Spoiler warning! This was Jet’s last episode as my substitute. He did a good job, but I was happy to return after my… “extended vacation” (aka jail time). I made sure to listen to this one live, and oh boy! I had a lot of notes! You just can’t take the producer out of me—especially when it comes to riffing a certain host of a certain kaiju podcast. So, let’s get into my notes on Episode 79: Bex vs. ‘Jurassic Park.’ (I have pleased the SEO gods—assuming I believed in gods…which is hard to do when you work on Monster Island).
Read more of my manual, Marchand! Then I won’t have to add “Jetspeak interpreter” to my job list. (On second thought, that’d look good on resume…).
Speaking of which, I can confirm Jet did say, “Thanks for the compliment.”
I assume Bex was referring to George Gershwin? If she was, I couldn’t find any lyrics or titles with “Begin at the Begeen.”
In 1993, I was…I can’t talk about it. #TopSecret
My biggest spiritual moments are when I’m in a mecha. It’s a perfect union of man and machine.
Those books Bex mentioned were written by two different author. Desert Dog is by Jim Kjelgaard and The Wahoo Bobcat and The Phantom Deer are by Joseph Wharton Lippincott.
Maybe I’ll sponsor Velocipastor. 😛 Or not. I value my sanity too much after surviving the War in Space.
It is in your contract to see Jurassic Park in a theater for the 30th anniversary. (Which he did, by the way). #ContractualObligationFulfilled
Maj. Spielberg is a myth! Steven Spielberg’s father, Arnold, enlisted in the Army, not the Navy, in WWII.
I’ve tried both the dripping water and basketball-to-face flirting techniques. Neither work.
Apparently, Jet can read minds. “Timmy” and “Jimmy”? C’mon!
You asked for it!
The Island’s safety track record is spotless…except for the 1999 incident. That was a HUGE one…we don’t talk about that.
I never skip leg day. My thunder thighs rival Godzilla’s! 😛
“Quantum leap forward”?! I hate time travel!
Jet is engaging in blackmail?! We’re going to have a talk…and perhaps an update to his morality program. I’ll talk with Rokuro.
An MIFV MAX member needs to sponsor an Audrey Hepburn movie on Patreon just to mess with Nate. 😛 (What about Audrey II Hepburn? 😛 )
Jet still visits Rokuro during Christmas and New Year’s. He misses the “kid.”
Nate, you can turn your kaiju nerd card in to me! I was just appointed arbiter of such things! 😛
I, too, am scared of what strange children will come from Titanus Doug and Lady Baragon. Thankfully, Lady Baragon has remained loyal to her man.
This suddenly turned into fangirl-y “show and tell” with Bex. I approve.
Yes, Jet kept the AC on too high. You should see the electrical bill! (The Board didn’t, or else it’d come out of our paychecks).
Contrary to what Nate said, I couldn’t find any official Godzilla Legos. But I did find a “Lego Idea” page for it.
Nate doesn’t need to buy Jet’s mini-fig—he already has seven action figures of Jet! See:
“Ameri-kaiju” concludes not with a chronological finale but a popular finale: the modern cinematic classic Jurassic Park. Bex from Redeemed Otaku (yes, the real Bex—she was tested!) joins Nate to not talk about Mothra or something girly for once—but it does involve kids! Besides Jesus and Sailor Moon, JP is her favorite thing in the world. What more can be said about the film that hasn’t already been said? It’s an iconic and revolutionary masterpiece directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the popular Michael Crichton novel. While it’s debatable if the dinosaurs in it are “kaiju” (see the infamous Kaiju Weekly episode for more on that), it had a profound impact on world cinema, including the kaiju genre. Obviously, the Toku Topic is the science in the film, which Nate says has been studied extensively by Monster Island scientists.
Afterward, with evidence collected, Nate and H.E.A.T. march into the Boardroom and confront Cameron Winter on all his shady dealings on the Island—but first they must get past the Space Beastman…and Winter’s contingency plans!
Guest Cast
Dani Cruz as Monique Dupre
G.J. “Jack” Hudgens as Cameron Winter
Rebecca Hudgens as Elsie Chapman
Damon Noyes as Mendel Craven
Andres Perez as Randy Hernandez
J.R. Villers as Nick Tatopoulos
This episode’s epilogue, “American Made,” was written by Nathan Marchand.
We’d like to give a shout-out to our MIFV MAX patrons Travis Alexander; Danny DiManna (author/creator of the Godzilla Novelization Project); Eli Harris (elizilla13); Chris Cooke (host of One Cross Radio); Bex from Redeemed Otaku; Damon Noyes, The Cel Cast, TofuFury, Eric Anderson of Nerd Chapel, Ted Williams, Wynja the Ninja, Brad “Batman” Eddleman, Christopher Riner, The Indiscrite One, Jake Hambrick, Edwin Gonzalez, Matt Walsh (but not that Matt Walsh), and Jonathan Courtright! Thanks for your support!
