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Licensing Tragedies: The Donkey Kong Country Cartoon

Posted by Nadia Oxford

Nine out of ten platformer fans with two working eyes agree that the computer-rendered sprites used in Donkey Kong Country were a bit more impressive fourteen years ago. Even so, Donkey Kong Country's visuals still succeed in its portrayal of certain key environments: lush (if flat) jungle foliage, colourful coral, atmospheric snowstorms, and rich orange-and-red sunsets. Additionally, the series' characters were likable until Donkey Kong 64 dragged each simian into monkey hell.

The Kong clan may have been slain by the DK Rap, but I maintain that 1996's French Canadian Donkey Kong Country cartoon helped engineer the gallows. The two disasters are not necessarily connected, except by name, but both can be accused of bland presentation and a noticeable lack of humour and fun.

I will admit that I am criticising a pile of alphabet blocks, here: the Donkey Kong Country cartoon was meant for very young audiences, and it was the family-oriented showpiece for the launch of Teletoon, Canada's animation channel. It was no surprise Nelvana saw fit to give Donkey Kong a vocabulary beyond “Ook ook grunt,” and a story beyond “Beat up reptiles for bananas.” Even so, the crew rarely did anything except thwart King K Rool's attempts to grab Donkey's, uh, “Crystal Coconut” episode after episode. Also, there was a prophecy about Donkey Kong ruling the island or something. Hooray, life under a gorilla regime.

The animation was kind of bad. Again, Donkey Kong Country didn't age well visually, but at least the level settings sometimes went far beyond the jungle. Donkey Kong Country 2 got particularly awesome with its beehives, amusement parks, and bramble mazes.

The cartoon also had musical interludes. Oh boy, did it love its musical interludes. I hate and fear singing animals, but even I have to give a nod to some of Donkey Kong Country's songs. Here is an alligator pirate with breasts singing about treasure. He is A-OK.

Surprisingly, this show had a pretty big following in Japan. It's kind of hilarious to imagine, because it was released around the time North American anime fans were especially obnoxious about the superiority of Japanese animation versus North America's commercial slop.

Related Links:

Licensing Tragedies Malibu's Street Fighter Comic
The Capcom Cartoon Crossover You Never Knew About
Mega Man is a Dick

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Posted Mar 16 2009, 07:39 PM

Filed under: snes, donkey kong country, super nintendo, 16-bit, cartoon, nadia oxford, donkey kong country 2, licensing tragedies

Comments

Roto13 said:

Oh god, I remember this show. So terrible. Didn't they pronounce "King K. Rool" as "King Kuhrool" or something? Isn't that... wrong?

March 16, 2009 8:26 PM

OctoPrime said:

It was wrong, but then, very little about this show could be deemed "right".

March 16, 2009 9:29 PM

Bob Mackey said:

The completely inconsistent lip-synch paired with the awkward, stutter-y animation makes for some nightmare fuel on par with early Silent Hill FMV.

March 16, 2009 9:38 PM

LBD "Nytetrayn" said:

I'd love to know why the game's models weren't used... or the plot... or the setting... or...

Really, it might have been a little more tolerable if... well, ok, no, maybe not.

March 17, 2009 11:58 AM

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