Ridiculous Mario and DK Bootlegs pt. 1

The year is 2020.

Life is crap. I'm sure that needs no explanation. Things have changed considerably, but I still find a lot of solace in video games. If anything, my urge to think about these games and the media that spun from them encourages me to post new things. Now, blogging is... kind of old-fashioned. If I had any self-confidence I would have made video essays but I'm shy. Without further ado, here is a post I was writing on a year or so ago...

~

It's been a while, huh? Well, I want to move the focus from exclusively Donkey Kong and Rare games to also engrossing Mario from time to time. Though I still consider Mario as a whole to be absolutely distinct from DK, I insist Mario is a Donkey Kong character. Remember the first game he appeared in? Exactly.

On to the topic; bootlegs! I absolutely love bootlegs in a somewhat schadenfreude kind of way. Sometimes they're also the only way to get a character in toy form. It seems bootleggers know this... even in recent times, games such as Five Nights at Freddy's and Undertale have received baffling amounts of bootleg merchandise. The former has a ton of official stuff available while the latter does not, so it doesn't seem to influence the volume of bootleg merchandise created as long as something is popular enough.

I decided to make a list of bootleg merchandise I find super interesting, funny, or just cool. In the end, you're best off supporting the official creators, but when there's characters that don't get any official merch, it is a nice alternative in a pinch...

1. The Baby Waluigi plush

Nintendo's Mario department is known for spamming babies, in a manner akin to a queen ant who continously produces offspring. As with ants, whether they're cool or not is up for debate. It is however odd when something appears that literally has no base in canon.

Baby Waluigi being one of these. Despite the main amount of Nintendo characters having baby versions of themselves, no matter if it is awkward in terms of canon (looking at you, baby Rosalina --  baby DK as well, but he is forgiven on the grounds that he's, well, DK) because the target audience loves small cute things. Wario did get a baby version of himself in Yoshi's Island DS, but has faded into obscurity. (2020 update: Baby Wario has made a triumphant return in the mobile Dr. Mario game. Yay?)

The mere notion that baby Waluigi exists at all might be to blame on fan art, considering he appears alongside the canon babies a lot and people just enjoy the idea of the entire cast having baby equivalents.

Overall, the plush doesn't look too bad, and certainly fits very well among the other, official plushes. It's a neat, but also weird little thing. Nice to know that bootleggers appreciate Waluigi, though.

2. The "San-ei" Dixie Kong plush

Dixie Kong has received a modest amount of plushies in her likeness over the years, most of which based on Donkey Kong Country 2; Diddy's Kong Quest and the animated series. However, she seemed woefully absent in the otherwise very good line of San-ei Mario plush toys.

Leave it to bootleggers! This plush isn't very bad at all, although she has a bad case of felt lips. It kind of ruins the overall plush for me. Her shirt is made of a flimsy material and the tongue looks glued on. I know this because I've seen this exact toy once at Comic Con. Apart from that, this is probably the only plush of Dixie in her modern design (note the bigger earrings and lack of kneepads, a post-Rare-buyout design choice.)

Now that Dixie received a starring role in Donkey Kong Country; Tropical Freeze, we have thus seen one official figure in the World of Nintendo line, along with various DK, Diddys, and a Cranky. I was hoping for at least one Snowmad and a Funky Kong, but the brand seems to be more interested in pumping out repaints of existing molds... and shipping out weed to hapless customers.Yeah.

The Dutch Donkey Kong Country dub, or On Voice Acting

For the longest time I have been obsessed with voice actors and their work. As my boyfriend shares the passion, perhaps even more than I do, the passion has been re-ignited. He focuses on the English ones, I on the Dutch ones. Of course, the Donkey Kong Country show, being an object of a very long obsession for me, is a main object of research.

Voices can make or break a movie. Notable are the various versions of Disney films - as far as I know, Disney films sound great in any language. Dutch dubs are a lot better than most people give them credit for. Even if there are obvious budget cuts in certain placed (Cartoon Network kind of seems to cheap out, not translating or even dubbing songs, changing actors out every few episodes, randomly changing character names after a season, etc... though that might just be a certain few shows.) The acting itself, however, is usually of high quality, or at least good quality.