Did I ever tell you about the time I visited the fabled dinosaur plateau Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about in his novel The Lost World? And how there was a “hot girl” involved? No? Good, because I’m saving that for my autobiography. Regardless, despite some sidekick shenanigans from that wannabe Muppet, Snazzy Chapeau, when Omni Viewer visited for MIFV’s season three premiere (episode 56), I managed to take a few good notes for my first Jimmy’s Notes blog of 2022. I may not be contractually obligated to do follow-ups for Nate, but someone has to fact-check this goofball. So, here you go:
William Rutherford wasn’t the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes; only Prof. Challenger. According to Wikipedia,
Conan Doyle repeatedly said that Holmes was inspired by the real-life figure of Joseph Bell, a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, whom Conan Doyle met in 1877 and had worked for as a clerk. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing broad conclusions from minute observations. However, he later wrote to Conan Doyle: “You are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it”.[14] Sir Henry Littlejohn, Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, is also cited as an inspiration for Holmes. Littlejohn, who was also Police Surgeon and Medical Officer of Health in Edinburgh, provided Conan Doyle with a link between medical investigation and the detection of crime.
The Lost City of Z was a 2009 nonfiction book by David Gran. It was made into a movie starring Charlie Hunnam in 2016. As for whether it was found or not, Wikipedia says,
Researchers believe that Fawcett may have been influenced in his thinking by information obtained from indigenous people about the archaeological site of Kuhikugu, near the headwaters of the Xingu River. After Fawcett’s presumed death in the jungle, Kuhikugu was discovered by Westerners in 1925. The site contains the ruins of an estimated twenty towns and villages in which as many as 50,000 people might once have lived. The discovery of other large geometrical earthworks in interfluvial settings of southern Amazonia has since been recognised as supporting Fawcett’s theory.
I’m not sure this was the only time Willis O’Brien used a football bladder to simulate breathing in his creatures. Wikipedia claims this was also done in King Kong (1933), but a citation is needed.
I found the opening theme of the Lost World TV series mentioned by Omni, and Nate said he remembered seeing a bit of it when I show it to him.
All this prequel talk…I’m having flashbacks to sand…I can’t go to the beach now…and I live on an Island!
Mammoths and mastodons are, in fact, not the same. Similar, but not the same. Read more here.
I checked the film during the city rampage, and there wasn’t a full-sized head. However, there were some excellent close-ups of the stopmotion puppet.
I always do internet searches with safe mode turned off. It’s more…exciting that way.
“Jimmygon” has a nice ring to it. I’ll get the Island’s geneticists on that right now!
Actually, there are studies that show people with bigger brains are smarter. No wonder Nate is a genius: he has a big head. 😛
I am 110% behind a boxing Cope and Marsh skeletons sculpture. I’ll petition Winter and the Board immediately!
Now for the ever-important—and increasingly large—leftover notes from Nate’s research with my riffs commentary.
THE FILM
“Jocko” played by himself.
The plot moves briskly compared to novel. Characters introduced very quickly. Skips to lecture to introduce Challenger.
Gotta love the “overacting” and funny jump cuts mid-scene. (Reminds me of the show’s host. 😛 –Jimmy)
“Cock-and-bull story.” Ha! (Is this the “rule 34” version? –Jimmy)
In the Amazon. Just South America in novel?
Dead for 10 million years. More than that!
There wasn’t a Miss White in the novel, either. Not gonna lie: she’s pretty. Maple White’s daughter. Of course she’s the beautiful assistant. (No complaining here. –Jimmy)
Wait…is that Sherlock!? Or someone cosplaying him? (The first in-film Easter egg? –Jimmy)
Jocko the monkey wasn’t in the novel, either. Added for comic relief. (At least he isn’t a Gungan. –Jimmy)
I think Malone’s letters are text from the novel.
They’re introducing the ape-men already?! Proto-Chewbacca. (Does he rip arms out of socket? –Jimmy)
Pterodactyl was first in novel.
Okay, don’t tell us that Malone saved the bug.
The tree bridge. Another forerunner to Kong.
Really? Stop to catch the insect in middle of bridge? (I did that once…but I don’t want to talk about it. –Jimmy)
Brontosaurus takes out bridge—and squishes some spiders. (Ah. A spider pit joke. Hilarious. –Jimmy)
PSYCHO MONKEY?! WTF?!
The allosaurus vs. other dino fight is impressive if inferior to Kong. He picks his teeth? Arms too long.
Yes, he wiped out the last of a wood-tick species.
The trees have eyes.
Is that a torch or a giant cigarette? And it’s in color?! (That’s what wiped out the dinosaurs: smoking. –Jimmy)
The allosaurus vs. triceratops fight is one of the more famous scenes—and it’s gory! Trike wins. But then another allosaurus gets revenge for its mate. (“Dino Vengeance” is a B-movie waiting to happen. –Jimmy)
No one is paying attention to the dinosaur fights! The proto-kaiju fights!
