Web Animation / Return to Krocodile Isle

Put your claws together for a villain most cruel.

Step into the court of the Kremling King.

— Tagline used in preview videos

A 2023 fan Continuation of Donkey Kong Country by Alex Henderson Animation and Bootleg Dubs.

It's been a full decade since the last time anyone in the Kremling Krew has seen or heard from King K. Rool, leading them to think he's dead and gone. But on the eve of their tenth memoriam of his seeming passing, the mad pirate king might not be as gone as they think...

Can be viewed here.

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Tropes relating to the short:

• Alliterative Name: According to the post-credits scene, K. Rool's full name and title runs King Keith Krudd Rool.
• And Starring: Richard Yearwood gets this credit after The Stinger.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: In addition to the Climactic Volcano Backdrop, K. Rool and DK's duel is accompanied by flames from the burning pile of bananas.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: Even while the rest of his face is obscured in dark shadow, Donkey Kong's eyes are still visible.
• Canon Welding: The short combines the original cartoon with the mainline games, mixing K. Rool's sillier cartoon appearance and accent with the Ax-Crazy Madman that he is in the games by demonstrating his more psychotic side as a development of constant failures and ten years of self-imposed isolation driving him off the deep end. At the end of the short, he also gets his Smash Bros. invitation in the mail, setting him up to debut in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• Chromosome Casting: Only male characters appear in-person. Pauline has a small cameo on a background poster, however.
• Climactic Volcano Backdrop: K. Rool goads DK into battling him atop the volcano.
• Cold Ham: King K. Rool speaks calmly during The Stinger but is still his usual hammy self.
• Comically Missing the Point: When asked about a big green scaly villain (obviously meant to be K. Rool), Donkey Kong mistakenly thinks he's asking about Bowser or Kraid. The mistake is clearly Played for Laughs and is meant to comically depict him as an incompetent idiot like he was in the cartoon.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Klubba, just as he did in Donkey Kong Country 2, acts openly cynical about K. Rool's competence as a leader and reminds everyone that they're worse off because of the King's lust for vengeance.
  • The Kremling who K. Rool accidentally punts off the mast makes the classic Kremling death grunt from the SNES versions.
  • Kaptain Skurvy and his crewmates, originating from the Donkey Kong Country, return in the crowd after previously appearing in the team's last musical short. He's still got the Crystal Coconut too, but K. Rool drops it on the floor where it shatters, implying he doesn't care about it anymore or that Skurvy just got himself a replica.
  • One of K. Rool's lines refers to his "Finest Hour" and how it failed.
  • K. Rool's schemes from the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy are seen crossed-out while he outlines a new plan to destroy every banana on the island to force DK into a final confrontation.
  • Donkey Kong is depicted as mostly silhouetted, with the exception of his red tie still being brightly colored and fully visible. This evokes the silhouette levels of Donkey Kong Country Returns, in particular the Smokey Peak level due to the Climactic Volcano Backdrop.
  • K. Rool's declaration that he doesn't even like bananas is a reference to DK: Jungle Climber.
  • The news feed mention Bluster Kong still being missing. In their previous animated short, DKC: Curse of the Crystal Coconut - Animated Short, Skurvy's crew made him walk the plank.
• Darker and Edgier: Not by much, mind, but the short goes further than the source cartoon. This, in turn, allows things like K. Rool alluding to Hell, using realistic weapons such as Flaming Arrows and his blunderbuss, openly alluding to alcohol and suicide, and flat-out wanting to kill DK instead of just steal his island's Crystal Coconut.
• Dark Reprise: K. Rool announces his continued life to his Krew by doing this with the DK Rap, of all things.
  Announcer: So he's finally back, performing for you. If you know your place, you can join him too. Put your claws together for a villain most cruel. C-C-'Cause this time...
  K. Rool: ...He's here to Rool.
• Deadpan Snarker: Klampon tends to deliver his lines with biting teenage sarcasm.
• Dumb Muscle: As always, Krusha and Klump, with Klump being the more intelligent one solely by comparison.
  Krusha: (raising hand) Ooh, ooh, ooh, but Klump, why are we celebrating a decade-long abscess?
