(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Mighty Joe Young)
Doug (vo): You ever see a movie where the advertising is a lot better than the film itself? Well, it can work the other way. For years, I avoided seeing Disney's Mighty Joe Young, because the TV ads were just so bad. It had that friendly voice Disney narrator saying how it's gonna touch your heart, it showed him, like, sitting on a car and these bunch of kids going, "All right, Jose!", and him nodding, like, "It is alright".
(The film's just-mentioned TV ad is shown)
Announcer: Disney's holiday movie event.
Boy: (watching Joe sitting on a car) All right, Jose! (Joe nods in satisfaction)
Doug (vo): He moved this jeep full of girls out of the way, and they're just like, "That was so cool!" And then another kid is like, "That's so fad!" Oh, it looked terrible.
(Another shot from the ad is shown, showing exactly what Doug described. It's the moment when Joe moves the jeep full of girls away, much to one girl's amazement)
Girl: That was so cool!
Doug (vo): So much so that when I heard people say, "It's actually a pretty good movie and it got pretty good critical reviews and everything", I was just like, "No. Impossible." Just, every time I see it, I think of those terrible commercials. Well, this year for Disneycember, I finally decided to sit down and give it a chance, and...yeah, I was surprised to find not only is this a pretty damn decent movie, but it actually has the makings of a pretty good Kong film...a Disney family-friendly Kong film, but still a Kong film. I'm a big fan of the original King Kong story, so whenever, like, a variation of it is done, I'm always a little curious about it. While I'll admit, I never did see the original Mighty Joe Young, I did find this one, in its own strange way, did keep true to a lot of the same themes and ideas that Kong films usually talk about.
Story[]
Doug (vo): The film opens surprisingly kind of grisly, as this little girl's mother is shot by this poacher. She's trying to protect a gorilla named Joe, who bit off the poacher's finger, but he can't find him. Years pass and the little girl grows up into Charlize Theron, who still looks after Joe in the jungle and tries to keep him a secret, but as you'd imagine, that's kind of tricky to do. One day, a man, played by Bill Paxton, appears, hears all the stories about the giant ape, and wants to take him to a place where he won't be hunted. This, of course, means introducing him to human beings, and...well, you know how these stories go. They don't always mix. She eventually agrees, though, seeing how it is only a matter of time before people find out about him, so he might as well be protected. Honestly faster than usual, they get the creature to the world of humanity, people find out about him relatively quick, and, at first, he's actually kind of accepted. There are hiccups here and there, but it's not one of those stories where one little thing goes wrong, and suddenly, everybody freaks and they're trying to kill him or anything like that. They know it's gonna be trial and error, and they try to prepare as much as possible, and if something goes wrong, they work with it. As you'd imagine, though, something major does go wrong as the poacher comes back, and, of course, wants revenge for the monkey taking his fingers. Okay, you know the direction this is going to go. Somehow, Joe escapes, gets out among the people, and causes panic.
Review[]
Doug (vo): And the first thing I'll say is, while those scenes in the commercials are in the movie, they're not nearly as bad as they made them out to be. When he's moving that car with all the women in it, they're all screaming, and only one is laughing like she's high on something, and they're all looking at her like she's crazy. That's actually a little funny. When he sits on the car, he just does it 'cause a car alarm is going off, and when he finally shuts it up, he gives a little nod. That's cute. And, yes, while there are moments where somebody will say, "That's fad!" or something like that, there's not a ton.
(Clips focusing on the characters are shown)
Doug (vo): While I'll admit the script is not beautifully written or anything, there are some elements that really pull it through. One is the acting. Charlize Theron and Bill Paxton are playing this 100% straight, and, man, they are 100% commited. At one of the scenes where Joe is clinging on for dear life, look at how they're performing, you just 100% believe they are losing a best friend. The other is the directing. This movie is paced out really well and knows what scenes to focus on and what scenes not to. They don't do that traditional lean you usually see in family films like this, where the animal's good and humanity sucks. No, it shows how tricky it is for these two different species to interact off each other. Yes, there's a lot of ways that we're alike, but the little ways that we're different can drastically cost a lot.
(Several clips focusing on Joe's rampage sequences are shown)
Doug (vo): I'll try not to go too much into spoilers here, but there is a scene near the end where Joe does kill somebody, and it's not a big surprise, but I am glad they kept that in. A lesser family film would've cut it out, but this movie knows it wants to be a Kong flick. A big part of that is showing that neither species is 100% savage, but neither species is 100% civilized either. The film also does a good job making LA kind of look jungle-ish. When he climbs the Chinese Theater...which, by the way, did they do that at the premiere? Did they have a Mighty Joe Young at the top of the Chinese Theater? They really should've done that if not...there is a sense he's just among different types of animals, and, again, that we're not so different, but...well, you know the drill.
(Clips focusing on Joe and the effects used to bring him to life are shown, along with a few clips of the film's villain)
Doug (vo): And while I'm at it, the effects on this thing are phenomenal. This is the first time in a while I'm looking at this, asking myself, "How the hell did they do that?" It looks like it's a giant animatronic walking around, but I know that can't be. The way he moves and acts, there has to be some sort of forced perspective or a mixing of CGI and greenscreen or something, but I've just never seen it done this well. He looks way too good and convincing for it just to be CGI. There must have been like a puppet with either a couple people inside or one person or something, and...I don't know. For a movie to come out in 1998 and I'm questioning how they did the effects for it, that really means something. The expressions on Joe are also phenomenal. He really feels like an animal, but an animal you can kind of read the expression for. You don't really see him smile big or get sad eyes or anything like that, he reacts like how an animal would react, to where you have to train yourself, "Okay, that's what happy means and that's what sad means" when he makes that face, and you pick up pretty fast to it, like you would with any animal. The stuff with the poacher, at first, I did find a little lame, but again, the way they used it in comparing how LA can kind of be like a savage jungle, too, is very clever.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): I feel like if this movie was done with a different team, they would've focused on all the stupid moments and just zip past all the stuff that was really good. But it's really the opposite. They focus on the good stuff and zip past the stuff that's kind of lame, the stuff that I'm sure Disney said, "No, no. You have to have that in there, because it's a Disney film, and we want to get kids in and families and stuff like that." And while, yes, this is definitely a family film, it doesn't go nearly as dark as the other Kong movies, it still subtly keeps to the same themes and ideas. If you were turned off by the advertising or even the fact that it's a Disney film trying to do a Kong movie, I really do say give it a chance. It's not perfect, but it really is better than it has any right to be. Like I said, I can't compare to the original because I haven't seen the original, but whether you're a fan of Kong films. special effects, or just family films in general, swing on in, because this is surprisingly pretty damn good.
(A scene showing Jill Young and Joe both looking towards the jungle is shown)