Orangutango

Orangutango is the eleventh episode of the Donkey Kong Country television series, and it first aired on November 1st, 1998. The title of the episode is a combination of "orangutan" and "tango," as the episode takes place on the day of a dance competition.

Plot Synopsis
It is time for Kongo Bongo Island's annual Bananarama festival, and Candy Kong is especially looking forward to her favorite part of it - her and Funky Kong, the best dancer on the island, winning the Orangutango dance contest like they do every year. The prize in the contest is a wish on the Crystal Coconut. Cranky Kong remarks that he is glad that it is always Funky who wins the contest ("Can you imagine if Bluster won the wish, or even Donkey Kong?"); Funky always wishes for a super-big surf wave.

Just then, King K. Rool shows up at the cabin, announcing that he is going to enter the dance contest this year. Cranky is understandably upset about this; he knows that K. Rool would wish to become ruler of the island. K. Rool remarks that he has spent years training at the Sore Buns dancing school, and gives a demonstration of his dancing. Cranky responds by saying that he still needs a partner to dance with, so K. Rool leaves the cabin. Cranky is worried that K. Rool's going to pull a dirty trick, so Candy votes that they'd better alert Funky and Donkey about this. Just then, the Crystal Coconut shows them an image of Inka Dinka Doo; Cranky, figuring that there is trouble going on at the temple, decides to alert Donkey Kong about it.

Over at Funky's Flights, Donkey Kong is taking dancing lessons from Funky, but is having no luck with it, even as Funky leads him and Diddy in a song ("Anyone Can Dance") about it. After the song, Cranky's hologram shows up to tell DK that he is needed at the Temple of Inka Dinka Doo. Funky offers to fly him and Diddy there, despite the fact that he may be late for the dance contest as a result, and he vows that he will return in time. "You'd better," Cranky warns, "because King K. Rool is entering the contest against you!" Diddy wonders who K. Rool will have as his partner.

At his hideout, K. Rool proclaims that he is selecting Krusha as his dance partner, as he does not want General Klump's boots stepping on his feet. Before starting Krusha's dance lessons, K. Rool commands Klump to turn on the music. Klump responds by playing some wacky kazoo music while doing a jumping jacks-based dance, but his boss is unimpressed. After Klump turns on the right music, K. Rool tells Krusha to follow his steps, but the big guy is rather slow in doing so. After a while, he begins to catch on by stomping his feet as he attempts to imitate his boss's steps.

DK, Diddy and Funky arrive at the temple and come face-to-face with the idol of Inka Dinka Doo. Inka Dinka Doo tells DK that he has called him here to put him to a test - he must survive "three rooms of doom" in order to save Kongo Bongo Island. Funky and DK try to ask the idle to cut the test down to just one room of "heavy-duty doom," given that they have a dance contest to get back to, but Inka Dinka Doo insists that DK go through all three passageways. In the first of the three rooms, DK has to make it to the end of the room while avoiding the spiked pillars jutting out of the walls - all the while some drum music accompanies the action. He manages to pull this off without a scratch, and figures that they can still get back in time for Funky to beat K. Rool in the contest.

At K. Rool's hideout, Krusha's improving floor-shaking dancing is really making a mess of things, so much so that K. Rool says that "he's a natural... disaster, that is!" and orders Klump to kill the music. Klump responds by starting up the kazoo music and doing his jumping jacks dance again, to which K. Rool responds "I wish you wouldn't do that." Klump reluctantly stops, and K. Rool tells Krusha to perform an encore.

Back in the temple, as they are entering the second room of doom, Funky reasons that maybe, since there are three rooms DK has to go through, maybe the three of them can go through each room separately. Despite the worries that he may get hurt, Funky walks all the way to the end of the passageway, and nothing happens to him. But when DK steps into the room himself, the drum music starts up again and he finds that the challenge in this room is that he must avoid falling into the trap doors opening up on the floor. After he makes it through, Diddy comes up to them and says "Guess Inka Dinka Doo wants you to do the doom-room thing, Donkey Kong."

