Mario and the Beanstalk

Mario and the Beanstalk is the seventh episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!. Its corresponding live-action segment is "Bats in the Basement".

Plot Synopsis

Inside a cottage, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool are attempting to think of a way to gain one hundred Gold Coins by the morning of the next day; without these Gold Coins, the Mushroom Kingdom Orphanage would be forced to close, evicting all the orphans who live in it. As Princess Toadstool makes some suggestions, they are rebuffed by Mario and Luigi, who say she had already sold her jewels and mortgaged the cottage.

Princess Toadstool, frustrated, tells Mario, Luigi and Toad to think of something. Before Mario, Luigi or Toad can say something though, they are interrupted by a nearby cow wearing a crown, who is eating some hay rather noisily. Noticing the cow, Princess Toadstool makes the sad decision of selling it, as it is the royal cow, it would be worth a lot. Taking the leash of the cow, Mario and Luigi leave the cottage, as Toad begins to worry that Mario and Luigi may mess-up in selling the cow.

At a cow lot, Mario and Luigi refuse to trade-in their cow to the swindler salesmen, Dealin' Delbert, wanting money. Ignoring this comment, Dealin' Delbert tries to persuade Mario to trade their cow for a rather old and sickly looking one. Refusing the trade their cow for this other one, Mario and Luigi tell Dealin' Delbert they want one hundred coins. Hearing this, Dealin' Delbert decides to offer Mario and Luigi a deal for their cow, one they can't refuse.

At the cottage, Princess Toadstool and Toad are horrified to discover that Mario and Luigi traded the royal cow for three, small garbanzo beans. Mario, showing Toad and Princess Toadstool the Garbanzo beans, is severely reprimanded by them. After scolding Mario, Princess Toadstool sneezes, being allergic to garbanzo beans; this sneeze causes the Garbanzo beans to be blown out a nearby window. After the garbanzo beans are blown outside, Toad says that the next day he'll go to town and try to get the royal cow back from Dealin' Delbert. After Toad says this, Princess Toadstool decides that now would be a good time to get some some sleep.

As Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool go to bed, the garbanzo beans, which had landed in the yard of the cottage, suddenly take root in the ground and begin to grow into a monstrous beanstalk, which grows high enough to reach the clouds.

The next morning, Princess Toadstool is saying goodbye to Toad, wishing him good luck in trying to get the royal cow back from Dealin' Delbert. Saying he'll try his best, Toad begins to leave, only to notice the giant beanstalk in the yard. Asking why Toad has suddenly stopped, Princess Toadstool notices the beanstalk and her gasp of surprise upon seeing summons Mario and Luigi, who stare in awe at the beanstalk. Seeing the beanstalk, Mario gets an idea, the garbanzo beans growing on it can be harvested and sold for coins which can be donated to the Mushroom Kingdom Orphanage; thinking Mario's plan to be a good one, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool follow Mario to the beanstalk to help him pick the garbanzo beans.

Later, after having climbed extremely high on the beanstalk, Mario tells Princess Toadstool, Toad and a hesitant Luigi that they should start plucking garbanzo beans from the top of the beanstalk and then work their way down. Hearing Luigi's plea that perhaps everyone should go back down to the ground, Mario agrees, when he suddenly hits what appears to be a stone ceiling. Confused, Mario pushes upwards on this ceiling, removing one of the stone blocks constructing it, making a passage. Climbing up the passage, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool find themselves in what appears to be a giant-sized kitchen.

Luigi, at first curious about the giant kitchen, decides to travel back to the cottage after hearing that someone or something colossal must live in the castle; before Luigi can enter the passage back to the beanstalk though, the block that originally covered it falls back into place, blocking the passage.

Grabbing hold of the fallen floor panel, revealed to be a trapdoor, Luigi, Mario, Toad and Princess Toadstool begin trying to lift it, only to fail, the trapdoor being to heavy. As Luigi begins to bemoan his and his friend's fate, a booming voice echoes through the room; recognizing the voice as King Koopa's, Princess Toadstool, Mario, Luigi and Toad begin trying to open the trapdoor again, as King Koopa, having become gigantic in size, draws nearer. As Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool struggle in vain to open the stuck trapdoor, King Koopa appears and mockingly proclaims that he's preparing a stew, with Mario and Luigi as the main ingredients.

Going over to a large oven, King Koopa begins to stir a pot on it as Mario, noticing a nearby door being open a small amount, beckons Princess Toadstool, Luigi and Toad to run towards it. King Koopa, seeing Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad running towards the door, promptly pulls a nearby cord hanging from the ceiling; as this cord is pulled, a metal cover slides down over the door, blocking Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad's way out.

