Title- Bad Hair day
New/Guest voices
Richard Yearwood — Donkey Kong
Andrew Sabiston — Diddy Kong; Junior the Giant Klaptrap
Joy Tanner — Candy Kong; Baby Kong; Robot Candy Clone
Aron Tager — Cranky Kong
Ben Campbell — King K. Rool
Louise Vallace — Dixie Kong
Donald Burda — Bluster Kong
Damon D'Oliveira — Funky Kong
Len Carlson — Klump (season 1); King K. Rool (first episode)
Ron Rubin — Krusha (season 1)
Frank Welker — Krusha (season 2)
Lawrence Bayne — Kritter
Charles Adler — Polly Roger
Rick Jones — Inka Dinka Doo
Adrian Truss — Eddie the Mean Old Yeti
Neil Ross — Kaptain Skurvy; Klump (season 2)
John Stocker — Kutlass
Dan Hennessey — Green Kroc
I remember when I was a kid, I read in my Nintendo Magazine that there was a show based on Donkey Kong Country on Fox Kids. This was back at the time when it seemed to be a rarity to have sky or even cable, so I never got a chance to see it, which really irritated me. I grew up with Donkey Kong Country, and even now I love the games, despite how much they are called average etc by most people. I let my imagination run wild about what could be on this show, with me imagining how all my favorite characters would sound and act. Many years later, when I learnt that you can find out about almost anything on the web, I searched for the show, and saw some pictures of it. It horrified me, I was expecting the series to look like the art, which was kinda stupid of me considering how primitive 3d animation was at the time, and how every single game related cartoon I’d seen was vastly different from their respective games concept art etc.
I honestly never thought I’d bother watching the show, as I’d read a bit about it and it put me off, with me reading about singing and other corny stuff. I decided however to bite the bullet and watch a few episodes, as at this point I’m running low on series that are doable without seeming like a mammoth task (like the Kirby anime, Mario Bros Super Show or Pokemon) so here we are. I’ve watched a couple of episodes so far, and my general opinion is, I would of liked this series as a kid, and I admit I do like parts of it now. The main part that I like is the characters who I liked from the games, such as Funky and Cranky. Quite a few of the characters described personalities from the games are perfectly intact here, with Funky’s laidback surfer attitude, but his keen mechanic mind, and Cranky’s cutting remarks. A couple of characters do surprise, like Diddy being a cowardly Luigi type, but others like DK are completely as I imagined they’d be.
Anyway, on to the actual episode. Well it’s pretty clear it’s the first episode. We get Cranky telling the audience about the Crystal Coconut and how K Rool wants it as whoever has it is king of the Island. It’s funny how the thing still seems to do nothing more than show pictures of people, kinda like a coconut TV. Anyway, we get K Rool actually do like a smart villain and just all out attack the cabin, and as we get to see he gets his ass kicked by DK. It’s pretty cool and does illustrate why he has to try these convoluted plans rather than outright taking the coconut.
Anyway, the basic plot is taken from the story of Sampson. DK is put under a curse by having a robot version of Candy Kong cut his hair, therefore taking all his strength away. It’s a pretty good set up as we’re shown things that he does before with ease now being impossible, such as him hitting the button for his elevator system. What really freaked me out though, is that that quiff DK has, is actually skin under his hair, as in he has two protrusions in his skull on the top of his head. It looks really gross.
One interesting thing, is that Krusha seems much more intelligent here than in later episodes. Of course that’s common in most pilots, but here it’s interesting that he ends the episode with the crap kicked out of him. I wonder if that actually caused his future stupidity, pretty violent fight if so, it’s not actually shown though so who knows.
Overall a pretty good episode. I mainly liked the fact that DK wasn’t shown to learn that he doesn’t need to rely on his strength and that the "power was iside him all along" or that "His mind could help him win regardless of power", instead he just gets it back and kicks ass, plus the ending was funny.
