Power Rangers | Gryphon's First Impressions

-SOME SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW!!!-

There's something you need to know before you proceed with this review, my experience with Power Rangers is somewhat limited. As a kid, I remembered the show being on television but I never actually watched it. The only bit of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers I have clear memories of are the moment during the Season 3 opening when the zords come flying toward the screen and the Happy Meal toys they did when the first movie came out. It wasn't until I was a bit older I sat down to try and watch my first season of Power Rangers which happened to be 'Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue'. For what ever reason, I never finished it.
Since then, as the shows went on, I've been very on and off on watching them. the only Power Rangers shows I've watched all the way through are Time Force, Wild Force, Dino Thunder, SPD, Jungle Fury and RPM.

I'm went into this movie with little to no prior knowledge of the original 'Mighty Morphin Power Rangers', as a casual viewer who likes to watch people in brightly colored outfits beat up monsters and then do it a second time in a giant robot.

With all that said and done, is Power Rangers a good movie?
To some hardcore fans, their opinions might vary. Although a certain Kidd I saw the movie with is a big Power Rangers fan and he certainly enjoyed it, and so did I!

The main 5 teenagers are the reason to see this movie. They all portray their characters really well and give appropriate updates to them. They don't make them just vanilla goody-goods, they feel more like real people with real problems.
The one I wanna mention the most is Billy, played by RJ Cyler. He mentions that he is on the spectrum, meaning he is Autistic. Autism is a very complex mental disorder, different symptoms range from person to person and as someone who is on the spectrum himself, I found this portrayal to be done quite well. Billy stutters his words, fixates on things in a very specific way and doesn't always understand things like humor right away. Those are all things that I deal with myself.
It's funny since blue isn't exactly one of my favorite colors, I'd always thought of myself as a Red or Black ranger and now here I am identifying myself as a Blue one!

As far as Zordon and Alpha 5 go, I really liked them a lot and I'm glad they were given more depth and character then they probably were in the show.

Going in, I was not expecting Rita Repulsa to be a complete psychopath in this movie. There were moments where I was legit creeped out by her, but Elizabeth Banks still retains some of Rita's trademark over the top, silly moments.

Power Rangers is a show that is known for it's silly and over the top goofy moments and I'm glad that this movie still has it, although some jokes may not do it for some people. The bull scene, that's all I'm going to say.

Admittedly, the main 5 aren't in the suits or the Zord's for very long. I myself don't feel let down by that, the characters themselves are just as engaging without them. I'm reminded of a quote I heard during the making of the 2008 Iron Man film that went along the lines of "If we didn't make the audience care about Tony Stark, then they wouldn't care about seeing him in the suit." I agree with that, I don't think I'd enjoy the movie that much if I didn't enjoy the characters.
Think of this movie as your average 2-part Power Rangers pilot episode, except stretched to a little over 2 hours. Part 1 is character establishment and build-up and Part 2 deals with escalation of threats and the realization that the team has to work as one and that's when they earn the chance to wear the suits and pilot the Zords.

The one negative point I have with the movie are the choices of music that play. When you watch the Rangers fight Monsters, you usually get some energized rock music to complement the action. I don't get the same level of energy listening to kanye west. I think a certain orchestral rock theme that plays during the credits should have been played during the final battle.
The score itself is quite good and fits the mood of the movie well, I just could've used less pop trash.

 

If ya like Power Rangers, go see this movie. If ya like fun action movies, go see this movie. Even if you're not as big of a fan of the Mighty Morphin' era or are still on the fence about this movie, I still say give it a shot, I did and I would absolutely call it: Morphinominal! 
Now if you'll excuse me, this box of Krispy Kreme's I have isn't gonna finish itself. 

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.
So long...

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Kong: Skull Island | Gryphon's First Impressions

It's been quite a journey since the release of Gareth Edwards' Godzilla reboot in 2014. In addition to making a sequel, Legendary Pictures had another brilliant idea: have Godzilla fight King Kong again. But first, give Kong his own movie in a series of films that has now been dubbed the "MonsterVerse".
Unlike other films series trying to be like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I am all for the MonsterVerse being a thing since giant monsters crossing over after being established in their own films worked back in the 60's. And if anyone can pull it off just as well, I believe Legendary Pictures is capable of it.

