No Max But Plenty Of References
So let’s see. This episode is mostly based on The Road Warrior (Mad Max 2). But maybe it has a bit of Mad Max 1 and Beyond Thunderdome too for good measure.
The Four are aiding a group of spaghetti sauce making mushrooms in the desert. Because Mad Max. We find out that they’re terrorized by Koopa and his State Koopa Troopers…
Well that kinda makes sense. Kinda. Instead of making Koopa and his lot fuel bandits, they’re cops. Like Mad Max at the very start. So that makes sense… Kids show.
So no naked lady in the desert. No murder. No implied rape. Nothing like that… I just pity the young people who later sought info on Mad Max after seeing this.
Theyre pulled over by a hard shell and detained for a bit. A mushroom in the role of the strange flyer guy from Road Warrior & Thunderdome saves Peach. The guys escape eventually.
She’s taken to a mushroom spaghetti sauce bottling factory in the desert. Replacing the nearly depleted oil refinery from the Road Warrior. They are under siege by Koopa’s road thugs… Who are now utilizing Birdos as mobile weapons placements.
This is the first time Evil Birdos have been used. Especially the giant Birdo machine thing attached to one vehicle driven by Mouser. Codenamed ThunderBirdo… There. Your Thunderdome reference.
Reaching the besieged factory, the boys are launched into space when they crash with a random fuel carrier reference from The Road Warrior. In space Toad nabs an Invincibility star. Which he doesn’t use yet. They somehow survive a call from near orbit.
They reenact the plan from The Road Warrior. Mario and Princess does battle with Koopa’s forces as they’re chased in a spaghetti sauce carrier. Luigi flies the mini copter. And Toad?
He goes through a needlessly dramatic transformation to become… Easy Rider. Bike and all… Except later it turns out may be he’s really Evil Knieval.
Anyway they take on and wipe out the villains with ba-bombs. Everyone has a moment to shine, especially Toad who races Koopa for the sauce. Then switches to a game of canyon jumping chicken because Koopa wouldn’t respect a race of he lost.
Koopa crashes into the side of the canyon, but escapes unharmed. Toad loses his invincibility shapeshifting and his bike become a a trike. And unlike the movie its based on they were really driving the Spaghetti Sauce. Not a decoy vehicle. Right.
So that’s the Toad Warriors. A kidified version of a most adult Mel Gibson movie trilogy. It’s ok. First time they used the Birdos for evil. Also first time we seem Mario Kart looking vehicles. In before Super Mario Kart 1992 on the SNES.
Next? We go from Australian Cinema to fairy tales. Mainly the adaptation of The Pied Piper of Hamlet… The Pied Koopa. They’re in Italy aka the Land Of Pasta so… Koopa is going to trick people into allowing him to fix their kingdom of Mousers?!? Hmm…
So what scam with a recorder flute and some form of rodent is Koopa plotting? Guess we find out gomorrow. See you…
Pop Goes the Darke Raven 