More Bootlegs, I guess (Part 2)

 Do people still write blogs?

A lot has changed, for me and in the world in general. Bejungle'd had always been a place to vent my thoughts but things like Twitter forced me to reel it in. As I am now taking a Twitter hiatus I find myself thinking of my first love again - Donkey Kong Country.

Between this and my last post we literally had the announcement of the Mario movie, the release of the Mario movie, and the end of the Mario movie's cinematic run. Hell, I think K. Rool and Banjo-Kazooie in Smash were after my last post. All are very important parts in the greater Rare universe I want to cover at some point, when writing isn't as hard anymore.

I've been between colleges and struggling with home life. And also hyperfixations went all over the place. Currently, it's The Simpsons. If you think about it, there's not a lot of visual difference between General Klump and Barney Gumble... and that explains a lot about my taste in men.

Yeah ok it sounded better in my head. Sad fat guys who are surprisingly good at music and have wonky teeth?

Anyway. Vinny of Vinesauce fame was going over the DKC TV show's music, and I felt compelled to barf my DK-adjecent thoughts out on my designated DK-thought-spot.

I came to think of bootlegs. Swing on a vine with me and I'll see you after the break!

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...

Five characters who did nothing wrong

Some characters in Rare's games and the extended media aren't exactly bad guys, but they do get punished severely for something they can't help... or didn't even do. I decided to focus on some of those poor saps in this particular issue.

5. Roysten the goldfish

We owe a lot to Roysten. His fishy self merely appearing somewhere manages to make works take place in the same universe, and his rhythmic knocking against his bowl is music to my ears. But he performs a thankless job and always ends up on the barbeque.

In Banjo-Tooie, you graciously save him from death by suffocation by dropping him off in Spiral Mountain's moat. He even teaches you how to swim faster and gives you extra air to make swimming easier. But in the end? He just ends up on Bottles' plate, burned, alongside his chips. Yeesh.

Oh yes it is.

4. Eddie the Mean Ol' Yeti

I mean, c'mon. He's obviously just a guy who has anger issues and likes his peace and quiet. Even when he keeps everyone awake by banging against the walls, he's not doing it to bother anyone. He's just being cranky.

In one episode while trying to woo Candy Clone by singing a song, sublime in its simplicity, about how he likes snow and ice and wishes to fornicate with the robotic ape lady. But in the same song, he reveals he isn't even old, nor is he really that mean.
This is proven that he only gets mad when some apes from the jungle come to steal the barrel that rained down on him. Even when they propose to trade, he burns his hand on a match. Eventually he gets pumelled by a bunch of Kritters as well.

Even worse is when you consider that in a world without Donkey Kong as shown in the subtly-titled It's a Wonderful Life, he's a friendly Guardian Angel Yeti. This means that somehow, DK made him how he is. It's not explained, but the implications are concerning.

I feel the same way when I see that old Fox Kids logo. Nostalgia is a powerful thing.

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.

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.

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!"

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!

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.

Krusha - Just Plain Stupid or Secretly Evil Genius?

So, let's talk about the TV show... again. And let's talk about Krusha.

He's basically a Dumb Muscle taken To The Extreme, and, for some reason, one of my favorite characters. (In fact, I like him enough to have named my Pokémon Feraligatr after him in my Soul Silver game. Heh!) He works for King K. Rool, but I think he'd happily go over to the good side if K. Rool wasn't there. He's the kind of bad guy that's bad at being bad and has the demeanor of a five-year-old. While I never quite get how characters like that manage to have so many muscles, I have been thinking - is he really that stupid? Or is all a ploy to drive his king and possibly General Klump too, insane?

Alright, I'm gonna go offtopic for a minute, please excuse me. Even though it is somewhat relevant. Say, I am a regular reader of Jeff Smith's Bone graphic novels. In it is a character called Smiley Bone. He acts like a total goof, especially in the earlier issues, but later on, he actually shows some brains, and apparently, his stupid behavior earlier on was just to annoy his cousins and get them to squabble. Not to mention Fone Bone took Smiley along with him for the sole reason to annoy Phoney Bone. Yes. Smiley Bone just PRETENDS he's stupid, only for the sake of annoying his friends.

So, with that... what if Krusha is like that too?

I mean, just look at him. Look at that guy.

Meh, should've drawn him more... shall we say, more like he actually is?

Klump: *overhearing Donkey Kong practising proposals* "Did you hear that? Will you marry me!"
Krusha: "Me?"
Klump: "No, ya nincompoop! Donkey Kong!"
Krusha: "You wanna marry Donkey Kong?"
Klump: ... :|


*later at K. Rool's*


K. Rool: "So, who did you say was gonna get married?"
Krusha: "Me and Klump."
Klump: "Never mind him, sir..."


--from the episode "Two Weddings and a funeral Coconut


The seriousness of this exchange depends on your earth. The world of slash fan fiction could be rejoicing as we speak, even though I don't think highly of those two in a romantic relationship. I see 'em more as brothers. But I'm rambling. Moving on...

