Donkey Kong Country (animation)



A French-produced Animated Adaptation of the popular Super Nintendo game Donkey Kong Country.

On the island of Kongo Bongo, The Hero of the series, Donkey Kong, is the island's future ruler, as selected by a magical orb called the Crystal Coconut, which has the ability to grant wishes. But the Coconut is a prize coveted by the show's villain, King K. Rool, who aims to steal it and take over the island himself. Thus, DK has to always stand guard over it, which isn't an easy task since he's frequently taking time off to do activities such as eating his Trademark Favorite Food, bananas. Sometimes, another threat appears in the form of a group of Pirates led by Kaptain Skurvy, who believes the Coconut belongs to him. And did I mention there's a lot of singing? It happens at least Once an Episode.

While the series takes place in an Alternate Continuity from that of the games, a few elements of the show would find their way into the games, particularly in Donkey Kong 64, where Crystal Coconuts are an item (but not a MacGuffin like here), and Cranky Kong works as a potion-mixing Mad Scientist.

Tropes used exclusively in the show:
""Even cerebrally-challenged, home-spun, pinheaded subordinates need to spend time with their scaly loved ones.""
 * Almost Kiss
 * Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Japanese version has a different opening and ending theme.
 * Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: The Ape-propriately-named one-episode character Kong Fu. In fact, he's so arrogant that when K. Rool's krew make fun of his phobia, he quits working for them.
 * Art Devolution: The animation takes a step down in quality in the second season.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: The Crystal Coconut can grant wishes, so this trope comes up now and again. The biggest example would be in 'The Day The Island Stood Still'; DK, about to take a nap, absent-mindedly wishes he could sleep forever. The result is time halting...and he can't protect the island if he's napping...
 * Beta Couple: Diddy and Dixie to Donkey and Candy's Alpha Couple
 * Be the Ball: DK does this to Diddy in one episode.
 * Big Red Button: K. Rool wanted to push it.
 * Big No: K. Rool's reaction to when Klump's video conference messes up his game playing in "Buried Treasure".
 * Broken Aesop: Subverted. In the episode "Bug A Boogie", Cranky tries to show DK and Diddy that practical jokes aren't fun... by pulling a practical joke on them. However, this actually comes back to bite him when not having DK around due to said practical joke leaves the Crystal Coconut unprotected, fixing the Aesop.
 * Butt Monkey: DK himself is this, in "Kong for a Day" and the majority of season two.
 * Cranky also qualifies, as he's been injured at least once by every other character in the show, most often by Donkey Kong.
 * Canon Foreigner: Bluster, Inka Dinka Doo, Polly Roger, Eddie the Mean Old Yeti and Skurvy and his crew.
 * Canon Immigrant: The Crystal Coconut, and Cranky dealing in potions.
 * Christmas Festival of Lights Episode
 * Chase Scene
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: For all of his failings, Klump is an amazing spy, often finding things out about the Kongs the same time as we do.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Diddy, K. Rool, and Cranky.
 * Decided by One Vote: Krusha in "Vote of Kong-fidence".
 * Dumb Muscle: Krusha, and to a lesser extent, Donkey Kong.
 * King K. Rool and all of his henchmen would qualify as Dumb Muscle.
 * Eddie the Mean Old Yeti would also qualify.
 * Do Not Adjust Your Set: In the B-plot of Bluster's Sales Ape-Straveganza, K. Rool decides to steal the Crystal Coconut on live TV.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: The way the Kritters march in the song "King K. Rool's Finest Hour".
 * Evil Virtues: K. Rool gives all of his minions Christmas the day of the Festival of Lights off every year.

