The Yoshi Shuffle

Super Mario World episode
"The Yoshi Shuffle"
Production number	410
Airdate	November 23, 1991 (English) October 23, 1992 (French)
Writer(s)	Kristofor Brown
Featured song	"Rah-Rah"
Captain N episode	"Quest For The Potion Of Power"
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"The Yoshi Shuffle" is the eleventh episode of the Super Mario World animated series. The title is likely a reference to the Chicago Bears 1985 rap song "The Super Bowl Shuffle."

This episode is notable for being the only episode where Ninjis appear. It is also notable for being the only Super Mario World episode where Princess Toadstool does not appear, making Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi the only three to appear in every episode. Additionally, it marks the last appearance of Bully, Big Mouth, Cheatsy, ghosts, Goombas, and a Thwomp in any Super Mario cartoon.

Plot synopsis

Luigi shows Mario his newly-chiseled football.

While watching several Cave People attempting to build something with stone slabs, Mario notices how recklessly the Cave People are working. However, whatever the Cave People were building falls apart as they failed to cooperate in building it. As the Cave People stare blankly at the mess they have made, Luigi and Yoshi suddenly appear. Luigi proceeds to show Mario a stone football he chiseled. An excited Mario gets Luigi to throw the football to him; however, the football is too heavy, and Mario is knocked backwards upon catching it.

Sort-of catching this football gives Mario an idea: he will teach the Cave People teamwork and cooperation by getting them to play football with one another. Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and the Cave People proceed to rush into a nearby field for a game, with Bully and Cheatsy Koopa watching them.

Beginning the game of football, Mario passes the ball to Yoshi and tells the Cave People to tackle him; unfortunately, the confused Cave People simply tackle each other. As the Cave People fight among themselves, Yoshi throws the football to Luigi, who is running down the field. As Luigi tries to catch the ball, he runs into a nearby Koopa wizard. The Koopa wizard, angered, turns Luigi into a Yoshi egg; right after doing this, he is flung backwards by the soaring football and subsequently drops his wand.

Luigi being magically turned into an egg by the Koopa wizard.

Having watched the entire scene from behind a nearby tree, Bully and Cheatsy Koopa prepare to run in and take the egg Luigi has been turned into. Before the Koopalings can grab the egg, though, Yoshi appears and, mistaking the egg for the football, picks it up and begins running away with it, with Mario chasing him.

Seeing Bully and Cheatsy, Mario has Yoshi jump into a nearby Warp Tube, with Mario following him in. Coming out the other end of the Warp Tube, Mario and Yoshi are horrified to discover they are right in front of Neon Castle. Before they can react, Mario and Yoshi are tackled by a pair of Koopa football players. Coming out of the Warp Tube, a taunting Cheatsy orders the Chucks to take Mario and Yoshi to Neon Castle's dungeon while Bully takes "Luigi the Egg."

With Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi captured, Cheatsy enters King Koopa's bedroom and begins to tell his sleeping father of how he captured Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi. Suddenly, Cheatsy gets an idea and leaves his father's room, believing, with his father sleeping, he is in charge. Going into the dungeons, Cheatsy proceeds to tell Mario, Yoshi, and Bully that they are all going to play a game of football for his amusement, with Luigi as the ball.

Goombas, ghosts, and Ninjis as the audience.

Brooding in his cell, Mario begins to try and explain some football plays to a panicking Yoshi, as Cheatsy watches and listens from a nearby peep-hole. On the football field, Cheatsy begins taking admission money from several ghosts, Ninjis, and Goombas, while Mario and Yoshi wait patiently in their field-side cell. Suddenly, Big Mouth Koopa enters the field and begins to ramble on about the game. Introducing Cheatsy as the game's referee, Big Mouth has a Koopa football player open Mario and Yoshi's cell, letting them out. As a gesture of "good will," Cheatsy allows Mario and Yoshi to do the game's first throw.

Still rambling, Big Mouth is finally silenced by Bully. After Big Mouth is quieted down, Mario and Yoshi, or team "Dome-Heads", face-down their opponents, the "Koopa Karcass Krunchers", which consists of two Koopa football players and Bully Koopa. Yoshi eats one of the Koopa football players; however, the former regurgitates the latter.

Trying to get a touchdown, Mario is knocked out-of-bounds by Bully, who grabs the ball from Mario. Managing to get the ball from Bully, Mario and Yoshi, instead of running down the field, run-out a nearby hole in the wall. Dodging Koopa football players, Ninjis, ghosts, and a Thwomp, Mario hits a nearby ? Block, which releases a Starman. Grabbing this Starman, Mario becomes unstoppable and returns to the football field.

Knocking Big Mouth, Bully, and Cheatsy aside, Mario and Yoshi score a touchdown and perform an overly-long victory dance. A fuming Cheatsy says Mario and Yoshi cheated; ignoring Cheatsy, Mario and Yoshi try to run out a nearby door, only to come face-to-face with a gang of Koopa football players.

Before the Koopa football players can attack, though, they are tackled by a group of Cave People, who had followed Mario and Yoshi's footprints to the Neon Castle. Trying to attack, Bully, Cheatsy, and Big Mouth are knocked back by the Cave People. Running from Neon Castle, Mario, Yoshi, and the Cave People make it back to the Warp Tube and to Dome City.

Brainstorming on how to change Luigi back to normal, one of the Cave People manages to find the wand the Koopa wizard had dropped earlier. With this wand, Mario manages to change Luigi back to his old self. Luigi, confused, proceeds to ask, "Uhhh.... Did I catch the ball?" and then, Mario replies, "What do you mean, catch the ball? You were the ball!"

