Ape-Nesia

Ape-Nesia is the twenty-third episode of Donkey Kong Country.

Plot Synopsis

One day, Donkey Kong is relaxing while eating bananas in his treehouse when Diddy pops in for a visit and slips on one of the peels. He turns out okay and jokes about bruising his posterior, which DK takes as a hint that he should clean the place up. But then he slips on a banana peel himself and falls into his elevator, causing it to crash down. Diddy jumps down and asks DK if he's okay, but DK replies "Who are you?" At first, Diddy thinks DK is only joking, but he soon realizes that DK really has lost his memory and runs off to find Cranky.

Elsewhere, Candy is impatiently waiting for DK in the jungle. She becomes furious and declares that "the big ape doesn't know it, but he's in big trouble!" She doesn't notice DK wandering around in the background, nor does he overhear her complaining. Meanwhile, Diddy brings Cranky back to the site of the accident, and Cranky says they should form a search party.

On the beach, Kaptain Skurvy's crew is digging for treasure that Skurvy believes they've buried around here, but he's not entirely sure where exactly it is. Green Kroc then asks Skurvy why exactly they bury treasure, prompting Skurvy to have Kutlass quote The Pirate Handbook for the answer. Green Kroc still doesn't see the point, since they're just going to dig the treasure up again. Before Skurvy can say anything more, DK comes up to them, asking if they know who he is. Green Kroc attempts to answer for him, but Skurvy interrupts and declares that DK is in fact his first mate, Donkey Croc. (He then promptly demotes Kutlass to second mate.)

Donkey is a bit confused about this, as he vaguely recalls swinging through trees and still has an appetite for bananas, but Skurvy convinces him (through song) that he's a croc by putting a large frame between them and mimicking Donkey's actions (to give the impression of a mirror). Shortly following, Donkey Croc is given his own pirate hat and eye patch, and eagerly awaits his first task as a member of Skurvy's crew. Skurvy orders him to go steal the Crystal Coconut, but since DC no longer knows where that is, Skurvy has to draw him a map first. DC then sets off in his task, along the way stealing Candy's necklace, Eddie the Yeti's club, and King K. Rool's throne, leaving banana peels in their place.

Diddy and Funky, meanwhile, have been searching for DK by air in Funky's plane. They don't find him, but they catch sight of Skurvy's ship below and head back to Cranky's Cabin to alert him of this news. Just then, Donkey Croc busts in, snatches the Crystal Coconut, and then makes off with Funky's plane. Realizing that Donkey thinks he's a pirate, Cranky researches a cure for his amnesia and finds it in one of his books, but then dashes off before telling it to Diddy and Funky. He meets up with Candy and explains the situtation to her, saying that restoring DK's memory won't be as simple as bonking him on the head.

Back on the ship, Skurvy is congratulating Donkey Croc for his impressive amount of loot, and then tells the crew that they're now going to bury all this treasure (except the Coconut). DC then starts eating a bunch of bananas, so the pirates debate what to do with him. After threatening to demore Kutlass even further, Skurvy orders DC to "go ashore and capture a scurvy sea-dog [who] goes by the name of... Donkey Kong!" DC then heads off while Skurvy and his boys laugh at the fact that "the landlubber's going to hunt heself!" Unbeknownst to them, K. Rool, Klump, and Krusha have been spying on them; upon finding out that DK think he's a pirate, K. Rool decides to try to make it work to his own advantage.

Soon, in the jungle, Donkey Croc loses his way and crosses paths with K. Rool, who acts like he's been looking for him. Through song, K. Rool convinces the ape that he isn't Donkey Croc, but rather a relative of his named Donkey Rool. After the song, the convinced DR tosses away his pirate gear and, after K. Rool asks him if he knows the location of a Crystal Coconut, volunteers to go fetch it for him.

On his way back to Skurvy's ship, DR is stopped by Diddy and Funky (who still think he's Donkey Croc), who try to restore his memory through flashbacks to scenes from "Booty and the Beast" and "Orangutango", respectively. This doesn't work, but DR lets them know that he's working for K. Rool now, the news of which the two find even worse. DR doesn't get much further, though, before he runs into Cranky (whom he addresses as "Old Timer"), who tries to help him by way of a flashback to "The Curse of Kongo Bongo", which doesn't work either.

Cranky then has Candy come in, talking sweetly to DR in an attempt to jog his memory. DR, however, insults her by not recognizing her as "his old sweetie-pie" and hitting on her. Furiously, she knocks him into a nearby tree, causing some coconuts to drop on his head. After shaking his head, he asks "What did you hit me with, Cranky?", and then says to Candy that he couldn't "call [Cranky] something else" in her presence. This sends the message that DK's regained his memory, but Cranky says they have to get the Coconut back.

A few minuters later, DK rushes up to the pirates, pretending to be Donkey Croc again, and tells them that K. Rool is on the loose with a band of killer crocs, and the pirates aren't safe. DK then takes the Coconut and says he'll hide it for them, giving Skurvy a map that he, naturally, is insincted to follow to an X. Then, as Donkey Rool, DK tells K. Rool that he's hidden the Coconut from the pirates, and gives him a map leading him to it.

After returning the Coconut to the Cabin, DK tells Diddy that, after what's happened today, he's put his bananas in a better place. At that moment, K. Rool and Skurvy cross paths while looking for the Coconut, and they insult each other before noticing the barrel they've come for at the end of the mines. They both dash for it, but slip on some laid-out banana peels and fall onto the ground below, taking the barrel with them. When they come to, they have both lost their memories and, thanks to the bananas all around them, now think they are both monkeys.

Trivia

• DK breaks the fourth wall right after Diddy leaves by directly addressing the viewers and saying "I'd say he's the one with the problems."
• The title of this episode is a pun on "Amnesia".
• Right when Skurvy convinces DK that he's a member of his crew, Kutlass and Green Kroc have switched voices (or bodies).
• Krusha has only one line in this episode ("Duh, he could be hypo-tized...").
• This episode is included in the direct-to-video compilation film "Legend of the Crystal Coconut", but is placed before "Booty and the Beast" in the film, which causes a continuity error with the flashback to that episode.