| Donkey Kong Country | |
|---|---|
Donkey Kong Country title card |
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| Genre | Comedy Action Adventure |
| Format | CGI Animated series |
| Created by | Jacques Goldstein Philippe Percebois |
| Developed by | Nelvana Hong Guang Animation (Su Zhou) |
| Directed by | Mike Fallows |
| Voices of | English-Dub Richard Yearwood Andrew Sabiston Joy Tanner Aron Tager Ben Campbell Adrian Truss Louise Vallance Donald Burda Len Carlson Damon D'Olivera Lawrence Bayne Rick Jones Ron Rubin |
| Theme music composer | Pure West |
| Opening theme | "Donkey Kong Country" theme |
| Ending theme | "Donkey Kong Country" theme (instrumental) |
| Composer(s) | Pure West |
| Country of origin | France Canada |
| Language(s) | French Brazilian Portuguese (Dubbed) Japanese (Dubbed) English (Dubbed) Swedish (Dubbed) |
| No. of episodes | 40 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Gérard Mital Jacques Peyrache Dale A. Andrews Patrick Loubert Michael Hirsh Clive A. Smith |
| Producer(s) | Maia Tubiana Stephen Hodgins Patricia R. Burns |
| Running time | 30 minutes per episode |
| Distributor | Paramount Pictures (North American VHS) Western International Communications Nintendo Rare |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Teletoon (Canada) France 2 (France) |
| Original run | September 4, 1996 (France) August 15, 1998 (USA) – July 7, 2000 (USA) |
Donkey Kong Country is a French/Canadian computer-generated animated television series. It is based on the Nintendo franchise Donkey Kong as portrayed in the Donkey Kong Country video game series by Nintendo & Rare. Created by France 2 and Nelvana, it was originally titled La Planète de Donkey Kong (The Planet of Donkey Kong in English translation). Donkey Kong Country first aired in France on September 4, 1996; it premiered late in the United States on the Fox Kids block on Fox on August 15, 1998 but the show was not shown on the block for long, because of the impeachment of Bill Clinton. After only two episodes, the series moved to Fox Family. In Japan, Donkey Kong Country took over the TV Tokyo 6:30 P.M. timeslot from Gokudo and was later replaced with Hamtaro.
Donkey Kong Country was one of the earliest television series to be computer-animated to match an artistic style and garnered critical acclaim in France and Japan but only marginal success elsewhere. Several elements of the series like the crystal coconut, appeared in later Donkey Kong Country video games like Donkey Kong 64, which was released a year after the show began airing on Fox.
Contents |
The show begins by portraying Donkey Kong, a regular, tie-wearing ape in the jungle who happens to find a magic coconut called the Crystal Coconut that summons (at Donkey's command) a pile of magic bananas. After Donkey and his friends consume the bananas, they are granted with increased intelligence and strength, enabling them to defeat enemies like K. Rool and Kaptain Skurvy, who wish to possess the Crystal Coconut for themselves. Each episode features two songs performed by the show's characters.
Donkey Kong Country won in 1999 for a (public voted) award at 7 d'Or for Best Animation and Youth Program (Meilleure émission d'animation et de jeunesse).
Over thirty Donkey Kong Country DVDs have been released with only five being in English. Over thirteen VHS tapes of the cartoon were released in Japan.
Four episodes of Donkey Kong Country were released in North America on a single VHS cassette titled Donkey Kong Country: The Legend of the Crystal Coconut and was marketed as a feature length 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. The North American version of the tape was distributed by: Paramount Pictures, Nintendo, and Nelvana.
Donkey Kong Country was released as a feature-length 88 minute movie on VHS. In the DVDs Donkey Kong Country Vol.1 (released in Australia) and Donkey Kong Country - Bad Hair Day (released in the United Kingdom) they also put a few episodes. 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, the UK released I Spy With My Hairy Eye.
The show had a large line of merchandise in Japan including a 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.
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