King Kong is the name of the fictional giant ape, from Skull Island, who has appeared in several works since 1933. Most of these bear his name, and include the groundbreaking 1933 film, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, and numerous sequels.
In the original film, the character's name is Kong -- a name given to him by the inhabitants of "Skull Island" in the Indian Ocean, where Kong lived along with other over-sized animals such as a plesiosaur, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs. 'King' is an appellation added by an American film crew led by Carl Denham who captures Kong and takes him to New York City to be exhibited. Kong escapes and climbs the Empire State Building (the World Trade Center in the 1976 remake) where he is shot and killed by aircraft. However, "it was beauty who killed the beast", as he only climbed the building in the first place in an attempt to protect actress Ann Darrow (Dwan in the 1976 remake).
A mockumentary about Skull Island on the DVD for the 2005 remake gives Kong's scientific name as Megaprimatus kong, and states that his species may have evolved from Gigantopithecus.
Filmography
King Kong (1933). The original, classic film, is remembered for its pioneering special effects using stop-motion models, animatronics and evocative story.
Son of Kong (1933). A sequel released the same year, it concerns a return expedition to Skull Island that discovers Kong's son.
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). A film produced by Toho Studios in Japan. It brought the titular characters to life (the first time for both characters to be in a film in color) via the process of suitmation. In the Toho version he is at least five times the size of the one in King Kong. This is more than likely because of a significant difference in size between the original King Kong, and Godzilla, Kong was scaled to make the fight more fair.
King Kong Escapes (1967). Another Toho film in which Kong faces both a mechanical double, dubbed Mechani-Kong, and a giant theropod dinosaur known as Gorosaurus (who would appear in Toho's Destroy All Monsters the next year). This movie was influenced by the contemporaneous cartoon television program, as indicated by the use of its recurring villain, Dr. Who, in the same capacity.
King Kong Lives (1986). Released by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG). Starring Linda Hamilton, a sequel by the same producer and director as the 1976 film which involves Kong surviving his fall from the sky and requiring a coronary operation. It includes a female member of Kong's species, who, after supplying a blood transfusion that enables the life-saving surgery, escapes and mates with Kong, becoming pregnant with his offspring. Trashed by critics, this was a box-office failure.
King Kong (2005). A Universal Pictures remake of the original (set in the same period) by Academy award-winning New Zealand director Peter Jackson, best known for directing the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The most recent incarnation of Kong is also the longest, running three hours and eight minutes. Winner of three Academy Awards for visual effects, sound mixing, and sound editing.
Late in 2005, the BBC and Hollywood trade papers reported that a 3-Dstereoscopic version of the 2005 film was being created from the animation files, and live actors digitally enhanced for 3D display. This may be just an elaborate 3D short for Universal Studios Theme Park, or a digital 3D version for general release in 2007.
Books
The literary tradition of a remote and isolated jungle populated by natives and prehistoric animals was rooted in the Lost World genre, specifically Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World, which was itself made into a silent film of that title in 1925 that Doyle lived long enough to see. The special effects of that film were created by Willis O'Brien, who went on to do those for the 1933 King Kong. Another important book in that literary genre is Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1918 novel The Land That Time Forgot.
A novelization of the original King Kong film was published in December 1932 as part of the film's advance marketing. The novel was credited to Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper, although it was in fact written by Delos W. Lovelace. Apparently, however, Cooper was the key creative influence, saying that he got the initial idea after he had a dream that a giant gorilla was terrorizing New York City. In an interview, comic book author Joe DeVito explains:
"From what I know, Edgar Wallace, a famous writer of the time, died very early in the process. Little if anything of his ever appeared in the final story, but his name was retained for its saleability ... King Kong was Cooper’s creation, a fantasy manifestation of his real life adventures. As many have mentioned before, Cooper was Carl Denham. His actual exploits rival anything Indiana Jones ever did in the movies." [1]
This conclusion about Wallace's contribution agrees with The Making of King Kong, by Orville Goldner and George E. Turner (1975). In a diary entry from 1932, Wallace wrote: "I am doing a super-horror story with Merian Cooper, but the truth is it is much more his story than mine ... I shall get much more credit out of the picture than I deserve if it is a success, but as I shall be blamed by the public if it's a failure, that seems fair" (p. 58). Wallace died of pneumonia complicated by diabetes on February 10, 1932, and Cooper later said, "Actually, Edgar Wallace didn't write any of Kong, not one bloody word... I'd promised him credit and so I gave it to him" (p. 59).