Donkey Kong Country in Dutch is a mixed bag. Sometimes it's good, other times it's bad. But the voice actors definitely put in a good amount of effort. But since the VHS tapes are very, ridiculously hard to get ahold of... it's hard to determine it fully. I will be talking about some characters whose English and Dutch voices are both known to me.

Above; all the Dutch-released Donkey Kong Country TV show material I have thus managed to find. This picture is gonna be used in internet memes... I just feel it.

The ones that stand out are Donkey Kong (Bart Bosch) and King K. Rool/Koning Wreed (Jan Nonhof). These two actors appear quite regularly in animation, especially in the late 90's and early 00's. (The former is also a singer - which isn't too weird when you consider Donkey Kong sings a lot) and the latter had roles in a lot of cartoons I watched in my youth. But more on him later! Join me after the jump to learn more of this vaguely interesting subject...

Tropical Freeze; where DK is relevant again

WARNING; this WILL contain spoilers! Tread carefully!

So last Monday I went out to buy a Wii U. Earlier, on Saturday, I had purchased Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, my most anticipated game of this year.

A reason I love Tropical Freeze is because it fits in perfectly with other DKC games. Returns did too, but it fell flat on some points. And even then, Returns was amazing. We all thought it couldn't get better than Returns. Except, guess what? It did get better than Returns. Who would'a thought that?

The Donkey Kong theory

Sure, another theory. Except this one is one of my favourites.

So anyway. We all know the amazing Donkey Kong Country games and the... less-than-amazing Donkey Kong Country animated series. I loved the TV show a while back, around three or four years ago. But now, I'm re-watching it in amusing annotated form and now that I look back at it, I find it being less than impressive. Not because of the differences from the game, but rather because the characters sometimes get on my nerves. But this is not about that. This is about the theory that I imaginatively call 'The Donkey Kong Theory'.

The theory itself is as follows; The Donkey Kong Country TV show is a prequel to the games.

Why would I have such a bone-headed idea? Cranky would probably call me a big baboon (he calls everyone a big baboon) and I wouldn't blame him. Some things would make sense, though. For example, take Cranky, only because he's playable in Tropical Freeze (which is great) and also because he'll call me a big baboon if I don't tell about him first (which is not great.)

 

Honestly, Cranky's show design is quite faithful to his original design. The only thing that differs is his beard, which is shorter in the cartoon. Of course this is because back then, emulating hair with CGI was considered the most impossible thing that ever was impossible, but from a theory viewpoint, it would make sense -- it didn't have the time to grow to the length it is currently! As for his tendency to break the fourth wall in the games, we'll get to that later.

More Tropical Freeze rambling

Donkey Kong Country; Tropical Freeze is, undoubtedly, the biggest, most exciting Donkey Kong release since the game that came before it. Not only is it a sequel to Donkey Kong Country Returns, a game that baffled everyone upon release for the sheer unbelievability that Donkey Kong was having another game where he is the star as opposed to having a silly little side-role as a toothy-grinned maniac, it fixes everything the previous game did wrong -- ahem, didn't do.

For one, there's the return of Dixie Kong as a playable character alongside Diddy, after she hadn't been up and at it in a main game for over ten years -- not counting ports. There's also Cranky, who, against all odds, teams up with the young 'uns to finally do some platforming himself. While thinking of his boasts in the original game as being ironic was part of the fun of his character, it is amazing to finally see him prove himself. The bad guys, the Snowmads, are characteristic Viking-themed animals that have a lot more charm than the Tiki Tak Tribe could ever think of having. And of course, David Wise returns, and this time, he's in charge of the entire soundtrack -- much like he did in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. I have heard bits of pieces of the new soundtrack and it brought tears to my eyes. It's so wonderful and perfect.

Also, the savanna level?

I called it. I freakin' called it.

Donkey Kong is on the go, and brought some friends along!

I don't have much to say about this other than the fact it's the best thing I've seen all day, all week. A sharp contrast to a disappointing recent episode of my favourite modern cartoon.

Things that I found interesting and awesome to note;

• DIXIE KONG! She actually returns and is playable, for the first time in about five years.
• DK Isle appears to be overrun with Vikings based on arctic animals. Vikings are technically pirates, so maybe they are indeed kind of going for a theme similar to Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest? (This could also mean K. Rool might appear as well!)
• The gorgeous graphics. Seriously, the graphics. I affectionately called Donkey Kong Country Returns 'Scenery Porn; The Game', and I might just as well call this one 'Scenery Porn; The Game; The Sequel'.
• The archetypes. They seem to deriver slightly from the archetypes of the original DKC 2, which is of course a good thing.