The ape-man is very drooly.
Challenger is taking up pole dancing, and he sucks at it. 😛 (This is the “rule 34” version. –Jimmy)
They never call this place “Maple White Land.”
They play drums when he shoots the gun. Clever. “Mickey Mouse-ing.”
“Dam liar”? A liar about dams?
The colors fit the moods of the scenes very well. Red for eruption.
Does the allosaurus want to eat the bronto or hitch a ride during the eruption?!(“Rule 34” version…again? –Jimmy)
“Rock climbing monkey, Joel.” You just better hope he doesn’t fill and hang himself.
Jocko carried a rope ladder?!
I was waiting for the ape-man with the Joker smile to kidnap Paula. Because Kong.
Oh my gosh! Paula looks like Ann Darrow at the end! It’s very Kong.
Ten feet long? That’s WAY bigger!
Other Sources
Byrd (in LeMay)
As a teenage drifter, O’Brien was a guide for a fossil excavation for the University of Southern California.
The origins of the film are a complex feud between O’Brien and a fellow animator named Herbert Dawley. They were constantly fighting over the credit to O’Brien’s work in short films, particularly The Ghost of Slumber Mountain, and the legal shenanigans led to O’Brien working with producer Watterson Rothacker on this film. Dawley sued O’Brien over the animation process, citing patent violation, but this was settled out of court. There’s still debate over how much of Slumber Mountain was animated by either of them.
Over 50 dinosaurs were made for the film, and they included bladders to simulate breathing, saliva made with shellac and rubber cement, chocolate syrup to simulate blood.
Commentary by Nicolas Ciccone
The credits in this restoration was made for it.
There’s a missing scene that explains why the paper sends Malone to cover the story despite his clumsiness: basically, to get lawsuit money.
Wallace Beery (who played Challenger) was just like his character.
Many scholars theorize that Malone’s coming-of-age story arc was inspired by Doyle himself.
Bessie Love, who plays Paula, hated all the close-ups of her. (I didn’t. –Jimmy)
The attack by the cannibals explains why Zambo’s arm is broken later. Only stills remain of these scenes.
A 15-foot pterodactyl fossil was found in Brazil in the 1990s and named after Doyle.
Gomez, a “half-breed” character cut from the film, caused the tree bridge disaster. He’s a traitor.
The film doesn’t say how Maple White died, but the script has Roxton find a rifle bent in half. The implication was it was the ape-man.
The plateau is a bit too easy to find in the film.
The cast didn’t like working with Jocko. He bit and peed on everyone.
The romance is trite, but it could serve as a metaphor for the plateau: it’s a place of adventure and wonder we all wish we could visit.
A scene unfilmed from the script has Challenger and company on a ship with a caged bronto.
The end of the drunk’s scene, while not in the script, was described in a review as returning with a bottle of milk for a cat that grew huge.
Missed opportunity: Make Paula more adventurous.
“The Lost World: Secrets of the Restoration” by Serge Bromberg (and other essays in the booklet)
Many film historians link the decision to destroy prints of this film with the production of King Kong a few months later.
The first restoration by George Eastman House, used surviving 35mm Kodak nitrate negatives and a 35mm print found in the National Film Archive of the Czech Republic in 1992. It was an export copy that didn’t use the best angles (it was filmed with a second camera). The restoration was made for $80,000 given by the National Endowment for the Arts—and classic film buff Hugh Heffner(!).
The animated map sequence was in the trailer, and no one knows if it was a concept for the film or only the trailer.
It’s 76 minutes long and was published as an unlisted bonus feature on the DVD of the 1960 version.
David Shepherd Restoration (2000)
This used the same materials plus a few more. This big difference was the use of digital technology to upgrade the picture quality to standard-definition TV.
The promotional footage found by Doyle was found at this time in the Robert Youngson collection.
The original footage of Doyle at his writing table was lost but was replaced with footage of him sitting on a bench addressing the audience from a 1927 Movietone film.
This was edited at the Lobster Films studio in Paris.
Two scores were commissioned for the film, including one by Robert Israel that harkened back to ‘20s-era films. The other was more modern.
93 minutes long.
2016 Restoration
Several months after the release of the previous restoration, David Adamitis contacted Lobster Films and gave them several cans of film, including some A negatives for The Lost World. These included color tints and missing scenes.
This was put together frame-by-frame by a three-man team over the course of six months using 2k technology and several other newly-discovered elements. Robert Israel composed another score for this one.
The music Israel composed included a Brazilian lullaby about a bogeyman called “Tutu Maramba,” which is sung by mothers to children to ward off evil so they may sleep. He adapted it to strings for the native girl playing guitar.
Season three of my always-essential blogs is off to a great start. This is going to be fun.
