I was drawn to this series why its intriguing concept. While it is a nice idea and has some good points, it overall didn't work for me and I can sort of see why it was short lived. Starting with the redeeming values, the music was rousing, the concept was great, the villain was promising being well voiced for one and showing some hints of menace, I loved the chemistry of the three leads(Lua was my favourite) and the voice acting was on the whole solid. The animation quality was mixed, most of the characters are crisply drawn and Kong is wonderfully animated, but sometimes the colours could have done with a more ethereal quality and the backgrounds could've done with being more fluid. The pace is for my liking rather plodding with the odd bit of excitement and the writing has some wit but marred by some heavy-handed messaging and moments where it gets a little too childish. Most disappointing were the stories, most of the ideas were great, but execution was done in a predictable and unexciting fashion. In conclusion, interesting but unsuccessful. 5/10 Bethany Cox
7 Reviews
A great fantasy show
jacobjohntaylor118 March 2017
This is a great show. The 1933 movie of King Kong is better. Son of Kong is also better. King Kong escapes is also better. The 1976 movie of King Kong is also better. King Kong live is also better. The 2005 movie of King Kong is also better. Kong Skull island is also better. But still this a great show. It has great story lines. It has great acting. It also has great animation. It is very creative. See the movie Kong King of Atlants. That is an animated movie. Done by the same people and it is fellow up to the first 10 episodes of session one. This better then the animated movie The Might Kong. Do not bother which that one is very sappy. And is not done by the same people. This got a 6.1 which a good ratting. But this is such a good show that 6.1 is underrating it. This is a few up to King Kong (1933). See it. I give it 7. It is a great show.
Enjoyed this show while it last!
mosszonedotcom12 January 2002
Kong: The Animated Series was a quality show that most fans of animation would enjoy. It was unfortunately canceled after about 1 year.
Parts of this show were a bit childish, but it had some redeeming qualities. They did a great job animating Kong and the other large beasts. There was also some good interaction between the three main characters.
I'm glad that I was able to record 3 of these episodes before they pulled it off the air.
Parts of this show were a bit childish, but it had some redeeming qualities. They did a great job animating Kong and the other large beasts. There was also some good interaction between the three main characters.
I'm glad that I was able to record 3 of these episodes before they pulled it off the air.
Fit for a kid, not for a king
xamtaro10 April 2017
KONG THE ANIMATED SERIES is what you get when you take an iconic giant movie Monster and turn him into a Saturday morning cartoon to cater to the pokemon generation. Created in 2000 as a competitor to the then successful GODZILLA THE ANIMATED SERIES, KONG purportedly takes place Long after a loose retelling of the original movie. Unlike its reptilian kaiju counterpart which still maintains a plausible continuity within the world of the movie, KONG goes right off the wacky end with kooky technology, ancient artifacts, demons, cloning, and more feeling less like a King Kong show and more like a mash up of DIGIMON and 90s era Saturday morning cartoons.
In this series, King Kong dies but a scientist Dr Lorna Jenkins clones Kong using DNA of King Kong and her grandson Jason. Many years later, Jason gets invited to his grandmother's secret lab on "Kong island" (because "Skull Island" may be too frightening for little kids) along with his Friend Eric Tannenbaum and university professor Ramone De La Porta. Dr Jenkins has apparently been researching magical primal stones and created the cyberlink technology which allows users to merge with creatures turning giving them a power boost and turning them into humanoid giant Mutants. Lo and behold De La Porta turns out to be a bad guy and his cronies steal the primal stones and some cyberlink headsets. This causes some demon to slowly awaken. The race is now on to retrieve the stones from De La Porta before the demon Chrios awakens.
The digimon influence is readily apparent in the character of Kong himself. He is an animal Friend/Guardian who can power up to a stronger form in times of need. He and Jason share a loyal sibling type relationship with a few charming moments. With the , You have a scantily clad shaman girl Lua that serves as romantic foil to the protagonist, the comic relief sidekick Tennenbaum, the mentor type in dr Jenkins, all of these staples of old Saturday morning cartoons. Yes they are just as bland as those old cartoons but special thanks goes to the voice actors who lend much needed energy to otherwise insipid scripts.