The game is called Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and will appear on the Wii U. ...I suddenly realized I need a Wii U now, more than everything.

Also useful to note - the next installment in the Smash Bros. franchise has finally been announced, and our beloved Donkey Kong has already managed to gather enough popularity to appear on the official site - and on a buttload of Tumblr pages.

I honestly can't really blame anyone.

(Also, I classified the Donkey Kong games in categories in the same vein people classify animated movies. The Silent Age of DK will be used to refer to the Arcade games. The Golden Age of DK will refer to Donkey Kong Country and its sequels, as well as Donkey Kong 64. The Dark Age of DK will refer to what happened to DK post-buyout, while the Renaissance Age of DK refers to Retro's recent and immensely awesome involvement with the big guy. Let's hope it lasts!)

Random thoughts - Klump's Lumps

Don't waste your time

looking at a sorry sight like me

A quivering pile of mush, that's me

All my years of service and devotion to the King

I'm a quivering, snivelling, non-existent thing

I know I've failed

I know my ship has sailed

Stripped of my rank

I know my ship has sank

And I haven't got a friend in the world...

I'm a quivering, snivelling, blubberin', nameless non-existent pile of nothing, worthless, soggy pile of mush

And I haven't got a friend in the world, no

I haven't got a friend in the world...

This wonderful episode of the Donkey Kong Country TV show stood out to me because it was so emotional and stayed like this 'til the end -- some silly scenes with Krusha and K. Rool aside -- which was pretty unusual for a cartoon like this. I mean, Klump. Dude's job was his life, and then he gets kicked out with nowhere to go. Dixie Kong is the first (and only) Kong who befriends him. Never mind that he's a bad guy. It was this episode that made me love Klump. Precious thing... I cannot fathom how anyone couldn't have at least a bit of sympathy towards him after this episode.


Emotional things in kids' cartoons like this are usually only found in fan fiction these days, and I find this downright saddening.

(Note: if the formatting looks weird, it's because I was going to post it on Tumblr at first. I decided not to. Also, I passed 10000k pageviews. You guys rock, thank you. :) I'm gonna be working on a little tribute image soon! ...And something special. It concerns the cartoon and music. You'll see! ...And sorry for the shortness of this post. More stuff coming soon.

...

Wow. Did I seriously type 10000k? I think I was tired when I wrote this... I obviously meant 10000.) 

3 characters crueler than K. Rool

We all know the Donkey Kong Country cartoon. If you have been following this blog for a while, I'm sure you do. And most people don't like it as much, but I am convinced it is as good as the games, just in a totally different way. To accentuate my point, I feel the need to point out I went out of my way to download the entire series to my PC for the sole reason of making shallow parodies of it.

Well then, all silliness aside, let's start this thing off.

In DK lore, there have been three true villains - namely King K. Rool (under different aliases), Ghastly King, and Tiki Tong.

K. Rool was just some asshole who decided to troll DK by stealing the banana hoard, Ghastly King was an evil monkey from SPACE that wanted to rule over the Fruit Kingdoms for no real reason and Tiki Tong stole the banana hoard to keep his race alive and possibly take over the world. Fair share of hindrances, right? It is nothing compared to the vast amount of baddies Mario fought in the past, but this is mostly to blame on the fact that Nintendo obviously favours Mario over Donkey Kong. Which is saddening, because they debuted in the same game.

Anyway, K. Rool and co. were typical antagonists, setting up the games' plot. But what about those other characters who had done unspeakable things people presumably forgot all about because they weren't the main villains?

(note that this article is meant to not be taken entirely seriously and is here for humorous purposes only.)

3. Bluster Kong

Bluster Kong is one of the show-only characters, and nearly everybody who doesn't appreciate the show blames their dislike of it on Bluster. I honestly don't blame them - while this specific Kong provides a lot of humorous scenes and dialogue and I don't mind him, he takes up a lot of space, having three episodes with him in the limelight.

"Don't blame me! That miserable Donkey Kong was already hogging the spotlight in the games!"

