Donkey Kong I, also known as Donkey Kong Sr., and later known as Cranky Kong, is a major character in Nintendo's Mario franchise and the overarching protagonist of the eponymous franchise of the same name.
He used to be a brutish gorilla who attempted to kidnap Mario's girlfriend Pauline and kill him. In his later years, he retired and became Cranky Kong, the grandfather of the current Donkey Kong.
Biography[]
Donkey Kong[]
Cranky Kong's first appearance as the original Donkey Kong is in the Arcade game of the same name. After being mistreated by Mario (back then known as "Jumpman"), he kidnaps Mario's girlfriend Pauline to a construction site.
Mario then must climb up to the top of the construction site and save Pauline from the giant ape. Eventually, after Mario reaches the top of the construction site, he causes the bars to fall down, causing DK to fall and crash at the same time.
Donkey Kong (1984 cartoon)[]
From the Saturday Supercade program, he is the titular protagonist of his own show (voiced by Soupy Sales), who is being chased by Mario and Pauline as they continue chasing and pursuing him everywhere he goes since they're trainers of DK himself and Donkey escaped from a circus. This time instead of just wanting to kidnap Pauline and forcing Mario to save her, he is now depicted as more of a goofy, rebellious, sneaky, creative, childish, sly, mischievous troublemaker with an anti-heroic/anti-villainous streak and a playful attitude.
He is also shown to be an escape artist and a comical prankster who likes to cause mischief and chaos with delight as a form of his silly shenanigans such as capturing Pauline while roaming anywhere, once changed the "Bus Stop" sign so he can get into a bus and take it for himself while driving it once everyone evacuated out of the bus due to Donkey's presence in the episode "Mississippi Madness", stealing a trolley from a toy store as his escape in "The Incredible Shrinking Ape", greedily taking a bunch of bananas from a fruit shop while laying on a moving vehicle in "Movie Mania", messing with imprisoned criminals in a state prison since he thought it was a house club in the episode "The Great Ape Escape", stealing Stanley's pet plant in the episode "Greenhouse Gorilla", once relished with glee of Pauline calling for him in "New Wave Ape", and also doing stuff like challenging Mario by throwing collum pillars at him like he does with barrels (and otherwise pulling tricks and pranks on him to set him up for disaster and predicaments in order to foil Mario's plans to capture him and bringing him back to a circus so he could go roaming on his own such as using cannonballs like bowling balls to make it land into Mario's net so he could be sent flying backwards), all of which tends to freak everyone out for being a "giant ape on the loose".
In all of the episodes, he repeatedly exclaims his name "DOOONKEY KOOOONG!!" as his signature catchphrase when he does just about anything, and sometimes gives off devious/silly laughs and chuckles to further enforce his puckish personality.
He also seems to attract several human women as well whenever he does anything decent, these include Pauline in "New Wave Ape", a lady of General Elm's group being flattered in "Mississippi Madness", and a lady being his girlfriend and wanting to marry her in "Gorilla My Dreams".
While he sometimes feels remorse for doing something wrong, such as stealing an emerald from a museum despite showing no care of the situation or what he did afterwards, and also does some good things here and there in episodes like "How Much Is That Gorilla In The Window?", "The Incredible Shrinking Ape" and "Movie Mania" for example, however, episodes such as "Gorilla Gangster" shows how he is sometimes fine with working on anyone's side (heroes or villains) as long he can trust them, would only switch sides if they seem to be harmful or spiteful, and wants to have a good time with them outside the circus since he often takes anything as a fun game and challenge for him, even if it means using a luggage crate roller to flee the scene and ditching Mario and Pauline.
Donkey Kong Jr.[]
Donkey Kong was later imprisoned by Mario as punishment for kidnapping Pauline. However, he was saved by his son, Donkey Kong Jr. As punishment, they both punch Mario for imprisoning him and almost killing Junior.
Donkey Kong 3[]
Donkey Kong attacks the greenhouse of the game's protagonist Stanley the Bugman. He has to be defeated in all three stages.
Donkey Kong Land[]
Years later when old age hits the original Donkey Kong, he becomes frail and cranky. Eventually, he takes the name "Cranky Kong", while his grandson takes on the name Donkey Kong the third. Much of Donkey Kong III's time is spent listening to music and spending time with his friends, where he lives in a relatively laid-back lifestyle, opposed to the original Donkey Kong. Unlike his grandfather, he is the friendly rival of Mario and often visits him in various sporting festivals. However, a band of Kremlings known as the Kremling Krew form during this time. Their attempts at stealing the banana hoard cause Donkey Kong to guard his banana hoard every night.
In Donkey Kong Land, Cranky Kong becomes an antagonist once again after he becomes jealous of Donkey Kong III and Diddy Kong's success over King K. Rool. Before the events of Donkey Kong Land, he allowed King K. Rool to steal the banana hoard again, he then challenges the mentioned two kongs in a bet to see if they could prove themselves as heroes by defeating King K. Rool once again. After another long adventure, Donkey Kong III and Diddy Kong defeat K. Rool and returned with the banana hoard, thus proving themselves as heroes.
Gallery[]
External Links[]
- Cranky Kong on the Heroes Wiki
- Cranky Kong on the Donkey Kong Wiki
- Cranky Kong — Super Mario Wiki
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 Villains
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Kremling Krew Tiki Tak Tribe Snowmads Others Saturday Supercade TV Series See Also | ||
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Marioverse Sour Bunch Zok Troops Others Movies Television Books Pakkun Mogura |
Chō Dossun |
Poko-tachi no sensuikan |
Ultra Pukupuku |
Battra Hanachan |
Kāmenētā |
Bowser (KC Mario) |
Wario (KC Mario) See Also | ||