"Hello, this is Goomzilla!"
Ian, aka Goomzilla, is a YouTuber who creates homemade videos with his sister Sarah featuring plush characters from the Super Mario Bros. franchise. Together, they have made a plush video series with at least twenty complete episodes, including three feature-length movies (Mario's Quest, Luigi's Quest and Peach's Quest), a series of videos set in a Gamebooks story (Yoshi and the Lost Egg) and two videos styled after Among Us.
They always aim for the most professional and entertaining videos, and also try to remain as loyal as possible to the Mario series, character and setting wise.
Sometimes they sew up custom plushes of other Mario characters, whether they're custom plushes and not official ones, or characters with no official plushes at all. They have made tutorials of some of these customs, with some of these tutorials even getting video responses from those who took pointers from them.
Check out his YouTube channel here
, his Twitter page here, and his Instagram page here.
Tropes used in Goomzilla's series
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Francis and Doopliss, while both initially antagonistic, are shown to be much friendlier and more noble than they were in their home games. Lady Bow, meanwhile, is less sassy.
- Ad-Break Double-Take: The finale of Luigi's Quest replays the moment of Solus' betrayal that concluded the previous part. They would do this again in the finale of Peach's Quest with Tripliss.
- Alternate Universe Fic: Goomzilla has confirmed that the universe of his plush movies is completely different from that of the video games.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: All of the plush tutorials are narrated by Goomzilla...except the ones for Captain Toad and Shy Guy, which are narrated by his sister instead.
- April Fools' Day: The trailer for Luigi's Spooky Ghost Spooky Quest was advertised as the next big epic series that Goomzilla was planning, but he later admitted that he really was just experimenting with green screen effects.
- Art Shift: Luigi and Captain Toad making their way through the Rogueport Sewers in Luigi's Quest as paper silhouettes was made entirely in stop motion.
- Big Bad: As expected, Bowser is the Big Bad for most of Goomzilla's series. Solus is the Big Bad of Luigi's Quest, and Mimi is the Big Bad of Peach's Quest, before the role was taken over by Tripliss. For a Big Bad Duumvirate, there's Master Hand & Crazy Hand of Bowser and the Koopas' Staff, Wario and Waluigi of Yoshi and the Lost Egg, and a Goomba and Toad of "Among Us in the Super Mario World".
- Big Damn Heroes: Mario in Luigi the Prankster, Yoshi in Mario's Quest, Captain Toad in Luigi's Quest, and Peach in Mario's Unexpected Transformation.
- Bilingual Bonus: Goomzilla often uses Japanese writing for tablets or other ancient texts used in the movies.
- The tablet regarding the prophecy about the generator in Mario's Quest literally translates to "Koopa likes easter eggs".note
- In Peach's Quest, the word on the front of the Book of Delopp ("Ranperu"note ) is the Japanese name for Doopliss. Also, the signs for the three puzzles in the Crystal Palace have words that relate to each puzzle in some way: "order", "reflection", and "scramble" respectively.
- Bittersweet Ending:
- Mario's Quest ends on this note. Bowser is stopped and the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Peach are saved, but all of the Whackas are extinct, and Goomfrey leaves Princess Peach because "humans and Goombas should not mix." And even after he assures Peach he's grateful for everything, she's clearly depressed by his leaving.
- Most of the endings in Yoshi and the Lost Egg are like this as well.
- Even the first episode, Bowser's Mushroom Factory, ends on this note, with the Mario Bros. once again beating Bowser only to find Toad ate their much-needed cake.
- Black Comedy: This gem from the outtakes for Yoshi and the Lost Egg.Goomba: Did someone give the Yoshis rabies?Microgoomba: Maybe that's the next plan? Give all the Yoshis rabies?Goomba: Oh yeah, I have rabies.Microgoomba: You have what?!
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- A very subtle example in Luigi's Quest. When Bowser says "We'll let Super Princess Peach help," Kamek's reply of "Er...okay" can be heard as him thinking "Did you really just say that?". A more straightforward example is shown in the same movie, where Doopliss says he likes playing Luigi's Mansion. Finally, in the same movie, Solus threatens to "end Luigi's game."
- The trailer for Peach's Quest gives us this line from Bowser, which manages to be a Continuity Nod to the previous Quest movies at the same time.
"No more Mario's Quest! No more Luigi's Quest!" - Butt-Monkey: Luigi is this for most of Goomzilla's series. But when this becomes averted in Luigi's Quest, his big starring movie role, that role is given to Captain Toad instead.