I went into Kong: Skull Island expecting a fun adventure movie and an awesome reinvention of Kong. And I got that and more in spades!

I think the human characters are great. To me, the big stand-out actors are Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson and John C. Reilly (who completely steals the show). I also really like Brie Larson and John Goodman in this movie, although Goodman may not be in the movie as much as others would like.
And thanks to a certian line by Samuel L. Jackson, I'm convinced every movie in the MonsterVerse is going to have a reference/homage to Jurassic Park.

I even loved the minor soldier characters. Usually soldier characters in movies like this are just there to be generic army guys, but some of these guys have great personalities and entertaining moments that you'll probably want to see them live through this.
The only characters I had a problem with were the 2 Monarch scientists played by Corey Hawkins and Jing Tian. I'm not saying I hated them, but aside from one moment towards the end, I just really wanted more from them and more about Monarch in general.

Kong: Skull Island is the second film in which Kong is brought to life through Motion Capture CGI. But instead of Andy Serkis, we get Terry Notary. Notary has had plenty of experience as a stunt performer and animal movement coach on several films, including the Planet of the Apes reboot series (alongside Serkis) in which he plays the Chimpanzee named 'Rocket'.
Notary gives Kong an incredibly demanding presence. The moment you first see him, you know he is a GOD. But Kong also has his fair share of character moments so he's not just a mindless monster.

You want another connection to Planet of the Apes? Toby Kebbell, who plays a soldier in the movie also shares the Motion Capture duties with Notary. AND, he played 'Koba' in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

The CGI for Kong and the other inhabitants of Skull Island is once again, top notch. And while this Skull Island may not have Dinosaurs (or rather, used to), it does have it's own unique set of creatures. The Skull Crawlers are wickedly cool and seeing Kong fight these things are the highlights of the film. There's no jaw breaking here or kisses of death like in Godzilla 2014, but there is a finishing move that is just as awesome.

Speaking of which, I know it's inevitable that people are going to compare this movie to Godzilla 2014, and I will admit this movie is a bit more exciting and Kong has more screen time than Godzilla did in his movie. But if you were to compare the past Kong movies to the past Godzilla films, that's kinda been the norm since day one. Most Kong films have always been exciting, adventure films, while Godzilla's (The original and everything pre-1960's and past 1975 at least) are more serious, disaster-drama films with cool monster fights in them.
I'm not gonna sit here and compare the two films anymore than that. 

And with that, I really don't have a lot of complaints about 'Kong: Skull Island'. It is a fantastic Kong movie, a great monster movie and a fun time at the movies overall.
It is definitely an amazing inclusion to Legendary Picture's MonsterVerse. And be sure to stay after the credits for a very special surprise!

And with that, our Journey to Skull Island has come to an end. Thank you for joining me on it and I hope you found it informative and entertaining. Special thanks goes to my friend Rhiannon for once again helping me edit another retrospective. 

Till next time, I've been your host Gryphon
and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my Lair
So Long...

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Journey to Skull Island: A King Kong Retrospective (PART 4)

Part 4: A Fan's Odyssey

KING KONG 

(DECEMBER 14, 2005)

"King Kong is my favorite movie of all time. It has a magic and a mystique to it that I think is unlike any other movie and I guess for that reason, I wanted to remake it."
-Peter Jackson

The journey of the film rights for King Kong was more crazy than a roller coaster. In 1976, the majority of rights were ruled to belong to the estate of it's original creator, the late Merian C. Cooper, which reverted to his son Richard who sold them to Universal Studios.
Nearly 10 years later, New Zealand born filmmaker Peter Jackson was offered the chance to do a remake of the original classic. Jackson, being a big fan of the original was ecstatic to do so. The film was slated for a 1998 release date, however Universal started getting cold feet with the release of 2 other films being released, Roland Emmerich's "Godzilla" and the Disney remake of 'Mighty Joe Young'. Fearing King Kong would be crushed, Universal pulled the plug and the project was put on hold. Peter Jackson went on to a different project, adapting a series of books into films. You may have heard of them. I think they're called 'Lord of the Rings' or something, they were pretty successful films.

Around the time 'The Return of the King' entered Post-Production, Jackson was asked about restarting work on his remake of King Kong, filming began in September of 2004 and what would follow ended being being one of those rare remakes that is just as good if not better than the original.