Several differences exist in the novel from the completed film, as it reflects an earlier draft of the script that became the final shooting script. The novelization includes scenes from the screenplay that were cut from the completed movie, or were never shot altogether. These include the spider pit sequence, as well as a Styracosaurus attack, and Kong battling three Triceratops.
The original publisher was Grosset & Dunlap. Paperback editions by Bantam (U.S.) and Corgi (UK) came out in the 1960s, and it has since been republished by Penguin and Random House.
In 1933, Mystery Magazine published a King Kongserial under the name of Walter F. Ripperger. This is unrelated to the 1932 novel.
Over the decades, there have been numerous comic book adaptations of the 1933 King Kong by various comic-book publishers, and one of the 2005 remake by Dark Horse Comics.
Kong: King of Skull Island, an illustrated novel labeled as an authorized sequel to King Kong (1933), was published in 2004 by DH Press, a subsidiary of Dark Horse Comics. A large-paperback edition was released in 2005. Authorized by the family and estate of Merian C. Cooper, the book was created & illustrated by Joe DeVito, written by Brad Strickland with John Michlig, and includes an introduction by Ray Harryhausen. The novel's story ignores the existence of Son of Kong (1933) and continues the story of Skull Island with Carl Denham and Jack Driscoll in the late 1950s, through the novel's central character, Vincent Denham. (Ann Darrow is not included, but mentioned several times.) The novel also becomes a prequel that reveals the story of the early history of Kong, of Skull Island, and of the natives of the island.
The novelization of the 2005 movie was written by Christopher Golden, based on the screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, & Peter Jackson, which was, of course, in turn based on the original story by Merian C. Cooper & Edgar Wallace. (The Island of the Skull, a "prequel" novel to the 2005 movie, was released at nearly the same time.)
In November 2005, to coincide with the release of the 2005 movie, Weta Workshop released a collection of concept art from the film entitled The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island. While similar collections of production art have been released in the past to compliment other movies, The World of Kong is unusual - if not unique - in that it is written and designed to resemble and read like an actual nature guide and historical record, not a movie book.
Also in 2005, ibooks published Kong Reborn by Russell Blackford. Ignoring all films except the 1933 original, it is set in the present day. Carl Denham's grandson finds some genetic material from the original Kong and attempts to clone him.
Television
The King Kong Show (1966). In this cartoon series, the famous giant gorilla befriends the Bond family, with whom he goes on various adventures, fighting monsters, robots, mad scientists and other threats. Produced by Rankin/Bass, the animation was provided in Japan by Toei Animation, making this the very first anime series to be commissioned right out of Japan by an American company. This was also the cartoon that resulted in the production of Toho's Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (originally planned as a Kong film) and King Kong Escapes.
Kong: The Animated Series (2001). An unofficial animated production set many decades after the events of the original film. "Kong" is cloned by a female scientist.
A direct-to-DVD movie called Kong: King of Atlantis, based on the 2001 series, has been released to try and cash in on the 2005 movie. Both the series and movie were then included in Toon Disney's "Jetix" group for a time, also to take advantage of the 2005 movie's release.
King Kong made an appearance in the 2nd episode of Where My Dogs At? in the background of the MTV Movie Awards.
The King Kong suit from King Kong Escapes appeared on Ike! Greenman episode 38 called Greenman vs Gorilla. Due copyright reasons King Kong's name was change to Gorilla.
Related Films
A rare photo of the lost film King Kong Appears in Edo.
The premise of a giant gorilla brought to the United States for entertainment purposes, and subsequently wreaking havoc, was recycled in Mighty Joe Young, (1949, remade in 1998).
King Kong bears some similarities with an earlier effort by special effects head Willis O'Brien, The Lost World (1925), in which dinosaurs are found living on an isolated plateau. Scenes from a failed O'Brien project, Creation, were cannibalized for the 1933 Kong. Creation was also about a group of people stumbling into an environment where prehistoric creatures have survived extinction.
