It seems like The Super Mario Bros. Movie forgot to pay homage to one of the key creators of the iconic DK rap: Grant Kirkhope.
For those unaware, Grant Kirkhope is a composer and voice actor, perhaps best known for his work with Rare. While at Rare, Kirkhope worked on the soundtracks for basically all of their iconic series, including Donkey Kong, Banjo-Kazooie, and Perfect Dark. He’s also been the voice of Donkey Kong for almost 15 years.
So yeah, you could say that ol’ Kirky is a bit of an icon. A legend, even. Arguably one of his biggest contributions to video game music history is the DK Rap, which features at the beginning of Donkey Kong 64 and introduces the five playable characters of the game with their own special verse. How else would we have known that Lanky Kong has no style, no grace, and a funny face?
It was revealed the other day that the DK Rap, which was also co-created by George Andreas, would be making an appearance in The Super Mario Bros Movie. This was great news for people like me that believe the DK Rap belongs in a museum of fine art. This was also great news for Grant, who was seemingly excited to see a track that he worked on appear in such a huge movie.
Sadly, it looks like Grant wasn’t credited for his work in the film’s credits. Here we go again.
I was really looking forward to see my name in the credits for the DK Rap, but alas as expected it’s not there …….. fml
— Grant Kirkhope (@grantkirkhope) April 5, 2023
According to developer James Burt a.k.a TechnoKoi, while the full DK Rap wasn’t present in the film, a loop of the “D-K-DONKEY KONG” lone played in a scene. In the credits, the DK Rap is mentioned but is simply credited as ‘from Donkey Kong 64′. It’s bizarre considering a simple Google search could tell you who made it.
Yo @grantkirkhope the wife and I were like awww when we saw the credits for Mario Movie, DK Rap was just credited to “From Donkey Kong 64” sorry dude. We know who the real OG is!
— James Burt (@TechnoKoi) April 5, 2023
Sorry man, yeh really but it was a real quick snippet of the song and onyl the DK Do key Kong part was looped. But still
— James Burt (@TechnoKoi) April 5, 2023
Considering other video game composers were most likely credited for their work, it seems a darn shame to snub the guys that simply wanted to make a silly song about Donkey Kong. While I doubt Illumination will do anything about it, there’s always a chance they could, right? I mean, wasn’t the horrible Cats movie updated after it was released to make the cat people look less putrid?
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