Donkey Kong Jr.

This article is about the character known as Donkey Kong Jr.. For the game, see Donkey Kong Junior (game).

Donkey Kong Jr. in Mario Tennis 64.
Donkey Kong Jr.
Species	Kong
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Black
Relatives	Donkey Kong (possibly Cranky Kong) (father)
Debut	Donkey Kong Jr.

Donkey Kong Jr. is the alleged child of Donkey Kong who originally debuted with a starring role in the arcade game of the same name. He is notable as the first playable protagonist who is not Mario within the larger series and for the confusion his existence has created in relation to the Rareware vision of Donkey Kong.

Background

Donkey Kong Jr.'s first chronological appearance was in Donkey Kong GB, a retelling of the original game. When Donkey Kong ran off with Pauline, Junior eventually began tagging along in order to help thwart Mario. He appeared in various stages as a pest, usually flipping levers or throwing Poison Mushrooms in hopes of slipping Mario up. He was indirectly battled in Level 8-4, where Mario had to slide several keys up a set of vines to trap Junior within a cage, forming an ironic reversal of the final stage of Donkey Kong Junior. Junior showed up again at the ending, where the Kongs made peace with Mario and Pauline, and they all took a picture together.

Within Donkey Kong Junior, Donkey Kong was held in a cage by Mario. Junior came to his aid and made his way through several environments, eventually freeing Donkey Kong from his cage while dropping Mario. Donkey Kong Jr. only appeared in spin-off games afterwards. He was featured in the edutainment game Donkey Kong Jr. Math, and he was featured as a playable character in the sports games Super Mario Kart, Mario's Tennis and Mario Tennis 64 (where he was unlocked by beating the Star Cup in Doubles). He and Donkey Kong also made a cameo appearance together in Mario Clash, where they would appear to congratulate the player if they reached 800,000 points.

Adult Life

When Rareware revamped the Donkey Kong series with Donkey Kong Country in 1994, they established that the Donkey Kong from the arcade games had grown to become Cranky Kong, while his son or grandson was the "new" Donkey Kong. Nintendo has never clearly established what this entails for Donkey Kong Junior, as he has been absent aside from appearances in the partially canon sports games and occasional easter egg appearances. The modern Donkey Kong has often been presumed to be the son of Cranky Kong, which would make him the adult form of Donkey Kong Junior (and would introduce the possibility that Junior was the Baby Donkey Kong seen in Yoshi's Island DS). Despite the logic in this line of thought, most sources have described Cranky Kong as being Donkey Kong's grandfather. This idea instead implies that Junior grew up and became the modern Donkey Kong's father, but this leaves his current whereabouts unknown.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• Donkey Kong Jr. had his own segment on the 80's cartoon show Saturday Supercade. There he was traveling with a teenager named Bones to find his father, and he was voiced by Frank Welker, a popular voice actor known for his animal imitations. This version of Donkey Kong Junior notably seemed ot be based on the infamous Hanna-Barbara cartoon character Scrappy-Doo, complete with his similar catchphrase: "Monkey muscle!"
• He made several appearances in the Super Mario-Kun manga.

Trivia

• In the Super Mario All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros. 3, one of the kings is transformed into Donkey Kong Jr. by a Koopaling.
• Multiple Donkey Kong Juniors often appear as generic hostages in the Game & Watch Gallery minigames.
• Donkey Kong Jr. appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee and as two stickers in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.