Donkey Kong Country (TV series)

Donkey Kong Country is a Canadian animated musical television series based on the video game Donkey Kong Country from Nintendo and Rare. Co-produced by Nelvana, Medialab Studio L.A. (Season 1) and Hong Guang Animation (Season 2), in association with WIC Entertainment, with the participation of Teletoon—for Season 1, it was produced in co-production with France 2, Canal+, in association with Valar 4.

The show was first introduced in France on September 4, 1996, on France 2, on a hybrid live-action and motion-capture-animated block titled La Planète de Donkey Kong (The Planet of Donkey Kong). It later became a full series and broadcast from August 15, 1997 to July 7, 2000.

Donkey Kong Country is the first television series that has been primarily animated with motion capture technology. Several elements of the series, such as the Crystal Coconut, appeared in later Donkey Kong video games like Donkey Kong 64 (itself released three years after the show began airing on television). The second season was produced by Taiwanese CGI studio CGCG (which featured updated character models, silkier lighting and key framing), and was first announced in May 1999.

Plot
Taking place on Kongo Bongo Island, it focuses on Donkey Kong, the island's resident hero. Before the events of the series, he was chosen as the island's future ruler by a mystical artifact known as the Crystal Coconut, which is connected to a spiritual temple known as Inka Dinka Doo. In the present, Donkey Kong must prove he deserves the role through his heroics and by guarding the Crystal Coconut.

Alongside allies such as his friend and sidekick Diddy Kong and his mentor Cranky Kong, he must protect the Crystal Coconut from threats, most notably King K. Rool who tries to steal it in order to rule Kongo Bongo Island. Donkey Kong has to juggle his guardian duties with his social life and his relationship with Candy Kong.

Each episode features two songs performed by the characters.

Cast and characters
Season 1 of the French version was recorded in Quebec, with the exception of Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and Funky Kong's voice actors who are from France. Season 2 was not given a French version until its DVD release several years later, which mostly features a new French voice cast with the exception of Donkey Kong and Funky Kong's voice actors. Hervé Grull never returned as Diddy Kong, as he had long since hit puberty, and was replaced by Lucile Boulanger as a result.

Game characters

 * Donkey Kong
 * Voiced by: Franck Capillery (French); Richard Yearwood (English); Sterling Jarvis (English singing voice)
 * The strong yet steady future ruler of Kongo Bongo Island, who is tasked with guarding the Crystal Coconut. His catchphrase is "Banana Slamma".


 * Diddy Kong
 * Voiced by: Hervé Grull (French, Season 1); Lucile Boulanger (French, Season 2); Donald Reignoux (French singing voice, Season 2); Andrew Sabiston (English)
 * Donkey Kong's sidekick and buddy, who is a fan of shows. He and Donkey Kong take turns acting as the voice of reason for one another.


 * Cranky Kong
 * Voiced by: Yves Massicotte (French, Season 1); Yves Barsacq (French, Season 2); Aron Tager (English)
 * Donkey Kong and Diddy's wise mentor. He enjoys playing the organ and making potions to solve the heroes' problems. The Crystal Coconut is stored in a globe inside his tree house cabin.


 * Funky Kong
 * Voiced by: Emmanuel Curtil (French); Damon D'Oliveira (English)
 * The eccentric friend of Donkey Kong, who believes in the spiritual. He owns Funky's Flights and flies the others around the island in order to help them get around.


 * Candy Kong
 * Voiced by: Camille Cyr-Desmarais (French, Season 1); Odile Schmitt (French, Season 2); Joy Tanner (English)
 * Donkey Kong's headstrong yet short-tempered girlfriend, who works at the Barrelworks factory as its only employee. She frequently pines for a promotion from her boss and has even fantasized about owning the factory. She is usually Donkey Kong's motivation to do the right thing.


 * Dixie Kong
 * Voiced by: Violette Chauveau (French, Season 1); Annie Barclay (French, Season 2); Stevie Vallance (English)
 * Diddy's sweet yet naive girlfriend, and Candy's friend.


 * King K. Rool
 * Voiced by: Éric Gaudry (French, Season 1); Daniel Beretta (French, Season 2); Benedict Campbell (English)
 * The leader, who attempts to try to steal the Crystal Coconut and take over the island. He lives in a cave resembling a reptilian skull.


 * Krusha
 * Voiced by: Pierre Auger (French, Season 1); Daniel Beretta (French, Season 2); Len Carlson (English)
 * King K. Rool's bodyguard.


 * General Klump
 * Voiced by: Jean Brousseau (French, Season 1); Jacques Bouanich (French, Season 2); Adrian Truss (English)
 * King K. Rool's general.


 * Kritters
 * Voiced by: Michel Tugot-Doris (French, Season 2); Lawrence Bayne (English)
 * King K. Rool's soldiers.


 * Klaptraps
 * Small crocodiles who like to eat wooden surfaces in a manner similar to termites. They are fired out of Klap-Blasters by the Kritters.

Show-original characters

 * Bluster Kong
 * Voiced by: Daniel Lesourd (French, Season 1); Patrice Dozier (French, Season 2); Donald Burda (English)
 * The wealthy, morally ambiguous boss of the Barrelworks factory, who is jealous of Donkey Kong on occasion and makes an unsuccessful attempt to impress his employee, Candy. He has an ego, but is cowardly. A running gag involves him calling his disapproving mother, from whom he will soon inherit the factory, to bail him out.


 * Kaptain Skurvy
 * Voiced by: Ron Rubin (English)
 * A pirate captain and Klump's long-lost brother. He persists in chasing the Crystal Coconut, claiming it to be the right of one of his ancestors.


