Mighty Joe Young 1998

This remake of Mighty Joe Young is fairly good and there are some interesting similarities to the original if you look for them!  But first, who do we have?  Charlize Theron as Jill Young who is actually from Africa.  Bill Paxton plays her love interest and is a combined character from the original MJY and King Kong–Gregg O’Hara.

I like that this version shows Jill’s mother, a primatologist who works as Dian Fossey did, protecting the gorillas in Africa.  One night poachers come and end up killing Jill’s mom but Joe, as a baby gorilla, is saved and cared for by Jill.

As in the original (which I will refer to as “O” from now on), the movie switches to 12 years later where Jill is playing Hide and Seek with giant Joe (yes, you heard me).  Gregg comes on the scene “looking for a legend” he has heard about and he finds him.  Instead of chasing Joe on horses as in the O, Gregg chases in jeeps.

  At one point Joe picks up Gregg and luckily Jill shows up and says, “Joe, drop him”.

He talks her into taking Joe to Cali (instead of N. Y.) and they arrive at the Animal Conservatory.

Instead of Joe performing on stage, he is used for a special gala fundraiser and they decide to pay the “gorilla girl” to take care of Joe.  On the night of the gala the poachers have arrived and decide, “We’ll sell him piece by piece.”  This scene is like the nightclub scene in the O but not half as exciting.  The director proudly says, “We are happy to introduce to you, Mighty Joe Young….” and Joe bursts in a tad upset for he has seen and recognizes the poachers unbeknownst to everyone else.  He goes a bit wild but he is shot with a sedation arrow and placed in a concrete cage.  Time to escape!  He’s put in a semi truck with Jill and she soon discovers the drivers are the poachers who killed her mother.  She jumps out and Joe tips the truck.  He creates chaos on Hollywood Blvd.

One man screams like a little girl and Joe shakes his head (here’s where they try interjecting some silly humor in this movie).  A car’s alarm is going off and Joe sits on it and punches it to get it to stop.  When he does, he nods his head like,
“So there!”

He then climbs up Grauman’s Chinese Theater, hikes a while and ends up jumping off the famous Hollywood Sign.

Joe ends up at POP (an ocean/boardwalk/carnival type/park). Joe sees the poacher and throws him into wires.  He is electrified and in modern day fashion, a wire is shown with sneakers hanging from it–a symbol of gang territory these days.  Apparently the movie is stating that this is MJY’s territory and not his.  A fire breaks out (in the O the fire is at an orphanage where he saves kids that are trapped).  Here he saves a boy on the ferris wheel but Joe falls.  We think he’s dead and there is a sad scene as Jill lays curled up next to him but no!  He’s ok!

As in the O they move back to Africa and open up MJY’s Wildlife Park because Joe is a hero!  Jill, “I kept my promise to my mom!” which was to watch after Joe.                                                        The End

TRIVIA TIME:

• It was filmed in the San Fernando Valley where 2 men were seriously injured while working a crane for the movie.
• The background music on the boardwalk was Beautiful Dreamer, honoring the O.
• Joe was a creature suit performer filmed on miniature sets and a computerized digital gorilla.
• At the gala, the original Jill, Terry Moore, is in a quick scene as an elderly woman, “She (Jill) reminds me of somebody, but I can’t think who”.  Clever!

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A children’s book based on this movie version:

Take a peek of Joe in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMFZmOerdIg

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And Beautiful Dreamer, dedicated to my dad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38SqiwPxo2U

 

 

Mighty Joe Young 1949

      

Mighty Joe Young 1949

So in continuing on with the gorilla theme, we come to my favorite!  The thing that started my gorilla love when I was very young.  It’s another take on King Kong that won an Oscar for Special Effects.  It took 14 months to create this stop motion picture.  Joe was a 15 foot high puppet (smaller that King Kong).

 Ruth Rose wrote the screenplay based on the story by John Ford and Merian Cooper. It was filmed on a back lot in Culver City, California.  The same place where Gone with the Wind and King Kong were filmed.

This one starts in Africa with these characters:  Jill Young, Max the producer, and Gregg as Jill’s love interest, well, besides Mr. Joseph Young that is.

It begins with Jill as a young girl at her farm in Africa as 2 natives pass by with a basket.  When Jill sees what’s inside, she decides she must have it and she gets some items to make a trade.  They weren’t interested until she whipped out her dad’s flashlight.  After they left, she opened up the basket and said, “Oh, isn’t he sweet?”

     This was a real baby gorilla and I fell in love at that moment, for real.  I remember watching this movie on my living room floor with my dad.  From that moment on I wanted one myself.  One time we went to the Burbank Animal Shelter and they had a chimpanzee.  It wasn’t the same as a gorilla but it was close.  I begged for that animal but of course, the answer was no.  Instead I got a stuffed chimp and I named him Bosco.  More about my deep fascination later…

Max the producer and Gregg come across Joe and they are scared to death as they try to “rope a gorilla.”  Jill hears the commotion and she has to calm him down, “Joe, mind me this minute!”  She whistles HIS song, Beautiful Dreamer and throws him a banana.  Then he just picks her up.