Quotes

• "Sheeeesh! Somebody needs to teach these guys organization and teamwork!" - Mario
• "Hey, Mario! Look what I made!" - Luigi
• "It's a stone, Luigi. You didn't make it." - Mario
• "It's a football! I chiseled it!" - Luigi
• "Well, what are you waiting for? Throw me a pass!" - Mario
• "It's even official size, but not official weight." - Luigi
• "Hey, watch where you're going, you egghead!" - Koopa wizard
• "What do you have to say now, egghead?" - Koopa wizard
• "Who's an egghead, eggface?" - Luigi
• "Football? So that's their little game!" - Cheatsy Koopa
• "That no egg. That football!" - Yoshi
• "You mean that egg is Luigi?!" - Mario
• "I am the emperor of eavesdropping." - Cheatsy Koopa
• "I scared Mario! [...] If we break egg, Luigi get scrambled!" - Yoshi
• "Aw, shut up! We'll never get started!" - Bully Koopa
• "I'll leave footprints, all right, on their faces!" - Bully Koopa
• "Hey! What are you playing? Australian Rules?" - Mario
• "Uh, did I catch the ball?" - Luigi
• "What do you mean, catch the ball? You were the ball!" - Mario

Characters

• Mario
• Luigi
• Yoshi
• Cheatsy Koopa
• Bully Koopa
• Big Mouth Koopa
• King Koopa (no dialogue, but snores in a scene)
• Koopa wizard
• Cave People

Animation and continuity errors

• When the Cave People's building falls, the cave person on the right shifts left for a frame.
• In several scenes, Mario and Luigi have four fingers on each hand instead of five.
• When Luigi runs over to Mario, he speaks without any dialogue being present.
  • In one shot of him running, Luigi is not holding the stone football, despite him holding it in the previous and following shots.
• When the football flies over Luigi, the circle on his cap is the same color as the rest of the cap.
• When the Koopa football players run to tackle Mario and Yoshi, one appears out of thin air.
• When Yoshi says the egg is a football, his mouth is misplaced for a few frames.
• When Mario says that the Koopalings want to play football with Luigi as the ball, the stripe on Yoshi's tail is the same color as his body.
• When Cheatsy starts spying on Mario and Yoshi, the inside of his eyes is white instead of black.
• In one scene, a Ninji is colored in white instead of dark-brown, as the other ones are in this episode.
• In one scene, a Koopa football player's shell is orange with a green rim instead of green with a white rim, while the rim of its helmet is white instead of orange.
• When Bully tells Big Mouth to stop talking, Big Mouth's right foot overlaps on him.
• When Yoshi swallows a Koopa football player, it is layered over Bully.
• In a couple of scenes, Yoshi has five spikes on his back instead of four.
  • Inversely, in one scene, he has three spikes instead of four.
• Mario is seen chasing Bully after he says, "Hike!" but the next shot shows Bully chasing Mario. Mario is also suddenly holding the ball, despite not holding it in the previous shot.
• When Mario says that he was not out of bounds, his eyes are mostly closed.
• Big Mouth yells at Mario and Yoshi, but his mouth does not move.
• When Mario and Yoshi jump over the Koopalings, the rim of Big Mouth's shell is white instead of yellow.
• When Mario and Yoshi score a touchdown, one of Yoshi's eyes is partially green.
• When Mario and Yoshi are performing their dance, Mario's right arm turns red at one point, and shortly after, Yoshi's head is completely green.
• When the Koopalings are upset about Mario and Yoshi cheating, Bully's right leg is light-orange, Cheatsy's eye turns the same color of his face for a split-second when yawning, and Big Mouth's right eyelid is not colored in.
• When Luigi asks if he caught the ball, his body is split in two.
• After Luigi asks if he caught the ball, Mario's suspenders are the same color as his shirt, and his lower body is cut off as if it was meant to be off-screen.
  • In the same scene, Mario is not holding the wand when he was in the previous scene.

• 

  Yoshi's miscolored tail

• 

  The miscolored Koopa football player

• 

  Mario's miscolored shirt

Profiles

• Yoshi the Superstar DVD: When Luigi is turned into an egg and Yoshi mistakes him for a football, Yoshi leads Mario on a madcap chase through Dinosaur World. When the Koopas join in, it becomes the biggest, wildest football game of Mario's life.

Cast

• Walker Boone — Mario
• Tony Rosato — Luigi
• John Stocker — Koopa wizard, Koopa football players, caveman #1, caveman #3, ghost, Goomba
• Andrew Sabiston — Yoshi
• Dan Hennessey — Bully Koopa, Ninji, caveman #2, singer #2
• Gordon Masten — Big Mouth Koopa, singer #1
• James Rankin — Cheatsy Koopa

Dub edits

• In the Italian dub, the Koopa wizard who transforms Luigi into an egg is referred to as Wizenheimer.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
French	La partie de football	The football game
German	Teamarbeit[?]	Teamwork
Italian	Mario e l'uovo di Luigi	Mario and the Luigi Egg
Korean	풋볼시합 Putppol Shihap	Football Association
Polish	Yoshi na boisku	Yoshi on the pitch
Portuguese	Ensinando a Equipe	Teaching the Team
Romanian	Fotbal cu Yoshi	Football with Yoshi
Spanish (NOA)	El equipo	The team
Spanish (NOE)	El gran partido de Yoshi (original dub)	Yoshi's big game
	El partido de fútbol (re-dub)	The football game

Trivia

• The egg Luigi turns into is the same color scheme of a normal Yoshi's Egg, but with its colors reversed.
• In the original NBC airings, Big Mouth narrates the preview by saying, "It's first and ten, and the Koopas have the ball! But this isn't any ordinary ball! It's an egg named Luigi! He's been turned into an egg, and here's the kicker: we're gonna crack him up! Hut, two, three, hike! It's bye-bye, Luigi!"