King Kong: Difference between revisions

* [[Always Save the Girl]]

* [[Animals Lack Attributes]]: Kong has no nipples.

* [[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever]]: In the 1976 version he was 50ft, in the 2005 version he was 25ft, in the original 1933 film he was 21ft in New York and 18ft on Skull Island. In Japan, he was 45m (147ft) when he battled [[Godzilla]], and 20m (65ft) in ''King Kong Escapes''.

* [[Badass]]: Are you kidding?

* [[East Indies]]

* [[Epic Movie]]

** ''King Kong'' '33 features the famous fight between Kong and a T-Rex, as well as plenty of other dinosaurs.

** Godzilla in ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'', of course (he's kind of a dinosaur).

** The V-Rexes and the stampeding Brontosaurs in ''King Kong'' '05.

*** Don't forget the '''RAPTORS!''' Oh, and the ceratopsian Ferrucutus in the extended version, as well as other dinosaurs.

* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: Skull Island. So much.

* [[Helicopter Flyswatter]]: Probably the [[Trope Maker]].

* [[New York Subway]]: The 1933 classic with Fay Wray features Kong wreaking havoc on the 6th Avenue El, and shows the interior of a Low-V El car.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr0eA-7ttII&t=3m22s The 1976 remake substitutes the destruction of the Astoria El between Astoria Blvd and Ditmars Blvd in Astoria, Queens.] The train used in this scene is the [http://www.nycsubway.org/cars/r16.html R16-type cars] (The interiors scenes were sets though).

* [[Pretty in Mink]]: In the original film, Ann wears a chinchilla cape. In the 1976 film, Dwan wears a chinchilla jacket, possibly as a [[Mythology Gag]].

* [[The Remake]]: Most people agree the '76 film was a Remake Decay; the jury is still out on the '05 version.

** The 2005 version further subverts this by replacing the Pteranodon (which is not a dinosaur, but its "stock" anyway) with flying rodents, which look like a cross between a bat and a naked mole rat with large eyes and hindlimbs like those of a hawk.

* [[Title Drop]]: For most of the movie everyone just calls the ape "Kong," and it's not until near the end that we see "KING Kong" written on a huge sign in New York. After that they ''still'' don't say the whole thing in dialogue.

 

 

== 2005 Film ==

* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: Considerable: Peter Jackson's version was 87 minutes longer than the original, or a full 101 minutes longer in its extended cut – basically, ''twice as long''.

* [[Climbing Climax]]

* [[Creepy Centipedes]]: Jackson's remake is infamous for various horrorific giant centipedes.

** From the same clip: The scene also switches briefly to Anne's shocked face as Kong '''crushes the vastatosaur's head like a peanut'''.

* [[Hollywood Evolution]]: Evolutionary biology and ecosystems don't work that way. Creatures trapped on an island tend to select for smaller size, not larger<ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_gigantism island gigantism] is a thing that only happens on larger islands, not tiny ones like Skull Island</ref> – and yet if you read the natural history of Skull Island or watch the relevant documentary on the DVD, that's exactly the opposite of how the film makers designed the animals. Also, with that many apex predators in such a tiny area (the vastatosaurs, the raptors, not to mention the various giant arthropods), the island would've been devoid of life in no time as the ecosystem fell apart. It is implied in the film (and explicitly said in the "Natural History" tie-in book) that the island used to be much larger and was sinking into the sea/breaking apart. Still, for animals that large, the break-up would have to have been of a very large land mass and would have had to only been happening for a very short period of time, geologically speaking, which makes it something of a [[Voodoo Shark]].

* [[Last of His Kind]]: It is implied that Kong is the last giant ape on Skull Island: the most telling evidence is a shot of him entering his cave and walking past multiple skeletons of giant gorillas. This loneliness, along with the hostility of Skull Island's environment, accounts for both his ferocity and his need for company, which Ann Darrow supplies.<br /><br />Furthermore, as stated in the background materials, Skull Island's entire ecosystem is dying because the island is submerging due to geological activity. Those ''V. rex'' that Kong killed, for instance, may just have been the last three members of their entire species.

* [[Mister Sandman Sequence]]

* [[Mundane Made Awesome]]: The scene where Skull Island is being typed.

** Large chunks of the original dialogue are lifted verbatim from the 1933 film, sometimes as near-parody (the original's banter between Jack and Ann is used as Denham films his two actors)

** Kong's stage show in New York includes an elaborate (and inaccurate) depiction of the native sacrifice ritual, which is remarkably similar to the depiction of the ''actual'' ritual seen in the 1933 film. And the music for the entire sequence is a new performance of the original's score.

** The fight between Kong and the last ''Vastatosaurus rex'' is practically move-for-move the same as the last half of the fight between Kong and the ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' in the original, right down to Kong playing with the dinosaur's head after killing it and then roaring and beating his chest triumphantly.

* [[Never Trust a Trailer]]: In the trailer, Denham is heard saying, "Scream, Ann! Scream for your life!" as one homage to the 1933 original. That part never made it into the final cut.

* [[No Endor Holocaust]]: In the remake at least, it appears no-one ever bothers to tell Ann Darrow about the twenty or so guys who died horrible, horrible deaths trying to save her. Either that or she's the most callous bitch of all time.

* [[Pacing Problems]]: A common criticism of the 2005 movie, which clocks in at 188 min (201 in the extended version). It takes over an hour before we see the titular ape.

** To be fair, that was probably done on purpose, as Peter Jackson stated that ''King Kong'' was the film that made him want to go into film-making, and wanted as faithful an adaptation as possible. In the 1933 film, which was about 90 minutes long, Kong wasn't first shown until 45 minutes in, about halfway through the movie.