Max convinces her to go to New York to open up a show and promises her music, glamour and bright lights.  The movie picks up 12 years later and the show they put on:

• Joe with a little hat like a monkey (very sad)~

• Joe with the strongest men in the world~

                

• And the best part–Joe holding Jill on a round platform while she plays Beautiful Dreamer~

This part stuck with me all my life.  This song was special to me and my dad.  I learned to play it on the piano.  Years later my dad gave me a little piano music box with that song.  My dad is no longer with us but it’s a very special memory to me.  My love of gorillas was cemented ❤

 So back to the club.  It’s in a really cool safari themed night club with real lions behind glass behind the bar but they wouldn’t be there for long….

10 weeks later Joe and Jill are so sad.  This is not the life for them.  Jill tells Max she’s quitting but she stays for 17 weeks for Max’s sake.  On the night of their last show, the audience was to throw money at Joe, then people started throwing food. After the show, some really drunk guys brought some beer down for Joe.  “Let’s buy the monkey a drink!  It’ll put hair on your chest!”  lol  Joe became enraged and tore up the club!  Gorilla on the loose!  He slugged a lion and tossed it aside.  (This troubled me.  I looked it up and they used real and animated lions).

Joe is caught and put in a steel cage.  They are going to shoot him.  Court ordered, so they come up with an escape plan.  HOW the heck do you sneak a gorilla out??  They put him in the back of a big truck and the chase was on!  At one point, Joe was hanging out the back of the truck and twiddled his fingers.  (Someone thought this would be funny).  They passed a children’s home that was on fire and they stopped to help.  At this point the black and white movie switched to red only for this segment.  Joe rescues a child and falls.

We come to the end of the movie and find Jill, Gregg, and Joe back in Africa in a home movie.  Joe has learned to “peel” a banana before eating it and they all wave goodbye and live happily ever after.

Terry Moore played Jill and she never saw Joe while filming. She finally saw him when the movie came out.  Many stuntmen were injured on this movie and she said her make up man was drunk during the whole movie. But my favorite thing about Terry is that this movie did the same  thing to her as it did for me.  She also developed a love for gorillas and was a big fan of Dian Fossey like I am.  She’ll come up later during this gorilla theme.

Take a peek at the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfgafkaDo14

King Kong Retold for Kids by Anthony Browne-Amazing!

King Kong 1994 Children’s Book

Retold by Anthony Browne

This book is absolutely fantastic!  Anthony Browne rewrote and illustrated this story and took it directly from the original King Kong.  His illustrations are excellent and children really enjoy this book.  I know because when I was teaching 2nd grade the students watched the original movie and then we read this book and compared he two.  The kids loved it!

Even the title page is wonderful.  Browne takes the apple that Ann is starving to eat to begin the tale.

Above we see the famous log scene!  Watch out men! You’re going down!

The above photo demonstrates how Browne put “gorilla clues” within the illustrations.  This page is showing the map the men on the ship are using in order to find Skull Island.  Notice that although it is a man pointing on the map, Browne draws a gorilla hand.  One of the treasures of this book involves looking for clues in all of the illustrations.

Above we see them approaching Skull Island and we can see King Kong’s face blended into the picture!  They have no idea what they’re going to find.

Above we have a super sized close up of his face!  He’s KONG!  Don’t mess with him!

Here he is on top of the Empire State Building fighting off the planes!

Sadly at the end, Kong has fallen to the ground and is dead as people crowd around, just as in the movie.

And here we have Antony Browne himself. He believes that King Kong was the greatest of all gorilla stories and the most potent influence on all of his work.  This book “…above all, he was destined to do.” He spent 2 years working on this project and I say, it was well worth it 🙂

I highly recommend this book to King Kong lovers of all ages and definitely for King Kong Kids!

King Kong 2005: Um……

King Kong 2005 starts out with a v e r y   s l o w beginning! It takes 71 minutes before KK even comes on!!  Come on!!! But there is something about this version that I did like.  More on that later…

So backstory info which always intrigues me.  It took 18 months to build the Empire State Building.  The roar of Kong is a lion played backwards and at 1/2 speed.  Also added in are horses, cats, pigs and elephants.  100 people worked in the costume department and several pieces of dialogue are taken directly from the 1933 version.  Natalie Portman tested for the lead role but she was too young, Kate Winslet was their first choice, Fay Wray was in negotiations to appear in the film (the original Ann Darrow) but she passed away, and in the end Naomi Watts got the part.  During the witch doctor scene in Africa at the sacrifice, if you look closely at her right hand, the witch is giving Ann the finger!  I need to watch again to see!  The natives were old, ugly, dirty, and scary looking compared to the prior two movies.  They really looked gross!  And the final tidbit?  This is the first KK that actually had the physical body of a real silverback gorilla.

