Shigeru Miyamoto explains the Donkey Kong redesign

He made it clear that while his role isn't as full-on as it once was, he's still involved with character designs.

Donkey Kong Bananza, Mario Kart World, they all seem to be heralding a new era for Nintendo character designs. Especially Donkey Kong, who's going to be looking a lot more like his design in the Super Mario Bros. Movie going forward.

In an interview with IGN, Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto explained why Donkey Kong has gone through such a big change. "When it comes to character creation and working with characters, I still take an active role in that. And looking back to the first generation Donkey Kong Country, we worked with Rare to create Donkey Kong Country," he said.

"When we were talking about trying to create new versions, evolving Donkey Kong, we created the game called Jungle Beat. We worked together with the team that made 3D Mario. With the technology that was available at the time, we were able to make Donkey Kong more expressive," he continued. "And going back to the design that Rare came up with, we reevaluated; what can we do with the design to make it more expressive? And then when it comes to the movie, we decided to move forward with this new generation Donkey Kong design."

So, it seems plans were in place to redesign Donkey Kong before the movie. Some fans still aren't impressed by the ape's new look, but in time we're sure we'll all grow accustomed to it.