He's a pathetic mommy's boy, constantly whining about his mother and whenever he has to do manual labor, all hell breaks loose. Figuratively, of course. Bluster can't really... do anything. He's not strong, he can't jump high, and he certainly isn't a hell of a guy. He also has a grudge towards Donkey Kong, for the sole reason that DK is constantly hitting on Candy, the only adult female ape in the cartoon who isn't Bluster's mom or Great Aunt Grouchy. Bluster is not happy with this because he too has an eye on Candy, to the point where he gets a bit desperate in some episodes, like in A Thin Line Between Love and Ape, where he makes a love potion to make her love him.

Evil?

The episode Bad Hair Day, AKA the only episode most people know of, had him being introduced as another all-around jerk. Fair enough. But eventually, Donkey Kong loses his hair (and his muscles) and Cranky makes a potion to make it grow back. Candy and Bluster set out to find DK. Eventually, in the jungle, Bluster complains that "I can't walk anymore! My feet are sore, I've got sand in my shoes, and I'm thirsty!" leading to him snatching the potion from Candy. He empties the bottle on the ground.

Whose show is it anyway

And now, it's time for something completely different.

Sorry for not posting much here. School has been eating me alive. That, and I've found out about the Regular Show and for some reason this cartoon has captivated me. (I might or might not have a crush on Mordecai now and I have no clue why.) But do not worry, this doesn't mean BeJungle'd will turn into, uh... something centered around that. Although the show is awesome, trying to think of logic behind it is a lost cause. And I'll always love Donkey Kong Country.

I have been writing on this article for a few months now, so some thoughts might be outdated.

The Donkey Kong animated series (there I go again) isn't too well-received on the internet, for shame. Though I hear much people saying it isn't good, I personally find it quite clever, and much more fun to watch than most recent cartoons (sans the Regular Show, of course, which is clever. Other clever cartoons are Adventure Time and uh... more stuff.) Ahem. Moving on...

What would a Donkey Kong cartoon be like if I was in charge?

In no way an insult to Nelvana's work, by the way. They've done amazing work. I just wondered how it would be if I was allowed to write it.

Warning; we are now moving into highly unstable Loads and Loads of Characters territory. Approach with caution.

1. The Kong Clan

Primary main characters would be Donkey Kong, Diddy, and Dixie. These three are just what makes DKC to me.

Keep Diddy's personality from the show with a bit of added 'tough kid' attitude, make DK a bit tougher and make Dixie more cheeky, like a female equivalent of Diddy. I'm not certain about the voices, but I am certain that Andrew Sabiston should return as Diddy Kong 'cause I find his Diddy to be the best Diddy portrayal so far.

Watch out, Dix! I'mma pop ur bubblegum!

The secondary cast would consist of Kiddy (taking the role of Baby Kong), Tiny (in either her original design or the newer, I don't know. Maybe the original because I'm tired of seeing her recent design being portrayed as fetish fuel all the time.), Funky, and Cranky. Tertiary characters would be Candy, Swanky, Chunky, and Lanky.
Less about DK gushing over Candy and more interaction with his family. Add fluff. Lots of fluff.
Quartiary characters? Hell, Bluster can return too.

Not much to it. Let's move onto my personal favourites...

2. The Kremling Krew

Properly labelled as such this time, the Kremling Krew still consists of Klump and Krusha with K. Rool as the leader. Though this time they're accompanied by Kalypso, the fair lady lizard with the awesome pink hairdo and Kludge, that big, hulking blue dude that apparently has the mindset of a small child (even moreso than Krusha). Sometimes Kritters, Kip and Kass, Kopter, and some others tag along as well. Kruncha is Krusha's slightly flamboyant cousin, and Krusha may or may not undergo a name change thanks to copyrights. For the sake of simplicity I will just refer to him as Krusha.

K'Rool's gang of evul dudes (and two dudettes) continue to wreak havoc on DK Isle for no reason. Well, except to steal the Crystal Coconut. Again? Yup. And the banana hoard. But here's the catch; they want the coconut 'cause it's the only thing that can tell the true location of the bananas, which are much-renowned golden bananas! Heh. I'm a friggin' genius. /brag

DKC in Japan

So yeah, thought it was time for just another silly blog post. I will contemplate stuff, but mostly ramble. Ahem... I have been working on a new header, so expect to see that soon, too. Whenever I'm not lazy, at least. So, instead of complaining about things, I will probably complain about things. Wait...

