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	"Stench City" "Slippin' and Slidin'" (Little Richard) (Italian version only)
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“Those Mario Brothers ARE super!”

—Statue of Liberty

"Recycled Koopa" is the twenty-fourth episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. It aired alongside another episode 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.

Mario zapping away the garbage.

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.

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 fish 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 Statue of Liberty comments on them.

Cast

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• 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

• This episode's colors are noticeably more desaturated than other episodes.
• In several scenes, Dark Land's sky is shown as normal blue sky.
• When the Koopalings march at the beginning of the episode, Hop's hair turns completely yellow while the lenses on his glasses are the same color as his head. This also happens when Bully is on the hammock.
  • In the same scene, the Koopalings march in place for a moment.
• In several scenes, the rim on Big Mouth's shell is colored white instead of yellow.
• In some scenes, King Koopa's snout flashes.
• In the close-up of King Koopa commanding the Koopalings to clean up the trash, a small part of his snout is white.
• When King Koopa leaves after telling the Koopalings to clean up the trash, Hop and Big Mouth turn orange for a few frames while the lenses on the former's glasses turn blue.
• When Bully heads over to the hammock, his head turns backwards twice.
• When Bully questions Kootie Pie if she is "beautiful," one of his claws is the same color as his skin for a brief moment.
• Bully has his eyes pop out the trash thrown at him despite the fact he has sunglasses covering his eyes.
• The Green Shell is thrown at Kootie Pie before she ducks while Bully's mouth does not lip-sync with his voice.
  • In the same scene, Bully's line "Eat trash!" is clearly trimmed. This line was possibly longer but ended up being trimmed down for the episode.
• When Bully says that he and his siblings are "on it," Big Mouth’s star is missing.
• When Mario and his friends walk through Princess Toadstool's garden, the Warp Pipe is purple, but in the next shot, it is gray.
• When Princess Toadstool jumps into the pipe, the Warp Pipe sound effect does not play.
• Princess Toadstool emerges from the pipe third despite Toad jumping into the pipe before her.
• When King Koopa spots Mario and his friends when they enter Dark Land, Bully's skin is the same as Big Mouth's.
• When Hop first notices Mario and his friends, he has Hip's hair.
• When Mario and his friends hide behind the knight, part of Hop's snout turns the same color as his head, while Kootie Pie's bracelets are colored gray instead of yellow.
  • In the same scene, all of the Koopalings are trying to find them, but when they start running the other direction, only Hip and Hop are present.
    • Shortly after, Hop's hair turns completely pink.
• The Koopalings are heard screaming while running, but their mouths are closed.
  • In the same scene, a male voice that does not sound like any of the characters can be heard when the Koopalings run by the first time.
• When King Koopa notices Mario and his friends after they steal Hip's wand, Mario's hair is black instead of brown.
• The Super Leaves do not disappear upon Mario and his friends touching them.
• When Luigi and Toad get Super Leaves, Toad's pants are purple instead of blue.
• When King Koopa goes to the Doomship after Hips's wand is stolen, the trash is at his castle despite Mario and his friends not having returned it yet.
• Luigi gets hit by a Bob-omb, but he does not lose his raccoon form.
• During the shot of Princess Toadstool's castle producing fumes, a black bar is seen in the top left.
• When King Koopa says that Hip's wand is his, part of the Doomship on the lower left is missing.
• In some scenes, Hip's wand changes color.
• In some scenes, Mario does not have Hip's wand.
• When Mario sends the trash back to Kastle Koopa, the fumes from the trash disappear for a few frames, while Princess Toadstool's brooch has its colors reversed.
• When Mario loses the wand, Toad's eyebrows turn the same color as his cap.
• When Big Mouth and Bully go to King Koopa in the trash pile, Big Mouth's star is miscolored.
• When Mario and his friends walk after sending the trash back to Kastle Koopa, Luigi's cap and overalls flicker to a different color scheme.
• When Luigi gets his periscope, the letters on his and Mario's caps turn white.
• In some scenes, the symbols on Mario and Luigi's caps are missing.
• When Mario focuses on Big Mouth, Kootie Pie appears from thin air, and when he focuses on her, Big Mouth disappears.
