| “ | Smash 'em! Bust 'em! Break 'em! That's what I like to see, broken toys! I hate Christmas, I hate gifts, I hate giving! Christmas - bah humkoop! | ” |
— Bowser embracing his Grinch shtick at the beginning of "Koopa Klaus" | ||
King Bowser Koopa (or just King Koopa as he is usually called in the cartoons) is the main villain of the Super Mario Bros. video game series and all media spun off from them. He is a giant anthropomorphic turtle who is always up to evil schemes of some sort, which usually involve kidnapping Princess Peach, but he is always defeated by Mario (and sometimes Luigi as well). Ironically, despite his wicked nature, he is also often shown to be a caring single father to his children (Bowser Jr. in later games, or the Koopalings in the earlier games and cartoons). Among the schemes he has tried, ruining Christmas is one of them, which he attempted twice in the animated television shows.
Appearances in Christmas specials[]
Super Mario Bros.[]
Bowser dressed as Koopa Klaus.
In The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! Christmas episode, "Koopa Klaus", Bowser plans to make everyone have an unmerry Christmas by kidnapping Santa Claus, freezing his workshop, and replacing the toys he plans to give out with broken ones. Unfortunately for him, Mario and his friends happen to be in the North Pole at the time he sets his plan into motion, and they show up just as he has frozen the workshop and made off with Santa. Bowser gets knocked out of his flying sleigh and has to continue his escape on foot, eventually coming to a cliff and threatening to drop Santa into icy water. But Bowser's hatred of the holidays proves to be his plan's undoing, since he ends up shouting about it so loud he causes an avalanche that results in him jumping into the water instead and then climbing onto an iceberg inhabited by an angry polar bear.
In the Super Mario World episode "The Night Before Cave Christmas", when Mario decides to bring Christmas to the people of Dome City, Bowser gets curious about it and, after some spying, decides to ruin it for them. He finds the bag of toys that Mario intends to give to the children and steals it, intending to instead give the toys to the Koopalings. When he arrives at his castle with the bag, he finds out that Oogtar stowed away in the bag and ties him up over a pit with a hungry dinosaur. However, Mario eventually comes to Oogtar's rescue and reclaims the stolen toys, foiling Bowser once again.
Other Christmas productions[]
A 2015 Christmas-themed commercial for the Nintendo 3DS that aired in the United Kingdom featured snow sculptures of Mario and Bowser.
Notes[]
- Thirty years after "Koopa Klaus" aired, the games' version of Bowser would dress up as Santa Claus as part of the Winter 2020 Tour event in the mobile game Mario Kart Tour.