Unlike the 1976 remake, this version follows the exact same story but puts adds a few differences and changes here and there.
The characters remain largely the same, while some are changed completely.

 

Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), is an out of work Vaudeville actress who becomes the target of Kong's affections. While Naomi does her fair share of screaming at Kong, she also actually tries to fight for life and even stands up to Kong. I really think Naomi did a good job, she gives a performance that even Fay Wray herself would be proud of. In fact, Fay Wray was meant to have a cameo in the movie as an onlooker who delivers the famous line: "It wasn't the airplanes, it was Beauty killed the Beast". Sadly though, she passed away months before filming began.

Carl Denham (Jack Black) is a daring filmmaker who will get his movie, by any means necessary. This portrayal can best be described as taking Carl Denham from the original, mixing him with Orson Welles and having him played by Jack Black. A lot of people seem to be critical of Black's performance, but I rather like it. The original Denham was partially based of Merian C. Cooper and given the kinda stuff he did when making movies I feel Black did a good job, even if he is a little more extreme in getting what he wants.

The biggest character change comes with the character of Jack Driscoll. In the original he was a sailor, in this one he's a playwright who actually works with Denham, hasn't seen a lot of action and ultimately steps up and becomes the hero. He's played by Adrian Brody (-insert nose joke here-) who I gotta say is nowhere near as good or charismatic as Robert Armstrong, granted he wasn't playing that version of Driscoll and Brody did a fair job with the role.

One thing this Kong movie has over the original and the '76 remake is memorable side characters. The crew members other than the Captains were pretty much forgettable, with the possible exception of Charlie the Cook from the original, but for the wrong reasons. Here though, you have a few more characters with distinct personalities and some great character moments such as Hayes (Evan Parke) and Lumpy the Cook (Andy Serkis).

Andy Serkis, the man who also played Gollum in the 'Lord of the Rings' films, lends the talents he brought to that role to bring Kong to life using Motion-Capture CGI. The results are stunningly brilliant, Kong's movements and expressions are all spot on and the CGI looks amazing. As with the original, every time I see Kong I can't help but look at him as a real animal and not an effect. The guys at Weta Digital know their stuff.

Speaking of animals, this movie remembers that Skull Island had freakin' Dinosaurs on it! Ya got Brontosaurs, giant Raptors and this movie's version of a "T-Rex", the Vastatosaurus Rex (or V-Rex). Basically, imagine the Dinosaurs never went extinct and continued to evolve into more ferocious animals. And Kong has to fight not 1, not 2, but 3 V-Rex's at once. Talk about upping the ante.
And if that wasn't enough, there's a scene in this movie that recreates an infamous deleted scene from the original, dubbed "The Spider Pit Scene". The scene was deemed too frightening for the original and the reels for it were reportedly destroyed. For a documentary looking at the making of the original, Peter Jackson and his team actually made a special re-creation of what the original scene might have looked like, I found it to be no where near as scary as some people made it. The scene in the remake on the other hand makes my nerves squirm, especially a scene with these worm-like creatures with teeth. (I still have nightmares.)

Being a massive fan of the original, Peter Jackson sprinkles his remake with a ton of homages to the original, from lines of dialogue, story beats and even sticking props from the original in certain scenes. It's very refreshing that after 2 movies of forgettable music, we can finally have a Kong movie with a great musical score. James Newton Howard's music gives this movie a mysterious and exciting adventurous feel, there's even new versions of Max Stiener's music from the original.
In another special homage to the original, Jackson plays one of the pilots who attacks Kong. And the man who plays his rear gunner? Rick Baker!

For the most part, fans seem to really like this remake of King Kong. The one major complaint seems to be that the film is too long. The film runs at 3 Hours and 8 Minutes, but there's also and extended cut that adds an extra 13 minutes to it. I personally don't mind it. After a few more watches, it goes by pretty quickly.
But regardless of thoughts regarding the movie, I'm sure fans can agree on one thing: The video game based on this movie was FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!

Peter Jackson fulfilled a dream he'd had since he was a kid. At 10 years old, he made his own stop-motion puppet of Kong and a scale model of the top of the Empire State Building, but never got around to filming. Getting to do it back in 2005 must have been an extremely emotionally cathartic moment. He made a movie that not only reintroduced the character to a new generation, but honored the original. And I will highly commend him for that, and say that this is the best remake ever made. I don't think it's better than the original, but it comes REALLY close!