Meanwhile, Krusha has by now fully learned how to dance just like K. Rool. K. Rool, impressed with Krusha's dancing, asks Klump for his opinion on it; instead of answering, Klump does his jumping jacks again and gets the same response from his boss as before. Confident that victory in the contest is assured, K. Rool announces it is time to go get into the contest. Over at his cabin, Cranky worries that Funky won't make it back in time.

DK, Diddy, and Funky come upon the last of the three rooms of doom, in which the floor is a narrow passageway. After being given some words of encouragement from Diddy and Funky ("We're monkeys; to us, that's a highway!") and Funky signals for the drum music to start playing, arrows start flying from out of the walls as DK tries to make it across. DK manages to dodge all the arrows and avoid falling into the pits. Once this is done, the three apes are dropped back into the idol's chamber. DK thinks that the island is safe now that he has completed the test, but Inka Dinka Doo tells him he is wrong, and that he needs to go save the island now, but he doesn't specify how to do it. DK figures they can ask Cranky about it after the contest. As they are leaving the temple, Funky slips and falls on his behind, injuring his shin bone and rendering him unable to dance.

Back at the cabin, Candy is trying to teach Cranky how to dance, but his weak back ruins his chances. The Kremlings then show up, and K. Rool assumes he wins by default because his opponent is not present, but Cranky insists that he hasn't won yet ("Very well, then. Da-da-da-da-da-da. There, I danced, I win, now gimmie gimmie gimmie!"). DK and Diddy then show up with Funky limping behind them to tell them the bad news about his injury. K. Rool is confident that he will win now, but DK says that he is going to fill in for Funky.

The contest begins with Klump as the emcee. K. Rool and Krusha perform their dance and are met with amazed comments by the Kongs (Funky first remarks that it's "far out", but then changes his opinion to "lame" when the others glare at him) and applause by the Kritters. DK and Candy then take their turn, and K. Rool laughs at DK's poor attempt at dancing ("Look! A monkey on a stick!"). Funky remarks that DK was dancing much better when he was going through that test in the temple, which gives Diddy an idea. Diddy and Funky then start beating on some barrels like drums, producing the same kind of bongo music that accompanied DK's test in the temple. Immediately, Donkey Kong starts dancing much better, during which he sings a reprise of "Anyone Can Dance," much to the amazement of Cranky and K. Rool.

Klump steps in to announce the winner, which he says is "based on the audience's response," but to the dismay of the Kongs, announces K. Rool as the winner anyway. K. Rool then has Krusha bring the Coconut to him so he can make his wish, and contemplates over whether he should wish to be ruler of the island. Before anything else can be said, Klump celebrates his boss's victory by doing the jumping jacks dance one more time, prompting K. Rool to scream "I WISH YOU WOULDN'T DO THAT!!" As a result of K. Rool's foolish choice of words, the Coconut accepts this as his wish, grants it, and returns to its case. K. Rool furiously orders Klump to do something, but all Klump can think of is saying that DK and Candy's consolation prize is "a complete set of dance lessons." The Kremlings make a run for it, but DK, Diddy and Funky immediately push down the trigger barrels to send them all flying.

After that, DK asserts that he has figured out now that the tests in the temple were in fact Inka Dinka Doo's way of giving him dancing lessons. Diddy points out that the idle was correct in saying that he needed to do it to save Kongo Bongo, given what happened with Funky. Donkey Kong then goes to ask Candy to dance with him again, but he accidentally steps on her foot, forcing him to admit that maybe he needs more lessons. ("And another partner," Diddy adds. "I hear General Klump's free." At which point, Klump calls out "Rendezvous at 1400 hours!").

Featured Songs

 * Anyone Can Dance

Trivia

 * Funky's line "Like the terminal dude says, I'll be back!" is a reference to the Terminator movies.
 * The scene of DK making it through the third room later appears as a flashback in Ape-Nesia.