& New Age Retro Hippie: Funky Kong became this, man. Justified, however as Skurvy is a Kannon (a Klump in pirate clothes) and Green Kroc is just a Mook "Cranky: "Bluster Barrelworks...because their barrels have been around forever...and I should know 'cause so have I"? What kind of crock is that!?"
 * Evil vs. Evil: Kaptain Skurvy allowed for a three way conflict. Something that doesn’t show up often in children’s cartoons in the era.
 * Freaky Friday Flip: "The Big Switcheroo" has DK getting his brain switched with a barrel-making robot's, and Candy's with Klump's.
 * Full Name Ultimatum: Donkey Kong gets this the most. Usually from Cranky.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Literally. When offering to help look for Dixie's pet crab, named Crabby, Diddy calls out, "HERE, CRAPPY! CRAPPY! Here, Crappy, Crappy..."
 * Not to mention Diddy telling Donkey that "Your plan's a bit of a boner" in another. However, Skurvy saying "Me great-great-great-grandpappy Skurvy, may he rot in hell" had "in hell" replaced with a laugh (though the closed captioning and the VHS release still had it intact).
 * Grumpy Bear: Cranky Kong and K.Rool.
 * Guns Are Worthless: A notable aversion, as anyone with any sort of firearm, no matter how ridiculous the weapon(or how ridiculous the wielder in the case of Bluster's Let's Get Dangerous) is taken quite seriously.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Andrew "Yoshi" Sabiston as Diddy Kong.
 * The 2003 incarnation of Papa Q. Bear is King K. Rool, Ganon is Klump and Artemis is Krusha.
 * The Japanese version contains an all-star cast of veteran voice actors, including Koichi Yamadera as DK himself, Megumi Hayashibara as Diddy, Ryusei Nakao as Cranky, Mika Kanai as Candy, Jurota Kosugi as King K. Rool, Kenyuu Horiuchi as Eddie the Mean Old Yeti and Hochu Otsuka as the one-time character Kong Fu.
 * Hulk Speak: Eddie the Mean Old Yeti.
 * Idiot Hero: Donkey Kong.
 * Idea Bulb: Shows up. K. Rool at one point had turning gears appear over his head before the bulb did.
 * I'm Not a Doctor But I Play One on TV: DK's not a villain. But he played one in Bluster's movie and when K. Rool, playing the hero, stole the Crystal Coconut DK got the blame and was banished for it.
 * Inexplicably Tailless: K. Rool has no tail for some reason.
 * In Name Only: Kutlass
 * Insistent Terminology: Or rather, insistence on not using a particular terminology. The word "Kremling" is never heard at any point throughout the series. Instead, the minions are called "Kritters".
 * Donkey Kong is never referred to as just "Donkey", even though every other Kong shares his surname. It's always "Donkey Kong" or "DK". Dixie once refers to "Donkey and Diddy", but that's it in two seasons.
 * "I Want" Song
 * Jerkass: Bluster
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Cranky Kong. Also, Klump in a few episodes.
 * Kiss of Life: DK accidentally wishes he could sleep forever and ends up doing just that. He is eventually awoken when K. Rool accidentally kisses him while having apples in his eyes.
 * Large Ham: King K. Rool and, to a lesser extent, Bluster Kong.
 * Lemonade Stand: Coconut Chill
 * Let's Get Dangerous: One episode has Bluster hold up King K. Rool with his own blunderbuss.
 * Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Not easy to catch, but Klump does this once he realizes he's in a Freaky Friday Flip with Candy.
 * Miles Gloriosus: Bluster Kong.
 * Mistaken for Dying: Bluster in one episode.
 * Mooks: Kritters
 * Mythology Gag: In "Buried Treasure", Diddy throws his hat to the ground and stomps on it.
 * In "Get A Life, Don't Save One", Donkey Kong said flying a plane is more fun than "on top of some skyscraper".
 * No Flow in CGI: K. Rool's cape is MUCH shorter than in the games.
 * No Indoor Voice: Inca Dinka Doo TALKS LIKE THIS.
 * No Pronunciation Guide: Everybody pronounces K. Rool as KUH Rool, when it should actually be pronounced as KAY Rool.
