King Kong: the 90th Anniversary
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Feb. 5, 2023, 7:57 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
This year is the 90th anniversary of the original Kong Kong, the very first movie to feature the giant ape who has since become a cultural icon, and the sheer significance of this milestone cannot be diminished. King Kong is one of the most recognizable giant monsters media and has appeared in countless media since his debut, and this anniversary definitely deserves to be celebrated.
The original King Kong film is a masterpiece, and I believe that it deserves all the praise that people give it. Its story may be rather simple by today's standards, but I still feel that the story is one to which audiences can related and by which they can be entertained, and the stop-motion animation for the monsters was revolutionary for its day, helping to prove that that such a form of animation was viable for cinema and setting the stage for countless future features to use it.
There have been too many pieces of art that have featured King Kong to cover all of them in this thread, but I enjoyed the 1976 remake of the movie, starring Jeff Bridges, since that remake was sufficiently different from the original to stand on its own, although not everyone remembers that film, today. Most audiences are familiar with Peter Jackson's 2005 remake, which kept the 1930's setting of the original, but greatly expanded the story, making the movie over three hours long, in true Peter Jackson tradition.
King Kong has also fought against Godzilla twice; one in 1962 and then again in 2021, with the latter film being part of a larger universe (and I wonder if setting Kong: Skull Island during the 1970's was a homage to the 1976 film?), and I expect that Kong shall have further appearances, there, as well.
The original film has been released on both DVD and blu-ray, but I do hope that it shall have a special anniversary addition for its 90th anniversary, ideally on 4K, as a film as significant as it definitely deserves that treatment.
What does everyone else say about this subject? How do you feel about this year being the 90th anniversary of King Kong?
What a fun story too as you have the terrorist scientists now trying to collect & weaponize aspects of the Kaiju - if you made berserker super-soldiers from Kong Kaiju serum. Berserk soldiers who basically take off their bullet proof vests & become stronger, faster, & meaner if you don't fatally injure them.
February 5, 2023 8:58 p.m.
TheoryCrafter says... #4
The 1933 version of King Kong should be every child's first horror film.
February 6, 2023 6:50 a.m.
FormOverFunction says... #5
Stop-motion is very special to me, as I grew up with it and (probably because of that) see a little bit of extra magic in it. My wife and I got our kids into stop motion right away so that they could enjoy it before CGI set a higher bar. I enjoyed the newest two Kong movies a lot, as I didn't pay a lot of attention to plots and just enjoyed how great Kong looked. Sadly, Skull Island turned out to not have ANY of the dinosaurs I thought it would have... making my Skull Island deck something of a miss. But it’s still a big hit, and I feel like Grunn is a perfect representation of Kong... MAYBE better than the one they officially made to be Kong. Fun thread DemonDragonJ!
Gleeock says... #2
Kong rules. I always thought Kong's abilities could be more fleshed out in the "modern" age of monsters. A regular silverback can lift like 4k lbs.. Apply relativity to that :) :) :)!!. Their speed is off the charts. Could you imagine A punch from Kong? Testosterone & the general biochemistry of a silverback is also insane (think testosterone similar to a bull shark), I think Kong's signature Kaiju power should be psycho Kaiju biochemistry. As he takes more glancing blows & slashes; blood should congeal quicker, regeneration occurs, he moves faster, he just becomes more pugnacious. Anyway I though Godzilla vs. Kong dropped the ball on fleshing out our ape-kings abilities. Godzilla has his; armor, bulk, nuclear greatness - Japan was really great at clarifying just what their Kaiju could do. Kong has all the room in the world to be fleshed out better.
February 5, 2023 8:56 p.m.