Donkey Kong (character)

''. Donkey Kong, also known by his initials DK, is the star of Donkey Kong, a video game series and media franchise owned by the Japanese video game company Nintendo. he also appears in the Mario franchise as a playable character in Mario Kart and Mario Party games. He is playable in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games and makes cameos in other Nintendo franchises, such as Punch-Out!!. He appears as Mario's captive in the sequel Donkey Kong Jr. (1982), in which he must be rescued by his son of that name, He was recast as a protagonist starting with Country, Donkey Kong is a large and powerful gorilla who leads the Kongs, a family of simians. an idyllic isle. Donkey Kong weighs in reference to a popular expression, and since 1994 has been depicted wearing a red necktie bearing his initials. He is stubborn, buffoonish, and innocent. He strives to help others and be accepted. and the Tiki Tak Tribe, a group of floating masks. Donkey Kong is frequently accompanied by his nephew and sidekick Diddy Kong, and his girlfriend, Candy Kong. In his playable appearances, Donkey Kong is a heavyweight. He throws barrels to impede the player's progress in the original game. This trait is retained in his playable appearances, whereby he uses barrels as weapons or to uncover power-ups. Donkey Kong's other tactics include slapping the ground, rolling, He rides vehicles such as minecarts and barrel-shaped rockets, and animals such as Rambi the Rhino and Enguarde the Swordfish. It follows Mario and Pauline as they attempt to capture Donkey Kong after he escapes from a circus. Donkey Kong appears in Captain N: The Game Master, a DIC Entertainment series that ran on NBC for 34 episodes between 1989 and 1991. He interacts with other Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) characters such as Castlevania Simon Belmont. The animated Donkey Kong Country (1997–2000), a sitcom, follows Donkey Kong as he attempts to protect a magical artifact, the Crystal Coconut, from King K. Rool. Donkey Kong is a major character in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), an animated film produced by Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal Pictures. Mario and Princess Peach seek the Kongs' help to stop Bowser from invading the Mushroom Kingdom. The Kongs agree to help after Mario defeats Donkey Kong in an arena fight. Mario and Donkey Kong begin as foes, but learn they both want the respect of their fathers, and Donkey Kong participates in the final battle against Bowser. Donkey Kong makes a cameo appearance in its sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026), during a montage depicting Yoshi's life in Brooklyn. Appearances in printed media include Blip, a short-lived American comic book published by Marvel Comics in 1983, a Donkey Kong Country comic published by the British comics publisher Fleetway Editions in 1995, and children's book adaptations of the Country games by Michael Teitelbaum. Donkey Kong appears on Nintendo merchandise, including clothing, toys such as plushes and Amiibo figures, and trading cards. The Lego Group introduced a Donkey Kong Lego figure in a series of Country Lego Super Mario sets in 2023. Donkey Kong also appears as a mascot in a Country-themed area at Universal Studios' Super Nintendo World, which opened in 2024. Cranky Kong '' (1994). Cranky was initially depicted as extremely thin, which later games toned down while also giving him a thicker beard and fur. Cranky provides fourth wall-breaking humor that unfavorably compares the games to older ones such as the original Donkey Kong. For instance, Donkey Kong Country instruction manual features commentary from Cranky denigrating the game, and Donkey Kong Land (1995) metafictional story transpires due to Cranky's claim that Country was only successful because of pre-rendered graphics. His wife, Wrinkly Kong, was introduced in Donkey Kong Country 2 (1995) and is killed off as a joke in Donkey Kong 64 (1999), appearing in subsequent games as a ghost. He is playable in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014), in which he can use his cane to bounce on enemies and obstacles. Cranky also appears in spin-offs such as the Donkey Konga games and Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (2007), and a Rabbid incarnation appears in a Donkey Kong expansion pack for Ubisoft's Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (2017). He is a supporting character in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and an animatronic at Super Nintendo World. The Rare Donkey Kong games referred to Cranky as both Donkey Kong's father and grandfather. Video game journalists have noted that the inconsistency makes it unclear if the modern Donkey Kong is intended to be an adult Donkey Kong Jr., who does not appear in the Country games. ==Development==