Well, I'm close to ending this journey, but I've got one more stop to go. Next time, I'll be giving my first impressions on "Kong: Skull Island."

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.

So long...

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Journey to Skull Island: A King Kong Retrospective (PART 3)

Part 3: A New Beginning

KING KONG
(December 17, 1976)

Back in America, much time had past and the copyright claim on King Kong had fallen into the public domain, which meant that the floodgates were open for several people to produce a remake. Everyone from Jim Danforth (a protege of Willis O'Brian), Hammer Studios and even B Movie legend, Roger Corman had plans to produce a Kong film.
The job would eventually go to Producer Dino De Laurentiis and Director John Guillermin

This version of 'King Kong' has a similar story structure, but a ton of the details and characters are completely different. Instead of a film crew going to Skull Island to shoot a movie, this has an oil company lead by a greedy business man played by Charles Grodin, who leads an expedition to an uncharted island believed to have a large oil supply. Stowing away on the ship is a paleontologist named Jack, played by Jeff Bridges (looking like he belongs in the band Alabama, from the 1980's), who wants to see the island for himself. Eventually he gets promoted to be the official photographer.

Our leading lady is named Dwan, played by Jessica Lange in her first film role. She becomes part of the voyage when she's found floating in a rubber life raft in the middle of the

ocean after the ship she was on exploded.

Eventually they find the island, which isn't named at all. I just refer to it as "Not Skull Island". And it plays out like you expect. The natives of the island capture Dwan to offer her up to their god, a giant Gorilla named Kong. Kong takes a liking to Dwan and unlike the original in which Ann Darrow spent most of the time screaming at Kong, Dwan actually tries to talk her way out of her situation and try to befriend Kong, even going so far as to ask Kong what his sign is, she guesses Aries, which is technically right.

After shenanigans, Kong is captured by the humans and brought back to New York to be used as a marketing tool, he breaks out and causes havoc. One major difference is that instead of climbing the Empire State Building, the filmmakers decided that Kong should climb the newly completed "tallest building in the world", the World Trade Center.
Eventually though, the Ape must fall as he is shot down by machine gun mounted helicopters rather than biplanes. And in a rather bloody, disturbing way I might add.

Let's talk about Kong himself. Like the Japanese films, Kong is played by a guy in a Gorilla suit. But not just any guy, Special Effects/Make-Up wizard, Rick Baker! The suit is top notch, looks really cool and the face is very expressive. This is one of the best Gorilla costumes used for a movie, the reigning champion to me is still the 1997 version of Mighty Joe Young (which Baker also worked on!).

Aside from Baker, the facial animatronics were controlled by Italian special effects man Carlo Rambaldi. Rambaldi and his team also had a full size robotic Kong built for certain scenes. Unfortunately, the full size robot wouldn't work right and only shows up in a few shots in the movie. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it. Rounding out the men who brought Kong to life, some of the vocals for Kong were done by Peter Cullen, best known as the voice of Optimus Prime.

I remember when I first saw this movie, I was at my grandmother's house and I honestly can't remember much of that experience. The only scene in the film I can recall clearly from first watching it was the scene where Kong is cleaning mud off of Dwan at a waterfall.
Since then, I've watched this movie more and more and I've come to the conclusion that the reason why I don't hold this movie in as much of a high regard as the original is that I don't find it to be that memorable.

The characters, while good in their own right, are nowhere near as charismatic as the original adventurers of Skull Island, except for maybe Dwan. I will admit that I think Jessica Lange does give a good performance for her first movie role. The music lacks energy and mood. Even the island is just a regular island with nothing interesting about it besides Kong. The old Skull Island at least had Dinosaurs, this island has a giant snake...and that's it.

I can recall countless moments and bits of dialogue from the original King Kong, King Kong vs. Godzilla and even the Peter Jackson remake.
But this one? Well, aside from the wonderfully executed character moments with Kong, Jessica Lange, the Waterfall scene and the finale atop the World Trade Center, nothing stands out much to me.

But hey, that's just me. I still recommend giving it a watch. Who knows maybe you'll find something in it to enjoy. I'd say just don't go into it expecting something bigger or more groundbreaking than the original. It's certainly better then what would follow 10 years later. 