  Klump: I said "in memoriam" of, not "in celebration" of! And that's "absence", ya bone-headed halfwit.
• Evil Is Hammy: Ben Campbell's still got it after all these years, gleefully hamming it up during the Villain Song and speaking quite calmly towards the end.
• Expy: Klampon seems to be a substitute for the cartoon's main Klap Trap, being a small, plucky blue Kremling that couldn't care less about his leadership as long as he can indulge his habits.
• Foe Romance Subtext: K. Rool hates DK for always thwarting his plans, but seems to hate him even more after losing his spot as the DK series' Big Bad and being forgotten. His lines during the part of his song where he meets DK again almost come off as coming from a jilted lover.
  K. Rool: I knew you'd be back! Fate entangled, destined forever, Yin and Yang! I did this all for you. Wanna know the funny part? I don't even like bananas! (blows up the Banana Horde with TNT) Am I enough for you now? AM I!?!
• Foreshadowing:
  • At one point in the song, K. Rool starts tossing daggers around and one of them hits a Kremling dummy out of a whole set that should have no reason to be in the tavern, setting up how the whole scene is the villain's delusion.
  • The period of time K. Rool was AWOL is established to be ten years, setting up the ending where he finds out he's been invited to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where he officially reappeared after a ten year absence.
• Forgotten Birthday: A bunch of Kremlings gather at Klump's memorial for K. Rool. Kaboom is seemingly the only one who remembers that it's also Klampon's birthday, much to Klampon's disappointment.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Screenshots from the various boss fights of the games are shown when K. Rool is sitting in his throne while his minions theorize what happened.
  • All of K. Rool's prior plans from the games are shown, crossed out, in a sequence detailing his plan to burn Kong Island to the ground. The page said plans are written on contains the trophy text for various Donkey Kong characters in Super Smash Bros For Wii U.
  • The interview with Donkey Kong in the end credits has a text crawl going across the screen, which reveals that Bluster Kong has apparently gone missing. In their previous DKC fan animation, Skurvy had him walk the plank.
• Funny Background Event:
  • When King K. Rool slides onto the bar, Klubba quickly grabs a bottle and mug to keep them from getting knocked over.
  • As the Kremlings are rowing to Donkey Kong Island, Krusha is holding his oar upside-down.
  • In the mid-credits scene, there are boxes in the background containing stuff salvaged from the fire K. Rool set in the basement.
• Genius Ditz: Krusha's got a surprising vocabulary for a rampaging idiot, and he even nails on the head why the Kremlings had been Demoted to Extra in the Donkey Kong franchise in his theory about what happened to K. Rool, in that he is aware that a higher power (i.e., Nintendo) decided that the Kremlings were no longer desired in the Donkey Kong setting.
  "Uh, I heard that a higher power determined that he, and by proxy us, were unfit to continue coexisting with our Kong rivals, forcibly removing all contact with them and thus leading to a life of hiding."
• Given Name Reveal: Turns out K. Rool's full name is Keith "Krudd" Rool. The fact that he never told any of his Krew being the reason he's missed out on multiple Smash Bros. invitations.
• Hidden Depths: Klubba's criticisms in the song suggests that King K. Rool is aware of his failings as a leader, as he could just as easily have Klubba be as sycophantic as everyone else in his Imagine Spot.
• Imagine Spot: The entire song from K. Rool's introduction to him undergoing his plan to set Donkey Kong Island on fire, steal and destroy the banana horde and face off against DK in one final duel was just K. Rool imagining it in his isolation-induced madness before he breaks down into a fit of maddened and sorrowful laughter. Midway through the song, dummies of the crew appear in the tavern for no reason and at the end it's implied that K. Rool was only found after he set the basement on fire.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Krusha's speculation of where King K. Rool went is that a "higher power" forced the Kremlings into hiding because they were "unfit to continue coexisting" with the Kongs.
• Loose Canon: With the previous animated short, DKC: Curse of the Crystal Coconut - Animated Short as Skurvy has the Crystal Coconut (or perhaps a replica) and a news ticker in The Stinger mentions Bluster Kong's gone missing as the short had him being made to Walk the Plank but King K. Rool appeared in that short while in this one, he's been missing for a decade and the Kremlings think he's dead.
