Donkey Kong

Comparision of the voice over actors who have been the voice of Donkey Kong with sound clips and images.

(Note: You might be wondering "What about how he sounded like in the games and/or Captain N?" Well coming soon BTVA will have an animal version of Voice Compare with Creature voices. But for now this will be when he gets a speaking role.) Whether you know him as Mario's original foe, the star of the Donkey Kong Country series or as a known competitor in crossover games like Super Smash Bros and Mario Party he is Donkey Kong.

Created by Pokejedservo on Fri Aug 14 2009, 17 Comments, Add Comment

Donkey Kong (1983)

Soupy Sales

Donkey Kong Country (1998)

Richard Yearwood

EDITOR'S OPINION

His English speaking debut was in the early 80's Ruby Spears series "Saturday Supercade", in the Donkey Kong segments old Kids show star Soupy Sales. While Donkey Kong didn't say a lot of words other than his own name but has said them before. However in Saturday Supercade Donkey Kong was more of a playful trickster than a dumb angry brute though Soupy did certainly come up with a way to make that work.

In the Donkey Kong Country TV series done by Nelvana he was voiced by Richard Yearwood. Now I know that the DKC series was not exactly a fan favorite (loosely based on the games, had a bunch of musical numbers) but I didn't think it was so bad. And that includes Richard's take on the character as well. Granted I know that some may question the validity in this since Cranky Kong is suppose to be the original Donkey Kong here. (And that supposedly the current DK we are seeing here is DK Jr. all grown up.) But while fortunately Nintendo didn't drop any sense of a backstory that RARE tried to do on the DKC series, this is still pretty much the main image of Donkey Kong that Nintendo is still using to this date.

Overall neither one are bad but I am thinking of going with Soupy a bit more here.

Pokejedservo

Latest Comments

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Toady_12
said at 12:10 PM on Sun Apr 21 2013

1. Takashi Nagasako
2. Grant Kirkhope
3. Charles Martinet
4. Kevin Bayliss
5. Soupy Sales
6. Richard Yearwood

Metabad
said at 2:34 AM on Tue Apr 17 2012

I like Richard Yearwood the most, his voice gives Donkey Kong more personality and I like his more laid back performance which fits him quite well.

Honestly, the only thing I found sort of off about his performance was his singing, not that he was a bad singer, oh no, quite the contrary I think his singing was too good to be coming out of DK, a giant monkey having such a great singing voice seemed really funny and rather unfitting to me. But the guy is a great singer and I hope he continues to sing and act.

As for Soupy Sales, he just portrays him as a dumb brute, to be fair it does fit DK in that cartoon and the original arcade game rather well, but otherwise its pretty generic and I couldn't see this voice fitting him now especially in his more heroic roles.

Richard might not be perfect, but I could see him fitting DK in the games moreso than Soupy.

TheBlackHawk
said at 6:16 PM on Tue Apr 3 2012

(Should have mentioned this in my first post)

Honestly, I can't pick between any of them; they're all so great, including his four video game voice actors: (in debut order)

--1994 Kevin Bayliss: DK Country series, DK: King of Swing
--1996 Isaac Marshall: Nintendo 64 Mario spin-offs, Game Boy Advance Mario spin-offs (2001-2003), Mario Party 1-7, Super Smash Bros. (64 & Melee), Mario vs. Donkey Kong (only the "burp" effect from Smash Bros.)
--1999 Grant Kirkhope: Donkey Kong 64, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Mario vs. Donkey Kong
--2004 Takashi Nagasako: Mario Power Tennis & Donkey Kong Jungle Beat onward

I think they're all great! They all really fit DK in the games they appear in!

TheBlackHawk
said at 3:59 PM on Sun Aug 12 2012

1 Shout Out!

@TheBlackHawk [Correction], Isaac Marshall never voiced Donkey Kong; Charles Martinet voiced DK in such games as MK64, Mario Tennis, Mario Parties 1-7, etc.

SmartyBoyboy
said at 10:49 PM on Sun Feb 19 2012

1 Shout Out!

My votes are:
1. Takashi Nagasako
2. Grant Kirkhope
3. Kevin Bayliss
4. Soupy Sales
5. Richard Yearwood

pokemastanumba1
said at 7:39 PM on Fri Oct 7 2011

Takashi Nagasako FTW. Nobody else can do this.

TheBlackHawk
said at 2:16 PM on Thu May 26 2011

Tie for me. I can't pick between them; they're both hilarious!

Soupy Sales - DONKEEEEEEEY kong. XDD "Row row row the plane, *unintelligible noises*" XD
Richard Yearwood - "Got any banana cream pie?" XDDDDD

OptimusSolo (Admin)
said at 1:02 PM on Tue Nov 30 2010

Saturday Supercade is a cartoon from the early 80s that featured video game properties like Donkey Kong, Q-Bert and the earliest version of Mario.

1wolffan (Guest)
said at 8:01 PM on Mon Nov 29 2010

I like Richard yearwood and what is saturday starcade???

nikki (Guest)
said at 10:03 PM on Sat Nov 27 2010

do diddy kong next

jonhardwick (Guest)
said at 7:43 PM on Sat May 29 2010

richard's donky kong sounds like chris rock.who agree's with me.

dtemplar
said at 2:03 PM on Wed Nov 4 2009

R.I.P. Soupy

SCP21
said at 12:34 PM on Thu Aug 20 2009

1 Shout Out!

I loved the 3D show of this. Would love to find episodes somewheres.

Metabad
said at 12:03 AM on Tue Sep 11 2012

@SCP21 I know its been a few years since you've said this, but you can find some of the episodes on Youtube now, just search for the episode titles on Youtube and you're bound to come across them. I think there's even a channel for them called "DonkeyKongCentral" or something along those lines.

SCP21
said at 10:03 PM on Sun Sep 30 2012

1 Shout Out!

@Metabad Oh awesome, thanks! Loved that show back in the day despite the camp.

jeff (Guest)
said at 4:24 PM on Sat Aug 15 2009

Soupy Sales was more true to the original image to Donkey Kong

john (Guest)
said at 11:13 PM on Fri Aug 14 2009

I had no idea the voice from DKC was African American that's a cool bit of trivia, as for the voices I don't really care for either of them but I guess I like the original a bit better the other one sounds like he's trying to be hip.