*** After the Original Comes the Aftermath.

King Kong was a major success. Going on the success of the original, they decided to immediately come out with a sequel. I’m not sure if this is the first movie to have a sequel. but it sure follows the tradition of having the second not as good as the first.

Trying to escape a bunch of lawsuits set on him from the disaster of King Kong escaping, Carl Denham, the person who brought Kong to New York, goes on the original boat he used and headed back to the South Seas. On one island, he finds Hilda Peterson, a person who plays a ukulele in a lame show. Her father is killed by the guy who just told Denham about a treasure on Kong’s island. They all get on the boat and head for Kong’s island. After a botched mutiny set forth by the same killer/treasure teller, all the main people get thrown off the boat and into a small rowboat. They go to Kong’s island, and Denham and Hilda find a giant albino gorilla, the probable son of Kong. They save Kong Jr. from quicksand. Kong Jr. then protects them from a cave bear and some oddball dinosaur. They find a treasure even though the guy lied, and the killer/treasure liar is killed by some oddball sea creature. All of a sudden, volcano’s erupt, a hurricane starts up, and an earthquake all happen at the same time. Kong Jr. and Denham go to the top of the sinking island, and Denham is saved because Kong Jr. held him above the water line just long enough for the rowboat to come and rescue him. Kong Jr. is pulled under because his foot was caught. The people are saved by a passing ship.

Although the plot seems pretty long, the movie is actually very short. Come on, 70 minutes, that’s it? The main reason for it’s shortness is because in the original movie, after Kong is captured, they bring him to New York. This time, they end the movie right there. In fact, it seems that just when the movie was getting interesting, they all of a sudden kill everything off in one unexplained natural disaster. This not only makes the movie feel suddenly cut short, but destroys the plot at that point. I was told that they were rather rushed when they made this movie, after all, it was made the same year the original Kong was released. Although it is reasonable that they rushed, it still shows.

Despite the relative shortness of the cut-off plot, the plot is still good up until the end. It is all about redemption, aftermath, and showing what happened to everybody and everything after the first voyage. The movie is quite different from the original, going more on plot than horror movie elements. In fact, the movie seems a bit like another movie of the same title type (Son of Godzilla). The movie also has special effects that are even better than the first one. It even includes the same type of land destroying scenes common in early Godzilla movies. Although short, the movie is a fun, cute little thing that is nifty to watch every once in a while. It’s great if you want to watch an old stop motion monster movie and don’t have very much time (if you fast forward during the boring parts, you can watch it in under an hour). In fact, compared to most movies made back then, this one is very good. It’s a nice, fun King Kong movie. If you like the original King Kong for the cool stop motion battles, you will like this one.

Great plot.

Even better special effects.

Great stop motion battles.

It’s Fun!

Cute little movie.

Excessively short movie.

Bad plot in climax.

Dinosaurs have gotten weirder.

Kong Jr. don’t sound right in most scenes.

Why is Kong Jr. white? Must have ran out of black rabbit fur.

Credits