• Loving a Shadow: Inverted; K. Rool's image of Donkey Kong is a stoic, almost Batman-esque superhero who understands and reciprocates the personal hatred they hold with each other. In reality, DK is the same absent-minded goof from the TV show and completely forgot K. Rool existed until he was back in front of him in Ultimate.
• Mood Whiplash: After the fairly dramatic song and animation, The Stinger is pure comedy.
• Motor Mouth: K. Rool is in fine form, with the second portion of his song being two rapid-fire verses.
• Mythology Gag:
  • King K. Rool enunciates "cruelty" as "cuh-ruelty", in a manner similar to how his show counterpart's name was pronounced "Kuh-rool".
  • During the song's beginning, King K. Rool mentions says that insanity is "Rare", a reference to the company of the same name that made the Donkey Kong Country games that created Rool and the Kremlings, and the subtitles for the video noticeably capitalize the word.
  • King K. Rool's full legal name is a combination of these, with "Keith" being a joking suggestion from his character designer as to what the K stood for, and "Krudd" being a working name during his early design phase.
• Named by the Adaptation: King K. Rool's name is established to be Keith "Krudd" Rool.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: Just as in the games and cartoon, the Kremlings are evil crocodiles. K. Rool even references the trope namer in the first verse of his song:
  K. Rool: Lest you fancy your death by my jaws or my breath, don't smile at this crocodile!
• Not Quite Dead: Despite what his Krew thinks, K. Rool is in fact, alive.
• Oh, Crap!: Klump and Krusha bail from the couch of the Krew's lair when they realize they've been tossing out letters addressed to K. Rool for years, keeping him from joining Smash Bros.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: During the introduction and The Stinger, the video distorts around K. Rool as he slowly becomes enraged, often accompanying his Twitchy Eye.
• Only Sane Man: Klubba interjects that the reason the Kremlings have ultimately been forced into exile is because of K. Rool's attempts to take over Kong Island and subsequent revenge attempts have led them to ruin.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: Klampon is characterized this way, messing around with a smartphone while trading snark with the other Kremlings and speaking #slowcooked out aloud when theorizing about what happened to K. Rool. He does however, put it away when K. Rool re-appears.
• Religious Bruiser:
  • Implied with Klubba, who seems as tough as his game counterpart and whose theory as to where K. Rool went references the Egyptian crocodile god Sobek.
    Klubba: (derisive grunt) Roaches... they be hard to kill. He probably tucked his feelers under whatever rock was big enough to seclude Sobek.
  • The burly Krusha invokes the idea that a "higher power" deemed them unworthy of being the Kongs' rivals.
• Sanity Slippage: A decade of isolation in his Krew's basement has left K. Rool not entirely there, with his game signature Mad Eye and occasional static representing his newfound explosive temper boiling to the surface.
• Servile Snarker: Klubba is reimagined this way as the Krew's bartender and the closest thing to a quartermaster they have. He's also the only member of the Krew who realizes that their current sorry state is because of K. Rool's leadership, not his absence, fitting in with his original characterization as a disgruntled hired goon.
• Shout-Out:
  • The player piano K. Rool starts the song on has sheet music for "Pirate's Scorn", "Bluster the Benevolent", "Our Love is Stronger Than a Golden Banana", "Peaches", and "Take On Me". While the last one may seem like a random choice, it still relates to Donkey Kong by being the song that plays as Mario and company are driven through the Jungle Kingdom in the The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
  • The climax of the Villain Song calls back to classic Disney Villain songs - the hellish, volcanic setting of "Be Prepared" as K. Rool rallies his minions; and the burning, seething hatred as well as insanity of "Hellfire".
  • Bowser and Kraid are name-dropped during The Stinger, which also sets up K. Rool's return in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• "Shut Up!" Gunshot: K. Rool delivers this twice when addressing Klump. One is directed into the ceiling to grab his attention and tell him he's screwed up yet again. The second is a grazing shot with the clear message of "Get out now."