So into the movie!  Like I said, s l o w.  But when KK finally grabs Ann and runs off with her, he swings her around wildly.  No love is conveyed at this point of the movie and I didn’t like that.  There were very few dinosaurs in this one.  When KK puts her down, she dances for him, juggles rocks and performs cartwheels for his entertainment I guess??  He knocks her down and he laughs.  It’s odd.  The log scene? Not so great.  The most disgusting animals they come across are wormy like spiders.  I had to fast forward this part.  Incredibly gross!   KK and Ann make it to the cliff scene, KK is all tore up and tired.  But here is where it takes a turn for the better.  He has protected her so many times at this point and as they sit during the sunset, 3 times she says to him, “Beautiful” and she sits in his hand.  Bats and birds appear and KK has to kick it up again.

     

Later when they are in New York he tears up the city looking for Ann.  In one scene he sits on a car and it’s meant to be funny but I thought it was stupid. Once he finds her they find themselves at a natural ice rink/pond.  She walks up to him and touches his face.  They slide and spin around the ice laughing.  The guns catch up with them and it’s time to head to the Empire State Building scene.  It’s just like the sunset cliff scene and she reminds him, “Beautiful”.  But of course the planes come and shoot him down.  Ann is devastated.  And it must end with the famous line, “It was beauty killed the beast”.

     

After watching the 3 versions of this story,  this one was THE slowest but I liked the love Ann showed for him. My favorite is still the original.  Even though it was stop motion, it has the best action of all!

Here’s a peek at the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYaTCPbYGdk

There is another remake in the mix set for 2017, Skull Island–I wonder if it can contain the right action and the right amount of love for Kong.

Next up the children’s book King Kong by Dan Brown.  A wonderful book and fabulous illustrations!

King Kong Remake 1976

The King Kong of 1976 stars Jessica Lange as Dwan (Ann) and Jeff Bridges as Jack; they made a pretty hot couple.

Jessica plays a very sexy playful version compared to Fay Wray’s.  Let’s first take a look at the backstory.

The gigantic hydraulic arm was 6 feet across and weighed 1,650 pounds.  The hands took 4 1/2 months to create.  In the scene where Kong touches and examines Dwan and her clothes fall away, Jessica suffered a pinched nerve in her neck!  No gentle Kong was he!  Who turned down her part?  Bo Derek, and the producer, Dino De Laurentis said Meryl Streep was “too ugly” for the part.  Fay Wray turned down a cameo appearance.

The vocals for King Kong were by Peter Culen who strained his voice so bad, he ended coughing up blood.  Talk about taking your character seriously!  This Kong was 40 feet high and had an aluminum frame of 3.5 tons.  It was covered wit rubber and over 1,000 pounds of horsehair.  It was controlled by 20 operators and cost $1.7 million dollars.  They filmed 12 hours a day for 8 months and there were 5,000 extras for the last scene in New York at the World Trade Center.  Rick Baker was the make up artist and he wore a gorilla suit in many of the scenes.  The working title for a while was The Monkey of ’76.

On to the actual movie!  In this first remake, King Kong doesn’t appear until 50 minutes into the movie 😦  This one is many times different than the original book and movie.  The Denham character is searching for an oil strike that he hopes to find on the island.  Dwan is found floating on a raft in the ocean–unconscious in a black gown but awakens on the ship very sexy, flirty, and playful.  A psychic told her that she was going to cross over water and meet the biggest person in her life 🙂

The movie is peppered with some clever comments:  “Let’s not get eaten alive–bring on the bug spray!”  After KK has taken Dwan and they search for her, they fall into a 6′ 4″ footprint.  When KK is holding Dwan in his hand by the waterfall touching her clothes and then washing her off in the waterfall, KK blows on her to dry her.  She gives some sexual looks and then KK moans.  (Oh please).  At one point Dwan says to him, “Kong, this is never gonna work.  Can’t you see that?”

         

The famous log scene is way better in the original movie.  There are no dinosaurs in this one and way less action.  Disappointing.  KK does bust through the gate where he falls in and is gassed and taken to New York.  Denham starts talking up how wonderful this “beauty and the beast” theme emerges.  Dwan is thrilled that she will become “…a starrrr”.  Denham talks about how Kong could give away the bride if she and Jack were interested in marriage.

One of the things I loved about this version (and there weren’t many) was the love she felt for Kong.  “He was trying to protect me” and Jack said, “We kidnapped their God!  This is a grotesque farse!”  On opening night Jack says to Dwan, “Shut up Dwan.  I love you.  Come with me.”  Nice.  When the paps take too many pictures and come near Dwan, he breaks free of the chains.  KK stomps and smashes Denham into the ground.  He breaks up a train looking for Dwan and when he picks up the wrong girl, he throws her away!  As Dwan and Jack run away, they stop in a bar and KK slips his arm in there, picks her up and carries her off to the WTC.  Once on top the planes shoot at him.  KK puts Dwan down so that she doesn’t get hurt ands she screams, “Don’t put me down.  They’ll kill you!”  She runs to him but he pushes her away, as she screams, “Don’t kill him!”  But they do.  He falls all the way down and his heartbeat is thunderously loud until it slowly stops beating.  The crowd surrounds her and she and Jack begin to run to each other but she is caught up in the fame…. so Jack backs away.

I loved the love between KK and Dwan in this movie but other than that…not so much.

One more remake to view and then on to Planet of the Apes which is a BIG surprise.  Wait and see…..