DVD Review HTF REVIEW: King Kong - Two Disc Collector's Edition (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). (1 Viewer)

[John_S]

This is by far my most anticipated dvd release! Thanks for the fine review Herb.

 

[Keith Paynter]

The unsung George Feltenstein deserves high marks for the continued lavish attention to the classic films under WBHV's distribution control. That he gets (well-deserved) credit on the Looney Tunes sets but not on overseeing a cinematic jewel like "Kong" is a shame. (Remember his last HTF chat? I'm insanely jealous of his job )

The documentary is a fabulous tribute to what I've always thought was a groundbreaking film when I first saw it some 25+ years ago in our public library's now-defunct 16mm collection, uncut. Willis O'Brien (like many "artists") only really got his widespread recognition after his best work was behind him and had passed away, and animators like Ray Harryhausen, Phil Tippett and Henry Sellick (to borrow from the documentaries) saw further by "standing on the shoulders of a giant". It was wonderful seeing Faye Wray giving (I believe) her final interview, charming as ever.

I picked up the 3-movie box set, and skipped the tin, sat throught the Kong commentary, and look forward to watching Mighty Joe Young for the first time. BTW, a puzzling thought - why a commentary for MJY and none for SOK?

 

[Kevin M]

Actually I liked her outfit in the scene just prior when she was talking to Driscoll on the deck....must have been...erm..."cold" on the open sea at that point.

I noticed that the $33.99 price at BB was only for online ordering, the store price was $37.99 at the BB I went to, but apparently there was an in-store discount as I only paid $36.00..still a bargain, also I noticed that the digipak inside the tin has an outer cover, so if you wish you can store it next to the other keep cases on your shelf without it looking quite so out of place....but who is going to do that?

 

[Johnny Angell]

I paid the $33.99 (not counting tax) even though the box was marked higher. Typically, dvd's in their first week are cheaper than after that, per their advertising.

Iguess I need to pay a little more attention to the "deck" scene.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

It is the in-store price in the weekly ad flyer (through today). That would come to around $36 if you had a 6% sales tax.

Regards,

 

[Darrell S.]

I second the applause for George Feltenstein. He is single-handedly the person responsible for the superior quality of the Warner Bros. product and care of classic films released on DVD. Many have said this before, don't you wish Warner Bros. owned everything?

Yes, SON OF KONG looks better than KING KONG because they had the original negative for SON OF KONG and KING KONG's was somehow lost. MIGHTY JOE YOUNG got the commentary because Ray Harryhausen actually worked on it and it is a much better film. Too bad the 2-color Technicolor fire sequence for MIGHTY JOE YOUNG is lost. They had to electronically tint the scene with an amber which looks pretty good.

And wow, Fay Wray! I wonder what it was like to see her in this movie in 1933! This new sharp print points out her beauty in a whole new way. I wish they had a documentary about her included here.

 

[Paul McElligott]

I don't think this was ever considered anyway. The "Spider Pit" recreation was more of a "fan" film than an attempt to add anything to the movie.

One thing occured to me. Maybe somewhere out there, there is a collector who has the original spider pit footage but since so few people have seen it, doesn't know what it is. Now that the recreated version is out there, perhaps that person will now recognize what he or she has.

Oh, well. A guy can dream, can't he?

 

[Darrell S.]

The dramatization of the CREATION script was really outstanding.

 

[Mike Williams]

I went through parts of the movie and a good portion of the documentary on the film last night. I was really blown away by how good a 72 year old delapidated, worn-out movie could look. Now that I've watched it -- as much as I could as tired as I was -- I realize that I had never seen the original before, and my memories of King Kong all existed from the 1976 version and photos from "Famous Monsters" magazine. What a treat it was to see. The documentary was outstanding as well, and I really enjoyed the participation from so PJ, Frank Darabont, John Landis, Rick Baker and so many others. This is definitely one of the most treasured DVDs in my collection now.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Is there a book with "ALL" the great artwork that was done for this film? Some fantastic images!

