(thanks for keeping it real dragon ball z)
The Monkey King or Sun Wukong of Chinese legend factors into Chinese folklore and Buddhist mythology as well. His is a character of supernatural strength and agility, able to shape shift and change forms not unlike Hanuman. The Monkey King is a trickster and trouble maker, even considered demonic, he threatens the peace of the Jade Emperor and the Heavens, until he is subdued and imprisoned by the Buddha. Eventually he serves a Buddhist monk on his quest to recover texts and is granted Buddhahood, pacifying his monkey mind entirely or one should think.
Here perhaps the idea behind monkey mind, not merely as a restless, talkative, ruminating mind, but as a tricky adversary comes into view, not unlike the Monkey King, power hungry and hellbent on disturbing the peace of heaven through his amazing strength and power, must be imprisoned under a mountain by the Buddha in order to be pacified. If this is a mythological reflection of the individual quest for enlightenment, I suppose the Monkey King serves as the parts of the ego which crave attention and recognition, as a monkey, being regarded as inferior, he does everything in his power to prove that he is "great," but his approach is naughty and "demonic." In spite of this, redemption is possible, in this case through service to the Dharma.
Perhaps Sun Wukong factors prominently in the Buddhist notions of the naughty, restless monkey mind, and the other Daoist perspectives of the monkey, meditative and harmonious with his environment are cast to the wayside in the development of Buddhist mythology, which often seems to see "animalia" as more of an unsavory other, beings cast into an unfortunate birth of ignorance and degrading karmic circumstances.
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