Fans of anime would be able to recognise voice acting veterans like Kirby Morrow, Saffron Henderson and many others infusing their characters with distinct personalities while sharing good chemistry with each other. David Kaye and Scott McNeil are the stand out performances here with Kaye portraying De La Porta as a smooth cunning criminal with a fancy foreign accent (which tends to slip now and then between Spanish and French accent) and McNeil doing a range of voices from the comedic Tennenbaum, to one of De La Porta's African henchmen, to Kong himself.
The futuristic tech and unexplained magic, also staples of such cartoons, are effective hand waves for the inconsistent sizes of the giant monsters; one moment Kong can fit in a warehouse and the next he's towering over the same warehouse. Or we could just chalk that up to lousy animation courtesy of the Philippine Animation Studio inc. The studio's claim to fame were the horrible last season of the 90s X-men cartoon and some of the worst animated episodes of Animaniacs. In this series, the animation is serviceable. There are moments of Super smooth movements that stand out among the sometimes choppy and other times overdone character motions. For some reason, characters tend to gesture a lot when they talk in this cartoon and sometimes it turns out corny like something out of a stage play. As mentioned, such gesturing alternates between awkward and excessively expressive. The gaudy neon bright Colours and simplistic art work really do not help matters, which is a real shame especially when it comes to the giant Monster fights.
While the plots for the episodes are varied enough not to fall into a set formula, the overall story does meander a lot often losing track of the core story of retrieving the primal stones to stop the demon from awakening. The scripts are simplistic and borderline juvenile at times, betraying the magnificent performances of the voice cast. It's mediocrity from both a technical and artistic standpoint, along with its cliché ridden premise, only does a disservice to the legacy of King Kong as a timeless character.
In this series, King Kong dies but a scientist Dr Lorna Jenkins clones Kong using DNA of King Kong and her grandson Jason. Many years later, Jason gets invited to his grandmother's secret lab on "Kong island" (because "Skull Island" may be too frightening for little kids) along with his Friend Eric Tannenbaum and university professor Ramone De La Porta. Dr Jenkins has apparently been researching magical primal stones and created the cyberlink technology which allows users to merge with creatures turning giving them a power boost and turning them into humanoid giant Mutants. Lo and behold De La Porta turns out to be a bad guy and his cronies steal the primal stones and some cyberlink headsets. This causes some demon to slowly awaken. The race is now on to retrieve the stones from De La Porta before the demon Chrios awakens.
The digimon influence is readily apparent in the character of Kong himself. He is an animal Friend/Guardian who can power up to a stronger form in times of need. He and Jason share a loyal sibling type relationship with a few charming moments. With the , You have a scantily clad shaman girl Lua that serves as romantic foil to the protagonist, the comic relief sidekick Tennenbaum, the mentor type in dr Jenkins, all of these staples of old Saturday morning cartoons. Yes they are just as bland as those old cartoons but special thanks goes to the voice actors who lend much needed energy to otherwise insipid scripts.
Fans of anime would be able to recognise voice acting veterans like Kirby Morrow, Saffron Henderson and many others infusing their characters with distinct personalities while sharing good chemistry with each other. David Kaye and Scott McNeil are the stand out performances here with Kaye portraying De La Porta as a smooth cunning criminal with a fancy foreign accent (which tends to slip now and then between Spanish and French accent) and McNeil doing a range of voices from the comedic Tennenbaum, to one of De La Porta's African henchmen, to Kong himself.