Apparantly, there is an episode, called Speed, where Krusha gets driven over by a mine cart (ouch, poor dude) and suddenly gets smarter while that happens. While I haven't seen the episode in question because people not uploading it on YouTube and am highly annoyed by that, it does show that he's capable of much more. In Kong for a Day, he has also been shown to be able to perfectly imitate other isle inhabitants' voices. Someone who's capable of doing something like that is most definitely not stupid. Even though in another episode...  From Zero to Hero I believe, through an X-ray it was shown his brain was in his... er-hum. Never mind that. After that happened, the X-ray machine went kaput and Krusha made off with that Crystal Coconut while Cranky wasn't looking. Was it all a ploy? It could've been.

Still doesn't explain his fondness for watching children's shows, though.

Alas, I am possibly all wrong and the only instance of a smart Krusha is Krusha who has been driven over by a mine cart in an episode I have never seen, nor possibly will ever see. Too bad! I do, however, think that he could even stand up against K. Rool when he has enough of that overlord's evil, long-winded speeches if he wants to... One of these days, he'll snap. One "lunkhead" and "despicable non-person" too many and the king is dead. I mean.. You wouldn't want to mess with someone like Krusha. I mean, he's almost twice the size of his king. That's why K. Rool works alone these days - he's frightened by the fact that he believes his loyal henchmen were rebelling against him. That does however conflict with my fanon-ridden back-story for them. I'll tell more about that whenever. I promise.

I guess it depends on if you like the character and if you like thinking it through too much like me. However, I'll still see the guy as a somewhat dimwitted dude... even though he's the coolest. I mean, someone who can call a Kong-Fu Master a "girly ape" is just too awesome.

Say, 'til next update, see ya, Banana Slamma and all that jazz. I'm off on my never-ending quest to find the missing episodes. For now, I bid you adieu.

Where I jump around and rant like a loony

Truth to be told, I adore the DKC TV show possibly more than I adore most other stuff on TV. Skin me alive, kick me out, give me a silly nickname, call me a backstabbing murderer, throw me to the Klaptraps, etc, etc, I don't care. I LOVE THAT SILLY SHOW.

Why yes, Krusha, stealing is, in fact, bad. Too bad you're a bad guy yourself, eh?

But the sad part is, there's some episodes I'm really curious about yet cannot find them anywhere. The episodes I'm looking for are Speed, To the Moon Baboon, Watch the Skies, Baby Kong Blues and Message in a Bottle Show. But the sad part is, I can't find them anywhere, while Mario Wiki even nags me with providing screenshots and plot synopsis's. It irks me to no end, because that show is so darned fun to watch.

See Reaver. See Bluster. See Bluster run. Run, Bluster, run!

Here's the plan - I need help. Help finding those episodes. How can you help? Well... perhaps alert others. I dunno. But only if you feel like it and have got nothing better to do. I don't wanna bother anyone. 'til Then, I'll just draw some stuff. And write fan fiction.

So here goes nothing.

HELP!!!

Diddy through the ages

Like with all videogames, most of the cast from Donkey Kong Country have had different looks before. While this isn't as obvious as with DK himself, he only underwent one drastic change (actually none at all if you take into consideration that the DK from the arcade is actually the modern-day Cranky) and a change of fur color. He always kept his tie, too.

Most design changes are so subtle that only a true nerd, a nerd to end all nerds would notice it. Say, for example, you guys probably know that I have a rather peculiar fangirl-obsession towards Diddy Kong, right?

Well, he's changed quite a bit in the last fifteen years. From his debut in Donkey Kong Country, to Donkey Kong Country Returns. He kept his trademark red cap and shirt all his life, but to be honest, I think I prefer his design post-buyout. *dodges rotten tomatoes getting thrown at me* Something about how he gets portrayed by Rare outside the games in promotional renders looks... iffy. He's supposed to be a cute little monkey, folks! Cute does not equal loads and loads of details and stuff!

And all that while he looks adorable in-game.

D'aww he's looking at us guys

Yeah, I don't really know about this. I am nitpicky, I know. He's still cute, though. And the renders are actually very well-done still, despite my nitpicking. Speaking of well-done renders...

Donkey Kong Country - The Wind Waker? I like cel-shadedness.

Donkey Konga may or may not be a well-remembered game, you gotta hand the makers that they made some cool promotional artwork. Let it be said that that's probably the only time I'm ever mentioning the game here.

Weekly comic: 2 - filler doodles

Terribly sorry, I forgot to think up, scan, no less draw, a comic this week. So here's a DK-doodle-page. Yeah. I like Diddy and Dixie, if you didn't know that by now. Still can't draw them though and that infuriates me.

Weekly comic: DK64+DKCTV=???

Yeah, I never quite got why the Crystal Coconut went from a Holy Grail to a collectable item.

