Goin' Bonkers

Goin' Bonkers Kirby flies after Bonkers, who has been transformed into a monster and has abducted Tiff. Details First aired April 26, 2003 November 6, 2004 Episode # 79 Episode # (US) 79 Copy Ability (Abilities) featured Hammer Monster(s) featured Monster Bonkers Character(s) featured Kirby, Tiff, King Dedede, Bonkers

Episode order ← Right Hand Robot Power Ploy →

Goin' Bonkers is the 79th episode of the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! series. In this episode, the large mallet-wielding simian Bonkers comes to Dream Land looking for Kirby, who Bonkers idolizes and hopes will teach him how to be a Star Warrior. Due to a series of misunderstandings, however, Bonkers is antagonized by King Dedede and his lackeys, and then captured and turned into a monster by him. After abducting Tiff and climbing to the top of Castle Dedede, the monster Bonkers loses his hammer to Kirby, who gains the Hammer Copy Ability and uses it to subdue him after the sight of Kirby fighting reminds Bonkers of his former self. Bonkers is then able to return to normal, and leaves Dream Land in peace after getting a picture of him with his idol.

Characters

The following characters appear in this episode:

Cast of "Goin' Bonkers"
Character	Selected quote	Notes
Primary characters
Kirby	"Poyo!"
Tiff	"Kirby's in big trouble if that gorilla can track him down before we do."
King Dedede	"So how much would nine million be if we pay him in bananas?"
Bonkers	"Poyo? Me not know! What is poyo, huh?"
Secondary characters
Bonkers' keeper	"Oh, boy! It's almost time for my favorite show to start!" *chuckles* "Oh, I love this guy! He's so cute!"	Appears only in a flashback. This character is not seen clearly, but appears to be dressed as a clown.
Cappy villagers	*indiscernible*
Captain Waddle Doo	"I heard that if you don't give 'im money or bananas, he gets real mad, and that's when he strikes!"
Chef Kawasaki	"Kirby dropped by the restaurant to say "Hi!" earlier today. I fed 'im some leftovers and then he went away!"
Chief Bookem	"Don't worry! If that guy doesn't stop making trouble, I'll make a monkey out of 'im!"
Doctor Yabui	(no dialogue)
Doron	(no dialogue)	Appears only in the Japanese version.
Escargoon	"He sounds like a bill collector which means he'll come here for the nine million we owe N.M.E.!"
Gangu	"That gorilla's mad at 'im for something!"
Gus	"Kirby must've ticked him off somehow."
Honey	"Train with Kirby?"
Iro	"Train with Kirby?"
Iro's mother	(no dialogue)
Kabu	"Warp Star!"
Mabel	"Want me to tell you Kirby's future?"
Mayor Len Blustergas	"Why yes! That's Ki-" *gets interrupted*
Melman	(no dialogue)
Meta Knight	"He was never really a monster. That fall changed him back to his true self!"
N.M.E. Sales Guy	"That's a ridiculous idea! Who ever heard of making a giant gorilla monster?"
Professor Curio	"What if he's from another planet run by apes?!"
Samo	"Sounds like he came here to attack Kirby!"
Spikehead	"Train with Kirby?"
Spikehead's father	(no dialogue)
Spikehead's mother	(no dialogue)
Tokkori	"Ha ha! I bet ya Kirby went on a banana-eatin' binge and gobbled up all his food supply!"
Tuff	"Yeah! Why would a big gorilla be lookin' for Kirby?"
Tuggle	(no dialogue)
Waddle Dees	(no dialogue)

Locations

• Dream Land
  • Cappy Town
    • Doctor Yabui's clinic
    • Kawasaki's
    • Mabel's fortune parlor
    • Professor Curio's collection
  • Castle Dedede
  • Mayor Len's villa

Plot synopsis

Bonkers asks Chef Kawasaki about Kirby's whereabouts.

The episode begins in the Dream Land countryside on a quiet morning. A large mallet-wielding figure approaches Mayor Len's villa, giving the sheep a fright. Mayor Len opens the door to greet the imposing figure, and is asked if he knows Kirby. Mayor Len tries to affirm this, but he becomes scared of the creature - thinking him to be a monster - and insists he has never seen Kirby. The visitor then thanks Mayor Len in broken dialogue and accidentally hits the Mayor with his hammer before leaving. The ape-man then visits Professor Curio in town and asks about Kirby, and the terrified professor points him toward Kawasaki's, then receives his own whack from the creature's hammer by accident. The creature then visits Chef Kawasaki, then Mabel, giving each the same treatment. Later on, several Cappies visit Doctor Yabui's clinic to get their head lumps from the ape-man's visits patched up as they talk about the situation. They start spitballing wild ideas about why the gorilla is here, and Tokkori later reports to Tiff and Tuff that the ape-man must be trying to seek revenge on Kirby for something. Tiff and Tuff decide they should find Kirby first before he ends up in danger.