- Continuity Porn: There are a lot of references to past adventures in Goomzilla's videos. Listing each of them would take up a good chunk of this page.
- Darker and Edgier: The "Quest" movies.
- A Day in the Limelight: Luigi in Luigi the Prankster and Luigi's Quest, Wario in Wario the Bankrupt, Yoshi in Yoshi and the Lost Egg, and Peach in Peach's Quest.
- Death Is Cheap: Mostly applies to the non-Quest videos. Various characters die and go to the Underwhere in Bowser and the Koopas' Staff, yet they all come back in the end, and Mario falls into an endless pit in Wario the Bankrupt, yet still appears unharmed in future episodes.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Luigi's Spooky Ghost Spooky Quest.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Why Luigi thinks it's a great idea to prank Bowser and Wario of all people in Luigi the Prankster is something only Goomzilla knows, but prank them he did. You can probably guess how well it goes for him.
- Bowser tries to apologize to Peach for beating her in Mario's Quest. Does he seriously think Peach will forgive him that easily for practically Domestic Abuse?
- Disney Death: In Mario's Quest. Everyone in the Mushroom Kingdom was turned to stone, except for Bowser, Peach, and Yoshi. The star he was trying to protect kept him alive so he could stop Bowser and restore everyone.
- Distressed Dude:
- Luigi in Luigi the Prankster, Mario's Quest Part 3, and Yoshi and the Lost Egg.
- Mario in Mario's Quest Part 5 and Luigi's Quest.
- Mario and Luigi together are this for most of Peach's Quest.
- Enemy Mine:
- Koopa is forced to work with the Mario Bros. to stop a common enemy in Bowser and the Koopas' Staff, and again in Luigi's Quest.
- Bowser and Peach are forced to work together for most of Peach's Quest.
- Fantastic Racism: Implied in Yoshi and the Lost Egg, where it's said that there's sometimes tension between the Yoshis and Birdos. Likewise, Bowser saying he's "way more fun than Goombas" in Mario's Unexpected Transformation could be considered a racist comment.
- Fetch Quest:
- Mario and Luigi must fetch all of the stars in Mario's Quest.
- Luigi must gather all of the Energy Cells in Luigi's Quest.
- Yoshi must recover the lost egg in Yoshi and the Lost Egg.
- Peach must look for three legendary items that can be used to defeat the Duplighosts in Peach's Quest.
- Forced Transformation: "Mario's Unexpected Transformation", which sees Mario turned into a Goomba by accident.
- Formula-Breaking Episode:
- Almost all of Goomzilla's videos have only one outcome, but Yoshi and the Lost Egg has seven outcomes.
- A Day in the Life of Mario also qualifies for basically just showing the characters "sing" the Super Mario Bros. theme as they play a part in what they go through every day, making it feel more like a music video than an actual story.
- Among Us in the Super Mario World is exactly what the title suggests—Among Us with Mario characters.
- Genre Savvy: Many characters show a surprising amount of brilliance throughout various videos, arguably making this one of the smartest plush series. Examples:
- Mario gets so tired of saving the princess over and over again that he builds a giant wall in front of Peach's Castle to protect her from Bowser. On the flipside of the plan, even if Bowser can't break through the wall, he can still send his Boo minions to pass through the walls and see what's going on.
- Peach seems to have a gift of seeing through people's disguises. In Bowser Needs Minions, she sees through a Goomba's Toad disguise and shoos him away with only a banana, so she wouldn't be kidnapped or have to work for Bowser. And in Mario's Unexpected Transformation, she recognizes Mario's Goomba form, despite Mario's fears that she wouldn't. This also makes her a total contrast to Bowser, who was easily fooled by Goomba disguises and forms at least twice.
- For villainous examples, Bowser has one for Luigi's Quest. When Peach tries to use the power she gained from Mario to rescue him, Bowser sees through this before she can and, to make sure she doesn't try that again, takes her to a hypnotist to make her loyal to him, something most Mario fans feel he should have done a long time ago.
- Koopa also qualifies in the same movie. He manages to successfully follow Luigi through Rogueport to the Eastern Woods, and would have succeeded in capturing him too had it not been for the trapdoor he fell in. Then, when that doesn't work, he puts a tracking chip onto Captain Toad's back to give Luigi away. And when Yoshi was on his tail, he fights him off until they get to the Diode, where he takes Yoshi's energy.