 * What's worse is that in the first episode, Cranky and a Robot Candy duplicate pronounce his name using the latter once, then only use the former for the remainder of the episode.
 * This whole pronunciation kerfuffle may be because this was made in France, who pronounce the letter K as "ka", hence "KA-Rool".
 * Odd Name Out: Bluster in the Kong's Theme Naming of ending with an "e" sound and in Skurvy's crew there's Green Croc. Who isn't even green.
 * Once Per Episode: There are two songs sung by the characters in each episode.
 * Palette Swap: Donkey Kong and Eddie the Mean Old Yeti. Also Captain Scurvy and his two henchmen are Palette Swaps of General Klump, King K. Rool and one of the Mooks.
 * Parody Episode: One episode copied the plot (and even the title) of the movie Speed. Another episode used the Wonderful Life trope in an All Just a Dream fashion.
 * Pirate Booty: One episode revolves around most of the main characters looking for Buried Treasure pinpointed on a map that DK finds. The Kongs believe the treasure is money, and King K. Rool believes it is a Doomsday Device..
 * The Easy Amnesia episode brings Skurvy and his crew into the fold by trying to dig up treasure they buried on the beach. "Captain, why does we bury the treasure?"
 * Pirates: Kaptain Skurvy and his crew.
 * Rich Bastard: Bluster Kong.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: King K. Rool is surprisingly active. From leading operations from the front to building his own super weapons.
 * Scooby-Dooby Doors: Donkey and Diddy briefly chase Polly Roger into this trope in "Raiders of the Lost Banana".
 * She's Got Legs: Candy Kong
 * Shout-Out: When Barrel 007 is loaded for launch in one episode, James Bond style music starts playing.
 * In the episode "Zero to Hero", DK and Diddy argue about a movie about a "giant ape" and a "lizard".
 * In the song "Metalhead" when the robotic DK is singing the last bit of the song, the tune is "Around the World" by Daft Punk.
 * Smug Snake: Bluster Kong and King K. Rool.
 * Snipe Hunt: Bug a Boogie features MULTIPLE snipe hunts, starting when DK and Diddy trick K. Rool's crew into thinking there's a magic amulet in the swamp, Cranky tricks the two apes that some trinket is cursed, and then K. Rool tricking Scurvy into coming after an amulet.
 * Spy Speak: Klump does this. K. Rool is not impressed.
 * Squashed Flat: K. Rool in one episode as a result of The Door Slams You and Cranky in another.
 * Surrounded by Idiots: It's at times like this I ask myself, do I really want the coconut this badly?
 * Terrible Trio: Klump and Krusha, with K. Rool as The Man Behind the Man.
 * Took a Level In Jerkass: Donkey Kong in Season 2.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Candy and Dixie.
 * Tsundere: Candy Kong.
 * That Reminds Me of a Song: At least Once Per Episode, someone will burst into song, usually about what's going on.
 * Villain Song: Notable examples are Pirate's Scorn and Booty Booty for Skurvy, and One of Us and No One's Going To Make A Monkey Out Of Me for K. Rool.
 * DK also gets one, sorta. When he's tries Method Acting to play the bad guy in Bluster's movie in Hooray for Holly Kongo Bongo.
 * Wacky Marriage Proposal: In "Four Weddings and a Coconut", DK's attempt to propose to Candy leads to him kissing Bluster's hand.
 * Wedding Smashers: DK at, ironically, what is supposed to be his own wedding.
 * We Want Our Jerk Back: Two occasions with Bluster. Also, one occasion with Cranky and K. Rool.
 * K. Rool and Cranky's case is interesting. They both become friends, ending the Kong and croc feud, but their pranks tick off everyone so much that DK, Diddy, Klump and Krusha conspire to make them enemies again.
 * Who Writes This Crap?: Cranky's reaction to the lines Bluster feeds him for a commercial;


 * Write Who You Know: Bluster's movie, written by Funky is based off the events of the series. Leading to a in story WTH? Casting Agency when K. Rool is cast as the hero and DK is cast as the villain.