Conception In 1980, the commercial failure of Nintendo's arcade game Radar Scope put the newly established subsidiary Nintendo of America in a financial crisis. Its founder, Minoru Arakawa, asked his father-in-law, the Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi, to provide a game that could repurpose the unsold Radar Scope cabinets. Most of Nintendo's top developers were preoccupied, so the task went to Shigeru Miyamoto, a first-time game designer. Miyamoto found most arcade games of the time dull and wanted to make one that told a story, drawing from his favorite media such as the Shakespeare play Macbeth, the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast", and the 1933 film King Kong. Miyamoto devised a love triangle with the characters Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto from the Popeye franchise, but a licensing deal between Nintendo and King Features fell through. Miyamoto chose a gorilla—an animal he found "nothing too evil or repulsive"—because he felt it made the scenario more interesting and humorous, and because gorillas are built similarly to humans. "Beauty and the Beast" and King Kong influenced the choice. Concept art that Miyamoto sent to Donkey Kong programmers at Ikegami Tsushinki indicates that he replaced Bluto with Donkey Kong before removing the other Popeye characters. It is a common misconception that "Donkey Kong" is a mistranslation of "Monkey Kong". Donkey was meant to convey stubborn, and Miyamoto believed kong was a generic term for gorilla. Nintendo of America objected to the name "Donkey Kong" because it did not believe donkey could be used to describe an idiot, but Miyamoto liked how it sounded. Miyamoto is generally credited with coining the name "Donkey Kong", a narrative supported by the David Sheff book Game Over (1993) and interviews with Miyamoto in 2000 and 2016. Conversely, documents from the 1983 Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd. lawsuit credit a Nintendo export manager, Shinichi Todori. The documents indicate that Miyamoto's supervisor Gunpei Yokoi asked Todori to title Donkey Kong, and Todori selected donkey after looking for an English equivalent to the Japanese word ("fool"). Either Yokoi or Yamauchi approved the name; Todori did not recall Miyamoto having any involvement. Appearances Donkey Kong has appeared in dozens of games. Donkey Kong popularity quickly led to the production of a sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. Miyamoto, interested in showing the narrative from Donkey Kong's perspective, wanted to make him the player character, but the sprite graphic was too big to easily maneuver, so he created Donkey Kong Jr. The developers made Donkey Kong Mario's captive so they could still feature him at the top of the screen. After Donkey Kong 3, Donkey Kong's appearances were limited to cameos in unrelated games. the NES game Return of Donkey Kong, Nintendo staff began discussing a Donkey Kong revival as the original game's tenth anniversary approached in 1991. They were unable to start a new game at the time, so they included Donkey Kong Jr. as a playable character in Super Mario Kart (1992). However, the discussions led to the development of the Game Boy Donkey Kong game, released in 1994. The Game Boy game marked Donkey Kong's first major appearance in over 10 years, before he first appeared as a protagonist in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Donkey Kong Country. Though he was not playable in the sequels Donkey Kong Country 2 and Donkey Kong Country 3 (1996), GamesRadar+ Henry Gilbert wrote that the Country series nonetheless re-established Donkey Kong as one of Nintendo's major characters. in the party game Mario Party (1998), and in the crossover game Super Smash Bros. (1999). Following Microsoft's acquisition of Rare, Donkey Kong mostly appeared as a guest character in other Nintendo franchises, such as Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Super Smash Bros.; the Donkey Kong franchise was mostly limited to spin-offs such as Donkey Konga and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. After appearing as the final boss of the Wii game Punch-Out!! (2009), Activision's toys-to-life game Skylanders: SuperChargers (2015) includes Donkey Kong as a playable character in the versions released on Nintendo platforms, and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle features him as the protagonist of an expansion pack. Tropical Freeze, released for the Wii U in 2014, was the last game starring Donkey Kong for over a decade. Plans for a Nintendo Switch game developed by the Activision developer Vicarious Visions were canceled in 2016. Nintendo began working to reestablish Donkey Kong as a major character in the 2020s, with his prominent role in The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Super Nintendo World's Country area. Donkey Kong Bananza (2025) ended the post-Tropical Freeze hiatus. Design Miyamoto designed Donkey Kong to appear dumb, he had no problems with the existing design, but was nonetheless excited to reinterpret