Next time YouTuber and up-and-coming filmmaker Kaiju Kim returns to continue the “Godzilla Redux” subseries by discussing Rodan (1956), which was the only non-Godzilla kaiju she watched a lot as a child. Then we get back to “Ameri-kaiju” with (hopefully) the original Tourist crew (Nick Hayden, Timothy Deal, Joe and Joy Metter) for King Kong (1933)’s spiritual sequel, Mighty Joe Young (1949). Exciting times for patriotic Kaiju Lovers ahead!
Hello, Kaiju Lovers! And welcome to season three of The Monster Island Film Vault! We begin 2022 with a brand new series focusing on giant monster films from the U.S.A., “Ameri-kaiju.” To launch this special occasion, Nate is joined by returning guest/YouTuber/author Ryan “The Omni Viewer” Collins (and his kaiju-muppet-thing sidekick, Snazzy, who butts heads with Nate’s sidekick, the intrepid producer Jimmy From NASA) to discuss the prototypical kaiju film, The Lost World (1925). You’re about to hear one of the most MIFV of MIFV episodes: literary analysis, film appreciation, witty banter, hilarious puns, and wild history. What more could you want?
Before the broadcast, Nate meets Dr. Nick Tatopoulos, the leader of H.E.A.T., in the KIJU breakroom (and pronounces the man’s name correctly) while fighting with the coffeemaker. Nick talks about his hostile history with the Island’s new boss, Cameron Winter—and then the crooked tycoon calls them on Nate’s phone!
I’m not a religious man—which may sound strange given that I work on an Island with a giant moth goddess—but even I was concerned about Bex after her sudden conversion to “Mothrianity.” Honestly, I was happy to see the good Reverend Mifune bring her to senses and Christianity by breaking Belvera’s influence on her. It was not unlike what Shota did for Lora in Rebirth of Mothra III.
Now if only Marchand will let me live down the whole female clone and teleporter business. It wasn’t my fault!
The things I put up with.
I kid (for the most part…).
Let’s get into my notes from the episode:
Nathan and Bex never talked about Moll speaking in tongues to Mothra Leo. They discussed it briefly before the broadcast, so I’m surprised they didn’t bring it up given their religious backgrounds.
So, back when I was a kid and growing up in japan for a bit, my best friend, Masao, fell into a deep depression after our scout master wouldn’t give him a monster rustler badge after we helped a certain famous kaiju defeat a certain space squid. He said it was discipline for “stealing” a yellow submarine. I was a Beatles fan, what can I say?
I preferred Kilik myself in the Soul Caliber games. It drives Nathan crazy. Every time I poke his Siegfried to death, he keeps singing, “Kilik is cheap! Kilik is cheap!”
Dinosaurs were wiped out twice. Or is it the “Power of the Retcon” again? It may have—according to Nathan—saved my life in the War in Space, but it’s scarier than the Infinity Gauntlet at this point. 😛
As for my T-Rex and triceratops story, the long and short of it is it happened, I confess, while I was field testing the ORCA on Skull Island. That’s all.
Gravity manipulation explains how Ghidorah can fly with one wing, but then why would be need wings at all? #sciencequestions
It makes Mothra Leo 130,000,002 years old, Nathan! Duh!
I anticipated Bex going from NEET to hikikimori. Miki’s powers might be rubbing off on me.
Nathan didn’t make it clear that the Tower of Waves novel (which has several different title translations, as you’ll see in his notes) ended in Aokigahara.
Sometimes I wonder, as unscientific as this sounds, if we have yurei wandering the jungles on the Island….
Nathan’s description of Sea of Trees is almost right. Both the American and the Japanese man intend to commit suicide there. IMDB summaries it like this: “A suicidal American befriends a Japanese man lost in a forest near Mt. Fuji and the two search for a way out.”
And now, as per my contractual obligations, her are Nathan’s leftover notes but with my snarky commentary:
Rebirth of Mothra III Notes:
This random dude is a Yankees fan. That’d make my alma mater’s b-ball coach happy. (Nathan told me he called Yankee Stadium “Mecca.” –Jimmy)
“Old Tanaka”? A nod to the producer?
Huh? Who’s the bust? Why are there lots of pictures of westerners in a Japanese classroom? (The increased westernization of Japan? –Jimmy)
No one is panicking on the street as Ghidorah flies over at 18:35 or so. (This is Japan. Kaiju attacks are as common as thunderstorms. –Jimmy)
Oh man! The sisters get sparkles this time! (And now so does your new “sister,” Nathan. 😛 –Jimmy)
Mothra leo appears 20 minutes in.
Some of these CGI effects—like the soccer ball hitting the membrane—look hokey.
The classic wing problem: they don’t flap enough.
Fairy shoots at Ghiddorah—and it does nothing.
Of course Lora betrays Moll—she’s played by a new actress. 😛 (A great man once said, “And I thought my jokes were bad.” –Jimmy)
Those CGI tentacles looked terrible.
