Many people have been noticing examples of retconned lore and revisionist history within the screenplay of the Mario movie (2023.) The leaf powerup granting Mario the full tanooki suit instead of just the racoon tail and ears comes from the Super Mario 3D Land/World line of Mario games. That one I can forgive however, because it doesn’t undo the very heritage of some of its more important characters.
Cranky Kong is *not* Donkey Kong’s father. He is, in fact, his grandfather. [Donkey Kong Jr. is modern Donkey Kong’s father.](https://www.mariowiki.com/Donkey_Kong_Jr) It is certainly confusing because Donkey Kong Jr. gets zero screen time in the movie and stopped appearing in mainline nintendo games post 2000. He had his own arcade game where he tries to rescue his father, known at the time as Donkey Kong but now understood to be a younger version of Cranky Kong, from Mario who is holding him captive. He then forgives Mario for kidnapping his dad and joins in on some Go-kart fun in Super Mario Kart for the SNES. DK Jr was last seen in Mario Tennis for N64, somehow partnering alongside his son who appears to be fully grown and older than him.
Many people will assume DK Jr to be Diddy, or somehow modern DK’s son (hence the “Jr.” title.) This is a serious piece of misinformation that needs to be addressed immediately. Don’t be surprised if this post gets removed simply for attempting to release this information to the public.
by mas_one
14 Comments
“damaging” sweet lord this sub needs to get a grip.
I do so love it when adults anally obsess over details of a kids movie. Your average 8 year old doesn’t care about Donkey Kong family tree.
Good grief. Not everything needs to have lore picked at.
Maybe Cranky, Junior, etc. aren’t so much their names as titles. Maybe when old Cranky died, DK became the new Cranky and Junior became Donkey Kong and so on.
Also, Diddy obviously isn’t DK’s son. They’re not even the same species. DK is a gorilla and Diddy is a “chimpney” (half chimp and half monkey).
Edit: Damn, people are taking this post way too seriously 😂
It’s Mario, not fucking Elden Ring.
I’ve been a Mario fan all of my life. Not a huge gamer anymore but had no idea the tanuki leaf didn’t give Mario the full power, nor do I give a flying fuck.
This was approved by Nintendo. It’s their lore to change. You’re going to have to accept and live with that.
>The leaf powerup granting Mario the full tanooki suit instead of just the racoon tail and ears
Minor nitpick because it’s a localization issue. “Shippo Mario” or “Tail Mario” has a tanuki tail and tanuki ears. They localized it to racoon. But it is i actually a tanuki tail and tanuki ears.Furthermore, that’s the reason why the powerup is a leaf. Because Tanuki’s transform leaves into objects (like how TomNook (pun on tanuki) items in Animal Crossing are leaf icons)
​
>Cranky Kong is not Donkey Kong’s father. He is, in fact, his grandfather. Donkey Kong Jr. is modern Donkey Kong’s father. It is certainly confusing because Donkey Kong Jr. gets zero screen time in the movie and stopped appearing in mainline nintendo games post 2000. He had his own arcade game where he tries to rescue his father, known at the time as Donkey Kong but now understood to be a younger version of Cranky Kong, from Mario who is holding him captive. He then forgives Mario for kidnapping his dad and joins in on some Go-kart fun in Super Mario Kart for the SNES. DK Jr was last seen in Mario Tennis for N64, somehow partnering alongside his son who appears to be fully grown and older than him.Many people will assume DK Jr to be Diddy, or somehow modern DK’s son (hence the “Jr.” title.) This is a serious piece of misinformation that needs to be addressed immediately. Don’t be surprised if this post gets removed simply for attempting to release this information to the public.
These are seriously just issues with retcon. Donkey Kong Jr. was originally supposed to be DK’s son, hence the Jr. says:
>, “Poor Donkey Kong™ has been captured by Mario™ and now finds himself locked up in a cage! It’s up to Donkey Kong’s son, Junior, to rescue him by snatching the keys to the cage away from Mario. Unfortunately for Junior, Mario won’t give up those keys easily, and dangerous snapjaws, nitpickers, and sparks will attack him along the way. Will Junior be able to help his father…? That all depends on you!”
Super Mario Kart (1992) features Donkey Kong Jr.
As for why DK Jr. was written out of history, it was because rare wanted to redesign Donkey Kong Jr. for Donkey Kong Country (1994), instead they made Diddy Kong Jr a completely different character (sidekick and not son). DKC is a reboot.
>The design for the character was originally intended to be a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr., but Nintendo felt that their design was too different, and insisted that Rare either make the design for Junior be his original appearance or make the new design an entirely different character. Rare, feeling that the design fit the “updated” Donkey Kong universe that they were aiming to create, had decided to keep their design
So in Donkey Kong Country Instruction Booklet 1994
>“In his heyday, Cranky was the original Donkey Kong who battled Mario in several of his own fames.”
so the meta explanation in 1994 that retcon’s everything,Cranky Kong (Donkey Kong Sr.) —> Donkey Kong Jr. —> Donkey Kong™ (Donkey Kong the Third)
So now it’s retconned again in 2023, which honestly makes it better.
because if Mario battled Cranky and now Cranky’s an old man, what does that mean?That the Kong’s age super fast compared to Human Mario (and Pauline)?
And this non sense of Donkey Kong actually being (Donkey Kong the 3). I think the movie respects the origins of Donkey Kong and Mario’s first appearance in 1981 together, by acknowledging they are one of the same.
As for DK Jr, or Junior, Nintendo has o decide what they want to do, but it’s like other properties that don’t know what to do with certain characters.
Tl;dr Retcon is good. Mario shouldn’t have been able to fight a “young Cranky” before DK was even born and then be the same age when meeting up with DK. Deciding to make Donkey Kong (1981) the same as Donkey Kong (2023) is a good decision. None of this Cranky = Donkey Kong that fought Mario nonsense.
I would think this means Donkey Kong Jr is modern tie wearing DK, but it’s irrelevant to the movie because clearly the Donkey Kong arcade games are only Jump Man arcade games in universe and not the way Mario met any Kong.
“damaging” “revisionist history” “misinformation”
…please go touch some grass.
>This is a serious piece of misinformation that needs to be addressed immediately. Don’t be surprised if this post gets removed simply for attempting to release this information to the public.
JFC why are you talking as if this is some sort of conspiracy? It’s just Mario, it’s not that deep.
Thanks bro, very cool
Why are people taking this post seriously when you’re saying shit like
>Don’t be surprised if this post gets removed simply for attempting to release this information to the public.
I feel like a crazy person for being the only one here who isnt a dumbass
Hoo boy here comes the nitpicking 😬