Koopa Klaus

"Koopa Klaus" is the Christmas episode of the animated portion of the syndicated series The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! It and its live-action partner episode, "Little Marios", originally aired as the series' 29th episode (though it is actually the 40th episode in production order) the day before Halloween 1989.

Synopsis[]

In an icy castle somewhere near the North Pole of the Mushroom World, King Bowser Koopa, going by the alias of Koopa Klaus, is overseeing the production of toys being loaded onto a conveyor belt, only to be smashed by a machine resembling an evil nutcracker. Bowser rants about his hatred of the spirit of Christmas, and admires the destruction of the toys. Tryclyde, dressed in a cheap reindeer costume and going by the alias of Randolph the Red-Nosed Tryclyde, approaches, telling his boss that his Ice Bombs have been loaded onto his sleigh. Glad to hear the news, Bowser reveals that he plans to use said Ice Bombs to freeze Santa Claus' workshop so that everyone will have an unmerry Christmas. After reprimanding Tryclyde for making a joke, Bowser takes off in an Albatoss-driven sleigh.

Meanwhile, Mario (dressed in tropical clothing) and his friends arrive in a very snowy landscape via digging a tunnel (ala Bugs Bunny), prompting Luigi to point out that they have not arrived in Hawaii Land as planned, with Toad (who was in charge of navigating) sheepishly admitting they made a wrong turn at Albuquerque "that last iceberg." Princess Peach then reads a nearby sign that tells them they are near the North Pole, so Toad suggests they pay a visit to Santa Claus' workshop. Mario suspects that Toad deliberately brought them here, but Peach agrees to it, since it's Christmas Eve. On the way over, though, it becomes clear that all Toad can think about is receiving presents. Peach decides to present Toad with an early gift - a snowboard. Toad eagerly accepts the snowboard and then promptly begins playing with it without bothering to thank Peach. Just then, Peach and the Mario Bros. spot Bowser in his flying sleigh up above. Upon seeing Mario's group (and apparently not surprised that they happened to show up here), Bowser orders his Albatosses to drop Bob-ombs down at them before continuing onward. Mario's group manages to avoid being harmed by the Bob-Ombs, but Toad gets knocked off of his snowboard and gets upset that Bowser may have damaged it. This upsets Peach, who scolds Toad for not caring about their safety. Mario, meanwhile, figures out that Bowser is on his way to Santa's workshop as well, so he, Luigi, and Peach take it upon themselves to save Santa, although Toad's more concerned with saving the presents.

Arriving at the workshop, Mario's group learn that they were too late to stop Bowser from freezing the workshop with his Ice Bombs, but they're just in time to see him flying off with a captive Santa in tow. Toad begins to cry, worried that he'll never receive another Christmas present. However, Mario tells Luigi to load a heavy ice block from a nearby oddly-colored igloo onto the see-saw in the elves' playground. After doing that, Mario makes Luigi leap onto the see-saw from his shoulders, catapulting the block at Bowser's sleigh, hitting it dead on and causing both Bowser and Santa to fall to the ground, using an empty sack to parachute downwards.

Without his sleigh, Bowser is forced to make his getaway on foot with Mario's group in hot pursuit. He manages to gain a slight boost by using his empty sack as a wind sail. The Mario Bros. start throwing snowballs at him, so Bowser opts to collect the snowballs in said sack (the wind apparently died down very quickly) and throws it at them. He then slides down a snowy hill and onto a frozen ice pond using Santa as a sled. Mario and company follow Bowser onto the ice, where he calls out some Flurries on skates to attack by carving a block of out ice from the pond and knocking it towards them. The Mario Bros. and Toad manage to defeat the Flurries by shoving their ice block back at them.

Bowser then drags Santa into a nearby cave, so Mario's group follows him in. The cave proves to be a bumpy ride for the quartet, and they end up falling off a cliff at the cave's exit and onto a snowbank. Bowser, who apparently didn't endure the same ordeal in the cave that they did, holds Santa over the edge of the cliff and threatens (in the style of Edward G. Robinson) to drop him into the icy water below. Peach tries to reconcile with Bowser about wrecking Christmas, but he then makes the mistake of shouting about his holiday hatred, causing an avalanche. Mario tells Luigi, Peach, and Toad to take shelter while he tries to rescue Santa with his plumber's snake. Mario manages to lasso Santa away from the incoming avalanche with his plumber's snake; Bowser, on the other hand, is forced to dive into the water, and he ends up climbing onto an iceberg, where he laments about his plans being foiled. Asking himself about what else could go wrong, he turns his head back in response to a loud roar, and learns that the iceberg is inhabited by an angry polar bear.

Back at his workshop, Santa thanks Mario's group for rescuing him, but unfortunately, it doesn't change the fact that his workshop is still frozen, and he fears he won't be able to make his Christmas deliveries this year. Toad at first doesn't care, since he already got his present, but after some prompting from Peach, he decides to give his snowboard to Santa, saying that he'll at least have one present to give. The warmth of the Christmas spirit spread by Toad then manages to melt the ice around Santa's workshop, thus saving Christmas. After loading the presents onto his sleigh, Santa announces that he'd like to give them all a special present, and allows Mario's group to ride in his sleigh with him as he delivers the presents.

Availability[]

The episode was made available on one of Kids Klassics' VHS releases of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! in 1990; the VHS also included the series' live-action Christmas episode "Santa Claus Is Coming to Flatbush", as well as two other episodes, "Stars in Their Eyes" and "Too Hot to Handle". It was released on VHS by Buena Vista Home Entertainment in 1994, this time on the Super Mario Bros. Super Christmas Adventures! video, which also featured the Super Mario World Christmas episode "The Night Before Cave Christmas".

The episode made its DVD debut as part of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!: Volume 2, released by Shout! Factory in 2006. NCircle Entertainment later included it on the single-disc DVD Showdown in Brooklyn in 2009, and again on their own The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!: Volume 2 DVD set in 2012.

VHSKids Klassics
1990

Super Mario Bros. Super Christmas Adventures VHSBuena Vista Home Video
September 10, 1994

Trivia[]

• When the good guys approach Santa's frozen workshop, Mario is mistakenly drawn wearing his regular outfit instead of the Hawaiian outfit he wears throughout the episode.
• The games' version of Bowser would officially dress as Santa Claus in the Winter 2020 Tour event in Mario Kart Tour over thirty years after this episode aired.
• The VHS release of this episode and Netflix both spell the episode's title as "Koopa Claus".

Edits[]

In the original broadcasts of the episode, as well as the original 1990 Kid Klassics VHS release, two scenes were accompanied by a cover version of "Jingle Bell Rock". Due to music rights issues, later reruns and subsequent video releases replaced it with an instrumental of a song from the sequel series The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.

Cast[]

External links[]

• Super Mario Wiki: Koopa Klaus
• Nintendo Wiki: Koopa Klaus
• "Koopa Klaus" at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• "Little Marios" / "Koopa Klaus" at the Internet Movie Database