This is starting to remind me of Gamera 3, and this was a year before it! (I don’t know if that’s too nice to this movie or too mean to Gamera 3. –Jimmy)
Oh no! Tiny grape Koolaide volcanos! (Sounds like my delicious science fair project. –Jimmy)
The set design for the dome is cool.
Hilariously, I think all three sisters wear go-go boots this time. (Do you have a thing for go-go boots, Nathan? This is the third episode you’ve mentioned them. 😛 –Jimmy)
Now the dome walls don’t dissolve things?
We still have 25 minutes to go, and thus feels like the end!
Moll dies—and becomes a Tron animation. (I’m sad this wasn’t said on the air. –Jimmy)
There’s a prehistoric Mothra. Because shut up.
Oh whoa! Belvera rides Fairy!
“Different opinions.” Yeah, on genocide, child murder, mind control. You know, small stuff. (You know, little things. –Jimmy)
It would’ve been cooler if the sister had to stab Moll with the sword to resurrect her. (That sounds a bit sadistic. –Jimmy)
Whoa. Did they actually have a bunch of child extras at the end or was it CGI?
These might be my favorite kids in the trilogy, but they do disappear for a bit in the middle.
Big Book 2 by John LeMay
There’s a photo of Tanaka in the parents’ house.
“Inside Japan’s ‘suicide forest’”
“More than 100 people who were not from the area surrounding Aokigahara committed suicide there between 2013 and 2015, according to a local government report. Countrywide, suicides totaled roughly 24,000 people in 2015 alone, according to the country’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. These numbers do not include attempted suicides.”
“One study found suicide death rates to be on the decline in many peer nations from 1985 to 2010, except in Japan and South Korea, where rates increased by 20% and 280%, respectively.”
“Other studies and government materials have cited a number of risk factors, including academic pressures, depression, overwork, financial struggles and unemployment.”
“Beyond that, there’s stigma around receiving mental health care, especially for men, and a greater tendency in Japan to view suicide as ‘a rational decision.’ One of the terms for suicide is ‘jiketsu,’ which means to decide for yourself.”
“Because the landscape is so similar, the brain is distorted and it is difficult to keep direction at any time.”
“According to some Japanese spiritualists, the trees themselves soaked in themselves a malevolent energy accumulated over centuries.”
“What is Aokigahara? All About The Most Haunted Forest in Japan”
“It all started with a mystery novel called “Kuroi Jukai” (translated as Black Sea of Trees) by Seicho Matsumoto in 1960. The novel ends romantically with the lovers committing suicide in the forest, which revitalized the Suicide Forest’s popularity among those who wanted to end their life.”
I have to give it to Nathan: he got through most of his notes. Mind you, it was our second-longest episode yet, but listeners seem to like it. He does have a terrible habit of over-preparing, though.
Next week Nathan is solo—well, unless you count me heckling him—next week when he does a mini-analysis of 1963’s Matango, which was directed by Ishiro Honda. Then next month we start the “Daimajin Days” when Joe and Joy Metter return to see 1966’s Daimajin.
Also, I have some juicy super-secret inside information about Godzilla vs. Kong. 😉
Twelve-centimeter girls, tiny robot dragons, and redemption—and we’re not talking about the movie!
After some shenanigans with Jimmy From NASA’s teleporter, Nathan and resident “Mothrian” Bex (Redeemed Otaku podcast) finish the “Summer of Mothra” with the surprisingly good Rebirth of Mothra III. Although, maybe they’re just riding high on Bex’s hyperbolic enthusiasm over this movie. But it isn’t hard to improve on the empty, fluffy whimsy of the second one. There’s a lot of meat (bubble) to chew on thematically. Not to mention it also features one of the best-looking King Ghidorahs ever, time travel, and dinosaur puppets. However, Bex gets so carried away with her newfound faith in Mothra, she gets a visit from Monster Island’s chaplain, Rev. Mifune! Uh-oh….
For the first time, we’re covering not one but two Toku Topics: the hikikimori and Aokigahara (Aoki Forest). The child hero, Shota, is likely a member of the former, and much of the movie is set in that infamous forest.
It’s an episode that spans the emotional gamut, that’s for sure!
BE SURE TO LISTEN UNTIL AFTER THE CREDITS!
Here are the Redeemed Otaku episodes Nathan (and his friend Eric Anderson) appeared on to discuss the Godzilla Anime Trilogy:
We’d like to give a shout-out to our Patreon patrons Travis Alexander (host of Kaiju Weekly), Danny DiManna (Godzilla Novelization Project), elizilla13, and Joejira! Thanks for your support! (And also to Michael “The Kaiju Groupie” Hamilton, who joined just before this episode was posted).
All right, this blog, like last week’s episode on King Kong 2005, wants to be as long as that film. Thanks to contractual obligations, I have to include all of Marchand’s unused notes, which he split between his computer and a legal pad for whatever reason this time. I am suddenly more appreciative of the glorious invention that is copy and paste.
