Gopher Bash
Gopher Bash is the ninth episode of the Super Mario World animated series.
Plot Sypnosis
This episode starts off with Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, Yoshi and a group of cavepeople in a large feild. While looking around, Mario goes on to say that, though the feild is great, he doesn't think the cavepeople would really want to grow crops, as they can simply grab berries off the nearby trees. As Yoshi begins eating some berries, Princess Toadstool goes on to say that she thinks Luigi's idea to teach the cavepeople to grow their own is pretty good. After hearing Princess Toadstool say this, Luigi begins his food-growing lessons.
First, Luigi, with the help of Yoshi, tries to teach the cavepeople how to plow the soil. Unfortunatle Yoshi, upon seeing a berry, runs a bit to fast and Luigi is dragged along by the hungry dinosaur. Once Yoshi eats the berry and the field is plowed, its revealed that Bowser and Cheatsy Koopa have been spying on everyone.
Upon seeing that Luigi's efforts to teach the cavepeople crop-growing is working, Bowser begins to worry; if the cavepeople can grow their own food, they'll be harder to subjugate. Seeing his father worrying, Cheatsy comes up with an idea, steal all the food the cavepeople grow. Without any food, the cavepeople will starve and be forced to come to Bowser for food. Thinking this idea to be great, Bowser leaves Cheatsy in charge of things.
After the field is completely plowed, Luigi begins to plant seeds and tells the cavepeople to do so too. Unfortunatly, the cavepeople don't understand to well and begin to plant any nearby objects, much to Luigi's disdain. After a while, the seeds are succesfully planted, now all thats left is to water the plants.
Unfortunatly, the cavepeople take things out of hand and tip over a nearby well, which spills a wave of water over the field, washing Luigi and Yoshi away, much to Cheatsy's amusement. After the water washes away, Mario pulls his trapped brother out of the mud and asks how the farming is going. Luigi replies its going great and clomps away through the mud as Yoshi pulls himself from the dirt.
Surprisingly, the cavepeople succeed in growing rows of crops, much to Luigi's delight. Later that night, Cheatsy and several Goofy Gophers sneak into the tunnels beneath the crop field and begin taking all the crops. While Cheatsy and the Goofy Gophers giggle at their deed, several other Goofy Gophers appear with a sack filled with Piranha Plants. The Goofy Gophers proceed to stick the Piranha Plants in the holes the crops used to be in.
Waking-up the next morning, Mario, Luigi and Yoshi find all the crops gone. Reaching into a hole to see if anything was left, Mario gets a dangerous surprise as a Piranha Plant almost bites him in the arm. Yoshi manages to slurp-up the Piranha Plant before it can do any damage though. Unfortunatly, just as Yoshi eats this Piranha Plant, a dozen others take it's place.
Running for their lives from the Piranha PLants, who are being puppeteered by Cheatsy and the Goofy Gophers from underground, Mario, Luigi and Yoshi become trapped in a ring of Piranha Plants. Luckily, Yoshi manages to eat all the surrounding Piranha Plants. Still trying to beat Mario, Luigi and Yoshi, a Goofy Gopher grabs the roots of a nearby Piranha Plant and tries to manuever it for an attack, unfortunatly for the Goofy Gopher, he is pulled up to the top of the tunnel when Yoshi tries to eat the Piranha Plant.
Trying to get their comrade down, Cheatsy and the other Goofy Gophers are pulled to the surface when Yoshi pulls on the Piranha Plant's stock hard enough to tear it up, with Cheatsy and the Goofy Gophers still hanging on to it. Flung right in front of Mario, Cheatsy taunts the two, saying they'll never see their crops again. Before either Mario or Luigi can grab him, Cheatsy leaps down a hole dug by his Goofy Gophers henchmen, with Mario, Luigi and Yoshi falling in afterwards.
Gettin-up, Luigi and Mario begin to wonder where Cheatsy has gone. Yoshi proceeds to point to a nearby Warp Pipe, saying Cheatsy went that way. Preparing to jump into the Warp Pipe, Luigi is stopped by Mario, who says that the cavepeople don't need the food Cheatsy stole, they can just go back to picking berries. A saddened Luigi says that he told the cavepeople they didn't need to pick berries anymore, since they had the crops. The cavepeople listened to Luigi and didn't store any food for the winter, meaning they'll starve.
Cheering Luigi up, Mario and Yoshi say they'll help him get the food back. Going through the Warp Pipe, Luigi, Mario and Yoshi are sent plummeting down a pit, luckily, Mario manages to grab a nearby Magic Balloon. Becoming inflated, Mario grabs Luigi and Yoshi and descends to the ground safely.
Seeing Cheatsy and his Goofy Gopher minions nearby, Mario, Luigi and Yoshi hear the Koopaling's plan to sell all the food he stole from the cavepeople back to them at an outrageous price. As Cheatsy begins to sing "Cheatsy's Life", a self-praising song, Mario, Luigi and Yoshi begin to sneak-up on and grab Cheatsy's Goofy Gopher henchmen.
When Cheatsy finishes his song, Mario, Luigi and Yoshi reveal themselves. A surprised Cheatsy has no time to get out of the way as Luigi lets go of a rope, which drops Cheatsy's tied-up Goofy Gopher minions on top of him. Grabbing the sack filled with food, Mario, Luigi and Yoshi take it over to a nearby Warp Pipe and stuffing it down, jump in themselves. Dragging himself out from under his bound minions, Cheatsy proceeds to say, "I hate those plumbers..."
Getting back to Dome City, Luigi reveals to all the cavepeople that he got all their food back. Opening the sack of food, Luigi is horrified to find a bloated Yoshi roll out of the bag.
Trivia
- In several scenes of this episode, the "L" on Luigi's hat turns white against a black backround. Also, the number of spikes on Yoshi's back continually switches between three and four.
- Oddly, one of the Piranha Plants Yoshi eats has spikes on it's head, making it look like it has hair.
