This is it! We're finally talking about the King - King Kong that is! The big ape has been one of Hollywood's (and the world's) biggest stars since he first showed up on the scene in 1933. At the time, the original King Kong was cutting edge, and it influenced many later generations. Kong is a part of pop culture, and new versions of the eighth wonder of the world keep getting made. There is something universally appealing about this unique and powerful figure.
We'll go through the long history of Kong in films (and a little bit on TV), starting of course with the classic original 1933 King Kong, directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack, with ground-breaking stop-motion effects by pioneer Willis O'Brien. The exciting story, the ferocious Kong, and the whole beauty and the beast angle, made the film a huge success. It was quickly followed up with a sequel, also in 1933, Son of Kong, which was amusing but no where near the success of the original.
In the 60s, through a somewhat circuitous route, Kong wound up across the Pacific and got a job with Toho Studios, making King Kong vs Godzilla in 1962, and King Kong Escapes in 1967. There's a connection to the 1966 Rankin-Bass King Kong Show cartoon too!
Near to our hearts, even though it's clearly a flawed film, is the 1976 version of King Kong. The film may be best remembered today for the amazing John Berkey poster showing Kong astride the World Trade Center towers. We'll talk about the controversy over the robot Kong and how the great make-up genius Rick Baker played Kong. Bob took the hit for the team and watched King Kong Lives, and gives a rundown of that sequel.
If you're excited to hear what we think about Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of King Kong, well, you may want to ratchet back your expectations. We have some strong opinions on the film, and that's all we'll say here!
Finally, we finish strong as we enthusiastically discuss Kong Skull Island (2017), which took a very different approach to Kong, and will lead to a rematch with Godzilla next year!
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| Larry's Kong and Bruce mugs, seen front and back |
On this episode's Sensor Sweep, our mission commander, Larry, shares his love of tiki mugs, and shows off two: a Bruce the Shark from Jaws mug from Mondo, and a Kong mug from Tiki Farm. If you love tiki mugs and monsters, check 'em out!
In a burst of shameless self-promotion, we want to mention the various side-gigs we all have going on.
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| Your crew at Monsterpalooza a few years ago -Larry, Karen, and Bob |
Bob recently participated in a panel discussion on Ultraman for the Kaiju Con-line, an online convention celebrating kaiju (obviously). If you want to watch the panel, click here. If you're a Gamera fan, a blu-ray box set should be coming out at the end of July, and Bob and his pal Keith Aiken are doing commentary on the film Gamera the Brave!
Karen decided to start blogging again, to babble on about science fiction and other stuff. You can read her posts once or maybe twice a week at Echoes from the Satellite.
Larry has just started doing a video blog! It's on YouTube and it's called Larryland USA. Larry will be talking about things he loves and his many genre-based memories. Check it out!
That's all for us right now. We hope all of you are staying well, and hanging in there. If you have thoughts on King Kong, other giant apes, or anything else, drop us a line, why don't ya? You can leave a comment at our site, or hit us up here:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Planet8Cast
- Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Planet8Podcast
Thanks for listening!