Let’s get this over with,
shall we?
My Notes:
Yes, I borrowed Dr. Aoki’s pteronadon bot without permission. I don’t think he’s missed it yet. So, unless he gets transfer to Monster Island, I don’t think it’ll be a problem. As for flying Danny here on it, well, I couldn’t resist taking it for a test flight. I now know how to improve on the thing’s admittedly goofy design.
I dare you to tell me you don’t like sand, DiManna!
I am fine with Daniel calling me “Jimbo”…for now. (Yes, I’m being flippant).
Nice job catching me before I corrected you, Marchand.
Actually, Danny, the dinosaur Kong fights in the original isn’t a Rex. It’s closer to an Allosaurus. It’s just called a “meat-eater” in the novelization.
Actually, Danny, I don’t think gorillas—even Kong—qualify as predators. At least in this film. Normal gorillas are vegetarians, but some do eat insects. Kong in this film was never seen eating meat. Therefore, he doesn’t qualify as a predator.
Jackson himself didn’t say he treated this like filming on Skull Island itself in the 1930s. That was a crewmember. Watch that $5 blu-ray again.
Mothra’s not a butterfly, Daniel! Her species is obvious! (Or was that a joke? I’ll forgive a joke. 😛 ).
I can neither confirm nor deny that I am the Jimmy in this film. And yes, like the Doctor, I will explain later. Maybe.
There were more than just the two crewmembers who survived in the 1933 King Kong, Daniel.
King Kong (1976) is two hours and 14 minutes long. Over one hour shorter.
“I had saw it on the big screen”? Verb tenses, Danny! I expect better from a writer. 😛
Here’s the Roger Ebert review Nathan brought up (and yes, you misremembered what he said). Here’s the video review.
They aren’t T-Rexes, Nathan. They’re V-Rexes. Both of you got it wrong!
“PJ’s version”? Danny is on initials terms with Peter Jackson? I doubt it. 😛
It wasn’t trailers but one of Peter Jackson’s video diaries on www.kongisking.net where he announced back-to-back sequels to the film. They were Son of Kong and King Kong: Into the Wolf’s Lair. And I agree: they would’ve been amazing! You can watch it here with a fan edit trailer. Sadly, it includes a stupid clip from the stupid Date Movie. Ugh!
You got your Bugs Bunny cartoons mixed up, Danny. The one you were thinking of was “What’s Up Doc?” not “Show Biz Bugs” (which you called “Show Biz Bunny”). The latter is about a jealous Daffy Duck trying to upstage Bugs on stage.
My whole backstory will be in my tell-all book, War in Space: The Jimmy From NASA Story. 😛
My international man of mystery Schick gets me more luck the ladies more than you have, Marchand! 😛
I’m happy to say, as promised in this episode, I am now one of Danny’s patrons on Patreon—and I used Nathan’s debit card to do it! 😛
The sexist essay Nathan was referring to (and forgot to include in the show notes) was “The Myth Goes Downward: The Infantilization, Electrification, Mechanization, and General Diminishment of King Kong” by Paul Di Filippo. It’s from the book Kong Unbound: The Cultural Impact, Pop Mythos, and Scientific Plausibility of a Cinematic Legend.
Nathan’s Unused Notes – Blu-Ray Special Features:
Jackson saw King Kong 1933 as a kid in 1970. It
inspired his love of science fiction and fantasy and his desire to be a
filmmaker. He made super 8 films and stop motion. There’s lots of SFX in his
films because he was a “frustrated special effects guy.” Solitary. (-Sounds like me, except I work on robots
and mecha. –Jimmy)
Universal
approached him in 1995 to remake either Kong
or The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
The first script
was closer in tone to The Mummy (1999).
Work was done in
1996 by Weta using lots of practical effects.
Jackson and his
crew visited the Empire State Building, and he signed his name on the peak.
The film wasn’t
storyboarded. It was all pre-viz. No finished script at the time it started.
It had more
miniatures than The Lord of the Rings.
Started with T-Rex
fight like the original film as proof of concept.
Naomi Watts had to
learn how to dance. Jamie Bell (Jimmy) had danced since age 6. (So…I can neither confirm nor deny that I,
too, can dance. –Jimmy)
Jack Black tapped
into his inner-Denham by using an old camera to make short films. Boxer and
criminal.
First shot filmed
was when Ann arrives at dock.
The boat bought
for the production had fish in it that had to be shipped out.
Jackson got
seasick, so he shot on sets.
Jackson says the
natives aren’t based on a particular civilization but are an amalgam of several
from that time. They use their hair to make clothing. The actors came from
Polynesia, Cambodia, etc.
The dinosaurs
weren’t paleontologically accurate but stylized and more evolved. The V-Rexes
were a family (mother, father, juvenile). Some like the Wetasaur were made up.
