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.

Oh my! Sound effects!

Alright, I had to share this. My dad is watching this movie The Spiderwick Chronicles on the television, and I'm sitting here on my living room-PC listening to Vangelis and drawing stuff that will probably never see the light of day. But what do I hear coming from the television? I hear the first part of the roar of Dogadon, the fearsome dragon-fly boss from Donkey Kong 64's Angry Aztec! You know, that "Eeeeehhr-ROOOARGHGH!"... without the latter part. Apparently, his roar was either a stock sound effect, or it was merely stolen.

...just had to share this. And here's a nice drawing of a stylized African sunset I doodled up a while ago.

Take a look at Death

...And no, not at Gregg. Only if you feel like getting cussed at.

Have we ever realized how many characters die in Rare's games? Not just "game over", but just plain die, never to return, with sometimes irreversible results? Few games have the guts to actually show it, but like usual, there's always exceptions.

Conker's Bad Fur Day
Characters die by the dozen here, but we never really care, do we? Well, I know I didn't. When Conker died, he got confronted with a pint-sized Grim Reaper called Gregg who possessed a colourful vocabulary, who claimed Conker's got as many lives as he thought he'd get away with, to which the squirrel usually ended up unharmed.

Death wasn't really taken seriously in this game. I just laughed at those poor Uga Buga cavemen who were to be devoured by some deranged Yoshi-clone with sharp teeth. But near the end, I couldn't help but weep. Why? Berri, of course. Conker's girlfriend, ruthlessly killed by a mob boss's gun. As she lay on the ground, Conker tried to wake her up, but it was too late.

Later on, the airlock opened (they were in space or something) and she got sucked out into the endless abyss of space. So to this day her lifeless body is floating around in space. I wonder how Mario will react if he sees her on his space adventures like in Super Mario Galaxy.

On animated movies + bonus short fan fic!

Alright, I am sorry for posting an off-topic post. This is just the only place I could post it without bounds... And if I offended anyone, my sincerest apologies.

I have watched animated films all my life, as some of you have probably heard before. Same for that, I have watched all of Pixar's films and enjoyed them all, some more than others. However, Pixar has been disappointing me lately... much like a certain game studio. Rare decides to make sports' games, and Pixar makes a sequel to one of their least imaginative films, Cars. However, Pixar will release a new movie with new characters after that (that includes amazing scenery, which I like being a forest fetishist) whereas Rare proclaims to not disappoint their old fans but having said nothing about Banjo nor Conker.

But what is it now? I think I may end up liking Dreamworks better.

Dreamworks animation studios has long been known for negating Disney's clichés and themes and happily avert fairy tail-like tales. (Did I say fairy tail? I meant fairy tale, of course.) All of this with a good helping of pop-culture references and gross-out jokes. And let's not forget their massive case of sequelitis, with the worst offender being Shrek who currently has four movies on his name with a spin-off in the works! Their first computer-animated film, Antz, did not really know which audience it wanted to appeal to, having been marketed as family enjoyment, but containing mature themes such as decapitated ants and the word damn. It's 'this Kong's one hell of a guy!' all over again! Well... and the decapitated head part I guess Conker and the zombies? Oh well. Apart from that, they appeared to be more in it for the money, pumping out sequels just for the funsies.