Donkey Kong Country: The Legend of the Crystal Coconut (1999) Movie Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well, for a Tuesday. I've got a movie review for you today. I know, it's been a while since I've done a movie review, but, I watched a movie last night and decided that I wanted to talk about it. I'm going to be talking about Donkey Kong Country: The Legend of the Crystal Coconut from 1999. Let's get into it.

The Legend of the Crystal Coconut is actually four episodes of the 1997 animated series, Donkey Kong Country, edited together into a feature film. Of course many TV shows have done this for home media releases including Gargoyles, Batman Beyond, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, Justice League, and Darkwing Duck, among others. However, in this case, the episodes are all the ones featuring Kaptain Skurvy and his pirate crew. Before I get into the movie itself, let's go back and talk about the history of the show.

On October 17th, 1997 Teletoon began broadcasting. Now known as Cartoon Network (not to be confused with Cartoon Network in the United States), Teletoon was a cable channel dedicated to cartoons and animated series. In the first couple of years of the channel's history, it mostly aired shows produced here in Canada, with the occasional American show being broadcast. 

 One of the first shows to air on the channel was a 3-D animated TV show adaptation of Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country series. The series was also called Donkey Kong Country. It featured Richard Yearwood as the voice of Donkey Kong, whose name is shortened to DK by the other characters. I used to watch this show all the time when I was a kid. It was great. At least to me. I know there aren't very many people who have a fondness for this show. I loved it though.

The movie was interesting. I first saw this movie in either 2000 or 2001 when my parents rented it for me on VHS. My siblings were either away, or out for the night with my grandmother and I was going to be home with my parents, so they rented it for me. And I know it was either 2000 or 2001 because I didn't have my TV/VCR combo set in my room yet, so I had to watch it on the TV in our family room. 

There isn't a general plot to the movie, since it's four episodes of the TV show edited together. But the basic premise is that Donkey Kong and his pal, Diddy, have to protect the Crystal Coconut from King K. Rool, and his henchmen, Klump and Krusha, as well as keep it out of the hands of the pirate, Kaptain Skurvy and his crew, Kutlass and Green Croc. Naturally, DK messes up, alot, but he saves the day every time.

One of my favourite parts of this movie is when Krusha accidentally lets it slip that DK had given him and Klump the Crystal Coconut, and King K. Rool orders Klump to return it to Cranky's house because he thinks it might be a trick played on them by DK and Diddy. I laughed because only a few scenes earlier, King K. Rool didn't care how Klump and Krusha had obtained it, only that they HAD obtained it. Plus for a moment it actually felt like the bad guy was actually learning, but this is a '90s TV show. The bad guys never learn.

Another favourite scene of mine is when Kaptain Skurvy sings "Pirate's Scorn", which is a song that explains why Skurvy wants the Crystal Coconut. Funny thing is though, I never actually heard this song in the show itself until I saw this movie. Back when Teletoon first started it had an interstitial segment between shows called MusicToon. Basically it was music videos made from songs sung in the shows Teletoon aired at the time. "Pirate's Scorn" was one of them and I always saw it when I was watching reruns of Scooby-Doo, and episodes of an animated series I used to watch called Bad Dog. This was during the show's final run in late 1999 to early 2000. 

But I think my most favourite part is seeing these characters interacting with each other again. I haven't seen Donkey Kong Country since it ended in 2000, and I only ever saw this movie once, so it was fun seeing it again through this movie. It's not the best show ever, nor is this the best movie ever, but I had so much fun watching the show 25 years ago, and I had just as much fun watching this movie last night. And to me that's the worth of this show and this movie.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. However, I will be back tomorrow for a book review as I'm almost finished reading the first novel in the Star Wars: X-Wing series, Rogue Squadron. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.