KING KONG LIVES 
(December 19, 1986)

Despite a mixed critical reception, King Kong '76 was a financial success. And what comes hand in hand with a financially successful movie? RIP-OFFS, SPOOFS AND CASH INS!
There was a British "comedy" film titled 'Queen Kong'. A Korean made 'A*P*E'. with it's oh-so memorable tagline: "Not to be confused with King Kong". Even Hong Kong also made a cash-in titled "Mighty Peking Man". 
Then you have that one movie where a giant Gorilla falls from a building, survives and is put in a coma for 10 years while scientists try to bring him back to life with an artificial heart transplant
While that may sound like a spoof or rip-off, it's not. That's 'King Kong Lives', the official sequel to Dino De Laurentiis' King Kong.

This definitely ranks as a 10 on the "You Can't Make This Up" scale. I can't even fathom how Kong could have survived being shot like crazy and falling from 1368 ft.
But alas, by the power of Hollywood the idea came to fruition.

As I stated before, the movie is about Kong somehow barely surviving his fall from the World Trade Center and being kept alive at a university institute where a team of doctors are working on replacing his heart and bringing him back to life.
First of all, A: WHY?! and B: No, seriously, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!!?! You could make the argument that they would want him alive so that they could study him and make scientific breakthroughs from it, but there is no reason given as to why they are doing this. Did they miss the part where when Kong was alive, he broke out of captivity and went on a rampage through New York killing dozens upon dozens of people? It wouldn't do much good anyway, given the large amount of blood loss would kill Kong if they operated now. Turns out there's another giant ape found in Borneo, and this one is a female. The newly dubbed 'Lady Kong' is taken from her home and a blood transfusion is done making the operation a success.
When Kong wakes up he breaks out of his captivity and goes on a rampage. Shocking right? Kong immediately senses the presence of Lady Kong, rescues her from captivity and the 2 Apes instantly mate with each other.
The military however aren't having this and recapture Lady Kong and spend the rest of the movie trying to hunt down Kong.

None of the original cast return, Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange are only seen in a brief prologue recounting the ending to the last movie.
I stated that I didn't find the last movie to be exciting or memorable and this movie is no different. Lame plot, boring characters and uninteresting music. One thing I can say about this movie is that it is definitely one of those "So bad it's good" movies. There are some scenes with Kong as he wonders through what I can only describe as "redneck country" and you may find yourself giggling at them.

Oddly enough, the one saving grace for this movie are the Kongs. While the suits are not as good as the one from the last movie with the departure of Rick Baker, they still look decent enough and can show a wide range of emotion in their faces. There is a bit of inconsistency though. In the last movie Kong only ever walked upright like a human, but in this one Kong will occasionally walk on all fours like a real gorilla. I have no idea why they chose to do this now. 

Depending on your point of view, if you decide to venture into this film, you may find it to be boring or dumb, but it's certainly got it's own form of entertainment, especially if you got a group of friends who can watch it and laugh with.

King Kong Lives was both a financial and critical failure, killing any chances of another sequel and supposedly another King Kong movie in general. But as history has proven, legends never stay dead.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.

So long...

If you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, Be sure to give my FB page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. Thanks for reading!

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Journey to Skull Island: A King Kong Retrospective (PART 2)

Part 2: Kong's Japanese Vacation

 KING KONG VS. GODZILLA 

(August 11, 1962)

-To be honest, I debated long and hard about including this movie in the retrospective since it's primarily a Godzilla film. But, since Kong's name is in the title and he's just as prominent in the movie as Godzilla, it had to be done-

Eiji Tsuburaya (E-gee Sue-burr-eya-ah), the special effects director who worked on many of the Godzilla and Kaiju films from Toho Studios, was inspired by the original King Kong like so many other filmmakers. He said it stayed with him for many years and he would work on a movie just like it one day.
Little did he know, that he would get his chance.

What most people may not know is that before 1962, there were 2 King Kong movies made in Japan. The first was actually made in October in 1933 by Shockiku Studios, it was called 'Wasei Kingu Kongu' (Japanese King Kong). The plot centered around a man trying to earn money to marry his lady-friend by putting on a Vaudeville act based on the film 'King Kong'. No, really.
The other, was Zensho Studio's 1938 'King Kong Appears in Edo', which involved a trained Ape named "King Kong" involved in a kidnapping plot.
I would talk more in-depth about these movies, but I've not seen them, which is the case for most people seeing as how these movies are now considered lost. Supposedly, the reels were destroyed during the World War II fire bombings of Japan.

