Godzilla Vs Kong 10 Gonzo Facts About The Original

Godzilla Vs Kong: 10 Gonzo Facts About The Original

Before Adam Wingards’s Godzilla vs Kong hits us in 2020, here are some gonzo facts about Toho’s 1962 film King Kong vs. Godzilla.

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The original series of Godzilla movies from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s (called the Showa series) had some strange entries. But of all the movies in the series, King Kong vs. Godzilla is probably the oddest. The hybrid creation of American and Japanese filmmakers, it is a strange movie from any perspective. This article highlights the ten strangest facts from this oddball movie, generally under the hope that none of these features show up in the new film.

However, being strange didn’t hurt the profitability of this movie. Far from it. So it’s possible that executives are considering what strange things they can put into this year’s Godzilla vs. Kong that might help it be more of a smash hit than 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

10 The Embarrassing Brownface

It’s easy to think that this type of racist theater is mostly an American tradition. However, King Kong vs. Godzilla shows us that this embarrassing tradition is a worldwide product of racism.

In the movie, all the islanders of Skull Island are portrayed by ethnic Japanese, but with their faces darkened to make them look like they are South Pacific islanders. This isn’t the only Japanese kaiju movie that uses this approach. It’s common in Mothra films, too. But that’s a story for another day.

9 The Original Idea Was “King Kong Vs. Frankenstein”

Before the movie was made, the special effects wizard behind the original King Kong, Willis H. O’Brien, had fallen on hard times. Not only were there fewer movies calling for stop-motion effects, but much of the work out there was being taken by a scrappy youngster by the name of Ray Harryhausen (whose debut feature The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms was one of the inspirations of the original Gojira).

After work on the 1960 remake of The Lost World didn’t pan out, O’Brien tried to make some money by shopping around his idea for “King Kong vs. Frankenstein.” O’Brien got a producer interested in the idea. Many studios passed it by because of the high expense of stop-motion animation, but Toho was looking for a “big-budget” project to celebrate their 30th year of film-making. The King Kong idea was perfect, but they decided to use Godzilla instead. Frankenstein would, however, show up in a later project at Toho.

8 Urban Legend about Two Different Endings

For many years, people believed that King Kong vs. Godzilla had two endings. They believed that the one filmed for the US version had King Kong winning, while the Japanese version showed Godzilla winning.

However, there is no basis to the rumor. The Japanese version has the same ending as the US one, which is ambiguous as to who won. The rumor likely began because the film was heavily edited when released for US audiences, to the point that it feels like a completely different movie.

7 It Includes Music From The Creature From The Black Lagoon

As noted above, the movie was heavily edited for the US release. It was made more like contemporary US sci-fi films. This included adding concepts popular in the US at the time, including a US nuclear submarine. It also involved using music from other sci-fi films instead of the Japanese soundtrack.

While G-fans miss the theme by Ifukube Akira, it’s fun to point out all the other places the music does come from, including: The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

6 Three Different Effects Used For The Octopus Kong Fights

Early in the movie, King Kong fights and defeats a giant octopus. This octopus was a special effects challenge for the film-makers. To overcome the challenge, they used three different types of effects for the octopus.

First, they use footage of a living octopus spliced with footage of actors. They use this for when the octopus is attacking or when people are attacking it. For these attacks, they hand-drew the spears and torches the characters throw at it, including their shadows.

When the octopus attacks the villagers, they use stop-motion animation, which is decent by today’s standards. Finally, when Kong fights the octopus, they use a plastic-wrap-covered puppet. And don’t forget the many effects they use for the main fight. In addition to the main suitmation, there is a short section of stop-motion, and even some Punch-and-Judy-style puppets used for long shots.

5 Kong Gets Drunk

Unlike the 1933 and 2005 American versions of King Kong, the expedition doesn’t use poison gas to knock King Kong out. Instead, they lure King Kong to drink bottles of the juice of a berry they call “soma.” The name comes from the popular drug used in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

Perhaps the idea was inspired by the drunken appearance of the Kong costume. The drinking sequence features the strange appearance of the Kong costume better than any other scene of the movie. Because soma has potential medicinal applications, people talk about the marketing value of King Kong. Incidentally, King Kong as a marketing gimmick would be a major theme of the 1976 King Kong remake.

4 It Parodies Sumo Wrestling

If some of the fighting moves in King Kong vs. Godzilla look like sumo wrestling, that’s not an accident. In fact, the actions are intended to parody sumo wrestling. As part of the promotion before the movie’s release, Toho released “interviews” with both monsters set up side-to-side. This was similar to the way sumo wrestling bouts were promoted in the Japan at the time.

Ironically, director Michael Dougherty also took inspiration from sumo wrestling for Godzilla: King of the Monsters. He watched the scenes in slow motion to help design the monsters’ moves.

3 Kong Got His Own Sequel

Following the success of King Kong vs. Godzilla, Toho decided to release another movie featuring their version of Kong. King Kong Escapes has some similarities to the original King Kong, such as having Kong fall in love with a beautiful human woman. However, it also focuses on the plans of the evil Dr. Who (no relation to the British Time Lord) trying to obtain the powerful radioactive element X.

It also features Mechani-Kong, a robotic version of King Kong that has some design similarities to Mechagodzilla. However, Mechani-Kong premiered on screen six years before Mechagodzilla.

2 The Godzilla Costume Is Unique

The Godzilla costume used in King Kong vs. Godzilla was designed specifically for the film, and it’s different from the suits used in any other film, although it would influence the suits that came after it.

Godzilla went from having four toes to only having three, which he would keep until Godzilla 1984 restored the fourth toe. Godzilla also lost some of his more mammalian features to highlight the movie’s theme of thinking primate vs. primitive reptile. The eyes were moved from the front of the head to the sides. Godzilla’s teeth became more uniform like lizard’s teeth, not varied like mammalian teeth. Most noticeably, Godzilla lost his tiny, seal-like ears.

1 It Might Have Been The Most Profitable Japanese Movie Ever

This claim comes from The Godzilla Compendium by J.D. Lees and Marc Cerasini. It’s hard to verify, but it is easy to tell that the movie was hugely successful. The movie’s reported budget was 5 million yen, about $10,000 dollars in 1962 (about $86,000 in 2020).

However, the movie grossed ¥430 million in Japan and $2.7 million in the US. That makes the ROI (return on investment) about 8600% in Japan alone, 27,000 % in the US. Whether that’s the most profitable Japanese movie ever made or not, it’s astounding.

For comparison, Joker became the most profitable comic book movie ever with approximately 1600% ROI. It is highly unlikely that Godzilla vs. Kong, with its budget of hundreds of million of dollars, will approach anything near that level of profitability. Which is a shame, because it will likely be a much better movie.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/godzilla-vs-kong-original-movie-facts-trivia/

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