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t.king kong
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2022-08-26
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K I N G K O N G
As Reinacted by Bunnies
by Jennifer Shiman
"We have nothing to fear
but fear itself"
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt
made this great proclamation, America
had yet to witness the ferocious yet
empathetic image of the great King
Kong, towering over audiences on the
silver screen. Here is a story of the
1930's: An out-of-work movie maker,
an out-of-work actress, an out-of-
the-way island, and an out-of-this-
world monster.
Be afraid. Be very afraid!
With the exquisite stop-action
animation by Willis O'Brien, Kong
came to life before amazed movie-
goers. This was the inspiration for
Ray Harryhausen to enter and later
dominate the field of animated
monsters.
But even today, when our jaded
eyes are no longer fooled and we must
use a "willing suspension of
disbelief," the original 1933 movie
grabs and holds us spellbound in
horror. Max Steiner's score was the
first complete music sound track for a
talking movie -- and gave an
"operatic" underpinning for the drama.
The movie was a block-buster,
grossing $90,000! Of course, tickets
at the time cost 15 cents. Adjusted
for inflation, the gross would be more
like $5.4 million today. The
enthusiasm that brought millions to
see the movie was grounded in the
grinding Depression. Here on the
screen, the unfathomable force that
threatens jobs and families becomes
the image of an oversized, primative
man-like beast.
And the plot is definitely 1930's
in drama and assumptions. The 1976
Dino DeLaurentis Kong became a joke.
Besides bad acting, bad auto-
animatronics, bad camera work, bad
directing, the whole [idea] of
bringing the Eighth Wonder of the
World to New York City (for fun and
profit) is SO politically incorrect!
The story simply did not address the
issues of the day. (We were still
smarting from abject political
corruption and a stagflation economy.
Kong is the wrong monster!)
Issues are the foundation of myth.
Fortunately, Peter Jackson kept his
remake set in the 1930's -- where
greedy, fever-dreaming filmmakers and
expositions of freaks on Broadway made
perfect sense. Jackson also added a
much richer empathetic note to the
film. Kong's rage appears to come from
a desire to just be left alone -- and
is confounded by the fearful
acceptance he receives from Ann.
Now for [our] version of King
Kong, based on the original 1933 movie
and reinacted by bunnies.
Yes, bunnies. Jennifer Shiman has
created a number of movies knock-offs
(including "It's a Wonderful Life")
for Web Browsers. (Note the little
bunnie ears protruding from Kong's
head!) These cute mini-animations
capture a film in 30 seconds, complete
with bunnie voices delivering the
lines.
We, on the otherhand, have no
bunnie voices (or any other kind, for
that matter), so we must resort to
subtitles. The images were snatched by
a screen grabber program, massaged
into GIFs and converted to C-64
graphics with GoDot. CLIPS puts them
on the screen, along with a line or
two of dialog. It really is not all
that hard.
I contacted Jennifer by email,
showed her the presentation, and asked
for permission. She had no problems,
and even enjoyed our little remake.
But Starz has the rights to her little
movie (for their web page?). I have
not heard anything negative -- and
figure Starz is doing alright for
itself, thank you.
DMM