An obscure Japanese clone, Japanese King Kong (和製キングコング, Wasei Kingu Kongu), directed by Torajiro Saito featuring an all-Japanese cast and produced by the Shochiku company, was also released in 1933. Detailed information outside of Japan about this film cannot be found. [2]
King Kong Appears in Edo (江戸に現れたキングコング, Edo ni Arawareta Kingu Kongu). An unofficial and enigmatic Japanese-made monster/period piece by company Zensho Kinema in which King Kong attacks medieval Edo (modern Tokyo), and arguably Japan's first kaiju (giant monster) film, predating Godzilla by sixteen years. Although inaccurate to its historical setting, some Caligari-esque expressionistic buildings were added for Kong to climb. The film has been lost since its theatrical run in 1938, but rare photos available in books in Japan prove this film's existence. Fuminori Ohashi, who would go on to create the suit for the titular monster in Godzilla, created the special effects for this film.[3]
The Mighty Kong, an unofficial (this is why it was called Mighty Kong rather than King Kong) straight to video 1998 animated musical/remake of the 1933 film. It featured the voices of Jodi Benson and Dudley Moore. This film also featured a song score by the Sherman Brothers.
King Kong appears in the 1996 Imax film Special Effects: Anything Can Happen. In this film, the classic climax of the 1933 film is recreated with modern (at the time) digital special effects.
Pop culture references
King Kong has been referenced and parodied many times in film, music, television and literature.
In the movie Training Day, Denzel Washington's character Alonzo asserts his power and prowess by claiming that "King Kong ain't got shit on me!"
All of the dinosaur scenes from King Kong are referenced or mimicked in each of the three Jurassic Park films, and Kong is mentioned directly in the first one - as the tour group approaches the massive Jurassic Park gate, Jeff Goldblum's character asks, "What have they got in there, King Kong?".
In the 1933 animated Mickey Mouse short film, "Mickey's Mechanical Man", Mickey's invention, a robot, is engaged in a boxing match against an ape known as "Killer Kong."
In Popeye meets Sindbad The Sailor In Sindbad's theme song he says that a two headed guy would frighten King Kong.
Although gorillas have been featured as foils and opponents in several of the Warner Bros. cartoons, Kong seems to have been referenced only once ever, when Bugs Bunny snaps, "Go on! Shove off, 'King Kong'!" at an escaped zoo gorilla who Bugs thinks is intruding on his barrel organ panhandling territory.
The lyrics of the Jim Croce song "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" states the track's title character is "badder than ol' King Kong."
In the Little Shop of Horrors remake, the monstrous Audrey II sings, "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space", a line of which is: "Don't you talk to me about ol' King Kong / Y'think he's the worst / Well you're thinkin' wrong."
The television series DuckTales parodies King Kong in two episodes: In "Ducky Horror Picture Show" a group of scary movie monsters are spending the night in Scrooge McDuck's mansion. One of the monsters who shows up is a giant gorilla named Ping Pong who climbs up Scrooge's Money Bin after he arrives. Later, "Attack of the 50-Foot Webby" had Webby in the role of King Kong climbing a building with an ironic moment of her holding the monkey in her own hand.
In the Uncle Scrooge Comic "Escape from Forbidden Valley" uses a lot of King Kong References, particularly the part where the mother Dinosaur removes Donald Duck's shirt which is the same scenario that happened to Fay Wray's character in the 1933 movie.
In the Darkwing Duck episode "Film Flam", the protagonist contends with assorted movie characters that are conjured off from movie-theater screens, and a giant gorilla named Konjo is one characters summoned. The newly conjured Konjo grabs hold of Darkwing Duck's daughter, Gosalyn Mallard and scales up a tall building in a very Kong-like way. (Gosalyn:"Help me! I'm being kidnapped by a fictional character!").
The animated Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Grape Ape, about the adventures of a 40-foot tall purple gorilla, is arguably inspired by King Kong.
Penelope Pitstop played damsel-in-distress on a movie set, with a giant wind-up robot gorilla. Pitstop (in Wacky Races this time) also once deals with a Son of Kong-size gorilla called "King Klonk".
A popular television spoof was the segment 'King Homer' from The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror III", in which the story was retold featuring Simpsons characters, with Homer as Kong, Marge as Ann Darrow and Mr. Burns as the Carl Denham analogues. The spoof follows the plot of the 1933 film closely; however, it ends with Marge marrying King Homer after he collapses in exhaustion, failing to climb beyond the second story of the Springfield State Building. The film was referenced again on The Simpsons in the episode "Monty Can't Buy Me Love", where Mr. Burns captures the Loch Ness Monster and brings him back to America to entertain an audience; however, instead of the Monster going berserk during its debut, Burns himself is startled by the flash photography and causes the carnage. King Homer makes another appearance in the opening couch gag of "Jazzy and the Pussycats." Homer grabs Marge from the couch and scales the Empire State Building, all while fending off 1930s-style airplanes.
