Donkey Kong (character)

Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong and Mario character
Art from the Donkey Kong 2026 Wall Calendar (2025) by Shigehisa Nakaue
First game	Donkey Kong (1981)
Created by	Shigeru Miyamoto
Designed by	Shigeru Miyamoto Kevin Bayliss
Voiced by	See section
In-universe information

Donkey Kong (DK) is a character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. A flagship character of the Japanese video game company Nintendo, he is the star of the Donkey Kong entertainment franchise and also appears in the Mario franchise. Donkey Kong is a large, powerful gorilla who leads the Kong family of simians. He is stubborn and buffoonish, and attacks using barrels. He wears a red necktie bearing his initials and is accompanied by supporting characters such as his sidekick Diddy Kong, rival Mario, and archenemy King K. Rool.

Donkey Kong debuted as the antagonist of Donkey Kong, a 1981 platform game. He has appeared in many video games, including the original Donkey Kong arcade games, the Donkey Kong Country series of side-scrolling platform games, Mario games such as Mario Kart and Mario Party, and the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover platform fighting games. The original game characterized Donkey Kong as Mario's rebellious pet; games since Country feature him as a player character protecting his stash of bananas. Some games include Cranky Kong, an alternate, elderly incarnation who breaks the fourth wall. Donkey Kong has appeared in animation, comics, children's books, Super Nintendo World theme park attractions, and merchandise such as Lego construction toys.

Miyamoto designed the original Donkey Kong using Popeye characters, but when Nintendo was unable to obtain the license, he created Donkey Kong to replace Bluto. He designed him as a dumb, humorous antagonist, named donkey to convey stubborn and kong to imply gorilla, and drew inspiration from the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" and the 1933 film King Kong. The Rare developer Kevin Bayliss redesigned Donkey Kong as a 3D model for Donkey Kong Country (1994), which served as the basis for his appearance until he was redesigned for Donkey Kong Bananza (2025). Donkey Kong has been voiced by Takashi Nagasako and Koji Takeda in games, and was voiced by Richard Yearwood in the television series Donkey Kong Country (1997–2000) and by Seth Rogen in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).

Donkey Kong has been listed among the greatest video game characters. He is one of Nintendo's most enduring characters; the Donkey Kong franchise was Nintendo's first major international success, established it as a prominent force in the video game industry, and remains one of Nintendo's bestselling franchises. Donkey Kong has also been the subject of analysis regarding his similarities to King Kong (which sparked the 1983 Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd. lawsuit), his gender role, and his transition from villain to hero.

Character

Donkey Kong, also known by his initials DK, is the star of Donkey Kong, a video game series and media franchise owned by the Japanese video game company Nintendo. One of Nintendo's flagship characters, he also appears in the Mario franchise as a playable character in Mario Kart and Mario Party games. He is playable in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games and makes cameos in other Nintendo franchises, such as Punch-Out!!.

In his debut as the antagonist of Donkey Kong, a 1981 arcade game, Donkey Kong is Mario's rebellious pet gorilla who kidnaps his girlfriend Pauline and climbs a construction site. He appears as Mario's captive in the sequel Donkey Kong Jr. (1982), in which he must be rescued by his son of that name, and returns as the antagonist in Donkey Kong 3 (1983) and Donkey Kong (1994). Beginning with Donkey Kong Country (1994), Donkey Kong games were developed by the British studio Rare until its acquisition by the Nintendo competitor Microsoft in 2002. He was recast as a protagonist starting with Country, though he occasionally appears as an antagonist, such as in Mario vs. Donkey Kong (2004).

Donkey Kong is a large and powerful gorilla who leads the Kongs, a family of simians. He resides in a city in early Donkey Kong games, but the Rare games moved his residence to Donkey Kong Island, an idyllic isle. Donkey Kong weighs 800 pounds (360 kg) in reference to a popular expression, and since 1994 has been depicted wearing a red necktie bearing his initials. Although Donkey Kong was introduced as an antagonist, he is not evil. Nintendo World Report's Pedro Hernandez wrote that, unlike the Mario villains Bowser and Wario, Donkey Kong's villainous acts are the result of jealous temper tantrums rather than malice. He is stubborn, buffoonish, and innocent. He strives to help others and be accepted. Donkey Kong is depicted as lazy and sleeping when he is not adventuring. He protects his stash of bananas from enemies such as the Kremlings, a crocodile army led by his archenemy King K. Rool, and the Tiki Tak Tribe, a group of floating masks. Donkey Kong is frequently accompanied by his nephew and sidekick Diddy Kong, and his girlfriend, Candy Kong.

In his playable appearances, Donkey Kong is a heavyweight. He throws barrels to impede the player's progress in the original game. This trait is retained in his playable appearances, whereby he uses barrels as weapons or to uncover power-ups. Donkey Kong's other tactics include slapping the ground, rolling, clinging onto and climbing surfaces, and swinging on vines. He rides vehicles such as minecarts and barrel-shaped rockets, and animals such as Rambi the Rhino and Enguarde the Swordfish. In Super Smash Bros., Donkey Kong has slow but powerful attacks such as a chargeable punch and a headbutt; IGN's staff liken him to Street Fighter's Zangief.

In other media

A Donkey Kong cartoon produced by Ruby-Spears aired as part of CBS's hour-long Saturday Supercade programming block in 1983. It follows Mario and Pauline as they attempt to capture Donkey Kong after he escapes from a circus. Donkey Kong appears in Captain N: The Game Master, a DIC Entertainment series that ran on NBC for 34 episodes between 1989 and 1991. He interacts with other Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) characters such as Castlevania's Simon Belmont. The animated Donkey Kong Country (1997–2000), a sitcom, follows Donkey Kong as he attempts to protect a magical artifact, the Crystal Coconut, from King K. Rool.

