plummet from the cliff, Mario, opening a container attached to the front of his motorcycle, grabs a plunger and, using it as a grappling hook, stops his and Luigi's descent. Using some pedals on his motorcycle, Mario and Luigi manage to climb back up onto the cliff and begin to head to the Great BMX Race's finish line, much to Mouser, Tryclyde and the Koopa Troopa's surprise.

Seeing that Mario and Luigi are still alive, King Koopa commands Team Koopa to activate the speed-increasing devices in their vehicles; as Team Koopa begins to speed toward the Mario Brothers, Toad and Princess Toadstool begin trying to escape from the grip of the sleeping Cobrat keeping them captive. Eventually, Toad gets an idea, he and Princess Toadstool can escape the Cobrat's grasp when the serpent lets out its breath when it snores.

Toad's escape plan actually works, and he and the Princess manage to escape from the Cobrat; unfortunately, the Cobrat notices that they are missing and alerts King Koopa to their escape. Sending his Koopa Troopas after Toad and Princess Toadstool, King Koopa is forced to chase them himself when his Koopa Troopa henchmen accidentally trip and knock themselves unconscious. As King Koopa chases them, the Princess and Toad find an old bicycle and begin to drive away from an enraged King Koopa.

As Luigi acts as the lookout for Team Koopa, Mario continues to drive their motorcycle as he combs his mustache. As Mario continues to simultaneously drive and comb his mustache, Luigi alerts him to the fact that Team Koopa is approaching them from behind. Hearing Luigi, Mario, opening a container, throws an open can of tomato sauce at Team Koopa. As Mario and Luigi begin to laugh at Tryclyde and the Koopa Troopa, who have lost control of their vehicles, they are suddenly attacked by Mouser, who has begun to throw Bob-Ombs at them.

After the Mario Brothers dodge a Bob-Omb thrown by him, Mouser himself gets caught in the explosion of the Bob-Omb and becomes disoriented in a cloud of dust. With Mouser distracted, his Koopa Troopa ally launches at boulder at the brothers, who dodge it. Unfortunately, the tires of Mario and Luigi's motorcycle burst after driving onto the debris of the Koopa Troopa's launched boulder.

As the Mario Brothers inspect the tires of their motorcycle, they find themselves surrounded by Mouser, Tryclyde and the Koopa Troopa, who prepare to attack them. With Team Koopa closing in on them, the brothers manage to confuse them by playing a game of Patty Cake. With Team Koopa distracted, Mario and Luigi create a cloud of dust and begin to run to a nearby Vegetable patch, with Team Koopa chasing them.

Reaching the vegetable patch, Mario and Luigi begin to throw large vegetables at Team Koopa, hitting them hard enough to knock them off their vehicles and injure them to the point they cannot continue racing. The Mario Brothers begin to think they have won the race by default, but are approached by Toad and Princess Toadstool, who inform them that this entire race was a set-up. Fryguy was actually in King Koopa's employ all along.

Enraged by this news, Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool see King Koopa nearby on a rather small bicycle. As King Koopa begins to taunt them, they begin to chase him through the Desert Kingdom, throwing vegetables at him all the way.

Characters

• Mario
• Luigi
• Princess Toadstool
• Toad
• King Koopa
• Mouser
• Tryclyde
• Koopa Troopas
• Fryguy
• Cobrat
• Bob-Omb

Cast

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

Animation and continuity errors

• Initially, King Koopa has two Koopa Troopa henchmen inhabiting his camp, but when he tells them to attack Toad and Princess Toadstool, there are three, and shortly after, gloves appear on their hands.
• When King Koopa tells his minions to push Mario and Luigi off a cliff, Tryclyde's head flashes.
• When Fryguy's first appears, his mask moves out of place.
• When Princess Toadstool spots King Koopa, King Koopa and his minions are layered over a wall.
• When Princess Toadstool says that King Koopa tricked the Mario Bros, one Koopa Troopa's underbelly is colored purple. This also happens when he tells his minions to push the Mario Bros. off a cliff.
  • In the same scene, King Koopa's eyes are white instead of yellow. This also happens after Toad says that the Mario Bros. are safe.
• When King Koopa's minions watch Mario and Luigi fall off the cliff, Koopa Troopa's helmet is missing.
• When Princess Toadstool says that they cannot hear her and Toad, Toad's eyebrows are missing.
• At the beginning of the episode, Princess Toadstool's dress is miscolored.
• When Mario and Luigi are looking at the Pasta Pit, the holes in their helmets are missing.
• When Mario and Luigi enter the Pasta Pit, the arrow is on the right of it, but when they drive away, it is on top of it.
• When the Mario Bros. pass King Koopa's minions after surviving the first trap, the lenses in Mouser's glasses disappear.

• 

  Princess Toadstool's miscolored dress

• 

  King Koopa and Koopa Troopa coloring errors

Profiles

• Netflix: With Toad's life hanging in the balance, Mario and Luigi enter a BMX bike race that's got Koopa's evil fingerprints all over it.
• The Great BMX Race VHS: To save Toad's life, Mario and Luigi are tricked into a disaster-strewn Boy's Motor Cross bicycle race with three of King Koopa's sneakiest minions. The wild ride is Koopa's wicked scheme to get the Mario Brothers out of his way once and for all.

Dub edits

• With the Plumber's Log being removed from the French dub, and Desert Kingdom not being mentioned anywhere else in the episode, this makes the location the episode takes place ambiguous in the French dub.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
French	La course des BMX	The BMX race
German	Das große BMX-Rennen	The Great BMX Race
Hebrew	המרוץ הגדול Hmrvtz Hgdvl	The Great Race
Italian	La Grande Corsa	The Great Race
Norwegian	Den stor sykkelløpen	The great bicycle race
Polish	Wielki wyścig BMX	The great BMX race
Portuguese	A Grande Corrida de Moto	The Great Motorcycle Race
Russian	Большая BMX Сгонка Bolshaya BMX Sgonka	The Great BMX Race
Spanish	La gran carrera de bicicletas	The great bicycle race

Trivia

• The Mario's Adventures Out West DVD's cover is based on this episode, which shows Mario and Luigi racing against Tryclyde. The covers to the US VHS release of the same name, the UK and Irish releases The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! - Volume One (VHS only) and The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! - Volume Two, and the German release The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Vol. 03: Episodes 07-09 use a version of that cover where Mario and Luigi are trying to get away from King Koopa.
• Throughout the majority of the episode, Mario and Luigi wear bike helmets as opposed to their usual caps.