"Kitten Kong" was a 1971 episode of the BBC comedy series The Goodies, in which a fluffy white kitten was enlarged to super-size. Some surprisingly good special effects enabled the kitten to destroy several famous landmarks, including St Paul's Cathedral and the Post-Office Tower, before reverting to normal.
Tiny Toon Adventures has two parodies. The first is in the episode "You asked for it", where Plucky Duck asks to be the biggest star in Acme Acres. He suddenly is transformed into a huge 40-foot creature going by the name "Duck Kong". He winds up climbing a tall building at the end of the short with Shirley the Loon in his hand and meeting another giant gorilla named Chuckles who is already at the top of the building he was climbing and holding his own female captive as well. The second is in the episode "Toon TV" during a music video for The Shoop Shoop Song. In a twist, the ape (Buster Bunny) makes it clear he doesn't want to be kissed by the girl (Babs Bunny).
A two-part Energizer Battery commercial had the 1933 Kong himself contracted by a rival battery corporation (SuperVolt) to get rid of the Energizer Bunny for them. The commercials were done in black-and-white, and used cleverly edited 1933 Kong sequences (possibly combined with new computer-generated Kong shots). The concluding second-part had Kong cornering the Bunny on the roof of a New York City building (complete with biplanes flying in the sky). His foot in an open window interrupts a couple (resembling Ann Darrow and Jack Driscoll) having a romantic moment. The woman, extremely annoyed, slams the window on Kong's toes, making him lose his balance and grip, sending him falling.
In the 1968 film Yellow Submarine, the characters look in a room where a monster ape smashes through a window to get at a screaming woman on a bed. ("Do you think we're interrupting something?" George nonchalantly comments of it, to which John replies, "I think so.")
In the 1974 film Down and Dirty Duck, there is a brief animation sequence where one of the lead characters, Willard, transforms into a giant ape, grabs a girl from out of a bus, strips her clothes off, and climbs up the Empire State Building where he is shot at by cannons with change into the long noses of several onlookers, the State Building changes into a bus stop sign, and the ape turns back into normal-sized Willard.
In the 2005 film Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the giant were-rabbit grabs Lady Tottington and leaps onto a Tottington hall, and crawls around the roof avoiding Victor before climbing up a tall tower while Gromit and Phillip chase each other in biplanes stolen from a fairground called "Dogfight". The Wererabbit also pounds his chest and howls.
Swedish pop group ABBA recorded a song titled "King Kong Song" as a track for their 1974 album Waterloo. The song relates to a songwriter who writes a song about dancing like a gorilla after having seen the original King Kong on television.
Bow Wow Wow, the 80's new wave/punk band (who had a big hit with their cover version of "I Want Candy"), recorded a song titled "King Kong" on their 1981 album, "I Want Candy".
A Bob Newhart skit was entitled "King Kong", where a rookie security guard phones for help in dealing with an ape on the building.
Disney's Herbie Rides Again villain (Alonzo Hawk) has a nightmare, with himself a giant (in his pajamas) atop the Empire State Building and being attacked by flying VW Beetles squirting oil in his face.
The animation that presents the title and opening credits of The Pink Panther Strikes Again shows the Pink Panther performing in parodies of numerous famous movies, including Kong on the Empire State Building.
The third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers references Kong in the episode "A Chimp In Charge": As Finster tries to transform a chimpanzee into a monster, he remarks "Don't you want to be a big gorilla like King, uh... what's-his-name?"
The 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow concludes on a tropical island of beasts that is similar to Skull Island, called "Totenkopf's Island". ("Totenkopf" is German for "Death's Head", which is a skull emblem.) Also at the island, there can be seen a sunken ship named "Venture", and then an action scene on a fallen tree that bridges a chasm.
The 2005 Disney movie, Chicken Little, depicts a short clip of the character "Fish Out Of Water" on a paper version of the Empire State Building swatting at paper airplanes and beating his chest. Fish is finally struck in the head and falls in slow motion to the ground. "Runt Of The Litter" picks up a paper figure and quotes Carl Denham by saying, "Twas beauty that killed the beast."
