THE PLOT - When a mechanical replica of King Kong (Mecha Kong) is unable to dig for the highly radioactive Element X at the North Pole, the evil Doctor Who and his sponsor Madame X decide to kidnap the real Kong. Meanwhile, a team expedition arrives on Mondo Island and explores the jungles where they encounter Kong, fighting off various creatures. Kong develops a crush on the Lt. Susan Miller and our beauty and the beast portion of the film starts. As an insurance policy, Doctor Who kidnaps Lt. Susan as well as her boyfriend Lt. Commander Jiro Nomura and Commander Carl Nelson. They escape and free Kong who heads for Tokyo. Doctor Who and his minions follow him and activate Mecha-Kong in order to recapture him. Susan is then grabbed by the robot and is taken to the top of Tokyo Tower and a battle ensues between Kong and his robotic replica.
REVIEW - I will say this is somewhat better than King Kong VS Godzilla, but not much.
CHARACTERS - Susan is better than Fumiko (KKvG). Her character is stronger and more independent. When Kong captures her, though fearful of him first, she does care but takes to her own and doesn't go for Kong's moves, instead telling Kong how to act. Well she's a Lt. so, that's that. Nomura, again the bland main hero, same with Nelson. The villain Doctor Who is a fun villain, but we don't get much of a motivation on his actions, only because he's evil. Then there's Madame X, who gets more of a character development. She's not on the side of evil because she wants to be evil, she's there as an ambassador/agent of her country (which they don't explain where) trying to keep it safe, for some reason. Yeah not much character plot is explained in this movie.
EFFECTS - The special effects are much better this time around and while Kong looks better than he did previously with a bigger more detailed head and suit, it still doesn't look that great. For example when he fights the serpent in the waters of Mondo Island, you can clearly see the space between the mask and the suit, like an over sized mascot head. Mecha Kong looks good, but sometimes the metal looks a little bouncy. However the best suit effect in the entire movie is Gorosaurs, the T-Rex type that fights Kong. This is one of the best monster suits Toho has ever put out on film, and it realty shows. The fight is really fun to watch and entertaining as hell, although when Kong breaks the jaw of Gorosaurus there's bubbles? What? Did he have a seizure?
TRIVIA - The film was made this time not just by Toho, RKO and Universal (Yeah, Universal did the English dub for the Toho Kong films considering the huge court battles and challenges it would have with Kong in the future) the film was also released by Rankin/Bass, the studio responsible for those infamous stop motion Christmas specials, The Animated Hobbit/Return Of The King and The Last Unicorn. Back in the 60s, they did a King Kong cartoon show following the plot to Escapes in which the film came in later. Funny side note, after King Kong Escapes, Rankin Bass would return to Toho for another Kaiju like production in 1977 called The Last Dinosaur.
OVERALL - The film is quite enjoyable. Though it does drag at times, the story is good and the characters are bland but fun. It's a good movie to show your young kids, they might get a kick outta it and hey, maybe you will too.
REVIEW - I will say this is somewhat better than King Kong VS Godzilla, but not much.
CHARACTERS - Susan is better than Fumiko (KKvG). Her character is stronger and more independent. When Kong captures her, though fearful of him first, she does care but takes to her own and doesn't go for Kong's moves, instead telling Kong how to act. Well she's a Lt. so, that's that. Nomura, again the bland main hero, same with Nelson. The villain Doctor Who is a fun villain, but we don't get much of a motivation on his actions, only because he's evil. Then there's Madame X, who gets more of a character development. She's not on the side of evil because she wants to be evil, she's there as an ambassador/agent of her country (which they don't explain where) trying to keep it safe, for some reason. Yeah not much character plot is explained in this movie.
EFFECTS - The special effects are much better this time around and while Kong looks better than he did previously with a bigger more detailed head and suit, it still doesn't look that great. For example when he fights the serpent in the waters of Mondo Island, you can clearly see the space between the mask and the suit, like an over sized mascot head. Mecha Kong looks good, but sometimes the metal looks a little bouncy. However the best suit effect in the entire movie is Gorosaurs, the T-Rex type that fights Kong. This is one of the best monster suits Toho has ever put out on film, and it realty shows. The fight is really fun to watch and entertaining as hell, although when Kong breaks the jaw of Gorosaurus there's bubbles? What? Did he have a seizure?
TRIVIA - The film was made this time not just by Toho, RKO and Universal (Yeah, Universal did the English dub for the Toho Kong films considering the huge court battles and challenges it would have with Kong in the future) the film was also released by Rankin/Bass, the studio responsible for those infamous stop motion Christmas specials, The Animated Hobbit/Return Of The King and The Last Unicorn. Back in the 60s, they did a King Kong cartoon show following the plot to Escapes in which the film came in later. Funny side note, after King Kong Escapes, Rankin Bass would return to Toho for another Kaiju like production in 1977 called The Last Dinosaur.
OVERALL - The film is quite enjoyable. Though it does drag at times, the story is good and the characters are bland but fun. It's a good movie to show your young kids, they might get a kick outta it and hey, maybe you will too.