1001 Animations: Plummer's Academy

Show: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show
Episode: 46
Year: 1989

Writer(s): Martha Moran

This may very well be the only cartoon episode to perfectly synch up with a historic event. On the very day this episode aired, November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall finally collapsed. This may also be the only episode of SMBSS where the Live Action segment and the cartoon relate to one another. Now we get into the specifics.

Have you ever wondered how Mario and Luigi got into the plumbing business? Mario and Luigi tell this tale, along with how they received their golden plunger and wrench after King Koopa has them all captured. This episode tells their origin through a parody of Police Academy, the Marios had to be trained in plumbing under the meanest nastiest instructor in the whole academy, Seargent Kooperman! And yes, Harvey Atkin voices him as well. Needless to say, if he and Koopa ever teamed up, the Marios would be dead meat, especially considering they nearly drowned under his "methods". After this failure the Marios get booted out of the academy, but they don't lose hope after reading an inspiration message from the statue of the academy's founder, Salvador Drainado, the greatest plumber in the world! (And yes I will reveiw Brooklyn Bound at some point)

Now we get to how this connects to real world events. Around this time, President Ronald Regan, this is shortly before George Bush Sr. started his term, is showing Russian president Mikail Gorbachev around New York, in the Live Action segment, Mario and Luigi also meet up with both Regan and Grobachev. When Kooperman mistakes a bag of cement for drain unclogger to fix a woman's sink, the dried cement clogs Brooklyn's sewer and floods the street, sweeping up the presidents. So, Mario and Luigi do a little underwater sewer scuba to break the concrete to the tune of Huey Louis and the News' Workin' for a Livin'. This ballsy move manages to save the presidents and gives our brave brothers their golden plumbers helpers.

While the Super Show might not be the best cartoon, it was able to tell some interesting stories and did some of its parody well enough. I see Kooperman as a parallel to the villain Foreman Spike from Wrecking Crew, back when Mario and Luigi were construction workers. And yes, this episode does cameo what can be assumed as prototypes of Wario and Waluigi. I wouldn't be surprised if they were their original models, since the later games did take a lot of elements from the show. I'd call this episode a once in a lifetime event, just for the fact that it's so weird that it aired during the Berlin Wall's collapse, and the presidential coincidink. This is easily one of the best episodes of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show.

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show is owned by DHX Media and Nintendo.

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