• When Mario focuses the telescope on the Sledge Bros., a Sledge Bro appears from thin air.
• When Mario and Luigi are dumped into the Warp Pipe, a Sledge Bro's hand is colored white instead of green.
• Throughout the episode, Brooklyn's sky is the same as the Mushroom Kingdom's.
• When the trash falls in Brooklyn, Mario and Luigi are on a sidewalk, but in the next shot, they are in the street.
• When the taxi driver becomes Koopafied, the cigar in his mouth disappears.
• Initially, the Koopafied people walk forward on the screen in the Doomship, but in the next shot, they walk backwards.
• When King Koopa puts the can on Big Mouth's head, the former is colored like Bully, while the latter's toenails turn the same color as his body.
• After King Koopa puts the can on Big Mouth's head, Bully and Kootie Pie disappear.
  • In the same scene, Big Mouth's mumbling while it is on his head is the same as the speech he gives when Bully is on the hammock.
• When the ammunition rains down to the zombies, the Bloopers are colored white instead of yellow and black.
• When Mario and Luigi go their separate paths, neither of them have their containers while Luigi also has no plunger.
• When Mario jumps into a trash pile to evade a Koopafied mailman, the background suddenly stops moving.
• When Mario swims in the sewers, the Koopafied person squirts two Bloopers out of his bottles, but when Mario goes in the pipe, three are present.
• The Koopafied person chasing Luigi in a subway has a red hat, but when he lets Fire Snakes out of his briefcase, his hat turns black.
• When Luigi jumps up and creates a hole on the road, there is already a hole before he creates it.
• The two Dry Bones chasing Luigi are larger than normal when they appear on screen the first time.
• When the Dry Bones that chases Mario zooms offscreen, it has a green zoom effect, which is usually only used for Luigi.
• One Dry Bones is seen chasing Mario but when the Dry Bones crash in each other, there are two Dry Bones that was chasing Mario.
• After Mario and Luigi escape from the zombies, Mario appears from thin air.
  • In the same scene, the screen flashes. This happens again in the wide shot of Mario and Luigi talking about the garbage situation.
• After Mario grows a Koopa tail, the screen shakes.
• When the screen changes to Luigi after Mario grows a tail, the background does not change.
• When Mario mentions that they have clean up the trash before he is completely Koopafied, his tail briefly disconnects from his body.
• A plot hole in the episode is that the Koopa garbage mutates people and animals who come in contact in a matter of seconds. The Mario Bros. come in contact with piles of Koopa garbage yet neither mutate until later on where Mario finally starts mutating after growing a Koopa tail, though Mario seems to last longer than the other victims of Brooklyn.
  • The reason why Luigi does not mutate despite coming in contact with the same amount of garbage as his brother is unknown.
• Initially, the lever for the Crud Cannon is completely orange, but in the next shot, the top is blue.
  • In the same scene in the Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese dubs, King Koopa continues speaking when firing the cannon, but his mouth does not move.
• Initally, the Crud Cannon is orange, but when it first fires, it turns mostly green and blue.
• When the Crud Cannon turns the birds into Paragoombas, the barrel is gray, but when it turns the fish into Boss Bass, it is orange.
• When Luigi cleans up all the trash, Mario's tail is still present.
• After Mario becomes Koopafied, the shackles on him appear out of nowhere.
• When Mario is UnKoopafied, the spikes on his shackles are white instead of orange, while his tail is still present.
• When Luigi says that Mario is being recycled, his mouth does not move.
• In the Italian dub, most of the Stench City instrumental is replaced with the "Slippin' and Slidin' instrumental," with only the first three seconds remaining.

• 

  Hop and Big Mouth's miscolored heads

• 

  Big Mouth's missing star

• 

  King Koopa coloring error

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Chinese (simplified)	酷霸的拉圾 Kùbà De Lājī	Koopa's Garbage
French	Ecolo Mario	Eco Mario (Eco being short for Ecology)
German	Wohin mit dem Schrott?[?]	What To Do With The Scrap?
Italian	Attila riciclato	Recycled Koopa
Korean	쿠파쓰레기의 오염 Kupa Sseuregiyi Oyeom	Koopa Trash Contamination
Portuguese	A Reciclagem de Koopa	Koopa's Recycling
Romanian	Koopa reciclat	Recycled Koopa
Russian	Переработанный Купа Pererabotannyj Kupa	Recycled Koopa
Spanish (NOA)	Reciclen Koopa	Recycle Koopa
Spanish (NOE)	Koopa reciclado	Recycled Koopa

Trivia

• The taxi driver's appearance bears a very close resemblance to the one from "Flatbush Koopa." The "Statue of Kooperty" also previously appeared in the same episode.
• 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!"