Seeing an open window, Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad begin to run towards it, using a pile of logs as a stairway to it. Reaching the top of the logs using several long jumps, Mario finds to his dismay that the window is still to far out of reach; seeing Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool's predicament, King Koopa begins to laugh at them. As King Koopa mocks him, Mario, seeing a nearby fireplace poker, has Luigi help him grab it and maneuver it under the window, making a somewhat unstable ladder. As Mario and Luigi begin argueing over who should climb the fireplace pooker first, Princess Toadstool and Toad simply decide to do it and begin to run up it; unfortunately, as Princess Toadstool and Toad reach the window sill, King Koopa simply pulls another nearby ceiling cord, causing a cover to drop over the window.

As King Koopa begins to walk towards them, Mario and Luigi see a bellows lying on the ground. Jumping down on to the bellows as King Koopa grabs a panicking Princess Toadstool and Toad, Mario and Luigi spray King Koopa with a cloud of dust blown from the bellows. Enveloped by dust and ash, King Koopa begins to cough and sneeze, causing him to drop Princess Toadstool and Toad. Landing safely near Mario and Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad run quickly towards an open door while King Koopa is still enveloped by smoke.

Passing this large door, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool find themselves in a room filled with mountains of gold coins. As Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool stare in amazement at a rather large pile of gold coins, the door behind them is slammed shut by King Koopa, who says they'll never be able to escape this room. Sticking his head through a hole at the top of the door, King Koopa says that soon Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool will be crushed by Gold Coins and proceeds to command a goose hanging from a cage attached to the ceiling to lay several Gold Coins.

As King Koopa flee, the goose in the cage suddenly asks Mario for help in escaping from King Koopa as it lays dozens of Gold Coins. Asking why he should help it, Mario gets the response from the goose that if he helps it escape from it's cage, it will show them a way out of King Koopa's castle. Deciding to trust the goose, Mario climbs a mountain of Gold Coins and bends apart the bars of the goose's cage, making an opening large enough for the goose to exit the cage.

Sliding down the Gold Coin mountain, the goose explains to Mario that King Koopa had captured it and had been forcing it to lay Gold Coins with a magic spell. After the goose explains it's story to Mario, it shows him the exit it mentioned earlier, a nearby, small opening created when the garbanzo beanstalk burst through the floor of the room. Moving some Gold Coins covering the opening, Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and the goose climb down the crack and begin to descend the Garbanzo beanstalk. Unfortunately, King Koopa, having seemingly noticed that Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and the goose are missing, had summoned various Hoopsters to guard the beanstalk.

Seeing Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and the goose, several Hoopsters begin to charge towards them; as the Hoopsters draw closer, Mario, grabbing several large garbanzo beans, begins rolling and throwing them at the Hoopsters, knocking them off the beanstalk. With the Hoopsters gone, Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and the goose manage to safely descend the beanstalk and return to the cottage below.

On the ground, Luigi, after grabbing an axe, begins to chop down the beanstalk while the goose asks Mario, Toad and Princess Toadstool how it can repay them for saving it. As Luigi continues to chop the beanstalk down, Mario asks if perhaps the goose can give them some Gold Coins they can donate to the Mushroom Kingdom Orphanage, unfortunately, the goose responds that only King Koopa and his magic spell can make it lay Gold Coins, without the spell, it can only lay eggs and offers Mario one; refusing the goose's offer, Mario watches as Luigi finishes chopping down the beanstalk.

As the beanstalk begins to fall, King Koopa's castle falls with, becoming damaged. As the castle and beanstalk fall to the ground, the Gold Coins inside of it begin to rain down on top of Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and the goose, much to their delight. King Koopa, his castle having crashed into a pond, drags himself ashore, only to discover that the water he was drenched in has shrunken him to about the size of Toad. As Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Toadstool and the goose laugh at him, King Koopa runs to the hills, vowing revenge. After laughing, Mario, Luigi and Toad discover that they're quiet hungry, hearing this, the goose begins trying to lay some eggs for them, only to discover she can only lay golden eggs, much to her surprise.

Trivia

• Official summaries of this episode refer to King Koopa by the name of Giant Koopa, though the episode itself doesn't actually refer to King Koopa by this name.

• This episode is a clear parody of the fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk, even taking such elements as a beanstalk, a gold-laying goose, a giant and the main character(s) trading a cow for beans from the story.