The futuristic tech and unexplained magic, also staples of such cartoons, are effective hand waves for the inconsistent sizes of the giant monsters; one moment Kong can fit in a warehouse and the next he's towering over the same warehouse. Or we could just chalk that up to lousy animation courtesy of the Philippine Animation Studio inc. The studio's claim to fame were the horrible last season of the 90s X-men cartoon and some of the worst animated episodes of Animaniacs. In this series, the animation is serviceable. There are moments of Super smooth movements that stand out among the sometimes choppy and other times overdone character motions. For some reason, characters tend to gesture a lot when they talk in this cartoon and sometimes it turns out corny like something out of a stage play. As mentioned, such gesturing alternates between awkward and excessively expressive. The gaudy neon bright Colours and simplistic art work really do not help matters, which is a real shame especially when it comes to the giant Monster fights.
While the plots for the episodes are varied enough not to fall into a set formula, the overall story does meander a lot often losing track of the core story of retrieving the primal stones to stop the demon from awakening. The scripts are simplistic and borderline juvenile at times, betraying the magnificent performances of the voice cast. It's mediocrity from both a technical and artistic standpoint, along with its cliché ridden premise, only does a disservice to the legacy of King Kong as a timeless character.
Terribly Scientifically Inaccurate
bradenbk3 December 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I think this show is garbage. For one, it has terrible animation that makes things like Foodfight and Elf Bowling look good (well maybe not that awful) The story is also awful. Who thought that a show about King Kong (or just Kong, who looks retarded by the way.) fighting demons was a good idea? In addition to this....Kong and some random guy named Jason can do a gem fusion.....what? The writing is also terrible, with such fantastic lines as "JURASSIC SHIRASSIC!" and "The Email is now on the internet" (NO DUH SHERLOCK!) The show also at one point claims that Woolly Mammoths came from the Triassic period............"Sigh" The worst thing about this show is that it's trying to rip off from Godzilla: The Animated Series, which is actually horribly underrated in my opinion. On the other hand, this makes Godzilla 1998 (or as it's sometimes known GINO, or Godzilla In Name Only) look amazing by comparison. As a result, i hence christen this show "Harambe The Animated Series" There are two pluses i can say about this series though, one is that, while the lip-syncing may be bad, the voice acting itself isn't terrible, and i really enjoy David Kaye's performance as De La Porta. The other actors are mediocre, but if there's one thing to watch this show for, it's for David Kaye (MEGATRON FROM 1996-2005) The other plus i can think of off the top of my head is the theme song....say what you want about the other things in this crap pile, the theme song is actually pretty catchy and gets you in the mood for some dinosaur fights (even though there isn't a whole lot of those) If you're a hardcore Kong fan, watch it. If not....STAY THE HELL AWAY!
Not worth a 10/10 but masterpiece in the end
aristidisxaralabidis4 November 2021
KONG: THE ANIMATED SERIES belongs to a variety of well written and produced animations. The plot, the music selection, the characters, the villians and the adventures are perfect. I remember watching it as a kid back in the old days and it really took a place in my heart since today.
Even tho its one of a kind its not a 10/10. I finished watching the whole series and even as a teen i can see the "childish" side of it. Despite me wanting not to admit it KONG is an animated series for childern and in soem parts of the show it can be seen.
If we dont consider these parts of the hsow that look "childish" plus the short duration of the last episode its overall a master piece that i would suggest to a viewer watching it.
P. S watch the episodes queue before watchign beacuse its messed up.
Even tho its one of a kind its not a 10/10. I finished watching the whole series and even as a teen i can see the "childish" side of it. Despite me wanting not to admit it KONG is an animated series for childern and in soem parts of the show it can be seen.
If we dont consider these parts of the hsow that look "childish" plus the short duration of the last episode its overall a master piece that i would suggest to a viewer watching it.
P. S watch the episodes queue before watchign beacuse its messed up.
This Is A Great Show
Mr Klass27 October 2001
This is an awesome show show that chronicles the adventures of Kong and three other adventurers trying to restore peace to Kong Island by getting back the primal stones that were stolen from it. I've always liked King Kong so it's really cool to have a tv show about it. It's got good animation, good voices and really cool stories.
See also
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