In a VHS from Nintendo Power in 1999 that promoted upcoming Nintendo 64 games like Jet-Force Gemini and Donkey Kong 64, there was an advertisement for a CGI Donkey Kong movie. The first time I saw this commercial, I was a bit taken aback. Donkey Kong's voice sounded kind of strange but otherwise, it looked cool. Little did I know that this wasn't really a movie but a compilation of four episodes from a Donkey Kong Country television show that was airing on Fox. I knew about that show but since I never watched Fox, I didn't know that this was the same thing. I got this VHS, along with the game Donkey Kong 64, for Christmas that year and wasted no time in watching it.
I need to give a brief overview of the show so, in case you've never seen it, you'll understand where we are here. From what I can gather, Donkey Kong and the rest of the apes on the island (which is called Kongo Bongo in this show) started out as your average primates until DK found the Crystal Coconut. After summoning a bunch of bananas, he and his friends eat the bananas, which give them increased intelligence, enabling them to build up the island into what is now. As you can guess if you know the video game franchise, the show is about Donkey Kong having to protect the Crystal Coconut from King K. Rool and from a new character, Kaptain Scurvy. This film, as I said, compiles together four episodes of the series.
The show was an odd experience at first but when I got into it, I had fun with it. It may not be the most sophisticated thing imaginable (in fact, some of it is pretty kiddish and dumb) but it was (and still is) enjoyable to watch. It does have its fair share of problems, though. For one, the CGI animation ranges from dazzling to really bad and amateurish. I guess I shouldn't be too hard on it since this show was first produced in 1996 but the animation tends to be inconsistent. It can't decide whether Donkey Kong has a mouth full of sharp teeth or no teeth at all; the design of Kaptain Scurvy's skin on his chest switches constantly from a bright, defined yellow to see-through yellow where you can see his scales (that was a bad description, I know, but it's hard to explain); sometimes the limbs and skin textures slip (one character's arm jiggled wildly for a few seconds), etc. One of the most obvious mistakes was when Donkey Kong was in a barrel and you could see his head's shadow on the floor but that was it. The barrel's shadow wasn't there. It was weird.
The biggest shock for me was that there are songs in this show. Each episode has at least two songs sung by various characters and as a result, this movie is full of them. On the one hand, most of the voice actors are pretty good singers but unfortunately, many of these songs have a big problem that befalls most animated musicals: they cause the story to screech to a halt. Don't get me wrong, I actually like some of the songs, but it gets to a point where you realize one is about to start and you're like, "No, just get on with it!" It can get grating.
As for the characters, some of them retain their personalities from the games, others have new ones, and there are other characters that were created specifically for the show. Richard Yearwood as Donkey Kong is a contrast to how he's usually portrayed in the games. In the games, he comes across as a bit of a chunkhead; not exactly stupid but slow and more apt to use his muscle. In this, he feels more like a care-free surfer dude. He's like a teenager who has the enormous responsibility of defending the Crystal Coconut but lays around when he's not doing so. As such, he is likable. He gets a bit cocky and wants to run before he walks when it comes to being the future ruler of the island but he is strong and dependable nonetheless. You do get the feeling he'd drop anything to save his friends from danger.
Diddy Kong's character is fairly consistent with his video game persona. He seems like the dependable sidekick he's always come across as being. Andrew Sabiston gives him a squeaky voice and a touch of mischievousness that I think does fit. The only problem is when he tries to sing. He doesn't sing in this movie but I've seen episodes where he does and he sounds like a girl. I don't know if it's actually Sabiston singing or not but it's bad. Cranky Kong also feels like his video game persona, if not as mean. It's never made clear here how he and Donkey Kong are related but DK does seem to really care about him. As I said, Cranky isn't as mean here as he is in the games but he does feel like the typical old fart who has little tolerance for young whippersnappers. I wish he did complain about how video games used to be but since this isn't that type of universe, he doesn't. Aron Tager does do a commendable job as Cranky. Funky Kong is also around, voiced by Damon D'Oliveira. He feels like the laid back surfer dude he always was, although he's preoccupied with karma, which he never mentioned in the games. I guess they had to give him a bit more character.
