THE PLOT - Jill Young (Terry Moore) has brought up her pet gorilla since she was a child. Twelve years later, when the gorilla is fully grown, Hollywood promoter Max O'Hara (Robert Armstrong) travels to Tanzania, Africa, and convinces Jill to bring her extraordinarily large gorilla, Joe, back to America. While in Hollywood, Joe is used in a stage production and is exploited to no end. It doesn't take long until Joe is sick of being mistreated and he escapes to run loose in civilization.
REVIEW - This is an instant where I've seen the remake first, then the original. So I'm holding my feelings about this one. For what it is, it's good. I think Cooper and Obrien wanted to make this film for a kind of nostalgia trip.
CHARACTERS - The characters are great. Terry Moore, while not a beauty that tames the beast, is more of a sister to Joe. She's very likable and you can see and feel her confusion when entering America for the first time. That's another thing about Kong films is that they're kind of painting an evil image of America as they only care about greed. But I digress. Robert Armstrong is once again fantastic, playing that lovable Denham like showman, also adding a bit more of a comic relief in him and this time, instead of being a bit of a mad man, becomes a hero in the end. Ben Johnson's character, I'm sorry, but these young male leads in these first movies are so bland and boring to me, so I got nothing to say about them that are interesting.
EFFECTS - This is also the first film to introduce publicly the legendary stop motion animator Ray Harryhausen, who would eventually be the next in line on the stop motion animation throne. His animation on Joe is great for his first feature. It's said that he ate carrots and bananas and act like a real gorilla in order to get the character moving. Now that is what you call dedication.
FINAL VERDICT - Overall, the movie it is a good watch with good VFX and Animation.
REVIEW - This is an instant where I've seen the remake first, then the original. So I'm holding my feelings about this one. For what it is, it's good. I think Cooper and Obrien wanted to make this film for a kind of nostalgia trip.
CHARACTERS - The characters are great. Terry Moore, while not a beauty that tames the beast, is more of a sister to Joe. She's very likable and you can see and feel her confusion when entering America for the first time. That's another thing about Kong films is that they're kind of painting an evil image of America as they only care about greed. But I digress. Robert Armstrong is once again fantastic, playing that lovable Denham like showman, also adding a bit more of a comic relief in him and this time, instead of being a bit of a mad man, becomes a hero in the end. Ben Johnson's character, I'm sorry, but these young male leads in these first movies are so bland and boring to me, so I got nothing to say about them that are interesting.
EFFECTS - This is also the first film to introduce publicly the legendary stop motion animator Ray Harryhausen, who would eventually be the next in line on the stop motion animation throne. His animation on Joe is great for his first feature. It's said that he ate carrots and bananas and act like a real gorilla in order to get the character moving. Now that is what you call dedication.
FINAL VERDICT - Overall, the movie it is a good watch with good VFX and Animation.