- While preparing Bowser and Peach's wedding in Peach's Quest, Kameknote stages it right next to the Mario Bros.' house and sets a trap for them, knowing full well they will rush to the rescue.
- Heroic Mime: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Captain Toad do not have spoken lines from Goomzilla or his sister.
- Hilarious Outtakes: Goomzilla occasionally shows these in his movies.
- Honor Among Thieves:
- Wario and Waluigi may be dirty scoundrels, but they have each others' backs. This is best established in "Bowser Needs Minions!", where Waluigi chooses to wait for Wario as they try to escape from Bowser, instead of just going down the stairs without him.
- The Duplighosts also show this, complimenting each other on their disguises in Peach's Quest, among other things. Subverted when Tripliss reveals his true colors in the climax.
- Hypnotize the Captive: Peach gets hypnotized to be loyal to Bowser in Luigi's Quest.
- In the Hood: Solus for most of Luigi's Quest, as well as Birdo in Yoshi and the Lost Egg.
- Karma Houdini: A surprising number of baddies get away with their wrongdoings in Goomzilla's series.
- In Bowser and the Koopas' Staff, Crazy Hand manages to recapture and eat the Goomba that helped the imprisoned Koopa get back home.
- A Blooper manages to get off scot-free for stealing Shy Guy's TV in Wario the Bankrupt.
- Luigi's Quest features an almost literal Houdini—a mushroom hypnotist who goes through the trouble of hypnotizing Peach to be loyal to Bowser without suffering any consequences. Even worse is that Bowser has presumably rewarded him nicely for his troubles.
- Yoshi and the Lost Egg plays with this. After Birdo defeats Wario and Waluigi and reunites with her baby, you have the option to punish them for their misdeeds or telling Birdo about the lost egg. The latter option is just a click away to the best ending, indicating that returning the lost egg was more important than disciplining Wario and Waluigi. By giving them Laser-Guided Karma through picking the other ending, you're just making the other Yoshis wait for an egg that will never come. That being said, Birdo does give them a good butt-whooping either way.
- Downplayed in Mario's Unexpected Transformation. Although he was tricked into changing Mario back to normal, the magical Spiked Paragoomba still quietly flies away before Mario and Peach could attend to his actions any further. This is eventually averted by the end of Peach's Quest.
- Stanley receives no consequences for turning Luigi into a ghost in Luigi's Spooky Ghost Spooky Quest. Justified, since that was just an April Fool's joke.
- Killed Off for Real: Whacka in Mario's Quest, and Solus in Luigi's Quest.
- Meaningful Funeral: For Whacka in Mario's Quest.
- Multiple Endings: Yoshi and the Lost Egg has seven different endings. However good or bad the ending is depends on how many Yoshi Cookies you receive.
- Musical Episode: A Day in the Life of Mario plays all of the character's voice clips from the games in rhythm of the original Super Mario Bros. theme. Goomzilla himself gets in on the fun by singing his name at the end of the episode.
- Never Say "Die": Death is either never mentioned or Bowdlerised in Goomzilla's series, the only exception so far being a quote in Part 5 of Mario's Quest.
- The list of Mario references also mention The Overthere, "where pure souls go after death".
- Daot Town is at one point mentioned as a "dying town" in Peach's Quest.
- "Among Us in the Super Mario World" also averts this. Justified, as it's basically a murder mystery, which is difficult to tell without mentioning or showing death. Granted, there's something silly about the X's on the murder victims' eyes, and they all turn out fine by the end anyway.
- Never Trust a Trailer:
- Especially if that trailer is uploaded on April Fool's Day.
- Kamek's appearance in the trailer for Yoshi and the Lost Egg implied that there would be an explanation as to how he recovered from total depowering in Luigi's Quest. This explanation doesn't happen until Peach's Quest.
- When Goomzilla previewed Mario's Unexpected Transformation on his Twitter, a pic showed Goomba!Mario standing next to Bowser and a medal-ed Microgoomba, with small pictures in the background of Luigi and a Goomba in agony. From this picture alone, it's easy to assume that Bowser or the Microgoomba turned Mario into a Goomba, and planned to put him at the mercy of Luigi so he will be crushed by his own brother. In actuality, a spiked magic Paragoomba was the culprit, the Microgoomba was medal-ed because he presumably finished Mario himself, and the pictures were for an IQ test, not for planning.
- Only in It for the Money: The only reason Wario and Waluigi join Bowser's cause was to get the money he was keeping. When they do, they take the money and run. The citizens of Rogueport also qualify, though they make more of an honest effort to get the job done.
