The Eighth Wonder of the World!
From Merian C. Cooper's 1933 masterpiece.
For me as a kid this was it, you couldn't possibly find a cooler Monster than King Kong, sure I loved them all, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, you name it... but Kong was the King.
And Willis O'Brien's Kong is by far still the best (and for me the only) Kong. Peter Jackson's bombastic remake didn't quite hit that chord I had been hoping it was going to hit.
I recently had a conversation with my good friend
John Rozum and we were dissecting what worked, and what didn't in Jackson's epic retelling. And I think I hit upon exactly why Jackson's version didn't have the impact we had all been hoping it would. The problem with his version is that Kong is just a giant ape, sure he's huge, but at the end of the day that's all he is. Where as Willis O'Brien's Kong was an ape MONSTER.
He was much more then just a big monkey.
He was (and always will be) special.