There is sprocket damage that creates a lot of jumpiness, therefore losing detail, on Kong. It appears the restoration did not take advantage of a frame by frame digital file. Which can eliminate this problem, a la Snow White. Does anyone know the entire story of this restoration?
The extra features makes fun of this, by making the title cards do the hurky jerky, as well!

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Did DTS Digital Images (formerly LDI) work on this title or just WB?

BTW, I *loved* the spider-sequence recreation. Count me as one of the few would would like to have seen it incorporated back into the film...but only via *optional* branching so viewers could choose to watch the film in its original historic form or with the scene inserted.

I didn't think I'd feel that way, but after having watched it, it really is a scene that belongs in the movie (or at the very least, the original version of the scene definitely belongs in the movie). I would personally enjoy watching it "in place" in film, even though it's recreated, to better emulate that flow.

Cool scene!

 

[Darrell S.]

Ed St. Clair,

You can check out an interview Robert Harris did with George Feltenstein on the restoration at thedigitalbits.com.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I wouldn't mind having this too. I doubt I would use it more than once because the "live" parts of it would take me out of the film. I don't say that to criticize the sequence, because they achieved what they set out to do, with room to spare.

I to was impressed with the "recreation" of "Creation." That was a treat.

I was disappointed that the commentary fell victim to the "get two guys together and don't do any other preparation" syndrome. If was a very dissapointing commentary with very little information provided.

I would rather they'd have chosen a film historian that I had never heard of before than Ray and whats-his-face. The Universal Monster films (Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, Frankenstein, etc) are examples of a commentaries that were well thought out prior to recording them. There are times in these commentaries that the poor guy is almost trying to put too much in.

I guess I'm dwelling on this so much because, as far as extras go, I enjoy a good commentary nearly as much as a great documentary.

But, jeez, this tin looks great. I don't own a million DVDs, so maybe there's something better, but I don't recall a more handsome package than this one. At least for a reasonable price. I don't want to compare it to something else that costs significantly more.

 

[Darrell S.]

I love the parts in the commentary with Merian C. Cooper. They are bawdy and hilarious. The best thing would have been to use all of these and have Fay Wray talk for the rest of it, but maybe she didn't have that much to say or was not able. I'm not sure. In the interviews with her she seems very sharp and healthy. Perhaps she just did not want to. Harryhausen and the other guy are good at times, but not what we would expect given the gravity of this release. The best commentary of all time is THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. That woman talks non-stop for 4 full hours and comments on every aspect of every frame of film giving huge amounts of background. I hate commentaries where the participants stop and watch the film leaving dead silence, or they just say, "Oh, isn't that great!"

 

[Jeff_HR]

It is a real shame WB could not use the commentary from the Criterion LD. That was a landmark extra.

 

[Darrell S.]

The Criterion commentaries are usually the best but are probably copyrighted by them and not available to other companies. THE WIZARD OF OZ commentary by Criterion is also one of the best. The guy even mentions that Bert Lahr was very religious and did not want to divorce his wife because she was in asylum, Judy Garland wore a corset to keep her breasts pressed down so she would look more like a little girl, interesting gritty little details like that, whereas the other commentary mainly just said, "Isn't this a great scene! What a great movie!"

 

[Kevin M]

Agreed, I was going to bring up the Criterion Commentary as being superior...it even has details that are not covered in the doc's.

 

[BarryR]

Arrrggghh....I'm annoyed because dvdplanet.com STILL hasn't sent out my copy; it's still "in warehouse." And I had originally ordered it with expedited postage to get here faster this week. Yeah, I'm VERY annoyed with them. On the other hand, I checked some local stores in person: BB had one tin edition available, and Target had NOTHING! I still might get a local copy this Friday or Saturday IF I can find a copy, and return my online order (it's too late to cancel) when the damn thing ever arrives.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I think most of the drawings are in the old The Making of King Kong book. I have a paperback edition from Ballantine and it's quite good (though some information is badly out of date; when it was written the original opening titles were still lost, for instance).

 

[Colin Jacobson]

While the Harryhausen/Ralston commentary stinks - and what's the point of Wray's inclusion since she only speaks twice? - I don't agree at all with complaints about the Oz track. Never heard the Criterion one, but I liked the DVD one quite a lot - informative and entertaining...