- Palette Swap:
- Kolorado reuses the Koopa Troopa plush used for...well, Koopa, just adding a mustache and fedora hat.
- The big purple car that Bowser drove in the earlier episodes would eventually be used for a police car in "Wario the Bankrupt".
- The Bandit that appeared in Luigi's Quest is just a Shy Guy plush with a different face taped on him.
- Similar to Kolorado, the fully-fleshed Solus was a Koopa Troopa plush with hair sticking up.
- Perpetual Smiler: Goomzilla cannot move the lips of the plushes in his videos, so naturally, any plush that has a bright smile on his/her face remains that way even when they're not supposed to be happy. It's also the inverse when it comes to angry-looking plushes like the Goombas.
- Real Trailer, Fake Movie: Luigi's Spooky Ghost Spooky Quest in a nutshell.
- Shout-Out:
- Since Goomzilla aims to stick as close as possible to the Mario series, references to their games are only fitting. Prominent examples, however, include Mario's Quest being based on Paper Mario 64, Luigi's Quest being based on Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and Peach's Quest being based on Super Paper Mario.
- At the end of A Day in the Life of Mario, Goomzilla sings his name to Goldfinger.
- Yoshi and the Lost Egg makes one to The Simpsons. When Wario and Waluigi are reading a cookbook that says "Cooking With Birdo Eggs", with Waluigi's hand covering "eggs", Goomzilla recalls a similar joke happening in the first Treehouse of Horror.
- What does Kamek say when Kamek urges Bowser and Peach to team up in Peach's Quest?
Kamek: It's dangerous to go alone!- Kolorado at one point compares himself to Sherlock Holmes in the same movie.
- Soundtrack Dissonance:
- Using Battle for the Grand Star for Mario's Big Damn Heroes moment in Luigi the Prankster sounds a bit out of place.
- The use of Jade Jungle for the best ending of Yoshi and the Lost Egg is a bit underwhelming, especially since it's also used for the other less rewarding endings where Yoshi returns to his home.
- Somewhat downplayed example in Luigi's Quest. When Peach remembers all the good times she had with Mario to undo her hypnosis, we hear Shooting Star Summit for this moment. Goomzilla could have used something more heartwarming for this moment to drive the point home of how much Mario means to her, but he admitted that he basically was going for less of a heartwarming approach and more of a "remember who you are" approach.
- Special Guest:
- Two in Peach's Quest. Hanna, the sister of fellow plush movie creator YoshiZilla, voices Mimi, while Yumi The Yoshi Tamer, a fan of Goomzilla, voices Princess Daisy.
- Bowser VS Wario is a collab with LuigiFan00001.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- Captain Toad shares a similar role in Luigi's Quest to Kolorado from Mario's Quest, being treasure hunters who assist the protagonists.
- Doopliss can impersonate other people in Luigi's Quest, which is exactly what Koopa did in Mario's Quest.
- The Great Glory in Peach's Quest serves a similar purpose to the Mushroom Express from Mario's Quest. They both meet a nasty crash, there were mysteries that needed to be solved from within, and Toadette and a Bob-omb were seen in them.
- Also from Peach's Quest is Goomp to Goomfrey. They're both friendly Goombas on good terms with Peach.
- Drubba, an antagonistic Dry Bones who causes a lot of problems in Peach's Quest, is one to Solus.
- Taken for Granite: In Mario's Quest, Bowser's evil plan was to turn everyone in the Mushroom Kingdom into stone, except for himself and Peach.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Despite presumably knowing how evil Solus is, none of the guardians straight-up murder anyone who challenges them for the Energy Cells they guard in Luigi's Quest.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Luigi's Quest has six parts, but people initially thought it would be five since Bowser's Castle seemed to be all that was left to be conquered before the day could be saved. Goomzilla made sure to include a tiny "Finale" caption below the link to the final part to make it clear.
- Verbal Tic: Whacka has "whackoo" and "whackadoo", Kamek has "my king", and Francis has "nerr".
- Villain Has a Point:
- In Mario's Quest, Bowser almost beating Peach with a baseball bat was inexcusable, but she was technically violating his privacy by looking at his diary.
- In Luigi's Quest, Solus calls out Bowser for seeing his minions as tools for his own selfish ends. And truth be told, he does lean towards this territory in this series specifically.
- Voice of the Legion: When Peach gets hypnotized in Luigi's Quest, her voice gives an echo that almost leans toward this territory. Peach's Quest plays this straight with Mimi.