Recently I have been obsessed with the Japanese language for some reason. Mostly because Donkey Kong, because hey, when have I ever obsessed about something else? (That was a rhetorical question.) I've gone out of my way to memorize how to say 'I love Donkey Kong' in the language, frequent Pixiv for fan art and surf around on the web for more tomfoolery like that. I am beginning to appear like a weeaboo. But alas...

The Donkey Kong Country TV show appears to have a much bigger fanbase in Japan than it does elsewhere. I've seen many wonderful pieces of fan art but what really amuses me is that I mailed one of those people who does fan art like that, telling them that their art was awesome, and I got a really polite and grateful mail back. That was, like, so cool. But alas, one thing that differs; it's never been established that K. Rool, Kaptain K. Rool, and Baron K. Roolenstein are the same people, so most of the fanbase sees them as brothers. This also explains how Super Smash Bros. Brawl does the same.

But one thing I love is that they love the show as much as the games. I often feel like I am the only one with that mindset.

...

And with that, I'm off again.

Donkey Kong Land III

(Sorry for my inactivity! I have a lot of articles waiting to be published, but they're either very old now or require some fine-tuning.)

Yup. Donkey Kong Land III.

I got this game a while ago from a good friend of mine 'cause she didn't play it anymore, and only recently got to play it. (finished it in the same day, too.)

Obviously, it's like Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! in many ways, such as how it stars Dixie and Kiddy on their adventure through the Northern Kremisphere in search of the... Lost World?! Where's DK? Wasn't he ape-napped?

Kremlings - the definitive classification

One of my headcanons dictate that Kremlings are actually mammals that happen to look like reptiles.

Well... mostly.

Obviously, they're meant to be reptiles. But I'm a nerd and I think these things through too much. I mean, c'mon. I have a lot of theories to make sense of it. SO here goes nothing.

There will be talk of mammaries in this article.

1. They're actually warm-blooded.

A lot of kritters and maybe a single krusha hop/strut around in the icy peaks of Gorilla Glacier, in the first game. The second game had krunchas walking about merrily in K. Rool's own personal ice storage. And let's not forget the skiddas around the K3! A reptile wouldn't last in those icy areas for more than an hour.

Not to mention they run around for little reason nearly all the time. Real crocodiles lay about in the sun all day, only moving to eat or mate, being dependent on warmth to survive. Kremlings usually also spend time playing video games and running after crystal coconuts, among other frivolous pastimes.

That, and King K. Rool clearly blushes in shame, in the episode Just Kidding.

Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!. The third installment and last entry in the Donkey Kong Country games (until Returns, of course), was a marvellous way to end a series but still I see it getting so much flak. For shame, because it still holds a special place in my heart. Mostly because it was, in fact, the first Donkey Kong game I played.

While by no means as good as the first game, and it doesn't even do so much as hold a candle to the second, it still is a beautiful game with great gameplay, mind-blowingly beautiful environments in a time when something like that was hard to find in games, and an awesome soundtrack.

No butts about it

Warning. This post might be a bit disturbing. It involves K. Rool's behind. I promise to not post any pictures of it, though. If you're still frankly not interested in these things, I ask you kindly to skip this article.

"NO, you lunkhead! I'm not fat, you're just paying attention to all the wrong things!"

Much love for Diddy's Kong Quest

The best game ever made.

A risky subject. Due to ever-changing opinions, no game truly can be called a perfect game. But for me, there is. This game is Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest.

(I recommend listening to this music piece while reading this; click!)

I have not said it a lot, but this game means so much to me. So. Freaking. Much. Just everything about it is perfect in my eyes and it's what I think of if somebody mentions Donkey Kong. How ironic - he isn't even playable in that game!

Resources

We all know Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong wear clothes. Same for the Kremlings. And Banjo-Kazooie and Conker are even more blatantly clothing-wearing than DK and pals, so there you go. They also use a lot of items made of wood, steel, even rock, possibly taking after the citizens from the Mushroom Kingdom that attempted colonizing their isles all those years ago.

Now you might wonder; why the hell is this a blog post? Well, here you go; where do they get their resources?

I mentioned power sources not too long ago, but I mean, stuff like DK's television and K. Rool's PC didn't just fall out of thin air, now did they?

But the resources they have... where do they go?

I am presuming the Isle o' Hags, as large as it is, has some specialists whom buy the resources in bulk and in turn make objects of it.