Japan wasn't the only one looking to make films riding on the success of the original. Willis O'Brien, the Stop Motion animator, had worked up a treatment for a new movie called "King Kong vs. Frankenstein", which would see the Gorilla brought to San Francisco to fight a monster made by the titular Doctor's Son. The project was pitched to various studios and fell into one studio's hands after another before eventually coming to Toho.
Toho of course had their own giant monster movie star: the King of the Monsters himself. Godzilla's film career almost mirrored that of Kong. His first film was released in 1954 with a sequel being made only a few months later. With most of the crew being huge Kong fans themselves, they leapt at the chance to make the movie, on the obvious condition that they replaced the Frankenstein monster with Godzilla. (Toho would later make Frankenstein movie.)

So how do you have Kong and Godzilla meet up? Well, you have a pharmaceutical company looking for a way to get publicity for their sponsored television shows by sending a team to an island in the South Pacific in search of a legendary Monster God who just so happens to be Kong. Meanwhile, Godzilla wakes up from being frozen in an iceberg and goes on a rampage throughout Japan. And eventually, the two meet up for the ultimate showdown at the base of Mount Fuji. Naturally.

Both monsters were of course portrayed by men in suits, an art in which the Japanese would come to master through the years. The Godzilla suit looks great of course, the Kong suit however looks...I don't wanna say bad, but it just looks weird. I mean, I can tell it's supposed to be a Gorilla and it can look really fierce at times, but other times Kong has this really drunk/stoned expression on his face.

The very first Godzilla film from 1954 was very dark and somber in tone, but it was decided that the series should move in a much lighter direction to appeal to children, a decision that would affect the series until 1975.
l was probably about 8 or 9 when I started getting into Godzilla and this movie was definitely one of the most entertaining of the series with hilarious moments from both the human and the monster characters. Of course, the big highlight is the big fight at the base of Mount Fuji, Kong and Godzilla really wail on each other. Even with Godzilla's atomic breath, Kong refuses to give up fighting the Big G, he throws large rocks at him, shoves a tree down his mouth and even grabs him by his arm and throws him over his shoulder. (With the actor still inside the suit!)
There's also an homage to the original movie in one quick scene where Kong and Godzilla are both stop-motion puppets.

A year later, King Kong vs. Godzilla would be brought over to the United States with some major edits done by Universal-International. Besides dubbing the film in English, they included scenes involving American actors as UN Reporters covering certain events in the film. There's also an "expert" character who claims that Godzilla's brain is no bigger than a marble, which is bulls--t! He also calls Godzilla a cross between a Tyrannosaur and a Stegosaurus by showing pictures from a children's Dinosaur book called "Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals", a book that I myself own.
One change that I just can't understand was replacing the original score by composer Akira Ifukube with film scores from other Universal films such as 'Creature From the Black Lagoon' and 'Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman' (Just to name a few). While that music is fine, I much prefer Ifukube's music. The main theme for Godzilla in this film by Ifukube would later be used in 2016's 'Shin Godzilla'.  

The 2 versions would also give rise to one of the biggest myths surrounding the Godzilla series, the belief that both versions of the film had different endings. The myth went that in the Japanese version, Godzilla was the winner, while Kong came out victorious in the American version. In reality, both versions end in the exact same way: After their long battle, Kong and Godzilla grapple with each other as they fall into the sea. After a brief earthquake, Kong emerges from the water and swims back to his island while Godzilla is nowhere to be seen. Keep in mind that Godzilla spends most of his time deep underwater, so what likely happened is that both monsters had a brief scuffle underwater before simply giving up on fighting as they are too evenly matched. Plus, there's no way Kong could stay underwater as long as Godzilla. However, Toho themselves claim that Kong was always meant to be the winner. The only major difference in both endings is that originally both Godzilla and Kong's roars were heard as the 'The End' title came up as a sort of sign off or curtain call. But only Kong's roar was heard in the American cut.
I, like many fans, believed the alternate ending story and as a kid I watched the American cut a lot. Years ago, my Dad's job required him to go to Japan and I asked him if he could bring back a DVD of King Kong vs. Godzilla so I could see it. That was when I was introduced to the 2 words us American Kaiju fans hate hearing the most: Region Coding. So I never got the chance to see it (he did get me some awesome figures though). I have a feeling that if I had seen the original cut as a kid, I would have been majorly disappointed. Looking at it now, it was nothing more than so much hullabaloo over nothing.

