Super Mario Bros. Plumbing

Super Mario Bros. Plumbing
	; The exterior of the Mario Brothers Plumbing building as seen in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
First appearance	The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! – "Neatness Counts" (1989)
Latest appearance	The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
Greater location	Flatbush
Inhabitants	Mario, Luigi, Edison, Ratagator, Clog, CooKoo Bird

“Forget-a the expensive a-plumbing companies a-where you're just a face-a. With-a the Super Mario Brothers-a, you're family!”

—Mario, The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Super Mario Bros. Plumbing, also known as Mario Brothers Plumbing (sometimes stylized as Mario Bros. Plumbing), is the plumbing business owned by Mario and Luigi, which is featured in various cartoons, the 1993 Super Mario Bros. film, and 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It is located in Brooklyn, in the neighborhood of Flatbush.

In The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, the business is located on the basement floor of an old apartment building; Mario and Luigi have succeeded in using the place not only as a workshop but as their place of residence as well. As the basement is not a proper apartment, the brothers have learned to adapt to their surroundings, including the building's sneezing furnace and the garbage chute. Since the building is located next to the closed-off entrance of a subway station, anyone in the basement can feel the rumble of an incoming train.

History[edit]

DIC cartoons[edit]

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show![edit]

Mario Brothers Plumbing was the setting of all the live-action segments of the The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! Here, Mario and Luigi interacted with their roommate Edison, as well as the resident monsters Clog, the Ratagator, and the CooKoo Bird; and in each episode, a celebrity guest star.

As mentioned, the old apartment also has a furnace which seems to have a life of its own (it sneezes) and it also has a Pizza phone (originally a normal phone, but due to an accident, the pizza and the phone got mixed together), a periscope apparently able to see from Brooklyn even all the way to the Eiffel Tower in France, and a garden being grown in a bathtub with a living scarecrow.

The motto of the brother's plumbing in the show was "You clog 'em, we clear 'em" and they were said to be New York City's best plumbing service. A commercial bumper for "Neatness Counts" stated that their motto was, "The customer is always wet."

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3[edit]

The exterior of Mario Brothers Plumbing from the Danish live-action segments of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3

In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario Bros. Plumbing only appears in the show's opening, where Mario and Luigi were looking at a photography album recalling the events of Super Mario Bros. 3.

Mario Brothers Plumbing also appears as the setting of live-action segments that were made to accompany the Danish dub of the series, similarly to The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! segments.

Super Mario World television series[edit]

Mario Brothers Plumbing from the Super Mario World television series. Note Mario's missing sideburns.

As seen in a flashback in the Super Mario World episode "Rock TV".

A Brooklyn apartment presumed to be the Mario Brothers Plumbing building appeared once in the Super Mario World animated series, during a flashback in "Rock TV", where Mario and Luigi remembered an outlandish phone bill for the "Speak to Santa Hotline", which presumably lets users talk to Santa Claus.

Nintendo Comics System[edit]

Mario Bros. Plumbing made a small appearance in the Nintendo Comics System short story, "The Legend", which was a retelling of the Super Mario Bros. backstory. Here, the pipe that connects to the Mushroom Kingdom is clearly shown to be inside their home, and they responded voluntarily to the cries for help like in Super Mario Bros.; previously in the Super Show!, they were only said to find "the secret Warp Zone while working on the drain."

Nintendo Adventure Books[edit]

Mario Brothers Plumbing, also referred to as their plumbing workshop or simply the shop, is depicted as the home of the Mario Brothers in several stories. By the events of the first story in the series, they had the "Mushroom Kingdom Network System" installed on the eastern wall. The Mario Bros.' communication system consists of an advanced network of computers, radio telescopes, homing pigeons and TV monitors (an improvement over having to listen for Princess Toadstool's voice through one pipe).

Super Mario Bros. film[edit]

The Mario Brothers Plumbing van used in the Super Mario Bros. film.

In the 1993 Super Mario Bros. film, Mario and Luigi's "Mario Brothers Plumbing Service" business is based out of their home. Their white business van is the only vehicle they own, using it both for jobs and to travel.

Early in the film, Mario is seen taking a phone call in his home office regarding a problem at the Riverfront Cafe. Mario begins gathering the tools necessary for the job, and through conversation with Luigi, it is revealed their business has been tapering and they have been having financial issues. Luigi takes the wheel of the car, driving sporadically and taking shortcuts, which upsets Mario. Upon arriving at the Riverfront Cafe, Mario's anger is furthered when he discovers their competitor, Scapelli Construction owned by Anthony Scapelli, beat them to the job. Driving back home, their van breaks down and Mario enlists Luigi to use a phone booth to check their voicemail for any other jobs. Mario reveals in the film that his expertise of plumbing was taught by his father, who was in turn taught by Mario's grandfather. The duo uses a variety of plumbing tools throughout their adventure in Dinohattan, always carrying their tool belt with them.