him. Bayliss wanted a character that looked believable and could perform animations such as pounding his chest. His initial design was blocky and muscular to make Donkey Kong easy to animate, but became more cartoonish when Nintendo faxed reference material. Bayliss recycled the eye design from those of the Battletoads, characters he had previously designed for Rare. In retrospect, Bayliss felt this made it difficult for Donkey Kong to express emotions besides annoyance. Miyamoto provided some suggestions, but otherwise left the specifics to Bayliss. Donkey Kong Country marked Donkey Kong's first appearance as a 3D model, and the limitations of technology at the time influenced the redesign. Miyamoto asked that Donkey Kong have eyebrows and tangible fur, but both were infeasible. For the eyebrows, Rare compromised by making the area around Donkey Kong's eyes black. Miyamoto suggested the tie to better convey Donkey Kong's stubbornness. He felt Rare "breathed new life into" Donkey Kong and made him "really cool", but also childish. Nintendo used the Bayliss design for decades in both Donkey Kong and Mario games. Paon reintroduced elements of the arcade-era design for Donkey Kong's appearance in DK: King of Swing (2004), but they were not retained in subsequent games, including King of Swing sequel Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber (2007). Nintendo EPD redesigned Donkey Kong for the Nintendo Switch 2 game Donkey Kong Bananza, although the design first appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Mario Kart World (2025). It combines elements of the Bayliss design with the original arcade design, with larger eyes, a less angular brow, and lighter fur. EPD wanted to merge the expressiveness of Miyamoto's original design and his more cool and adventurous Country depiction, aiming to remain true to Miyamoto's vision and account for how different generations of fans saw Donkey Kong. Nintendo began updating merchandise and artwork to reflect the redesign in January 2025. Voice {{multiple images Donkey Kong does not have a consistent voice across games, and generally makes gorilla noises instead of speaking in full sentences. Charles Martinet, who voiced Mario and other Mario characters until 2023, also voiced Donkey Kong for the 1994 "Mario in Real Time" trade show attraction. When developing Donkey Kong Country, Rare planned to use real gorilla noises and visited Twycross Zoo near the company's headquarters to record them. The composer David Wise described the visit as "a complete waste of time". Grant Kirkhope voiced Donkey Kong while composing music for Donkey Kong 64; Takashi Nagasako, the most prolific Donkey Kong voice actor, voiced him in 37 games from Mario Power Tennis (2004) to Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (2025). In 2025, Koji Takeda, who voiced Donkey Kong in the Japanese dub of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, assumed the role from Mario Kart World onward. In his early animated appearances, Donkey Kong was voiced by the comedian Soupy Sales and the actor Garry Chalk. Richard Yearwood voiced Donkey Kong in the Donkey Kong Country animated series, and Sterling Jarvis performed his singing voice. used his regular speaking voice, as he felt the role did not require an unusual one. The directors gave Rogen freedom to approach the role, and most of his directions were to yell and sound angry. Rogen enjoyed the role and expressed interest in reprising it. ==Reception and legacy==

Donkey Kong is one of the most iconic video game characters, and has been listed as one of the greatest. The original Donkey Kong was Nintendo's first major international success and established it as a prominent force in the video game industry; IGN attributed its success to the popularity of Donkey Kong as a character. and gave Nintendo its first marketable characters. Nintendo soon began to push Mario as a leading character, and Donkey Kong's popularity faded. and was credited with helping Nintendo pull ahead of Sega towards the end of the 16-bit era's console war. GamePro Lawrence Neves praised Donkey Kong's design for its details, such as his tie moving while he runs, and Total! reviewers said the quality of his animations surpassed that of a Disney Animation film. Critics enjoyed Donkey Kong's gameplay dynamic with Diddy Kong. Total! reviewers considered Donkey Kong more fun to control, although Hardcore Gaming 101 David DiRienzo found their control differences mostly superficial. GamesRadar+ Bob Mackey said the design looked fine when considering the limitations of 1994 rendering technology but expressed surprise that Nintendo continued to use it without major alterations. He wrote that by 2014, it had become "increasingly bizarre to see this product of mid-90s technology dropped into games with real-time visuals that handily outclass Rare's pre-rendered relics". IGN Jesse Schedeen said that, by 2009, Donkey Kong was only kept relevant by his Super Smash