Where I rant

Well, yeah. I rant a lot, as it should be known. But first, some horribly misplaced praise.

So, a few days ago, I was merrily looking across YouTube to see if I could find some stuff which I liked... it has to be said I found a few amusing YouTube Poops of the Donkey Kong Country cartoon. While these parodies were mildly amusing, I decided looking up the source material for a change.

Here's a link to the intro. Can somebody tell me how do I shot web embed videos in my blogs?

Boy, I would never have thought that I'd enjoy such silly, primitive CGI. Me, an animation connoisseur - actually watched this series that many people deemed bad? Oh my goodness! Well, it was not as bad as the DKvine made me believe. Sure, the animation was primitive - prehistoric, even, I believe it was made a few years after Toy Story - the first completely computer-rendered feature film - but it worked well enough. Visual gags abounded - most in the form of DK's wildly random expressions. Even the highly unnerving musical numbers each episode didn't put me off, and strangely enough, I enjoyed the voices.
Hey, if it got Diddy and Dixie making out*, it can't possibly be bad now, can it?

Even though Diddy looks like a duck at times, he's coolio. Rather than being a stuck-up braggart like in Diddy's Kong Quest, he's a Bratty Half-Pint and also The Lancer. (that's me quoting TV tropes) Not to mention his voice is actually fitting? This is madness! Oh and he calls Dixie 'my girl' once. Pfffhaha, that made me both crack up and melt down in a puddle of fangirlness. (yeah, I'm a big time shipper of those two together, okay?) I've officially considered him to be my favourite character in the TV series. Yeah, Dixie is in it too, even though her design is more reminiscent of Tiny's. And she's more of a girly-girl than anything, and often loses her pets. Such as a crab named Crappy Crabby. How... somewhat bothersome... Oh well, at least she's in anyway!

DK himself... well, I've seen better renditions of him over at DeviantART, but it's not too bad. Candy, er... don't know what to say about her. Why couldn't they have just kept her a girly girl and have Dixie be the tomboy, hmmm? Still, not very bothersome. Even the character of Bluster whose only appearance so far is in the series, I could tolerate - his constant whining about his mother is funny. Funky could be better. Cranky is exactly like in the games. His voice is just perfect. Some of the other show-only characters like Polly Roger, Captain Scurvy and his gang, and InkaDinka Doo, I could live without, though. But still, those faces that the Kongs pull make me laugh out loud... louder than I'm supposed to.

Derp herp a derp.

But in my opinion, the one that steals the show is King K. Rool. (Koning Wreed for you Dutch peops)

Can it has be crystal coconutz tiem now plz?

'WHYYY NOOOOOOOT!'

it's one of the most popular sayings of him - I do believe it even became a meme. He yelled it out in the episode Bug a Boogie (which I have not seen yet, bear with me). I do believe it explains his personality perfectly. He's quite a large ham (there I go quoting TV tropes again), what with his constant monologues about wanting to steal the Crystal Coconut, the series' MacGuffin. (I am so sorry. TV tropes will ruin your life. It's true.) Even though he, for some reason, lacks a tail, and his cape has been replaced by something that looks akin to a towel. That was probably because back then it was really hard to animate fluttering capes, so yeah...

His two henchmen, Klump and Krusha, are two delightfully silly bad guys that are quite humorous at all times. So this trio of bad guys? They're a bunch of simpletons compared to their alter-egos in the games... but that makes them all the funnier. I even saw the episode Kong for a Day, where Krusha imitated DK's voice... that was both hilarious and disturbing, because it led Dixie to believe that DK was wanting to make out with her. Eeeew... not to mention everyone flipped unjustly towards DK. In the end all was well, though! Yay happy ending!

The name's Bond... Klump Bond. Dude, what?

The only resemblance to the games the series had is, sad as it may seem, the characters, bananas, and more bananas. Some level themes too, like snow, forests, mine carts, etc. Small references to some characters' game behavior has been hidden in though, much to my pleasure - for example, a pissed off Diddy Kong throws a bitchfest by throwing his hat on the floor and stamping on it. Where did I see that before again...?

All in all, it's definitely not the best thing ever... but it's so enjoyable to watch! If you can see past the rather poor animation (back then it was marvelous, lemme tell ya) and the sometimes VERY annoying musical numbers (between you and me - Diddy cannot sing... But! He! Can! Dance~!), the dialogue, the surprisingly good voice acting, and more randomness totally makes up for it.

Oh, and for the ranting: I get really pissed whenever I look around on eBay and see people addressing Diddy as 'Baby Donkey Kong' and 'Donkey Kong Junior'.

Okay? Okay. Alas, I'm off, gonna see Bug a Boogie. Lol Bananaphone. See ya!

* note: 'making out', my foot. All that happened from what I've seen is Diddy trying to kiss her. Only to be interrupted by Cranky. Or rather, a vision of the old fop. So yeah. No DiddyxDixie for me. Baaaw.