Resource 1; Wood

Wood is abundant and necessarily for life nearly everywhere. Chop down a tree and you can make stuff with it. DK Isle abounds in wood, obviously, but it's mostly tropical. No, the real deal is the Northern Kremisphere.

A mainly forested region, abundant in large, stately, ominous redwood trees. (sequoias?) Most notable in the Kremwood Forest. The little isle in its centre provides a place for the Mekanos factories. They, presumably Kremlings, chop down the trees for use as fuel, building material, and suchlike, if the level Ripsaw Rage is of any significance.
So, they ship the wood to the Isle o' Hags where it gets changed into useful appliances. The Kremlings have a cutting-edge scale of technology for some reason with large airships... which brings us to our next subject;

Best songs in the series... in my opinion

Having finally seen the whole series, I can finally judge the songs. A lot of haters of the show usually jab at the songs first, claiming it to be bad and out-of-place, never mind the fact that the games had some very impressive music as well. Click the title to hear them!

10. Diddy Drop Rap (Follow That Coconut)

DK and Diddy went running through the mountains thinking nobody would think they'd go through the mountains. Except K. Rool had the exact idea. They bump into each other to which K. Rool holds Diddy over a cliff. So what do they do? They rap. It must be heard to be believed.

As silly as this sounds it's actually quite catchy and the only song in the show I can sing myself without watching the episode. Much to the annoyance of my friends, heh!

9. I Haven't Got a Friend in the World (Klump's Lumps)

This episode was one of the first I saw way back when I was just a little Ribbers - and I developed a liking towards Klump because of it that I still have to this day.... I mean, just LOOK at him poor guy awww

So yeah, after another failed plan he got exiled by King K. Rool leaving him in the jungle. He meets up with Dixie and the two become friends. It's pretty heartwarming. And bloody adorable, too.

8. The Mirror Never Lies (Ape-Nesia)

Let's face it, Skurvy's singing voice is awesome. It's no wonder his voice actor voiced Klump in season 2! But anyway, DK loses his memory and the pirates convince him he's Donkey Croc, a pirate. So Skurvy gets a mirror that's not really a mirror and they sing about DK being a pirate.

Unbelievable, people! Rare, Nintendo, and Nelvana made pirates awesome even before Pirates of the Caribbean!

The reflection tells a story of a pirates' life and glory, trust your eyes!

And so my quest ends

A while ago I posted an announcement about how I wanted to find the missing DKC episodes, right? Well, great news - I have now finally seen them. A kindly DeviantART user pointed me to them. On YouTube, no less! The quality left something to be desired but now I can at least happily say I have seen alllll episodes. Oh, and a while ago a nice fellow on the DKC-Atlas forums sent me the episode To the Moon Baboon.

As awesome as the episodes were, there's one thing now...

I've been jossed. With all those fan theories, it was bound to happen, really.

Subject 1; Speed

The holy grail for me, being a Krusha fan, was this episode, where he got a starring role! It begins with Krusha and K. Rool conversing about how to acquire that crystal coconut. Suddenly, Klump comes in riding a mine cart and being the goof that he is, drives all over poor Krusha.
No harm done, though. Instead Krusha gets insanely smart and more smooth-talking than the King himself and devises a plan to get rid of the Kongs, take over the island, and get the Coconut while he's at it. Implements a bomb on a mine cart accompanied by Candy Clone, messes around with everyone else with his recent possession of a brain and considers K. Rool, the former evil mastermind, to be disposable. Until the end where he gets driven over AGAIN and regains his stupid but lovable attitude.

Why does this joss my views?

For one, I had always seen Krusha as one who couldn't sing at all, as the only one in a group of singers. But in this episode, he gets a song all to his own where he claims being evil is AWESOME and his voice isn't too shabby either. So erm... yeah? It can be argued that in his normal state he's still as bad at singing as Justin Bieber.

Not to mention Klump frequently calls him lunkhead even after driving him over. I mean, DUDE! Where's the LOVE you just drove over your ADOPTIVE S- Oh yes, fan theories... excuse me... the sweetest thing in all episode he did was say "Welcome back, soldier." after Krusha became as dumb as he was before. Aww.

