The Kongo Bongo Festival of Lights

The Kongo Bongo Festival of Lights is the twenty-seventh episode of the Donkey Kong Country television show and it is also the opening episode of Season 2. The episode aired on December 23rd, 1999 in North America because this episode was dedicated to the Christmas holiday.

Plot Synopsis
It is the eve of Kongo Bongo Island's annual Festival of Lights (an apparent equivalent to Christmas), and as the episode opens, Donkey, Diddy, and Cranky Kong are discussing their favorite parts of the holiday. Diddy says that he especially likes "opening presents, especially when it's a junior jungle gym, complete with mega monkey bars" (which Cranky admits he's always wanted as well). Cranky answers that what he likes best about the Festival is the truce between the Kongs and the Kremlings, and thus they need not worry about the Crystal Coconut being stolen. However, a quick cut to Kaptain Skurvy's ship says otherwise.

Meanwhile, at King K. Rool's hideout, General Klump is seeing off the Kritters and K. Rool as they leave in their mine carts to go spend the festival with their loved ones. After the last group of Kritters leave, Klump informs K. Rool that Krusha is in the vault, looking for something to bring home for his family. Krusha then comes out, carrying lit fireworks that he has mistaken for candles, which then blow up in his face. Klump remarks that the fireworks are his favorite part of the festival, with K. Rool replying with the revelation that he loves going back to his swamp home to have fun with his siblings. As soon as K. Rool and Krusha leave, though, Klump realizes to himself that he has no family to spend the Festival with, and expresses his sadness through song. When he finishes the song, he reminisces about a poem he was once told, but has trouble remembering the last line too.

Meanwhile, Donkey is bragging about the supply of fireworks he's gotten for this year's festival, but Diddy's more interested in receiving his presents. Donkey Kong decides to outright tell Diddy what his present is, under the condition that Diddy don't tell the other Kongs, because they're getting the same thing as well. The gift, DK states, is a banana. Diddy, however, accepts this as a joke, believing that DK is only joking so that his real present will be a surprise. The expression Donkey Kong makes following this assumption, however, says otherwise. As DK soon discovers, though, his idea of giving bananas to the other Kongs may not be a good idea, for Candy, Funky, and Diddy all apparently have picked out good presents for him (Cranky's just getting him the same gift he gives DK every year - glow-in-the-dark pajamas).

While trying to set up the fireworks, DK tries to think of a solution to his problem of getting new presents for his friends. He decides to visit Inka Dinka Doo for advice. The advice Donkey Kong receives is to "look into the heart of your enemy to discover the greatest gift of all," but he doesn't understand it and feels that he has wasted time. Just as he is leaving the temple, DK runs into Klump, who explains that he has come here to watch the fireworks. DK informs him that there might not be time for them this year, since he is still trying to find good presents at the moment. Klump offers to help Donkey Kong find good presents, saying that the only thing he wants in return is a better view of the fireworks.

Unbeknownst to everyone on the island, Kaptain Skurvy arrives and docks his ship. He has decided to take advantage of the Kong/Kremling truce and steal the Crystal Coconut while the Kongs aren't ready to stop him. He admits to Kutlass and Green Kroc that there actually is something that he wants more than the Coconut and that he lost years ago. But he feels he'll never find that, so he might as well settle for the Coconut.

Klump allows Donkey Kong to look around K. Rool's hideout, looking for things that could be good to give the other Kongs as gifts. He first lets DK look around in the King's vault, figuring that K. Rool won't miss anything that the ape takes out of it. While DK goofs around and finds the dynamite sticks that Krusha mistook for candles earlier (resulting in the same outcome), and then deduces that those "candles" and mine carts don't make good Christmas presents for his friends, Klump again laments his lack of a family home, once more reciting the poem that he can't remember the last line of.

Over at Cranky's Cabin, Cranky and Diddy are wondering where DK is, since he is supposed to be the master of ceremonies at the festival. Diddy goes to the pier to look for his big buddy, but he ends up coming back with Skurvy and his crew right behind him. Skurvy demands that he be given the Crystal Coconut, and while he's at it, he again admits that there's one thing he finds more dear to him but that he'll never find. Then, when Diddy mentions the presents, which have all been placed right by the Coconut, Skurvy decides to steal those as well. Luckily, while looking through K. Rool's bookcase, Klump and DK catch sight of Skurvy and his crew making off with the gifts on K. Rool's surveillance monitor. The two realize they'll need to work together to stop the pirates.

After Donkey Kong admits to Cranky that he has been out doing his holiday shopping and that they will need help from Klump to retrieve the Coconut, Donkey, Diddy, and Klump head off for the pier and spy on the pirates from behind the fireworks barrels. Donkey and Diddy Kong manage to distract Kutlass and Green Kroc by talking like pirates themselves and convincing the bad guys that there's "booty on the beach". Sure enough, Kutlass and Green Kroc walk over to grab the fireworks barrels, but then Skurvy corners them, pointing his hand cannon up their snouts.

Skurvy drags the two apes onto his ship, letting it be known that he was going to steal the fireworks anyway. At this point, under a reminder from Diddy, the captain confesses that what exactly he wants to find more than the Coconut is his long-lost little brother, emphasizing his answer with a poem that DK finds familiar. Skurvy prepares to have the apes thrown to the sharks when Klump suddenly jumps on board, armed with a Klaptrap-Blaster and saying that he's ready to fight to the death. This declaration surprises even Skurvy, who says that even pirates don't regularly do that. This sparks an argument between the two crocs, but it's at this point that DK realizes that Klump is the long-lost brother Skurvy mentioned he was looking for. He reveals this to them by starting up a singing version of the aforementioned poem, which Klump and Skurvy gladly join in. Skurvy and Klump recognize each other, with the latter so elated he throws his Klaptrap-Blaster in the air. Unfortunately, the impact of it hitting the deck fires a shot that hits a fireworks barrel.

Luckily, the apes and crocodiles manage to escape with the Crystal Coconut safely in DK's hands. As they watch the now set-off fireworks from the pier, Skurvy and Klump find they have even more in common when the former admits that he loves the festival fireworks as well. It is then revealed that, in their youth, Klump once played with fireworks and ended up accidentally setting the swamp on fire, forcing their family to flee their home. Skurvy stood up for Klump and took the blame for the incident, and then, exiled from the swamp, ran off to become a pirate.

That night, the Kongs gather in front of Cranky's Cabin to watch the fireworks. Cranky declares this to be the best Festival of Lights they've ever had, which confuses DK a bit, considering that the presents were destroyed by the fireworks when they were set off. But as Cranky informs him, the Festival of Lights "isn't about presents, it's about being with family." Meanwhile, at K. Rool's hideout, Skurvy and Klump exchange stories of their experiences just as K. Rool is returning. The Kremling King doesn't take kindly to Skruvy being in his hideout, and he isn't happy when Klump tells him that he's leaving to join Skurvy's pirate crew. The two villains start calling each other names, which Klump is rather happy with, as he's just experienced the best Kongo Bongo Festival of Lights in his life.

Featured Songs

 * "I Got No Family Tree" (sung by General Klump)
 * "Just Remember Me" (sung by Donkey Kong, General Klump and Kaptain Skurvy)

Trivia

 * King K. Rool reveals he has siblings in this episode.
 * Kutlass and Green Kroc's voices are switched in the episode.