Kong Reviews

KONG: The Animated Series

5-Disc Collector's Box Set

• Studio: Image Entertainment

• Television Broadcast Year: 2001-2002 (series), 2006 (movie)

• US DVD Release Date: June 30, 2009

• Rated: Not Rated

• Running Time: 960 minutes

• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 full screen

• Audio: English (Dolby Digital Surround 2.0)

• Subtitles: None

Movie: 2.5 out of 5 (series), 2 out of 5 (feature)

Originally airing on FOX network affiliates as part of their Saturday morning FOX KIDS lineup, KONG: The Animated Series found a new fan base when cable and satellite channel ToonDisney (now Disney XD) began broadcasting all 40 episodes of the series in 2005 to capitalize on the buzz surrounding Peter Jackson's big budget live-action remake of the Merian C. Cooper classic.

As the series opens, we learn that Dr. Lorna Jenkins has cloned the infamous King Kong sometime after his fall from the Empire State Building. When an unknown assailant destroys her lab while trying to discover the location of Kong Island and the Primal Stones, Dr. Jenkins escapes with the giant ape to the mythical island. Flash forward several years later, and Dr. Jenkins' grandson, Jason, along with college buddy Eric “Tan” Tannenbaum and their professor Ramon De La Porta are headed to Kong Island, where Jason is reunited with his “brother” Kong (apparently they share the same DNA, something never quite explained until a flashback sequence in Return To The Jungle), and meet the beautiful shaman Lua. Dr. Jenkins gives Jason a Cyber-link, a device that looks like an over-sized Bluetooth headset that not only allows him to communicate with his grandmother but also allows him to merge (or become-one) with Kong. It is quickly revealed that the unknown assailant who destroyed Dr. Jenkins' lab was De La Porta, who steals a second Cyber-link, allowing him to merge with other animals, and begins to steal the Primal Stones, thus awakening the island's evil spirit, Chyros.

Each episode usually consists of Jason, Tan, Lua, and Kong off on an adventure trying to recapture the Primal Stones before De La Porta can, with Kong and Jason merging to do battle with at least one other monster created by De La Porta or one of his henchmen merging with one or more animals. For a children's animated series, the animation is on par with other Saturday morning cartoons of the same vintage, but often the stories and plot points are so outrageous, even a pre-teen boy (the obvious audience for the series) may have some difficulty believing or following. The show has enough action, though, to compensate and keep you entertained for each episode's 22-minute running time, as long as you put your brain on hold.

KONG: Return To The Jungle picks up where the series left off. Jason and Tam are visiting New York City to restock supplies for the island and attend a press conference by the mayor and Hunter Stag, who announces the opening of an exotic zoo. Shortly after Jason and Tam return to the island, Stag ambushes the island with his team of cyber soldiers (looking like Star Wars Stormtroopers on steroids), capturing the prehistoric animals, including Kong, for his exotic zoo. But the zoo is not Stag's endgame. He wants to release the animals and allow them to run free in New York as part of a big game hunt and take all the glory for saving the city. The movie contains some pathetic music montages set to some really bad (original) rock songs to pad the running time, and the writers have very little sense of New York geography (Kong, Jason, Tam, and Lua take refuge in the Superdome at one point).

The CG animation on KONG: Return To The Jungle falls somewhere between the animatics used during pre-production on feature films in place of storyboards, CG feature film animation (such as Dreamworks or Pixar) prior to final rendering, PlayStation 2 video game animation, and Charles Schwab commercials. I have seen better CG animation currently on the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, even NBC's Saturday morning Qubo lineup.

Video: 3 out of 5 (series), 2 out of 5 (feature)

Each episode is presented in the show's original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with ten episodes per disc spanning four discs. Colors are well-saturated without bleeding and detail is quite good (considering the limited animation). Noise and compression artifacts are at a minimum. The series episodes have never looked this good, even during their runs on both FOX and ToonDisney.

The same cannot be said for the feature KONG: Return To The Jungle. The feature appears to have been composed for 1.78:1, but is presented in a cropped 1.33:1 transfer. Characters are frequently cut off on the sides of the image, and some nauseating panning and scanning is evident. Like the series, colors are well-saturated without bleeding and detail is quite good (considering the limited animation). Noise is minimal, but compression artifacts are abundantly obvious, particularly in backgrounds and scenes involving smoke or fog.

Audio: 3 out of 5

The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, encoded at 224 kbps with the ProLogic surround flag, is what you would expect for a series aimed at pre-teen boys. While dialogue is intelligible, this is often a fairly loud mix with good surround presence but minimal discrete effects.

Special Features: 0.5 out of 5

There are no special features whatsoever on this collector's set, with the possible exception of the tin sleeve that fits over the 5-disc slim keepcase.

Overall: 2.5 out of 5

The series is the main reason to get this set, as the feature film is a major disappointment in terms of animation and overall enjoyment.