Episode 12: Daniel DiManna vs. ‘King Kong’ (2005)

Hello, kaiju lovers!

It’s an epic episode for an epic movie! No, not that stupid parody film. Nathan is joined by Daniel DiManna, the creator and author of The Godzilla Novelization Project, to discuss Peter Jackson HUGE 2005 remake of King Kong. (Although, Danny had to survive a harrowing trip to Monster Island with the podcast’s intrepid producer, Jimmy From NASA, and a certain robot dinosaur to do so). Only Peter Jackson, who was fresh off of The Lord of the Rings, could’ve made a three hour film about a giant monkey, er, ape. Nathan and Danny do a deep dive into the film’s characters, themes, and story while struggling not to get Jack Driscoll and Jack Black confused. They freely admit this is the one giant monster movie that makes them cry. They also learn that the young man named Jimmy in this film may or may not be the podcast’s producer. (Confused? Join the club). The Toku Topic is vaudeville since Ann Darrow in this film is a vaudeville performer before getting work on Carl Denham’s movie.

Nathan promises to not make a habit of producing episodes that cross what Danny calls “the Kurosawa threshold.” 

Timestamps:
Intro: 0:00-6:08
Entertaining Info Dump: 6:08-15:29
Toku Talk: 15:29-1:55:52
Toku Topic: 1:55:52-2:29:43
Outro: 2:29:43-end

© 2020 Moonlighting Ninjas Media

Bibliography/Further Reading:

• “About Vaudeville” (American Masters)
• “The Heroine Archetype” (Professor Geek) (YouTube)
• “June Havoc” (Wikipedia)
• King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson by Ray Morton
• “King Kong’s Melancholy: A Reading of Peter Jackson’s King Kong” by Cynthia Erb (from Tracking King Kong: A Hollywood Icon in World Culture, 2nd Edition)
• Kong Unmade: The Lost Films of Skull Island by John LeMay
• A Night in Vaudeville (King Kong Blu-Ray)
• Recreating the Eighth Wonder: The Making of King Kong (King Kong Blu-Ray)
• “Vaudeville” (New World Encyclopedia)
• “Vaudeville” (Wikipedia)
• Wiki Pages on King Kong (2005)
  –IMDB
  –Gojipedia
  –Wikipedia
  –Wikizilla

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