Misadventures in Babysitting

Misadventures in Babysitting is the fourteenth episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. ; it aired alongside another episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 entitled "A Toadally Magical Adventure".

Plot Synopsis

The episode begins in the living room of a Brooklyn home, where the parents, who are getting ready to go out for the night, are waiting for a babysitter to arrive to look after their bratty son, Junior. Junior foolishly breaks two vases and lets the family cat take the blame.

At that moment, Mario and Luigi come out of a Warp Pipe underneath the kitchen sink and realize that they must've taken the wrong pipe. When Mario looks out the window, he sees the Brooklyn Bridge in the background, and realizes where they now are.

Mario and Luigi are then spotted by the mother, who assumes that they're Junior's babysitters. Mario and Luigi are unable to talk their way out of babysitting Junior, and the parents, who are desperate to get going, dump Junior on the Bros., telling them to give him a bath, and they leave. Right away, Junior insists on playing hide-and-seek, and demands that Mario and Luigi be "it".

Junior goes to hide under the sink and crawls into the Warp Pipe, which warps him to the Mushroom Kingdom, where he takes an instant liking to the bizarre atmosphere of the place. Several Boomerang Bros. attack Junior with a boomerang, but Junior manages slice a tree in half with it, which crushes the attackers. Junior is then spotted by Kooky Von Koopa, Bully Koopa and Cheatsy Koopa, who convince him that they're his friends, since they're all enemies of the Mario Bros.

Mario and Luigi arrive in the Mushroom Kingdom to look Junior, and hear him calling for help, although it was just a ploy to lead them to some attacking Ptooies, which they have to fight off.

The Koopalings use Junior to lure Mario and Luigi inside a volcano, where they trap them behind rocks and boulders in a cave. However, Junior starts to worry when Kooky prepares to flood the cave with lava using a special pump, as he just wanted to play around with the Mario Bros., not to actually harm them. Annoyed with Junior's complaining, the Koopalings toss him down a pipe, warping him to Pipe Maze.

Stranded in the Pipe Maze, Junior soon finds himself having to avoid Thwomps, Boo-Diddlies and a Boom Boom. Now that he's lost, Junior is desperate to return home.

Meanwhile, Mario and Luigi escape from the rising lava by chiseling away at the wall, and manage to escape from the volcano. They then spot the Koopalings laughing, and learn about what they did with Junior. The Bros. warp to the Pipe Maze, and deal with the enemies by dodging the Thwomps and stomping on the Boom Boom. Luigi then startles the Boo Diddles by making a surprisingly scare face at them.

Meanwhile, Kooky starts to flood the Pipe Maze with lava, forcing the Mario Bros. and Junior to flee. Mario and Luigi both find Super Leaves, transforming them into Raccoon Mario and Luigi. They then grab ahold of Junior and fly into a Warp Pipe to escape from the lava, returning to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Mario points out that the volcano is about to erupt, so he, Luigi and Junior set up a boulder on a makeshift catapult out of tree. They then use the catapult to launch a boulder at the volcano's summit to plug it, stopping the lava.

At that point, Luigi points out that Junior's parents will be home in fifteen minutes, so the group warps back to Junior's house. Just as they do, Junior's parents get back. Since Junior's mom wanted Junior to take a bath, Mario and Luigi scramble to get Junior upstairs and into the bathtub, just before his mom enters the bathroom. Mario and Luigi still have their raccoon ears and tails when the return to Junior's home, so they splash themselves with suds to hide their appearance.

Junior's mom is so pleased that Mario and Luigi managed to get Junior to take a bath, that she asks them if they'd be willing to babysit the following Friday. Junior is pleased with this, but Mario and Luigi are less than enthusiastic.

Trivia

• Princess Toadstool, Toad and Bowser don't appear in this episode.

• When Kooky is telling his brothers about filling the Pipe Maze with more lava Bully's shell is green.

• After Mario clogs the volcano with a boulder he tells Junior he's a good helper, but he didn't help them and is partly the reason they were nearly killed.

• When Mario and Luigi return to the real world and enter the bathroom, Mario is green for a few moments.

• During one of Bully Koopa's lines, his voice is noticeably lower in pitch.

• When Mario pushes Luigi out of the little rectangle he made on a wall from the volcano, the lava reaches Mario's feet but Mario doesn't get burned.