Incredible video game soundtrack composer and the voice actor for Donkey Kong in the games, Grant Kirkhope, has said in a recent interview that he still hasn’t watched the Super Mario Bros. Movie. He says that the reason for that is that Nintendo famously decided not to credit him for the DK Rap which features in the movie. He found out from a representative that Nintendo would not be adding him in the credits despite the DK Rap being written and composed and performed by Mr. Kirkhope.
PUSH TO TALK: I remember seeing your reaction to the DK rap in The Super Mario Bros. Movie and the fact they didn’t credit you on it. Did that ever come to a happier conclusion?
GRANT KIRKHOPE: So I did contact them about it. When I did the Super Smash Bros. thing, I dealt with them directly. So I had this guy who was my main contact. So I said to him, could you do a bit of digging just under the radar to find out why didn’t they credit me?” And he says, ‘oh yeah, I think you’re going to get an official response.’
So I got a response back from, I guess, one of the legal people. And it said, basically, they came up with this three rule criteria, which was they decided that for any music owned by Nintendo that appeared in the movie, they wouldn’t credit the composer apart from Koji Kondo. Then they decided that anything with a vocal, they would credit the composer. So the Donkey Kong rap score’s there. But then they also decided if Nintendo also owned that, they wouldn’t credit the composer.
So it was sort of this arbitrary thing. And I said, you know… by the time the song credits roll in the movie, it’s right at the very end of the credits, and the theater’s entirely empty. There’s only me and my wife and my kids sat there going, look what I did. You know, for a second, a bit of text, what’s it matter?
It makes sense, though it must still feel weird for you. At the same time, that scene in the movie when the DK Rap plays is a big celebratory, joyful kind of moment, right?
I tell you what, I still haven’t watched the movie yet. I’ve seen that bit with the rap. But I was so pissed I haven’t watched it.