The 1990 film Gremlins 2: The New Batch has a brief shot of Daffy the Mogwai sitting atop a model of a tall building, swatting at a biplane mobile, which is hanging nearby.
Giant gorillas similar to Kong are part of a story in the anime TV-series "Speed Racer", which takes place on an African island that is the 007-villain-style secret base of an exiled army (who suspiciously resemble Nazis) and a "traditional" mad-scientist, who plan to unleash war on the entire world (again) with an "army of giants" (direct quote). Around a half-dozen Kong-size gorillas -- along with an unrevealed number of giant spiders -- are shown to have been successfully created, and the next stage in the experiments was to be experimenting on humans.
An episode of the post-apocalyptic cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian involved a race of monkey-people reconstructing a full-sized animatronic Kong that had been (fictitiously) built for the 1976 remake, and had been buried during the cataclysm.
Superman: The Animated Series featured an episode named "Monkey Fun" in which a chimpanzee astronaut named Titano gets mutated into a gigantic pseudo-gorilla. This was also a remake of an episode from a 1960's animated Superman titled "The Chimp Who Made it Big" and it followed the comic book origins of Titano more closely. In the 60's version of the cartoon episode the chimp was named Toto originally and renamed to Titano after he grew in size giving him a more Kong sounding name. Titano in the earlier version would grab Lois Lane and walk off with her much like Kong did in the movies but the newer Titano doesn't do so in the 90's version. The Titano character in the Superman comic books was originally inspired by King Kong.
A very obvious spoof is found in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "Turtles of the Jungle", which dealt with a growth ray that accidentally changed the inventor of said growth ray's pet monkey, Jocko, into a 40-foot ape. Jocko winds up eventually grabbing April O'Neil and climbing up the tallest building in the city with her in his hand. April even goes on to say, "Either giant gorillas like to hold women and climb tall buildings, or he's seen the movie." Raphael, while fighting the large Jocko, also referred to him as "King Klutz".
Another clear parody can be seen in The Real Ghostbusters episode "Adventures in Slime and Space", where Slimer is split into a million pieces of himself and eventually reassembles becoming a giant sized Slimer after doing so. At one point he reaches into a building, picks up Janine Melnitz and flies her to the top of the Empire State Building. Peter Venkman while flying in a helicopter and seeing the giant Slimer holding Janine atop the building comments in a nod to King Kong, "Well that will keep the gorillas off. Where's Fay Wray now that we need her?"
Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" book Moving Pictures climaxes with a giant, 50 foot woman carrying a screaming ape up a tall tower, where she is confronted by two flying wizards on a broomstick firing arrows.
In 1975, the Jimmy Castor Bunch released a single called "King Kong, Part 1".
On the 50th anniversary of the original film in 1983, a giant balloon of King Kong, similar to those used in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, was fashioned and attached to the spire atop the Empire State Building. Alas, high winds ripped it apart within an hour, but it lasted long enough for its photograph to appear on the front page of the next day's New York Times. [citation needed]
King Kong is occasionally mentioned in the Donkey Kong Country cartoon. In the episode "From Zero to Hero", Diddy Kong continually complains about Kong not winning in King Kong vs. Godzilla (a misconception on Diddy's part; despite an early defeat by Godzilla, Kong is the final victor in the movie), and in "The Legend of the Crystal Coconut", DK mentions in a song that King Kong is his idol and he has an autographed picture of him. Also, in "Get a Life! Don't Save One!", while pretending to fly Funky Kong's biplane badly, DK comments that "It's more fun bein' in one of these biplanes than on top of some skyscraper!"
There was an episode of Kirby: Right Back At Ya! where a giant ape monster called Bonkers grabs Tiff in one of his hands and climbs King Dedede's castle.
In the film version of Anonymous Rex, one of the dinosaurs are explaining a type of gas. When he's explaining it's effects, he says; "take a whiff of this and you could take on King Kong."
In the Jackie Chan Adventures episode "Little Valmont, Big Jade", when Daolon Wong orders the Dark Chi Warriors to get giant Jade, Finn says, "You're going down, Queen Kong!"