Donkey Kong is a major character in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), an animated film produced by Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal Pictures. Mario and Princess Peach seek the Kongs' help to stop Bowser from invading the Mushroom Kingdom. The Kongs agree to help after Mario defeats Donkey Kong in an arena fight. Mario and Donkey Kong begin as foes, but learn they both want the respect of their fathers, and Donkey Kong participates in the final battle against Bowser.

Appearances in printed media include Blip, a short-lived American comic book published by Marvel Comics in 1983, a Donkey Kong Country comic published by the British comics publisher Fleetway Editions in 1995, and children's book adaptations of the Country games by Michael Teitelbaum. Donkey Kong appears on Nintendo merchandise, including clothing, toys such as plushes and Amiibo figures, and trading cards. The Lego Group introduced a Donkey Kong Lego figure in a series of Country Lego Super Mario sets in 2023. Donkey Kong also appears as a mascot in a Country-themed area at Universal Studios' Super Nintendo World, which opened in 2024.

Cranky Kong

Donkey Kong Country establishes that "Donkey Kong" is a hereditary title and that the Donkey Kong introduced in the Rare games is separate from the arcade games. The original Donkey Kong appears as Cranky Kong, a grumpy, elderly gorilla with a beard and cane. Cranky was initially depicted as extremely thin, which later games toned down while also giving him a thicker beard and fur.

Cranky provides fourth wall-breaking humor that unfavorably compares the games to older ones such as the original Donkey Kong. For instance, Donkey Kong Country's instruction manual features commentary from Cranky denigrating the game, and Donkey Kong Land's (1995) metafictional story transpires due to Cranky's claim that Country was only successful because of pre-rendered graphics. His wife, Wrinkly Kong, was introduced in Donkey Kong Country 2 (1995) and is killed off as a joke in Donkey Kong 64 (1999), appearing in subsequent games as a ghost.

In most games, Cranky appears as a non-player character who provides hints or sells items. He is playable in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014), in which he can use his cane to bounce on enemies and obstacles. Cranky also appears in spin-offs such as the Donkey Konga games and Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (2007), and a Rabbid incarnation appears in a Donkey Kong expansion pack for Ubisoft's Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (2017). He is a supporting character in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and an animatronic at Super Nintendo World. On February 20, 2014, to promote Tropical Freeze, Nintendo pretended to have Cranky take over its Twitter account, tweeting wisecracks and image macros.

The Rare Donkey Kong games referred to Cranky as both Donkey Kong's father and grandfather. Nintendo often referred to Cranky as Donkey Kong's grandfather after Rare's acquisition by Microsoft, but The Super Mario Bros. Movie identifies him as Donkey Kong's father. Video game journalists have noted that the inconsistency makes it unclear if the modern Donkey Kong is intended to be an adult Donkey Kong Jr., who does not appear in the Country games.

Development

Conception

In 1980, the commercial failure of Nintendo's arcade game Radar Scope put the newly established subsidiary Nintendo of America in a financial crisis. Its founder, Minoru Arakawa, asked his father-in-law, the Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi, to provide a game that could repurpose the unsold Radar Scope cabinets. Most of Nintendo's top developers were preoccupied, so the task went to Shigeru Miyamoto, a first-time game designer. Miyamoto found most arcade games of the time dull and wanted to make one that told a story, drawing from his favorite media such as the Shakespeare play Macbeth, the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast", and the 1933 film King Kong.

Miyamoto devised a love triangle with the characters Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto from the Popeye franchise, but a licensing deal between Nintendo and King Features fell through. Miyamoto created original characters to replace the Popeye ones; Mario and Pauline replaced Popeye and Olive Oyl, and Donkey Kong replaced Bluto. Like Bluto, Donkey Kong was a hairy, brutish character. Miyamoto chose a gorilla—an animal he found "nothing too evil or repulsive"—because he felt it made the scenario more interesting and humorous, and because gorillas are built similarly to humans. "Beauty and the Beast" and King Kong influenced the choice. Concept art that Miyamoto sent to Donkey Kong's programmers at Ikegami Tsushinki indicates that he replaced Bluto with Donkey Kong before removing the other Popeye characters.

Nintendo considered around 20 names for the character before settling on Donkey Kong. It is a common misconception that "Donkey Kong" is a mistranslation of "Monkey Kong". Donkey was meant to convey stubborn, and kong is a generic term for gorilla in Japan. Miyamoto called him "King Kong" during development, as, in Japan, it was commonly used to refer to any large ape. One name, "Funky Kong", was later used for a separate character in Donkey Kong Country. Other names considered included "Kong Dong" and "Kong Holiday". Nintendo of America objected to the name "Donkey Kong" because it did not believe donkey could be used to describe an idiot, but Miyamoto liked how it sounded.

Appearances

Donkey Kong has appeared in dozens of games. Donkey Kong's popularity quickly led to the production of a sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. Miyamoto, interested in showing the narrative from Donkey Kong's perspective, wanted to make him the player character, but the sprite graphic was too big to easily maneuver, so he created Donkey Kong Jr. The developers made Donkey Kong Mario's captive so they could still feature him at the top of the screen.

After Donkey Kong 3, Donkey Kong's appearances were limited to cameos in unrelated games. Several games featuring Donkey Kong were canceled, including a Sega-developed arcade game, the NES game Return of Donkey Kong, and a Riedel Software Productions-developed CD-i game. Nintendo staff began discussing a Donkey Kong revival as the original game's tenth anniversary approached in 1991. They were unable to start a new game at the time, so they included Donkey Kong Jr. as a playable character in Super Mario Kart (1992). However, the discussions led to the development of the Game Boy Donkey Kong game, released in 1994.