A Little Learning

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Super Mario World episode
"A Little Learning"
As Hip (Lemmy Koopa) explains to the Dome City School his volcano, King Koopa accidentally tampers with the valves that causes the volcano project to result in disaster.
Episode no.	12
Prod. no.	112A
Airdate	November 30, 1991
Writer(s)	Martha Moran
Episode chronology
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"The Yoshi Shuffle"	"Mama Luigi"
List of all Super Mario cartoon episodes

"A Little Learning" is the twelfth episode of the Super Mario World cartoon.

[edit] Synopsis

Princess Peach is running a kindergarten in Dome City, with Yoshi and the prank-pulling Oogtar (he gives her an apple with a Wiggler in it) among her students. Iggy and Lemmy Koopa catch sight of this and, deciding that "school looks like a blast!", want to go. Bowser, however, refuses to have them going to school and forbids them ("I want you to grow up to be sneaky, no good, two-faced, troublemaking illitarites, just like your dad"), but they disobey his orders and go anyway ("Like King Dad always says, 'Lying is an excellent trait!'").

When Iggy and Lemmy show up at the schoolhouse, this causes great controversy among the cavepeople, but the Princess is willing to give Iggy and Lemmy the benefit of the doubt. A rivalry quickly forms between Iggy, Lemmy, Yoshi & Oogtar, resulting in them pulling pranks that get the other pair in trouble. Later that day, the Princess announces that they're going to have a science fair, so while Yoshi and Oogtar work on growing eggabega (a mix of eggplant and rutabega), Iggy and Lemmy work on a fake volcano - and later sneak back in that night to sabotage Oogtar's project (by planting a Piranha Plant in it) and improving theirs by rigging it to actually shoot lava.

The next day, Mario and Luigi (the latter in a non-speaking role) come to judge the fair, with Lemmy showing off the volcano while Iggy works the pipes underground. Bowser, meanwhile, becomes suspcious of their absence and goes looking for them, eventually finding Iggy underground with the pipes. Due to his interference, the volcano erupts for real, and as if that isn't enough, the Piranha Plant runs amuck thanks to Oogtar adding fertilizer. Everybody flees from the lava and the Piranha Plant, the latter of which swallows up the Koopas before being eaten by Yoshi, who belches up the Koopas into a nearby warp pipe. The Princess expels Iggy and Lemmy, and then Mario somehow manages to re-route the lava flow into Bowser's bedroom.

[edit] Trivia/Goofs

• Apparently, this episode shows the common belief that villains should always be punished, as shown by Princess Toadstool expelling Lemmy and Iggy. If Lemmy's reaction to the eruption is to be taken into account, he and Iggy did not actually intend for an actual lava flow, and adding to that, Bowser's causing it was entirely accidental. Therefore, the Princess is being rather harsh in expelling Iggy and Lemmy.
• This is the only episode in which Lemmy and Iggy had speaking roles.
• This is the second time in this series where Mario and Luigi did not exclusively star in an episode, the first being "Ghosts R Us".
• This is the only episode in the entire Super Mario cartoon series where Luigi did not speak a line.
• In the first shots of the schoolhouse, the slanted pipe in the bushes is gray, but in the shot of the schoolhouse at night, the pipe is green!
• Before school officially starts, Lemmy and Iggy are spoofing the U.S. "Pledge of Alliegance."
• While depicted as a school teacher, Princess Toadstool is never shown in this episode to teach anything.
• This episode marks the last time any of the Koopalings would appear in the Mario cartoons.
• Factual error: When lava floods Bowser's bedroom, his bed does not dissolve nor collapse, both resulting in killing Bowser instantly. The bed seems to be in one piece and can seemingly "survive" in burning lava.
• When Lemmy and Iggy are sneaking in to put in a dangerous plant in the science project, the rock pot turns into a green pipe a couple of times.
• Yoshi's saddle color is reversed when Oogtar dumps the bag of fertiliser in the plant!
• When King Koopa gets up out of his throne, we see the two fish bone decorations on the side disappear!
• When the Pirahna Plant jumps out the window of the school, his pot is green! But, wasn't it gray when we first saw it?
• When Luigi is escaping the school because of the volcano eruption, one screen has the "L" on his cap white on a black background.
• When the Princess asks Mario what he did with the lava pipe, she says "What did you do with it?", but her mouth only says "What did you do?"
• After Oogtar gives Lemmy and Iggy the gum, Yoshi is still sitting down and his saddle color is reversed.
• After the Princess blows the whistle to end recess, she does not put the whistle away, it disappears clean out of her hand.
• When Koopa is shown in the castle on the throne, the flames on the candles briefly slide over and back to their normal places.
• Before Lemmy explains his science project, the slanted pipe outside is green again instead of gray!