In the Wild Cards series of novels, a character known as the 'Great Ape' shows up after a major blackout in New York. A copy of Kong in almost every way, the gigantic ape breaks out of a special enclosure in the Central Park Zoo on regular occasions and climbs the assorted skyscrapers (often after capturing a blonde). One day, Dr. Tachyon discovers the truth: that the 'Great Ape' is a Wild Card with shapeshifting abilities who turned into a copy of King Kong but couldn't retain his own consciousness in the process. Tachyon uses his telepathic powers to restore the man's mind and he returns to his natural form, not having aged a day in the decades he was the 'Great Ape.'
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show", the song "Science Fiction/Double Feature" pays homage to King Kong with the included lyric: "Then something went wrong for Fay Wray and King Kong ... they got caught in a celluloid jam." And the ending replicates Rocky carrying Dr. Frankenfurter on the RKO logo like what King Kong did to Fay Wray in the climax of King Kong.
An episode of Pokemon is called "Slaking Kong" where Team Rocket uses a Slaking Robot disguised as a real Slaking. The Empire State Building scene is also parodied when the Slaking Robot carries May up to the top of a huge boulder, while Ash battles the robot with his Swellow (symbolizing the airplanes).
The music video for the Cars song "You Might Think" parodies Kong on the Empire State Building with Fay Wray, with lead singer Ric Ocasek standing in for the ape, and keyboardist Greg Hawkes and guitarist Elliot Easton standing in for the fighter pilots.
In the show The Fairly Odd Parents Timmy Turner receives a muffin for going one year without losing his Godparents. This muffin can grant one rule free wish for him. A monkey gets it and wishes (As far as we know) that the main species on earth are primates. Afterwards, as a result Timmy's Father is seen on a sky scraper swatting at flying gorillas.
In the episode "Incredible Guts" of Megaman: Axess, the character Dex uses a device called the Net Wrecker to power up his Net Navi Gutsman, causing him to grow to tremendous size by swiping special memory cards through the machine. However, Dex used too many cards and caused Gutsman to grow into a rampaging monster. The situation climaxed when Gutsman kidnaps Roll and climbs up a skyscraper, forcing Megaman to rescue her riding on top of a virus.
The well-known Cleveland based variety show, Big Chuck and Little John, is centered around the two comedians speaking in front of a vintage image of the 1933 King Kong, wearing sunglasses.
The Cider House Rules (film) used the 1933 version of the movie for Movie Night at the Orphanage. The children got upset when the movie would break in the middle of the scene where King Kong removes Fay Wray's clothing.
The American Kaiju Gigante is a giant gorilla in scale with Toho's Kong, but instead of fighting Godzilla, he battles a mutant alligator that towers over him, like Godzilla compared to King Kong. He was created by Todd Tennant for a comic book, "Gigante".
In the comic-book phase of Mad Magazine, there was a parody titled "Ping Pong!" written by Harvey Kurtzman and drawn by Bill Elder. The story concentrates on the expedition dickering with the natives, losing the crew to dinosaurs, finding Kong, and transporting him back to the States. On the last page, the people turn out to be about 6 inches tall when they get onto the pier in New York harbor, and "Ping Pong" is proportionate to them!
In the Justice League episode "Metamorphosis", a giant humanoid slime monster picks up and carries around a young blonde named Sapphire.
In an episode of the Disney Channel TV show "Hannah Montana", when Jackson has to dress up as Hannah's grandmother to get a pair of earrings back, he is describing his "life" as it was many years ago. In a short scene, Jackson is heard concluding his story with the line: "and then, Kong put me down and turned to face the airplanes."
In the new Nickolodeon TV movie, "Shredderman Rules", the main villain, Mr. Bixby, is heard referencing Kong as an example of how he wouldn't let the little people bring him down. Near the end of the movie, he is ironically found climbing a small metal tower to retrieve a contract that had been blown to the top. The main character, Nolan, sends his two small toy biplanes flying at him and they subsequently knock him off and into the lake. Later, Nolan's father, a reporter, asks the mayor what he has to say about the incident. The mayor replies, "It was duty killed the beast."
In an episode of "Full House," where Joey, Jesse, and Danny pretend to be the Wolfman and his family to show Stephanie that he isn't scary, Kong is referenced. "Have you been going around scaring people again Wolfy," asks Danny, pretending to be The Wolf Man's mother. "King Kong does it," replies Jesse. "And if King Kong jumped off the Empire State Building I suppose you would too right," asks Joey, acting like the father.