Super Mario Maker[edit]

In the official course Did Somebody Call a Plumber? in Super Mario Maker, the course begins with a Brooklyn setting, with the first two Warp Doors leading to what appears to be Mario Brothers Plumbing.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie[edit]

“Thank you, Super Mario Bros.! It seems like the only thing you haven't drained is my bank account...”

—Woman in commercial, The Super Mario Bros. Movie

“Fixing pipes is our game!”

—Tagline, SMBPlumbing.com

Artwork of Mario and Luigi in front of a van for Super Mario Bros. Plumbing

The business appears in the 2023 animated film The Super Mario Bros. Movie, under the name Super Mario Bros. Plumbing. Here, its logo now resembles the logo for New Super Mario Bros., and has Yoichi Kotabe/Shigehisa Nakaue-styled artwork of Mario alongside it. The plumbers drive a yellow van when they go door to door; Mario appears in the logo on one side only, with Luigi replacing him on the other.

In the film, the Mario Bros. are implied to have started their plumbing business not too long ago, having purchased a yellow van and their commercial airing on TV possibly for the first time with Mario mentioning that they spent their life savings on it. After the airing of their commercial, the Mario Bros. get a call from their first clients about a leak in their bathroom. Despite having some engine troubles, the Mario Bros. race to their clients' apartment and arrive just in time. However, the job is unsuccessful after the clients' dog, provoked by Luigi's accidentally stepping on a treat, aggressively attacks them and they destroy the bathroom. Mario solicits opinions from his family members at the dinner table about his and Luigi's commercial, with either ridicule or indifference from most of their family, except for their mother, who loves it and says "the world laughed at [Leonardo] da Vinci too". After Mario asks Papa Mario, he is openly disapproving, and causing Mario to leave the table upset.

As part of the movie's promotional campaign, a real website centered on Super Mario Bros. Plumbing, SMBPlumbing.com, opened in February 2023,^[1] along with a truncated version of the commercial advertising the business that appears in the film, which aired during Super Bowl LVII that year. Like its in-film counterpart, the commercial features the Mario Brothers Rap, contains the URL of the website, and reveals that the business services the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New York City. For the promo campaign, a phone number was created for the business, "929-55-MARIO". Dialing the number leads to a voice message in which Luigi tells the caller to text the same number for service and to visit the SMBPlumbing.com website; upon texting the number, the user receives the company's business card. The website's careers section lists dispatcher, bookkeeper, marketing manager, and driver as available job positions at Super Mario Bros. Plumbing, but selecting the "Apply Now" sign leads the user to a page which states that the application process is still being worked on. Several testimonials are also available on the website, namely from Mario and Luigi's mother, Spike, and a user who goes by "BrKLnCouple"; the brothers' mother rates them highly favorably, while the others are more critical, with Spike holding a grudge against the brothers for leaving him to start their own business and BrKLnCouple stating that Super Mario Bros. Plumbing "left [their] house an absolute MESS"^[sic]. BrKLnCouple abbreviates the business's name as "SMBP". The website was later updated with more positive testimonials from users "CollegeHoopsters", "DripDripBGone", "anothercaserole", "princessofQueens", "jump.man", and "Pipe_Dreamz", as well as a negative review from "dunnadunnadunna".^[2]

The Live Chat section on SMBPlumbing.com website says the Mario brothers specialize in their "patented Double Dash Drainage".

Outside of the film, a life-sized Super Mario Bros. Plumbing van has appeared in real-life promotional events for the film, including at the film's premiere in Los Angeles where it was driven by Chris Pratt with Charlie Day as a passenger.^[3]

Unused appearances[edit]

Super Mario Odyssey[edit]

Concept art from The Art of Super Mario Odyssey shows Mario Brothers Plumbing in New Donk City, under the name Mario Plumber.^[4]

Gallery[edit]

The Art of Super Mario Odyssey concept art, under the name "Mario Plumber"
Logo (The Super Mario Bros. Movie)
Logo (The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Chinese)
Logo (The Super Mario Bros. Movie, French)
Logo (The Super Mario Bros. Movie, German)
Logo (The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Italian)
Logo (The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Portuguese)
Logo (The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Latin American Spanish)
Logo (The Super Mario Bros. Movie, European Spanish)
Business card (The Super Mario Bros. Movie)
The Super Mario Bros. Plumbing van
The Super Mario Bros. Plumbing van
Concept artwork for The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Business card magnet (Super Mario Bros. film)
Super Mario-kun

Names in other languages[edit]