Candy Kong is voiced by Joy Tanner, and unlike her video game persona, she has more of a personality. She's got quite a temper and is not the bubble-headed blond that she came across as in the games. She's also very sarcastic and works at a factory that creates barrels, where she has to fend off advances from her boss, Bluster Kong. Bluster (voiced by Donald Burda), was created specifically for this show and is a pompous ape who thinks he's the greatest thing on Earth and that Candy should be throwing herself at him. However, when things get dangerous, he cowers in fear, shown in gratuitous detail in the last episode here where King K. Rool takes control of the factory and gets on his hands and knees, promising to help him so he won't be hurt. Class act. Dixie Kong also appeared in the show but since she isn't in the movie and I haven't actually watched the show in a while, I don't know much about her personality. (I know she was voiced by Louise Vallance but that's it.) There's another character created for this show called Eddie the Mean Old Yeti, an ape lives in the snow-covered mountains of the island. He only appears briefly in the movie and I don't remember any of his episodes but he's apparently quite primitive, talking like a caveman. Finally, there's a god-like character named Inka Dinka Doo, who comes in the form of an idol in an ancient temple. Nothing to say about him other than he has a big booming voice and gives out advice every now and then. He's voiced by Rick Jones.
There are two bad guys in the show. One, of course, is King K. Rool and his criminal army. K. Rool (voiced by Benedict Campbell) has had a different personality in various games, sometimes coming across as a big blowhard and other times coming across as intimidating, as in Donkey Kong 64. Here, he's a typical hot-headed bad guy with an English accent and can sometimes come across as quite prissy. His design here is also strange: he has no tail, a very short cape, and no swollen, blood-shot eye. His subordinates are two familiar characters, Klump and Krusha, who are simplified to one character each instead of being troops. Klump, voiced by Len Carlson, is a blowhard general who's dead-set on pleasing K. Rool. He's always tactical and his military sensibilities tend to get in the way of his job. Krusha, voiced by Ron Rubin, is a big dimwit who is the best example of all brawn and no brains. In fact, he's almost like a child. There are also Kritter troops but they don't speak in this movie.
The other villain is a pirate named Kaptain Scurvy. His basic design is that of the enemy Kannon in the game, Donkey Kong Country 2. He's such a stereotypical pirate, saying stuff like, "Arrgh!", "Shiver me timbers," and so on, that it's kind of cringe-inducing. Did they have to make him this stock? Scurvy is, however, an important character in the context of the show, as it was an ancestor of his who brought the Crystal Coconut to Kongo Bongo. He has two mates, Green Kroc and Kutlass, both of whose designs are loosely based on enemies from the games and are voiced by Dan Hennessey and John Stocker. (I don't which one voices which character, though, because the characters' voices kept swapping throughout the movie. I've never understood how that happens in any animated show or movie. Can't they keep up with who's voicing what character?)
The episodes in this movie are thus: the first one has Donkey Kong wanting to know all the secrets of the Crystal Coconut. He asks Inka Dinka Doo about it and when he's told, "To know everything, you must give up everything," he misinterprets it as meaning he has to give the Crystal Coconut away. Very stupidly, he gives it to King K. Rool. Now he has to get the coconut back from K. Rool as well as keep it away from Scurvy. Not bad. It's interesting how everybody is after the coconut here; K. Rool, thinking it's some sort of trick, orders his henchmen to give the coconut back to Donkey Kong but when DK visits him to retrieve it, K. Rool tells them to bring it back to him instead (did you get all that?). At the same time, Scruvy's after it as well but he has a painful toothache and promises to give anybody who cures it whatever they want. That's how DK eventually gets the coconut back. The funniest part is when Klump and Krusha initially try to return the coconut but Cranky, thinking it's a trick, sets up a bunch of traps that about knock them senseless. At the end, Scurvy ends up accidentally leaving his two mates behind and Klump and Krusha are stuck onboard the ship in an attempt to get the coconut back, not knowing that Scurvy no longer has it (and Krusha decides now to tell Klump that he can't swim).
