Donkey Kong Country (TV series)

Donkey Kong Country was a short-lived French computer-generated television show starring Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Candy Kong, and King K. Rool, and it was based on the Nintendo franchise Donkey Kong as portrayed in the Donkey Kong Country video game series by Nintendo & Rare. It first aired in France on September 4, 1996, and was originally titled La Planète Donkey Kong ("Planet Donkey Kong"). It premiered late in North America on August 15, 1998, and the original run finished on July 7, 2000; the show is currently airing in Australia as of December 2009. Regardless of this, Donkey Kong Country won a publicly-voted award at 7 d'Or in 1999, for "Best Animation and Youth Program" ("Meilleure émission d'animation et de jeunesse"). In the USA the series originally debuted on Fox Kids. However, due to the airing of the impeachment trials of then-President Bill Clinton, the show was moved to Fox Family.

Donkey Kong Country ran for two seasons with forty episodes total before ending. The show followed an episodic format; it was rare that any episode connected in any way to an earlier one. During the run, however, there were some episodes aired out of order from the original airing, such as "Bad Hair Day" being aired as the third episode in the US run, even though it was the first episode in France. The second season showed many changes, such as using new, sleeker styles of computer animation and dropping the use of title screens. Each episode, excluding "Message in a Bottle Show," features one or two songs performed by cast members.

Donkey Kong Country was one of the earliest television series to be computer-animated, matching the artistic style of the Rare video game series. The CG animation style of the series was met with critical acclaim in France and Japan, but with mixed reception elsewhere. Several elements of the series appeared in later Donkey Kong video games such as Donkey Kong 64, which was released a year after the show had started airing on ABC Family (Fox Family).