King Kong Escapes

Because we had Dogura in season one after the anime trilogy and Kiryu Saga stuff.

And now we had King Kong Escapes after that stuff this season, which is kind of like, again, it's like a weird 60s kaiju movie directed by Ishiro Honda with Hideo Yamamoto in it.

So if the parallels continue, what would our next thing to parallel be?

Godzilla versus Mechagodzilla, because the next movie after Dogra was Terror of Mechagodzilla.

That's right

... it's kind of fourth because you've got the two full retellings, but then you also have King Kong Escapes, which kind of like half does the origin again where they go to the island and discover Kong.

And also Godzilla vs. Kong where they have the octopus fight-

I suppose

I think it's by a mile better than Son of Kong

... for, for my money, it's not by much.

For me, and I'm looking at it, the movies so far was the original King Kong, Son of Kong, King Kong versus Godzilla, King Kong Escapes, the Toho movie-

The best one

So I put two movies down.

I watched Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, and I watched King Kong Escapes, which King Kong Escapes has the Mechagodzilla in it.

The King Kong Escapes was good, but the Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla was great.

And so I can say I am more of a Godzilla fan than King Kong fan, and I want to go back and watch them all, dude.

[laughs]

I went a little too hard in my car listening to AFI earlier, so my voice is not at its peak today.

But anyways, today we are discussing 1967's King Kong Escapes, directed by Ishiro Honda and written by Kaoru Mabuchi, also known as Takeshi Kimura.

So it's pretty well known in kaiju fandom, the backstory to this film.

But in 1962, King Kong versus Godzilla was a smash hit and apparently enough to inspire Rankin Bass, who actually held the rights in the U.S., the animation and claymation firm behind a lot of those famous claymation Christmas specials, as well as several Tolkien adaptations, among many other things.

And this is back in the days of VHS tape.

You could tape a show on your VHS machine.

So I ran downstairs and I put the tape in and it was the King Kong versus Gorosaurus fight from King Kong Escapes.

I don't think he got the whole movie.

We've covered a few of them.

The Kong versus Godzilla match-up was part of our Kong retrospective, and the director that made the film we're here to talk about tonight, he made King Kong Escapes.

If you remember, they made another Kong film in Japan with, like, a metal monkey.

That's right.

Then you get a sixth news report after the train attack.

And then you get a seventh news report after King Kong escapes from the boat and the detonation and all that shit.

You get an eighth report after Godzilla and Kong had a first round.

You get a ninth UN report after they try and put Godzilla into the hole and it fails miserably.

I think that's the one.

No.

King Kong Escapes.

That's the one I'm thinking of where that was another Japanese made King Kong movie without Godzilla.

Yeah.

This movie, half of the movie is like goofy hijinks and I'm like, hey, if that was the whole movie, that's what I liked about King Kong Escapes where it was like, they're not trying to make a fucking godfather.

They got a monkey, they got a robot monkey and they're gonna make him fucking fight.

And so when you dive into the goofiness, I forgive a lot more.

That is like such a small portion of the movie.

This is not...

Like, because King Kong Escapes was like, Gas, with straight gas the entire way through.

That's such a fun, stupid, classic, schlocky

That's the best part with doing this podcast is just meeting the creators and meeting so many of these genre talents.

I recently had an interview with Linda Miller who appeared in King Kong Escapes.

So that's the closest I've been to quote-unquote, rarefied air.

But she was hardly...

I believe it.

I believe it.

The mightiest monster of all time in his greatest adventure, King Kong Escapes.

Can the sinister Doctor Who enslave King Kong's fantastic strength? Can King Kong defy the might of modern artillery, tanks, missiles? See King Kong battle primordial monsters, an air armada, submarines, and finally see King Kong battle man's most evil creation, a robot Kong of steel.