• The Stinger: As shown during a mid-credits sequence, it turns out the Krew didn't find K. Rool until after he set the basement on fire. In addition, Donkey Kong can't even remember who K. Rool is after ten years and General Klump and Krusha have been throwing away invitations to Super Smash Bros. because they were addressed to Keith "Krudd" Rool and he never told Klump and Krusha his full name. King K. Rool then scares the duo off and, upon reading the invitation, plots his showdown against Donkey Kong once again.
• Stripped to the Bone: When the Kremling Krew begin to speculate about what happened to K. Rool, Kaboom says he heard that K. Rool was "Picked to the bone by a bunch of bloody sharks." This doubles as a Mythology Gag, because the standard ending for Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest has K. Rool being attacked by sharks as he flails in the ocean after Donkey Kong punches him out of his Cool Airship.
• Those Two Guys: In addition to the original duo of Klump and Krusha, the short pairs up its new Krew members Klampon and Klubba as a comedic duo, with Klampon's snark mixing with Klubba's tough stoicism.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: The last scene before the credits reveals that the climactic attack on DK Isle was all just an Imagine Spot... but given K. Rool's insanity, it then calls into question how much (if any) of his musical number really happened. In particular, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of Kremling dummies in the tavern, which otherwise only appear in K. Rool's lair, is often seen as evidence that his grand reveal to his Krew was also just in his head.
• Tom the Dark Lord: K. Rool's given name is revealed to be Keith, an unexpectedly ordinary name for a tyrannical crocodile king.
• Tranquil Fury: K. Rool starts getting his rage induced mental distortion before calmly and affably threatening Klump after he realizes that Klump not knowing his full name has led to him missing out on years of mail.
  K. Rool: (gently) Klump, my dearly, dauntless Klump. Remind me if I ever were to kill myself, I could scale to the heights of your blind devotion... AND LEAP DOWN TOWARDS YOUR IQ!
  Klump: (realizing who the letters are for) You know, it's a very handsome name. (rolls back to dodge as K. Rool shoots at him) Well, I'll just be, I'll be... Welcome home, sir!
• Truer to the Text: While largely meant to be the animated series' take on the character, K. Rool takes more cues from his mainline game inspiration than before. He's mentally unhinged, his imaginary attack on Donkey Kong consists of stealing his banana hoard while freely admitting he doesn't even like them, arms himself with his blunderbuss, shows a willingness to fight, and makes it clear he wants to outright kill Donkey Kong, with no mention of a Crystal Coconut.
• Twitchy Eye: K. Rool's Mad Eye is prone to twitching (often accompanied by an Ominous Visual Glitch) when he gets angry. Examples include when he overhears the Krew speculating on his fate during the opening; when he blows up Donkey Kong's banana horde and demands to know if he is "enough for you now"; and during The Stinger when he listens to Klump's idiocy.
• Unknown Rival: As the credits scene shows, ten years without seeing each other means that while a seething hatred of DK has been eating K. Rool alive, DK can't even remember him when asked to shout out a "big scaly villain", instead namedropping Bowser and Kraid.
• Villain Song: The entire short mostly consists of K. Rool singing about his comeback and intention to restart the war with DK. It also shows K. Rool's degraded mentality and desires for glory again.
• Wham Shot: At the end of the song, the climatic showdown between K. Rool and Donkey Kong in a volcano cuts away to K. Rool having set fire to his cellar, laughing maniacally among his burning dummies of DK and the Kremling Krew. This shot completely recontextualizes everything that came before it as merely an Imagine Spot.
  • In The Stinger, The letter addressed to K.Rool is revealed to have a certain seal on it, and what's inside seems to put a smile on his face…
• A Wild Rapper Appears!: K. Rool's musical number goes through a number of genres, but overall can best be described as symphonic rock. However, one verse midway through the song consists of K. Rool rapping, and it's the only time he does so.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Klampon is absolutely flabbergasted when he learns that K. Rool's been living in the tavern's basement the past ten years.
  Klampon: 10 years... That cellar-dweller was in the basement for 10 years?
  Klubba: Well, that does explain all the missing food.

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