King Dedede and Escargoon tell a lie to Bonkers to get him to antagonize Kirby.

Later on, King Dedede receives a report from Captain Waddle Doo about the situation with the gorilla, giving him a false version of the story. Assuming the gorilla to be a debt collector for Night Mare Enterprises, King Dedede orders his soldiers to capture him and toss him in the castle dungeon. As the Waddle Dees head out to find the gorilla, and Tiff, Tuff, and Tokkori search for Kirby, the gorilla finds the pink puffball sleeping while fishing in a creek. After the gorilla wakes Kirby up, he is surrounded by the Waddle Dees as everyone convenes at the location. Sensing danger, the ape-man pulls out his hammer and lets out a war cry which scares everyone, and then knocks the Waddle Dees away. He then strikes the Royal Racecar that Dedede and Escargoon pulled up in, and forces them to retreat along with their soldiers, with the car ending up exploding later due to the hammer blow to its engine. The gorilla then returns his attention to Kirby and prevents him trying to run away, then reveals his intentions by proclaiming his desire to be a Star Warrior like Kirby. The kids approach and try to make sense of the ape-man's requests. They soon learn that the gorilla's name is Bonkers, and that he is serious about learning from Kirby's example.

Soon, the rest of Cappy Town becomes aware of the real situation, as Kirby has difficulty communicating with Bonkers who insists on following him around. Tiff tries to explain to Bonkers that Kirby is not capable of teaching him, but the ape-man insists on following Kirby anyway, explaining that he has no home to return to. Meanwhile, Escargoon and King Dedede spy on Bonkers and realize that he is not what they initially thought him to be, and start to scheme about ways to turn Bonkers against Kirby. They lure Bonkers away using a doughnut attached to a string, and then plant the idea in Bonkers' head that he needs to prove himself by attacking Kirby with his hammer. Seeing this, Tiff and Tuff are fooled into their initial assumption that Bonkers was out for Kirby, and King Dedede goads Bonkers to keep up the chase. Later on, Bonkers finds Kirby sleeping in a rocky crevice and heads toward him, when King Dedede and Escargoon try to drop a boulder on Kirby to crush him. Sensing that his master is in danger, Bonkers rushes in and bats the boulder away with his hammer. Outraged at this, King Dedede grabs Bonkers using the arm on his Royal Racecar and carries him back to the castle.

Hammer Kirby gives monster Bonkers a whack on the head as he begins to return to his normal self.

King Dedede contacts Night Mare Enterprises and requests them to turn Bonkers into a monster, which the N.M.E. Sales Guy initially finds incredulous, but ends up carrying out. Shortly afterward, Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby are ambushed by the monster-ified Bonkers who proceeds to snatch Tiff and carry her away. Tiff cries out for Kirby to inhale Bonkers' hammer, but Kirby is unable to do so. Bonkers then carries Tiff up the castle walls, climbing to the very top. From there Bonkers starts to shout and beat his chest as Tiff remains firmly in his grip. Tiff calls out for the Warp Star while being shook back and forth, which comes to Kirby. After Kirby flies around Bonkers a few times, Tiff cries out to Kirby to get the hammer again, and bites Bonkers' hand so he will drop it, allowing Kirby to inhale it and gain the Hammer Copy Ability. Kirby then proceeds to bat Bonkers in the head several times while flying around him. As Kirby goes in for one more strike, Bonkers sees Kirby in a heroic pose and recalls his past.

Bonkers remembers how he was caught by a circus act and forced to perform there amidst a hail of cracking whips. While sitting in his cage, Bonkers was able to catch glimpses of various episodes of Kirby: Right Back at Ya! while his keeper watched. After becoming enamored with Kirby, Bonkers was able to escape the circus and ventured great distances in order to find his way to Dream Land. Remembering all of this, the monster Bonkers starts to shed tears, and Kirby gives him one more wallop on the head, causing him to fall to the ground, taking King Dedede and Escargoon with him. After everyone recovers, Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby gather to find that Bonkers has returned to his normal self again. Bonkers then thanks Kirby for saving him from being a monster. Later that evening, Kirby and several of his friends gather to see Bonkers off on further journeys. As Bonkers bids them farewell, he nearly hits them with his hammer again, but this time manages to stop himself. The episode ends as Bonkers walks into the sunset while holding a picture of him with Kirby, and Kirby waves while holding an identical picture.