Bros. appearances, as his name had become "almost synonymous with gimmicky games" like Donkey Konga. Schedeen called him one of the most overrated video game characters, GamesRadar+ Scott McCrae said being a Donkey Kong fan was difficult due to the hiatuses between major games, IGN Logan Plant wrote that before Donkey Kong Bananza announcement it seemed as if Nintendo did not care about Donkey Kong. Starkey noted that his 40th anniversary in 2021 passed without acknowledgement from Nintendo, which he joked was "grounds for a HR complaint". and Polygon felt its emphasis on destruction was a natural fit for his character. Donkey Kong's 2025 redesign was divisive. McCrae described it as "peak Donkey Kong... He's got the goofy look, but still has the ability to look super intense". Bayliss considered the new design superior and said design changes were necessary for characters to endure. He felt there was nothing to debate and that fans should embrace change. and Mashable Kristy Puchko said he brought "earnest glee" in his performance. Others felt Rogen's use of his regular speaking voice was lazy. Kotaku Sisi Jiang called Rogen's explanation for not using a unique voice baffling, as he "seem[ed] to be arguing for a flattening of his own character, rather than building his own creative spin on it". Analysis ; their similarities sparked the 1983 Universal v. Nintendo lawsuit.|alt=A black-and-white still of an enormous gorilla holding a white woman over a city skyline Donkey Kong has been described as a parody of King Kong, Donkey Kong, hypermasculine and brutish, kidnaps the passive Pauline, who must be rescued by the "appropriately masculine" hero, Mario. However, due to the cyclical gameplay, the masculine Mario is unsuccessful in defeating the hypermasculine Donkey Kong, who always recaptures Pauline. Donkey Kong has been described as inheriting the racial stereotypes associated with the King Kong narrative, specifically using ape imagery to symbolize black men as brutes obsessed with white women. There is no evidence that Miyamoto or Nintendo executives intentionally drew from racial stereotypes when creating Donkey Kong, but the researcher Sam Srauy argued that Donkey Kong "played into pre‐existing racial beliefs in the United States and further set the video game industry on a path dependency toward reifying racism". Srauy wrote that Donkey Kong continued to embody racist tropes after becoming a protagonist, finding his post-Country laziness evocative of the "porch monkey" stereotype. In popular culture at Monster Jam in 2008|alt=A monster truck with a Donkey Kong-themed wrap, midair during a show Donkey Kong remains one of Nintendo's bestselling franchises, with 82 million copies sold by 2025. used in television series, films, music, and news headlines to say something is "going down". In 2007, the Monster Jam racing series obtained the license to use Donkey Kong's appearance for a monster truck. The truck debuted in a December 2007 show in Minneapolis and toured with Monster Jam throughout 2008. Ralph, the protagonist of the video game-themed Walt Disney Animation Studios film Wreck-It Ralph (2012), was inspired by Donkey Kong. He is introduced as the antagonist of a Donkey Kong-like arcade game and has similar proportions. Entertainment Weekly described him as "a kind of human version of Donkey Kong". The director, Rich Moore, said Ralph was conceived as an animal similar to Donkey Kong, and the animators used Donkey Kong as a reference when designing 8-bit sprites of Ralph. Donkey Kong appears in Patrick Jean's Pixels (2010), a short film which depicts 1980s video game characters attacking New York City. He reappears in the feature film adaptation Pixels (2015), which expands the premise to depict alien invaders using the characters to conquer Earth. The director, Chris Columbus, said Donkey Kong's inclusion required months of negotiations, and Nintendo granted permission after determining the filmmakers were treating him with respect. The film War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) features treacherous apes nicknamed "donkeys" in reference to Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong has inspired internet memes, including a 2022 phenomenon in which Twitter users responded to posts from the Pringles account by spamming a picture of Donkey Kong appearing to shoot lightning from his groin. The transgender rights movement adopted Donkey Kong as an icon after the YouTuber Harry "Hbomberguy" Brewis livestreamed a playthrough of Donkey Kong 64 for over 50 hours to raise funds for the British charity Mermaids in 2019, in response to the National Lottery Community Fund considering canceling a £500,000 grant. Laura Kate Dale, a transgender game journalist, wrote for the BBC that posting images of Donkey Kong became "a powerful act of protest and a way to remind one man that his attempt to remove financial support from the trans community failed" following the livestream. ==Notes==