The Incredible Shrinking Ape
| Saturday Supercade episode | |
|---|---|
| "The Incredible Shrinking Ape" | |
| |
| Segment | Donkey Kong |
| Season | 1 |
| Episode | 4 |
| Airdate |  October 8, 1983[?] |
| Writer(s) | Mark Jones Rick Merwin Michael Maurer |
| << List of episodes >> | |
"The Incredible Shrinking Ape" is the fourth episode of the first season of Saturday Supercade's Donkey Kong segment. The title is a reference to the film The Incredible Shrinking Man.
Plot synopsis[edit]
Donkey Kong is being pursued by Mario and Pauline on a busy sidewalk, during which he hitches a ride on a passing delivery truck to throw them off his trail. He then ends up at a nearby toy store, where he becomes fascinated by an electric model train on display. Nearby, the toy store owner, Maxwell, is talking with his inventor cohort, Boris, over the latter's newly invented shrink ray intended for use on humans and other animals to turn them into "living dolls." Mario and Pauline soon find Donkey Kong playing with the model train exhibit, and sneak inside the toy store to catch him. Maxwell and Boris then arrive and immediately decide to make Donkey Kong their first "victim," firing the shrink ray on Donkey Kong at the same time Mario catches him with his net. As Mario stares in shock, Donkey Kong ties the two ends of his mustache before taking command of the model train. When Boris believes Mario and Pauline are trying to steal their "ape doll," he decides to fire the shrink ray on them as well while Maxwell grabs the model train. Donkey Kong uses the train's steam whistle to blow smoke into Maxwell's face, then escapes to the bathroom area of a dollhouse on the nearby shelf to fake out Maxwell and catch his finger on the dollhouse window. Maxwell decides to call on the assistance of his guard dog and leaves with Boris, prompting Mario and Pauline to reach Donkey Kong before they do.
Mario decides to give chase via toy fire truck, but this causes Donkey Kong to take off on a model rocket to land on top of a gumball machine. When Mario uses the fire truck's ladder in an attempt to climb up to him, Donkey Kong rapidly spins the machine's crank, causing gumballs to fly out. All of the gumballs sail past Mario, so Donkey Kong instead consumes the last gumball to blow a bubble and fly out of the toy store. Mario and Pauline follow him into a nearby coffee shop, while Maxwell and Boris also follow the scent with their guard dog. Mario and Pauline then spot Donkey Kong drinking out of a nearby cup, to which he opens up a banana and eats his way inside with Mario in hot pursuit. As Pauline gets a bad feeling, Maxwell traps Pauline inside a glass, and he and Boris decide to use her as bait for Mario and Donkey Kong to follow them back to the toy store, planning to capture them when they attempt to rescue her.
Mario and Donkey Kong find Pauline inside a glass mug atop a shelf, but fail to spot Maxwell and Boris, so they decide to come up with a plan to rescue Pauline. Donkey Kong notices a toy biplane on another shelf, and flies it over to Pauline to rescue her. After dropping Pauline next to the shrink ray, Mario and Donkey Kong grab a ball of string from another shelf and unravel it to string up Maxwell and Boris while avoiding the former's attempts to hit them with a flyswatter. Donkey Kong then bails from the biplane, after which it crashes on the floor in front of Pauline, who had brought herself back to normal size. She fires the ray at Mario to turn him back to normal size as well, then fires the shrink ray at Maxwell and Boris just as Maxwell captures Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong then corners the duo with windup toy soldier dolls in his image.
Later, Donkey Kong reveals that he trapped Maxwell and Boris inside jack-in-the-boxes. Pauline rewards him with a banana, but when Mario attempts to recapture him, Donkey Kong evades him and uses the shrink ray to return to his normal size. He then escapes again by "paddling" a toy pickup truck.
Gallery[edit]
Title card
Animation and continuity errors[edit]
- The number of fingers Maxwell and Boris have each hand switches between five and four throughout the episode.
- When Maxwell coughs from the toy train's steam, his pants are colored yellow like his shirt instead of blue. This also occurs when he walks over to the dollhouse.
Trivia[edit]
- One of the toys in the toy store resembles Darth Vader's helmet, while another resembles R2-D2.