Subject 2; Baby Kong Blues

This one is about how Candy and Dixie are babysitting Baby Kong. DK and Diddy walk past and joke about how easy it is to babysit. Candy and Dixie then decide to leave the two men to care after Baby Kong. Naturally, disaster follows with the baby going everywhere and he eventually ends up at K. Rool's place. DK devises a plan to trade the crystal coconut for Baby Kong but K. Rool insists on keeping the kid to raise him as his heir. Meanwhile, he and his cronies mess around, tell tales to get the baby to sleep, and DK thinks of another plan. DK's plan is to switch Baby Kong with another baby... Diddy in baby clothes. Donkey Kong pulls the ol' switcharoo (the writers like this cliche it seems) and puts Diddy in Baby Kong's place. DK and Diddy now leave with the infant, leaving everyone in the cave sad.

Why does this joss my views?

Baby Krusha, anyone? Bet you heard that story before... K. Rool doesn't act like he'd ever seen a baby before. MY THEORIES, MY LOVE! Ahem. And let's not mention Klump. While he suddenly mentions being able to put a nappy on er... Baby Kong that's actually Diddy, can't blame Diddy for yelling and wanting to GET OUTTA HERE (let's not mention that in-show with everyone adult disregarding Baby Kong) he too acts completely oblivious to the fact there's a baby in the hideout. "KOOCHIE-KOOCHIE-KOO." indeed, General.

And in one of his tales he mentions a hot day in July that was so hot he could saute seaweed on his tail... AND how he met K. Rool that day. I pictured it more a dreary November and that the King took him in mostly out of pity, but eh... never mind that

Subject 3; Watch the Skies

Unrelated image is unrelated. Sorry.

Rumours about alien zombies on the isle arise and the Kong family (just DK and Diddy though) gets sent into a tizzy. Later on, DK discovers that the Kongs' weird acting has just to do with them planning a surprise party for Diddy's birthday. Meanwhile, the UFO they presumably saw was just another one of K. Rool's plans... eventually he persuades Diddy into getting him the crystal coconut. But he fails and DK takes it back... and Krusha barfs all over Klump's clean uniform.

Why does this joss my views?

It doesn't, really. Huh.

The end?

It's quite a shame - now I've got nothing to search for anymore. But oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I have ordered two Dutch videos of this show and will decide if the Dutch voices are as awesome as the English ones. But after that, there's nothing left for me to search for apart for collectible figurines and plushes that are insanely expensive...

Thank you kindly for this awesome show, Nelvana!

When Vangelis met DK (part 1)

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest's musical piece In a Snow-Bound Land has been one of my most favourite tracks in the game for a long time. But I searched it up on YouTube, and what did some people say?
"Rip-off of Vangelis's Antarctica!"

I, being naturally curious, went to search for this Vangelis dude and his music. Finding the piece they were referring to, I discovered something.
It almost sounded exactly like the DKC track. Listening to more musical pieces by this man, I became a fan of the atmospheric tunes he had created. Some of it just sounds so unmistakably Donkey Kong-esque! And mr. Vangelis, and David Wise, too if you happen to be reading this... that's a good thing.

But really, it just can't be a coincidence!

The things that differ from the show and games and WHY

First off, I kinda lost track. Sorry about that. I found out about Tumblr and I have been posting there more often than here. Sincerely sorry. Find me here; click! I will always use this blog for my long-winded ramblings, do not worry!

You won't believe how many times I hear people yelling; "The show sucks! It's nothing like the games!" And that makes me a little sad, to be honest. Nelvana still did their best and I can see how much attention to detail they paid. The DKC TV show, while by no means perfect, is still enjoyable and the few things that were changed, were changed with reason.

1. K. Rool's cape and tail

In the show, the King himself lacks a tail and has an extremely short cape that bears resemblance to a tiny napkin.

Why is this?

As you can see with Klump here, his tail's as stiff as a plank. This was because back then, it was virtually impossible to animate tails, apparently. Because Klump doesn't lay down very often, it's not that bad. But K. Rool jumps and scurries all over the place, and all his expressive mannerisms and movements would certainly clash with a un-moving tail. For this same reason, Diddy Kong didn't have a moving tail until season 2. Why didn't the others get moving tails too, I hears ya ask? Monkey tails are much easier to animate than fat crocodile tails.

As for his cape, it was impossible to animate flowing cloth or hair back in 1998. That's why it's so crazily short, too.