The second one involves Donkey Kong and Diddy playing a trick on King K. Rool when Klump steals a walky-talkyof theirs. They make K. Rool think that a strange object they've found is a magical amulet and he ends up sending Klump and Krusha on a wild goose chase to the island's forbidden forest to look for it. Cranky, however, doesn't like that they play practical jokes and tells DK and Diddy that the amulet they've found is evil. He sends them to the forbidden forest as well to find someplace to hide it. That turns out to be Cranky's attempt to teach them a lesson. All the while, Scurvy arrives on the island to get the Crystal Coconut and gets caught up in the chaos; at the same time, DK doesn't like being in the forbidden forest because he thinks he saw a monster there when he was a kid. The best parts come when Klump and Krusha get stuck in thick mud and K. Rool has to retrieve the Crystal Coconut himself. Also, DK finds out from Cranky that the bog monster he saw was Cranky, who did that to make DK stay out of the forbidden forest. However, the episode ends with a suggestion that the monster may actually be real.
The third story has Donkey Kong land straight on his head after falling out of his tree-house and lose his memory. He runs into Kaptain Scurvy, who tells him that he's a pirate and gets him to steal the Crystal Coconut. Later, DK runs into King K. Rool, who tricks him into believing he's a Kremling called Donkey Rool and gets him to steal the coconut for him. This is probably my favorite part of the movie along with the previous one, although the ways that both Scurvy and K. Rool trick DK into thinking he's a bad guy make our furry hero look really stupid, even if he does have amnesia. This episode, as well, cripples this movie as a whole because there's a point where Funky and Diddy try to make Donkey Kong remember who he really is and Diddy reminds him of a time when Scurvy locked them both in barrels. That episode is the next and last one in this compilation. Makes you wonder if those that put this movie together were paying attention or even cared for that matter.
The last episode starts with King K. Rool stealing the Crystal Coconut and taking over Bluster's barrel factory, forcing him to make exploding barrels he can use to take over Kongo Bongo. Donkey Kong and Diddy manage to get the coconut back but then Scurvy steals it and they have to get it back again. That's where the aforementioned scene on Scurvy's ship comes in. This episode is interesting because it introduces Klap Trap, the little enemy from the games, as a character who is held captive by Scurvy. (I can't tell from this episode if he's part of K. Rool's clan or not, probably is.) The little guy does a pretty rocking song as well. The battle between DK and Scurvy's crew is pretty funny, as well as the ending with Scurvy and his mates stuck on a small island.
As I said, I do think this show is funny and enjoyable, but it does have its fair share of weirdness (and that's saying something). For one, Cranky has a tendency to use the Crystal Coconut as an avatar to appear in different areas as a floating, see-through form so he can warn Donkey Kong about what's going on. That comes out of left-field in this movie with no explanation and really took me off-guard. Also, King K. Rool apparently has cameras all over the island because there's a monitor on his throne that he uses to talk to his cronies, no matter where they are. I guess I shouldn't be complaining about logic in a show like this but it is odd. Also, was that backstory involving the Kongs starting out as normal apes and turning intelligent due to the Crystal Coconut's power necessary? Couldn't they just stick to the basic plot of the games? It doesn't really bother me but I'm just asking.
This movie, and the Donkey Kong Country TV series, may not be the best thing to come out of Nintendo's many game franchises but it is fun nevertheless. If anyone was going to watch this, I'd advise turning your brain off, as well as lowering your expectations about it being like the games, and just have fun with it. Maybe I'm just easily amused but all I'm saying is don't take it too seriously and you'll like it.
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