Differences between versions

• In the Japanese version, there is an extra scene where Bonkers visits the Police headquarters and asks Chief Bookem of Kirby's whereabouts before accidentally clobbering him as well.
• In the Japanese version, there is an extra shot of the Cappy kids calling out for Kirby while searching the watermelon patch.
• In the Japanese version, the scene where Bonkers' trainer watches Kirby: Right Back at Ya! is slightly extended, and shows him inserting a DVD of the show in rather than catching it on broadcast.
  • Additionally, the scenes of the show that are shown in the Japanese version are of the original Kirby ★ March opening, rather than the 4Kids opening theme.

Dialogue differences

• In the Japanese version, the gossip about Bonkers being distorted as it travels is much more noticeable. As an example, Chef Kawasaki speculates that Bonkers might be a Terminator, so Tokkori tells Tiff that Bonkers is a "Tammy-nater", and Captain Waddle Doo then tells King Dedede that Bonkers' is a debt collector named "Tammy".
• In the Japanese version, Escargoon tells King Dedede that their debt to Night Mare Enterprises is 990 million deden. In the English version, this number is 9 million dede-dollars, which is roughly equivalent if the currencies are treated like the Yen and U.S. dollar respectively.

Trivia

• In the English version, several characters have lines that reference the movie Planet of the Apes.
• While Bonkers is in his monster form, his actions mimic scenes from the movie King Kong.
• The premise of Bonkers becoming a fan of Kirby after watching his TV show is an example of the fourth wall being broken.
• There is a minor coloring mistake on Doctor Yabui in one of his scenes where his left sleeve is the same color as his skin.

Gallery

• 

  Bonkers asks Mayor Len about Kirby's whereabouts.

• 

  Bonkers bids Mayor Len farewell and accidentally bonks him hard with his hammer.

• 

  Bonkers questions Professor Curio about Kirby's whereabouts.

• 

  Bonkers questions Mabel about Kirby's whereabouts.

• 

  Doctor Yabui patches up the Cappies that Bonkers visited.

• 

  Tokkori tells Tiff and Tuff about the dangerous ape "out for Kirby".

• 

  King Dedede and Escargoon are given an inaccurate story of Bonkers by Captain Waddle Doo.

• 

  Captain Waddle Doo directs his soldiers to find and apprehend Bonkers.

• 

  Bonkers manages to discover Kirby sleeping at a brook.

• 

  Bonkers is set upon by the Waddle Dees and threatened with spears.

• 

  Bonkers attacks the Royal Racecar to drive King Dedede and Escargoon away.

• 

  Bonkers introduces himself to Kirby.

• 

  Tiff and the kids try to get a story from the wandering ape.

• 

  Kirby finds himself incessantly followed by his admirer.

• 

  Bonkers gets lured by a doughnut on a string.

• 

  Bonkers attacks Kirby under a false belief that Kirby is testing him.

• 

  Bonkers rescues Kirby from a boulder that was sent hurtling toward him by King Dedede and Escargoon.

• 

  Bonkers is captured by King Dedede for getting in his way.

• 

  King Dedede demands that N.M.E. transform Bonkers into a monster.

• 

  The monster Bonkers appears in a window outside Tiff's family's room.

• 

  Monster Bonkers abducts Tiff.

• 

  Monster Bonkers poses with Tiff atop the highest spire of Castle Dedede.

• 

  Tiff bites Bonkers' hand to force the ape to drop his hammer.

• 

  Hammer Kirby flies in to deliver one more blow to Bonkers.

• 

  Flashback scene showing Bonkers being captured by a circus act

• 

  Flashback scene showing Bonkers being forced to balance on a ball as part of the act

• 

  Flashback scene showing Bonkers watching Kirby: Right Back at Ya! from his cage and becoming enamored

• 

  Monster Bonkers begins to cry after remembering himself.

• 

  King Dedede and Escargoon walk off after being flattened by Bonkers when he fell.

• 

  Tiff and Bonkers recover from the fall.

• 

  Bonkers manages to stop himself hitting his friends with his hammer by accident.

• 

  Bonkers looks at a picture of him with Kirby as he leaves.

• 

  The final shot of the episode

Japanese-exclusive scenes

• 

  Removed scene where Bonkers visits the Police headquarters

• 

  Removed scene where the Cappy kids are looking for Kirby in a watermelon patch

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ボンカースあらわる! Bonkāsu Arawaru!	Bonkers Arrives!
Brazilian Portuguese	Aprendiz de Guerreiro	Warrior Apprentice