They used a
massive computer system to from LOTR to make CGI extras. They don’t fight like
Orcs but walk like New Yorkers—any differences? jokes Jackson.
Weta wrote a new
program called Building Bot to create missing buildings in NYC cityscape.
The real Empire
State Building took 14 months to construct. The digital version took 18 months.
Irony. (Digital construction is harder
than real construction. I should know. I worked at NASA. –Jimmy)
Peter Jackson,
Rick Baker, Frank Darabont, and other famous people attached to Kong flew the
airplanes that attacked Kong as a nod to Schoedsack and Cooper doing that in
the 1933 original. Jackson even shaved his trademark beard! (I’m not even sure that was Jackson. Like
Jonathan Frakes as Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, he looks like a completely different
person. Maybe he was dubbed over by the real Jackson? 😛 –Jimmy)
Kong is a misunderstood
monster. Weta watched Charles Laughton in The
Hunchback of Notre Dame for inspiration.
They made him a
punch-drunk boxer and mountain man. They used an albino gorilla at a zoo for
inspiration. (Can you say, “Kiko”? –Jimmy).
His broken jaw was modeled after an inbred pug named Monster. It was toned
down later (as you’ll notice in the first trailer). He was redesigned
after the first trailer.
The final
reference used for Kong was Umagami the ape from an IMAX film. The filmmakers
ultimately decided he should look like a real gorilla.
Gorillas beat
chests with open cupped hands while movie gorillas use fists. They compromised
by having hands between open and clenched.
Some mocap was dropped,
but Serkis was used as reference.
Jackson said this
was always the film he wanted to make.
Nathan’s Unused Notes – The Film:
The opening
credits are like original.
Opens with apes
and monkeys in zoo next to a Hooverville. Then we go to Vaudeville clips. Cuts
between that and images of Depression. Alcohol bottles smashed. Prohibition.
Naomi Watts’
costume looks just like Fay Wray’s.
I never knew there
were that many nicknames for breasts in the ‘30s.
“Universal is
desperate for stock footage!” (4th wall)
Maybe it’s the
writer in me, but I like that Jack Driscoll is a playwright in this. “If you
really loved it, you would’ve jumped” (Denham to Jack).
Jimmy?! Is that my
producer?! Stowed away. Found in hold 4 years ago. Arm broken in two places.
Wouldn’t say where he came from. He’s a prankster. Defaces Baxter’s posters.
Jimmy can dance!
Live animals in
cage sign on Jack’s cage. Symbolic?
Was it necessary
to have the typing of Skull Island be in slo-mo?
Ann and Jack’s
relationship gets more development in this than original. All the characters
get more development. Helps that it’s 3 hours long!
Sure, hold the
important map over the edge of the ship! Yep! There it goes!
Is it just me or
did the rock the Venture bumps into
at 51 minutes look like a huge face? One definitely does later.
Of course there
are skulls on Skull Island.
Jackson is a
little overly fond of scary slo-mo in this film.
Ann screams and
then Kong roars. Appropriate.
The wall and
natives definitely remind me of LOTR. There’s a chasm as well as a wall. That
helps explain how the creatures are kept out.
Triceratops’ twitching
tail homage to original?
I love that Lumpy
tries to kill a bug with a frying pan. Then he shoots them.
“There’s only one
creature capable of leaving a footprint that size…and that’s me!” (Lumpy)
“Nobody’s gonna
think these are fake”(4th wall).
These raptors are
crazy. Going after prey that huge?!
Wilhelm scream!
Preston looks like
he’s heard this speech many times.
“I’m just an actor
with a gun who’s lost his motivation” (4th wall).
We see Kong eating
plants like a real gorilla.
Kong blocks Ann’s
way like in ’76.
Running around
barefoot in a jungle must be tearing up her feet.
Water scorpions?
Man, everything on this island is crazy aggressive.
And Denham becomes
a snuff filmmaker.
Not all CGI. Some
practical creature effects.
Kong does pick up
a man: Hayes.
The iconic log
scene recreated. Tries to account for surviving fall by having it get caught on
vines.
It’s hard not to
invite Jurassic Park comparisons.
Quietest. V-Rex.
Ever!
I love that Kong
stands with one foot on V-Rex when he beats his chest.
The shot of Jack
and Ann running through the jungle looks just like ’33.
The Broadway sign
looks just like ’33.
“The Beast”: a
working title for ’33.
“Kong’s unfailing
ability to destroy the things he loves.”
Kong starts
grabbing every blonde he sees. From the real jungle to the urban/concrete
jungle.
The trolley attack
references the train attack in ’33.
The military
attacking Kong makes me think of a Japanese kaiju film.
Wow. The biplanes
deploy without anyone talking about it. Dang!
I wonder which cameos
were in the planes Kong destroyed?
Now the pilots see
Ann. They only almost killed her once.
The soldiers pose and
smile over Kong’s corpse. Sensationalize.