In the 1959 movie "A Summer Place", two teens attempt to duck out to "neck" or "make out" and tell their parents they are going to a classic movie showing of the 1933 movie "King Kong". They fret that if they don't watch the movie, they might not be able to answer questions, but she says "I've seen it. He dies in the end. It's very sad." The line may also be a description of their own doomed love, though they don't realize it yet.
In an episode of Rocko's Modern Life, Filbert must perform a full check-up of Rocko's mouth for his Dentristy final. He x-rays the teeth, causing one of them to grow to massive sizes. It proceeds to pick up Rocko and take him to the top of Conglom-O Inc. and roar. Filbert, dresses as the Tooth Fairy, goes up and tries to destroy the beast. Filbert throws a hook at the cavity in the mutated tooth, and it drops Rocko, then falling to it's death. At the bottom, with the body of the tooth in the background, Filbert's teacher says, "We killed the beast." Filbert then says "No, it was tartar that killed the beast."
In the first season, episode 13 of Robot Chicken, Kong is parodied by an explorer who makes obvious statements about Kong such as "Why do you need a fence, he's a giant monkey and he could climb it?" and also "Why should there only one Kong, when they could be a bunch of them?". Meanwhile, Kong is outside the gates listening to everything the explorer is saying and following thru with it, much to the dismay of the villagers in the compound.
Video games
The film character was the inspiration for the 1981 video gameDonkey Kong and subsequent spin-offs, in which the eponymous ape climbs a huge structure after kidnapping a woman, as in the film. Shigeru Miyamoto intended the name 'Donkey Kong' to mean "stubborn gorilla." MCA/Universal attempted to sue Nintendo for copyright infringement in Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd.. However, they lost and ended up paying Nintendo $1.8 million in damages when it was discovered that King Kong was in fact (at the time) in the public domain and that MCA knew it when they filed the lawsuit.
A King Kong game was produced by Tiger Games for the Atari 2600, sporting a blue casing. The game is somewhat rare.
The Rampage games by Atari/Midway also feature a King Kong spoof, named George, as well as a Godzilla spoof and other monsters.
The SNK video game King of the Monsters features a King Kong type character named Woo (modeled after the Toho rendition of the character). Woo returned as a cyborg called Cyber-Woo (modeled after Mechani-Kong in the sequel King of the Monsters 2.
King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch is a Famicom action/adventure games very loosely based on the 1986 movie King Kong Lives. This game was developed by Konami and it disregarded the human characters and other plot elements of the movie. King Kong was presented in a quest to save his female counterpart from the clutches of gigantic robots.
There is a human counterpart game of Ikari no Megaton Punch for the MSX computer named King Kong 2, also by Konami.
King Kong makes a special appearance as a playable character in Konami Wai Wai World (also known as Konami World). Interestingly, King Kong does not appear in his usual giant size but rather as a 10 foot tall gorilla. The story of the game mentions King Kong being shrunk down in size after being captured by an army of robots, which directly relates to the game King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton PunchFile:Kong Fight.jpgKong fighting a V-Rex in the 2005 video game.
War of the Monsters is a 3D fighting game developed by Incognito Entertainment for Sony PlayStation 2 where the characters are various giant monsters inspired by films. One of the monsters is a giant ape named Congar, an obvious King Kong homage. It also features a Godzilla homage called Togera. A bonus mode will unlock a secret character named Metal Congar, an obvious reference to Mechani-Kong.
In Capcom's 1989 arcade classic Strider, a 'giant robot ape' confronts the game's hero, Strider Hiryu as a mini-boss; an obvious reference to both Kong and Mechani-Kong. He appears during the Siberian Wilderness Stage (Level 2).
The ending to the video game Viewtiful Joe shows parodies of famous movie posters. One is a King Kong parody, which includes Hulk Davidson (one of the game's bosses) on top of the Empire State Building.
An upcoming Kong game is planned for PS3 and PSP based on an alternate Kong future. It has confirmed to be free-roaming and Kong is the only playable character. The tagline was posted largely across the page on the official website: "KONG LIVES!"
Primal Rage features two giant gorillas named Blizzard and Chaos, an obvious homage to King Kong. Also the game features dinosaurs and like King Kong all monsters are worshipped as gods, just as Kong was by the islanders.