Unfortunately, King Kong vs. Godzilla is the only film in the Godzilla series that has yet to be released on DVD or Blu-ray in the United States in it's original uncut version. Hopefully with the new 'Godzilla vs. Kong' movie coming out in 2020, that will change so people can look back on one of the greatest Kaiju battles in film history before bearing witness to the rematch of the century.

After this movies release, interest in making more Godzilla movies was re-ignited. But Toho wasn't done with Kong just yet...

KING KONG ESCAPES
(July 22, 1967)

~King Kong you know the name of~

~King Kong you know the fame of~

~King Kong ten times as big as a man~

Those were the words heard by folks who tuned in to watch the Saturday morning cartoon series: The King Kong Show. The show was a co-production between Toei Animation in Japan and Videocraft International in America. You may not be familiar with the name Videocraft, but you most likely know who they are since they would later change thier name to Rankin/Bass Productions (Ya know, the same guys who made those stop-motion Christmas Specials).This show focused on Kong befriending a human family, having many adventures and fighting off various enemies.

If your wondering what I think of this cartoon, well I'm afraid you are out of luck. I have never seen one episode and I am only familiar with the opening song, which is extremely catchy.

So why am I talking about it? Because it was what inspired the next movie in Kong's legacy, King Kong Escapes. 

Hideyo Amamoto as Dr. Who

Once again Produced by Toho and even Co-Produced by Rankin/Bass, the story revolves around the evil Dr. Who (No, not that one!) trying to obtain what he calls Element X using a large mechanical version of Kong named 'Mechani-Kong'. But when that plan goes wrong, he goes after the original Kong and attempts to put him under his control to do his bidding. But if you take one more look at the film's title, you can figure out how well that plan turns out (It ain't called "King Kong Stays Locked Up"). The Element X plot really doesn't go anywhere.

Left to Right: Akira Takarada, Linda Miller and Rhodes Reason

Being a co-production between the US and Japan, American actors were brought on to portray 2 of the main characters, Rhodes Reason and Linda Miller play submarine commanders leading an expedition to study Kong.
Understandably, they are dubbed in the Japanese version. But confusingly the American version dubs their voices as well, which makes no sense at all. Why dub what we can already understand? Did they just not like how their voices sound?

As for Kong himself, he's once again a guy in a suit performed by Haruo Nakajima, the man best known for playing Godzilla. The suit itself is...well, a downgrade from the last suit, and that's saying a lot. It seemed that this suit was designed to look more like an actual Gorilla, but it just comes off as awkward, especially with its long noodle arms.
And the face. Ugh! The face!

Another thing that I find weird is that for some reason they used Godzilla's grunting noises for Kong.

Another monster that makes an appearance is Gorosaurus, a large, greenish-blue Dinosaur whose main attack is to kick it's opponents like a kangaroo. The scene where Kong and Gorosaurus fight is pretty spectacular and some parts even pay homage to the original movie with Linda Miller's character up in a tree while the fight goes on. 

As for Mechani-Kong, while admittedly looking cool is a bit underused. He shows up in the beginning built up as this ultimate engine of destruction only to conk out and not be of much use until the climax where the 2 Kongs have a scuffle while climbing Tokyo Tower. It's like watching 2 kids fight on a playground. 

He's also constantly making this weird beeping noise that will get annoying the more you hear it.

I'll admit, at the time of writing this, I can count the number of times I've seen this movie on one hand and the past times I didn't think much of it. 

But after watching it again with a fresh perspective, it's a really fun movie to watch. I'd even rank it at a level of enjoyment up there with other Toho monster movies like Frankenstien Conquers the World, War of the Gargantuas and Space Amoeba.

After nearly a decade, Kong would return to his homeland for a re-telling of the original classic. As well as a sequel.

Oh, god...I have to talk about those movies next?

wonderful...

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.

So long...

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