 * Kutlass and Green Kroc
 * Voiced by: John Stocker and Richard Newman (English)
 * Kaptain Skurvy's minions. Green Kroc is a Kritter, while Kutlass resembles King K. Rool with a light scale tone.


 * Polly Roger the Parrot
 * Voiced by: Rick Jones (English)
 * A pet parrot of Kaptain Skurvy.


 * Junior the Klaptrap
 * Voiced by: Ron Rubin (English)
 * A large Klaptrap who frequently has his dentures stolen, and will do a favor for anyone who retrieves them for him.


 * Eddie the Mean Old Yeti
 * Voiced by: Patrice Dozier (French, Season 2); Damon D'Oliveira (English)
 * A yeti who lives in the White Mountains.


 * Kong Fu
 * Voiced by: Richard Newman (English)
 * A kung fu fighter who is hired by King K. Rool to defeat Donkey Kong in a contest.


 * Baby Kong
 * Voiced by: Bryn McAuley (English)
 * Donkey Kong's nephew.


 * Inka Dinka Doo
 * Voiced by: Lawrence Bayne (English)
 * The spiritual temple idol from where the Crystal Coconut came. It was he who selected Donkey Kong to be the future ruler. He appears as a stone column on which expressions are carved. One stone block turns around to show the appropriate expression for his mood.

Production
Over seventy percent of the character animation in the series was produced using performance capture. Two performers were required for each character; one performed the character's body movements, while the other used hand movements to control the character's face. The limitations of the technology used meant that actions like picking an object up could not be produced with this method and had to be keyframed. This process allowed the character animation of one episode to be completed in two weeks, as compared to the six to eight weeks keyframed animation was estimated to require for the same length.

Telecast and home media
Donkey Kong Country was first introduced in France on September 4, 1996, on France 2, on a block titled La Planète de Donkey Kong (The Planet of Donkey Kong). The French-language version of the show later premiered in Canada on Télétoon on September 8, 1997, making the series one of the channel's launch programs, while the English version premiered on its English counterpart on October 17, also as a launch program. In the U.S., it was one of the first series to be shown on Fox Family (now Freeform), in which the series was broadcast in its entirety from August 15, 1998 (the same day that Fox Family was launched) until 2000. It was also seen on Fox Kids from 1998 until 1999 for a short time airing two episodes as specials on December 19, 1998, and aired a few more episodes during the summer of 1999 before being taken off. 40 episodes were produced. In Japan, the series aired with a Japanese dub and took over TV Tokyo's 6:30 p.m. time-slot from Gokudo the Adventurer airing on October 1, 1999, and was later replaced with Hamtaro after ending on June 30, 2000.

Over the years, the show has been released throughout many VHS and DVDs in many countries. In total, 13 DVDs around the world were released with English audio.

For North America, four episodes of Donkey Kong Country that feature Kaptain Skurvy were edited together into a videocassette release titled Donkey Kong Country: The Legend of the Crystal Coconut and was marketed as a feature-length anthology film. However, these episodes are not in chronological order, as a flashback shown in the third episode actually occurs in the fourth episode of the tape. It was released in Canada around 1999 with both English and French dub tapes separately with distribution handled by Seville Pictures and Nelvana themselves as the secondary distributor. The US version of the tape was distributed by Paramount Home Video and was released in the country on November 9, 1999, marking this the only time that the U.S. had a VHS release of this series. France has gotten a release of this tape as well under the title Donkey Kong Le Film!

In the PAL regions, Donkey Kong Country Vol. 1 (released in Australia) and Donkey Kong Country - Bad Hair Day (released in the United Kingdom) were released on DVD. The other two DVDs, Donkey Kong Country: Hooray for Holly Kongo Bongo and Donkey Kong Country: The Kongo Bongo Festival of Lights (both released in Australia) only held one episode. After over three years of no new English DVD, I Spy With My Hairy Eye was released in the United Kingdom in 2008.

In 2013, Phase 4 Films, a small Canadian low-budget film company, officially purchased the rights to license and distribute the series for a DVD release in Region 1 along with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and started releasing episodes beginning with the He Came, He Saw, He Kong-quered DVD that was released on August 20. The Complete First Season was then released on DVD in Region 1 on May 12, 2015.

In 2017, Pidax Film has gotten the distribution rights in Germany to release all 14 episodes of Season 2 on DVD with English and German dubbing audio included.

As of 2023, the show is now added on the Tubi streaming service as well with Pluto TV, but the first two seasons are available on Freevee and on Amazon Video with advertisements.

The episodes of the show are all available for subscription on iTunes and on the Amazon Prime's Ameba channel.

Thirty-nine out of 40 episodes are available on Nelvana's Retro Rerun YouTube channel.

Legacy
The show had a large line of merchandise in Japan, including a manga and collectible card game featuring drawings of characters—some of which never appeared in the series. The card game was later adapted to be based on Donkey Kong 64.

"Pirate's Scorn", a song from the episode "Booty and the Beast", was covered by Scottish heavy metal band Alestorm in their Curse of the Crystal Coconut album. This cover of Pirate's Scorn was also included in DKC: Curse of the Crystal Coconut, an animated fan tribute to the show. Additionally, the album artwork contains several nods to the Donkey Kong video game franchise.

Benedict Campbell, Adrian Truss, Ron Rubin, and Richard Yearwood—the English voices of King K. Rool, General Klump, Kaptain Skurvy, and Donkey Kong, respectively—reprised their roles in DKC: Return to Krocodile Isle, an animated short made by fans of the series.

In the Nintendo Switch version of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, the banana slamma catchphrase is used in one of Tawks' lines when visiting Funky's Fly 'n Buy while playing as Funky Kong, paying a homage to the animated series.