By Nathan Marchand (with Jimmy From NASA)
With there being five Wednesdays in January (for which I’m grateful because it gives me an extra week to edit the next episode), I thought I’d give all of you a bonus blog. I toyed with several ideas, but it was my intrepid producer, Jimmy From NASA, who suggested a blog on his Entertaining Info Dump. Normally, I’d have only done it because of those darn contractual obligations, but it’s also been a part of the podcast that listeners have appreciated, so it’s worth giving a peek behind the curtain to explain it.
Believe it or not, Jimmy based it on the “film descriptions” Brian Scherschel and I developed on my previous podcast, Kaijuvision Radio. Apparently, Jimmy was a fan of the show before I left it. As he said on the first episode of MIFV, this was a great way to get preliminary information out of the way before diving into the film discussion. It’s also more interesting to listen to than a simple plot synopsis and, well, info dump. You can get all of that from a wiki page. Several of them, actually. They also make it possible to compare these films to each other.
There are different subheadings for these essays, although they’re never mentioned. Those subheadings are:
- The (primary) kaiju plot line and characteristics/goals
- Other kaiju plot lines and characteristics/goals
- The human plot line
- Human and kaiju plot intermix level
- Attempts to solve the issue at hand
- How the issue is resolved
- Story complexity
- Production quality
- Light/Dark Tone, gravity/seriousness, and fantasy/reality
- Experimentation level
- Reinforcement vs. Expansion of Style
- Movie purpose and demographics
- Success Level
- Difference between original version of that film and the other versions
- The forces at play
- The theme(s)
Most of these are self-explanatory. The first half or so summarizes the most important facets of the film’s story. All but the last two give production and background information on each movie. The last two focus on thematic elements.
However, there are two that Jimmy insists I highlight because one is unique and the other could be confused with it. That being the “expansion vs. reinforcement of style” and “experimentation level.”
What do we mean by expansion and reinforcement of style? With long-running franchises and series like King Kong (or Godzilla), some entries introduce new story types, tropes, or other elements that are emulated in later ones. They’re the films that break the mold, the firsts of their kind. This is admittedly a little subjective, especially since some films have a mix of both, but these elements can be objectively identified. For example, Son of Kong was an expansion of style for the Kong films because it introduced the idea of a Kong offspring and was the first “Son/Daughter of…” type film to come out in any film series. However, King Kong Escapes, while primarily a reinforcement of the styles of King Kong (1933) and The King Kong Show, did make one expansion by having a “love interest” who sympathized with Kong.
Experimentation level, on the other hand, would have to involve risk-taking. It isn’t simply adding new things to a film. They have to be elements that are so different from the previous films in the series that it might disappoint the audience or disinterest them. For example, it was a risky move for Dino de Laurentiis to set his 1976 remake in (then) present day because the original was firmly set in 1933. It’s a rare to see a film that is both an expansion of style and experimental. It doesn’t always make it good, but it’s always interesting. Honestly, with the films we’ve covered so far in the “Kong Quest” ( 😛 ), the only one that truly qualifies as both is the 1933 original (although, that’ll change next week).
If you’d like to learn more about the Entertaining Info Dump, I recommend listening to the bonus feature Mr. Scherschel and I did on the film descriptions for KVR.
Until then, get ready for the next week’s episode on the worst film covered on MIFV so far: King Kong Lives!