"Kootie Pie Rocks" is the sixteenth episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. It features guest star appearances of Milli Vanilli.
Plot[]
Princess Toadstool purchased tickets to a Milli Vanilli concert in New York City (how exactly she got the tickets is never brought up), and thus she invites the Mario Bros. and Toad to join her, unaware that Cheatsy is eavesdropping on them. When he returns to Bowser's Castle and tells this to Kootie Pie Koopa, she throws a hissy fit, which King Koopa manages to stop by offering to kidnap Milli Vanilli for her.
King Koopa successfully captures Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan right under the noses of their fans. The spectators are puzzled by this, but Mario and the others immediately recognize King Koopa up above and give chase. When they are brought to Kootie Pie, Rob, and Fab try to convince her that they cannot play for her as they do not have a backup band to "sing" with, but Kootie Pie grows so upset with them that she turns them into accountants. She somehow does not notice Mario and company eavesdropping on her and forming a plan of their own.
A few minutes later, the Marios and the others sneaks into the castle disguised as a backup band and offer to play backup for Milli Vanilli, whom Kootie Pie proceeds to change back to normal. They proceed to distract Kootie Pie by playing a really bad cover of "Girl You Know It's True," which annoys King Koopa and his minions. By the time Kootie Pie finally snaps out of her trance, the Mario brothers and their friends have escaped with Milli Vanilli. Kootie Pie demands her father to bring them back, but he refuses, saying that even her whining is more tolerable than their singing and that he would throw her in a dungeon if she tried to bring them back. Back in New York, Rob and Fab thank the Princess and her friends for rescuing them by dedicating their next song to her.
Controversy[]
This episode originally aired on October 27, 1990, almost three weeks prior to November 15, when Milli Vanilli's equipment malfunctioned and revealed that they were merely lip-syncers fronting for real musicians. As a result, reruns of the episode were drastically edited.
Foremost was editing out the songs that Rob and Fab "sing" during the episode. The two songs featured in the episode, "Blame It on the Rain" and "Girl You Know It's True" were replaced by stock instrumentals such as "Mega Move", a fate that would also befall other Mario cartoon episodes where covers to actual songs were used in action sequences. As a result of this edit, Rob and Fab are shown moving their mouths, but not actually saying anything. The songs, however, are still heard on the PAL DVD compilation "Do the Koopa", if the viewer chooses to switch to the Dutch audio track.
When King Koopa invades the concert in the original version, he remarks, "Blame it on the rain? Heh heh, blame it on King Koopa!", in response to the fact that "Blame It on the Rain" is being played. Cutting out the songs meant shortening King Koopa's line to just "Blame it on King Koopa!", and thus his joke no longer makes sense. Confusingly, even in the edited version, Fab still mentions "Girl You Know It's True" when he suggests that Mario's backup band plays that.
Perhaps the most controversial edit is at the very end of the episode, when Rob and Fab start playing "Girl You Know It's True" while Princess Toadstool and the others watch from backstage. In the original version, the Princess stares in a swooning fashion at the band whilst Mario comments, "Lights out, Princess. Er, uh, Princess?" He then faces Luigi and says, "Maybe if we keep our band, we'll be that popular!" The edited version, however, cuts straight to the closing shot of the Princess applauding immediately after Rob declares (in Fab's voice), "This one's for a real princess! One and a two and a-" Not even the aforementioned DVD preserves the censored shots.
Trivia and Goofs[]
- The stadium which Milli Vanilli performed is Shea Stadium, located in Flushing, New York.
- There are many continuity problems on where Princess Toadstool is in the concert audience.
- The sign in the stadium says "Now preseting Milli Vanilli" when it should say "Now presenting Milli Vanilli."
- The shot of Kootie Pie throwing stuff out the window is a repeat of a shot from "Reptiles in the Rose Garden".
- The only episode where actual persons (the duo Milli Vanilli) from the "real world" made a guest star appearance.