Nathan’s Unused Notes – King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon by Ray Morton:
Robert Zemeckis
would’ve been the executive on Jackson’s 1997 script for Kong if it was filmed.
The Frighteners
poor performance shook Universal’s confidence in Jackson.
Jack Driscoll was
modeled after Arthur Miller (All My Sons,
Death of a Salesman, A View from the Bridge).
Jackson sought to
combine elements of Cooper’s beastly Kong with de Laurentiis’s more romantic
Kong. Saw him as a battle-hardened silverback. He told the Los Angles times he
saw Kong as “a very old gorilla [that has] never felt a single bit of empathy
for another living creature during his long…brutal life.” Kong intended to kill
Ann, “and then he slowly moves away from that and it comes full circle.”
Nathan’s Unused Notes – “King Kong’s Melancholly” by
Cynthia Erb:
Jackson called Universal’s cancelation of his original Kong script “the blackest day in my entire career.”
Argues that Jackson’s Kong is melancholy and shifts the emphasis from horror to mood and tears because Watts’ Ann cries more than she screams.
Argues that the extended cut frames Kong as an invader and presents the U.S. as “a bullying global entity at a stage of late empire” a la Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Says Jackson’s Kong reframes history through a modern lens (9/11 allegory).
Uses the “Depression” to set a mood of “depression.” Focused on objects, which leads to melancholy. Watts’ Ann is earthy, hungry.
This Ann is less afraid of predatory men than of being put into a “standardized role.” An indication of modernity. She gets up to leave when Denham wonders if she’d fit in a size four dress.
Says Black’s manic Denham makes him a character type called an intriguer or schemer, which also characterized Shakespeare’s Iago in Othello. This forms a “dyadic relationship” with the depressive Kong.
Argues that Jackson’s Kong is driven not by a sex drive but by a “death drive.” Jacqueline Rose: “The death drive is identified by Freud in the moment when the child seeks to master absence by staging the recall of the lost object, but finds it can only do so by first making the object disappear. This allows the child to achieve its aim only by repeating the very moment it is designed to avoid.” Compares Kong to Norman Bates in Psycho. Compulsive repetition.
The Manhattanites and Islanders are paralleled in that both are shown to survivors in a harsh environment.
Argues that the overzealous soldiers attacking Kong in Central Park, seeing him as an invader and New York as “sacred ground,” is an allegory for 9/11. Argues that this goes further with the skeletal Empire State Building in the morning, which parallels Art Spiegelman’s 9/11 memoir In the Shadow of No Towers. Kong seemingly mouthing “beautiful” on top of the structure recalls how American towers were seen as “utopian gestures…transcendental, sky-catching, awesome” (Mark Kingwell).
https://gfycat.com/flatwhichaustralianfurseal
Well, I’m glad that’s
done. If you read the whole thing, congrats!
Join us next week for a
(hopefully) much shorter episode on another epic: the 1959 Toho classic The Three Treasures, starring Toshiro
Mifune. Then the “Kong Quest” enters the MonsterVerse with Kong: Skull Island in April with Dallas Mora of Geek Devotions as the guest host.
Follow me on Twitter: @NasaJimmy #JimmyFromNASALives #WeShallOvercome
It’s an epic episode for
an epic movie! No, not that stupid
parody film. Nathan is joined by Daniel DiManna, the creator and author of The Godzilla
Novelization Project, to discuss Peter Jackson HUGE 2005 remake of King Kong. (Although, Danny had to
survive a harrowing trip to Monster Island with the podcast’s intrepid
producer, Jimmy From NASA, and a
certain robot dinosaur to do so). Only Peter Jackson, who was fresh off of The Lord of the Rings, could’ve made a
three hour film about a giant monkey, er, ape. Nathan and Danny do a deep dive
into the film’s characters, themes, and story while struggling not to get Jack
Driscoll and Jack Black confused. They freely admit this is the one giant
monster movie that makes them cry. They also learn that the young man named
Jimmy in this film may or may not be the podcast’s producer. (Confused? Join
the club). The Toku Topic is vaudeville since Ann Darrow in this film is a
vaudeville performer before getting work on Carl Denham’s movie.
Nathan promises to not
make a habit of producing episodes that cross what Danny calls “the Kurosawa
threshold.” 😛
Timestamps: Intro: 0:00-6:08
Entertaining Info Dump: 6:08-15:29
Toku Talk: 15:29-1:55:52
Toku Topic: 1:55:52-2:29:43
Outro: 2:29:43-end
King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray
to Peter Jackson by Ray Morton
“King Kong’s
Melancholy: A Reading of Peter Jackson’s King
Kong” by Cynthia Erb (from Tracking
King Kong: A Hollywood Icon in World Culture, 2nd Edition)
Kong Unmade: The Lost Films of Skull Island by John LeMay
A Night in Vaudeville (King Kong Blu-Ray)
Recreating the Eighth Wonder: The Making of King Kong (King
Kong Blu-Ray)
