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 first episode of Season 2. The episode aired on December 23, 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 the episode opens with Cranky Kong reading Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong a story. However, the story soon leads into a discussion on the group's favorite parts of the holiday. Donkey Kong, as soon as he hears the word "Bananas" in the story, states that that was his favorite part 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 to 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 and spend time with family. K. Rool and Krusha leave, though Krusha soon returns, asking Klump if he was going home. Klump tells him he had a "big day planned," and Krusha leaves, accepting this explanation. Klump then admits to himself that he has no family to spend the Festival with, expressing his sadness through song. When he finishes the song, he reminisces about a poem he was once told, that he could tell himself when he got sad, but has trouble remembering the last line.

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, bursts into laughter, 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. He then smells banana cream pie, and is about to eat some, when Candy Kong shows up, telling Donkey Kong that he was going to love her gift. He then goes off to set up his fireworks display, when Funky Kong shows up, carrying Donkey Kong's present, a surfboard with DK's tie inscribed on it, to Cranky's. He then feels depressed, knowing that everyone got him better gifts then the banana he was going to give them (though he thinks that Cranky got him the same thing he gets Donkey Kong every year: glow-in-the-dark pajamas). Diddy then walks off, telling Donkey Kong that he was going to wrap his gift, making Donkey Kong feel depressed again.

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 then 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 then admits to Kutlass and Green Kroc that there actually is something that he wants more than the Coconut, and that he lost it 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. He then becomes sad again, the reason once again being that he had no family celebrate the holiday with, and sings the poem, this time with Donkey Kong hearing it, but he still cannot remember the last line. Donkey Kong emerged from the vault at this time, and asks Klump about the poem, and Klump explains that someone told him the poem when he was younger. DK then announces that he found the perfect gift, which ends up being the dynamite sticks that Krusha mistook for candles earlier (resulting in the same outcome).

Over at Cranky's Cabin, Cranky and Diddy are wondering where DK is, since he should have set up the fireworks at that point. Diddy then decided to go to the pier to check on him. Meanwhile, Donkey Kong once again thinks had found the perfect gift: mine carts. However, he then pulls a lever, causing the cart to fly into the air, doing several flips before landing, and decides that they aren't the perfect gift either. Back at Cranky's Cabin, Diddy reports that Donkey Kong wasn't at the pier. Cranky told Diddy that without Donkey Kong, the master of ceremonies, there would be no one to carry the Crystal Coconut, but Skurvy and his crew arrive at the cabin's entrance. 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 it. 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.

Donkey Kong is now looking through King K. Rool's library, thinking that, since everyone loves books, he should get everyone books for the holiday. However, just as Donkey Kong asks Klump what he should get his friends, a video monitor switches on, revealing to them that Skurvy and his pirate crew were on the island and that they had stolen the Crystal Coconut. Donkey Kong and Klump then head off to stop them.

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", as part of their plan. Sure enough, Kutlass and Green Kroc walk over to grab the fireworks barrels, but then Skurvy corners them, the two Kongs being at cannon point.

Skurvy drags the two apes onto his ship, revealing the Kong's plan to bargain for the Crystal Coconut by threatening to blow up the ship with the fireworks barrels on board, as well as 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, which DK finds familiar. Skurvy prepares to set off to shark-infested waters, to have the apes thrown to the sharks when Klump suddenly jumps on board, armed with a blaster and saying that he's ready to fight to the death for the Crystal Coconut. This declaration surprises even Skurvy, who says that even pirates don't 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 saying the first half of the aforementioned poem, which Klump and Skurvy gladly join in, Skurvy revealing the last line of the poem to Klump. Skurvy and Klump recognize each other, with the latter so elated he throws his 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, even if he and Klump are siblings, and he especially 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)

VERSE I: ''I've always been the only one No home of my own, just a wayward son And I bet they're all together eatin' pizza mud pies And they cozy on the sofa watchin' swamp gas rise ''

CHORUS: ''I've got no family tree Just a bush, a twig, a branch, a saplin', that's me ''

VERSE II: ''I never had no next of kin Just a few hundred teeth, and oily skin And I still remember Mama startin' turtle egg stew And her beetle sandwiches at picnics too

CHORUS: ''I got no family tree Just a bush, a twig, a branch, a sapling, that's me I've got no family tree No one to celebrate the festival with me-e-e-e-e


 * "Just Remember Me" (sung by Donkey Kong, General Klump and Kaptain Skurvy)

Animation and Continuity errors

 * Kutlass and Green Kroc's voices are switched in this episode, much like Booty and the Beast and Ape-Nesia (at the point when Kaptain Skurvy convince Donkey Kong is a pirate named Donkey Croc and is part of the crew).

Trivia

 * King K. Rool reveals he has siblings during this episode.
 * This is the last episode to feature Kaptain Skurvy.