Life's Ruff (The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3)

"Life's Ruff" is the twentieth episode of "mh:besttvshows:The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3"; it aired alongside another episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 entitled "Crimes R Us". "Life's Ruff" is notable for being the only episode of any Mario cartoon where Mario is absent. Additionally, King Koopa, Princess Toadstool, and Toad are also absent, though the former two are mentioned.

Plot
Luigi has arrived at the castle of King Windbag. When Hip enters Windbag's throne room disguised as the servant, Hop leaps out from under the covered plate and steals Windbag's wand from out of his hand. As Windbag tries to get his wand back, Hop throws it over to Hip, who uses it to transform the king into a bulldog. Luigi tries to take the wand back from Hip, but Hip throws it to Hop, who in turn uses it transform Luigi into a gray mutt. Meanwhile, the dog catcher brings Luigi and Windbag to the Florida State Poochitentiary, where they are sentenced to a kennel with several other dogs. Back at Windbag's castle, the king can be heard yelling "Duck!" to his servant. However, Luigi watches as Windbag presents his servant with a cooked duck, along with mashed potatoes and peas.

Why Its Life Is Very Ruff (pun intended) and Should Be Taken To The Pound (literally!)

 * 1) It's pretty much a Luigi and King Windbag torture episode. They get turned into dogs, Luigi gets his rear end bitten by a Lakitu's spiny, and Luigi and King Windbag get sent to the pound.
 * 2) *Also, the idea of having Hip and Hop (Iggy and Lemmy) turn Luigi, along with King Windbag, into dogs is not only clichéd and generic, but it can also upset children because Luigi is such a  loveable character, and Mario's brother.
 * 3) **Not to mention that the episode's plot is way too formulaic and pointless, even for a video-game cartoon episode.
 * 4) As mentioned above, Mario, Toad, Princess Toadstool, and King Koopa don't appear in this episode, but at least Toadstool and Bowser are mentioned.
 * 5) Hip and Hop are unlikable characters in this episode, even though they are supposed to be unlikable. They turn Luigi and King Windbag into dogs and get them sent to the pound, but at least they get their comeuppance from Luigi and Windbag.
 * 6) *Herman the dog catcher and The Lakitu are also unlikeable characters in this episode - Herman brings Luigi and Windbag to the pound, but he also gets his comeuppance.
 * 7) The dialogue in this episode (unlike the others) is corny, laughable, and atrocious.
 * 8) *There are also two bad lines from Hip and Hop:
 * 9) **”A dog, what a...”
 * 10) **”Bowser of an idea.”
 * 11) 2 plot holes occur in this episode:
 * 12) *Luigi and King Windbag get sent to the Florida State Poochitentiary as dogs. Didn't they first become dogs when Hip and Hop disguised themselves as the King's servant?.
 * 13) *How are Herman's clothes dishevelled and ruined when Luigi and King Windbag drove away from him?
 * 14) **Also, dogs can't drive vehicles. So what Luigi and King Windbag did during the chase scene made no sense.
 * 15) The music number for this episode, a Dog's Life", is very poorly written and annoying to listen to.
 * 16) In the part of the song mentioned earlier, Luigi, as a dog, Luigi gets his butt bitten by one of Lakitu's Spinys. Not only is it very disturbing, it also only makes no sense, and promotes animal abuse in a kids cartoon . It's meant to teach kids that biting a dog's butt is harmful to dogs, but it's still a bad influence on kids. Sounds a bit familiar to you?.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) As mentioned on WIS #2, Hip, Hop and Herman the dog catcher do get their comeuppance in this episode.
 * 2) *To be fair, Hip and Hop were meant to be unlikable since they are the main antagonists of this episode (the same can be said for Herman too).
 * 3) Luigi and King Windbag are the only likable characters in this episode.
 * 4) Both the beginning and ending are pretty good.

Reception
Life's Ruff got 5.0/10 on IMDB.