Koopa Klaus

"Koopa Klaus" is the first of two Christmas-themed episodes of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show. Interestingly, it originally aired the day before Halloween in 1989.

Synopsis
In an icy castle somewhere in the North Pole of the Mushroom World, Bowser, 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 on his sleigh. Glad to hear the news, Bowser reveals that he plans to use said Ice Bombs to freeze Santa Claus's workshop, which will in turn cause 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's workshop. Mario suspects that Toad deliberately brought them here, but the Princess 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. Princess 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 the Princess. Just then, Princess Peach and the Mario Bros. spot Bowser in his flying sleigh up above. Upon seeing Mario's group, Bowser orders his Albatoss 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 the Princess, 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 the Princess 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 luckily arrived just in time to see him flying off with a captive Santa in tow. Toad begins to cry, as he worries that he'll never receive another Christmas present if Santa is missing. 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 off with Santa 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 Marios start throwing snowballs at him, so Bowser opts to collect the snowballs in said sack and throws it at the Bros. He then slides down a snowy hill and onto a frozen ice pond using Santa as a sled. Mario and Co. 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. 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 ride they did, holds Santa over the edge of the cliff and threatens (in the style of ) 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, Princess Toadstool and Toad to take shelter in the cave, and notes that he will try 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.

Trivia

 * 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 problems, reruns and subsequent video releases replaced it with an instrumental of a song from the later series The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.
 * Bowser's plot in this episode (to kidnap and impersonate Santa Claus) would be reused in two later DiC-produced Christmas specials, Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas and Sonic Christmas Blast.