True Colors

True Colors is the twenty-third episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3; it aired alongside another episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 entitled "Recycled Koopa".

Plot Synopsis

The Doomship comes hovering over the Mushroom Kingdom at midnight. However, Bowser cannot stay awake for the sneak attack, so Kooky and Cheatsy have to pull it off themselves. They send out swarms of Paragoombas and Parabeetles to attack and terrorize the Mushroom People, but Mario and Luigi show up in Raccoon form and chase the enemies away.

Back at his castle, Bowser complains about that last scheme having failed and says that the Mushroom People are too united to be beaten. Cheatsy says he has a plan of his own, to divide and conquer the Mushrooms. Bowser, however, is too tired from trying to pull off the midnight attack to listen and goes off to sleep.

The next morning, Cheatsy and Kooky fly the Doomship over the Mushroom Kingdom, spraying red and blue paints called Koopa Color Goopa all over the residents, including the Mario Bros. (During this, Bowser has to monitor the progress as he's too tired to navigate.) At first, the Mushrooms pay no mind to their new colors. But then Cheatsy and Kooky walk around disguised as red and blue Mushroom folk themselves (respectively), causing problems for folks of the other color (and even each other) so that the red and blue Mushrooms turn against each other. Princess Toadstool (who was not hit by the color goop) and the Mario Bros. try to break up the scuffle that's forming, but soon even Mario (who was painted blue) and Luigi (who's now red) are tricked by the Koopalings into bickering with each other. The Koopalings then convince the Mushrooms into having a "rumble" tomorrow morning.

That night, on orders from the Princess, Mario and Luigi sneak into Bowser's Castle to find out what the Koopa King's up to. They don't get far before finding a three-way fork that they disagree upon, so Mario goes through the left tunnel and Luigi goes right. Both routes turn out to be bad choices (the left one has a Chain Chomp and the right one a Fire Chomp), so they then choose the center tunnel when a flock of Paragoombas come at them. They find themselves in front of three pipes and again can't agree which one to go through.

Just then, they hear Kooky and Cheatsy's voices coming from one of the pipes. Looking down said pipe, they overhear the Koopalings saying that once the Mushroom folks have beaten each other senseless, Bowser will march in with his army and take over. Mario and Luigi realize that they've been letting their new-found rascism get the better of them, so they make up for it, and then Mario says he has an idea to "unrumble that rumble!"

The next morning, a still-tired Bowser, accompanied by an army of Sledge Bros., is observing the Mushroom People's civil war just as it's starting. Before anyone can hurt each other, though, Mario and Luigi come between them, saying that the Princess is in trapped in a warp drain. The colored Mushroom people immediately stop what they're doing and follow the Marios to a pipe where Toad is waiting. The Princess then comes out from behind the pipe, saying that she's glad the Mushroom folks have left the battlefield. Mario then gives a speech to the Mushrooms, letting them know that they're all Mushroom people no matter what color they are. The Mushroom People then make up.

Cheatsy and Kooky jump in at that point, trying to continue the war. But when the two Koopa Kids start fighting each other, they end up pulling each other's Mushroom masks off, exposing them. Cheatsy tries to call Bowser for help, but Bowser has fallen asleep again and can't hear his cries for help, so he and Kooky run for their lives. At that point, the Koopa Color Goopa wears off, but as Mario points out, it doesn't really matter since everyone's learned that it's what's inside that counts.

Trivia/Goofs

• This episode serves as a social message concerning racism.
• In spite of the opening taking place at midnight, it still appears to be daylight.
• The first group of Mushroom People to be terrorized by the Paragoombas are mistakenly colored as though they'd already been hit by the colored goop.
• When the Mario Bros. reach the point where they have to choose which of the three pipes to go down, Mario says "Pipe number one is the way to go", to which Luigi responds he'll take pipe number two. When Luigi says this, he holds up three fingers instead of two.

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