Fans will no doubt be aware that Peter Jackson’s incredible remake of King Kong was released in 2005, but it might surprise you to know that King Kong made another, much less publicized appearance that same year. The BBC partnered with Impossible Pictures, the visual effects studio behind the acclaimed Walking With… franchise, to produce the 2005 documentary T-Rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood, which aired on BBC One in the UK, and on Animal Planet in the US. The documentary was directed by Michael Davies, and it presented a comedic look at the initial discovery of the T-Rex down to how it became an icon in popular culture, with interviewees including Ray Harryhausen, paleontologist Robert T. Bakker, Jurassic Park actress Ariana Richards, and filmmaker and dinosaur expert Donald F. Glut, with Oscar-nominee Robert Vaughn appearing as an awards show host. Strangely, the documentary also included an ‘interview’ with King Kong, which fans will no doubt find bizarre and entertaining.
After a clip from the original 1933 King Kong film, the narrator (voiced by Jim Forbes) explains that Kong moved to the Hollywood Hills and now works as an independent film director, although the location of Kong’s home seems unclear, as a Beverly Hills street sign is shown as this was explained, with a Hollywood street sign having been shown immediately before. We then cut to the exterior of his LA mansion, where a very fake-looking CGI King Kong was shown relaxing in his pool while his butler scrubbed his back with a brush attached to a massive pole. And this is so bizarre to witness that your only response will be to laugh. As the doorbell rang, Kong’s butler rushed to answer it, and the mansion’s interior was shown to be filled with giant bananas, with very obvious forced perspective shots used to make the fruits seem as large as possible, which also looked hilarious. We are then treated to a short interview with Kong in his pool, as he discusses his fight with the T-Rex in the original film. And the CGI used to animate Kong was literally some of the worst you will ever see, with the giant gorilla looking like he had just stepped out of a Nintendo 64 game. And it seems incredible to think that Peter Jackson’s Kong King, which later won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, was released the same year. However, the incredibly fake quality of the CGI helped to give Kong a classically cheesy, B-movie feel, which perfectly suited the corny, comedic tone of the documentary. Kong also looked grainy and fuzzy throughout his appearance, clearly being animated to look like he had just stepped out of an old, black-and-white movie. The grainy effects were only used on Kong himself and not on anything in the background, further giving off the effect that he had literally escaped from an old movie into the real world.
During his interview, Kong gave a detailed account of his fight with the T-Rex in the 1933 film, explaining that he believes the script had his name on it, and that he needed to fight a suitably impressive monster onscreen. He explains that the T-Rex was the only other monster he could have fought, in order to demonstrate his incredible strength, and he suitably clenched his fist and flexed his arm muscles as he said this. The interview was brief, but it was still a very funny and entertaining insight into one of cinema’s most iconic monster battles from the big ape himself. Although no voice actor was credited, the actor who voiced Kong clearly did a great job, giving the giant ape a gruff, intimidating, but also somewhat friendly sounding voice. This no doubt remains one of Kong’s most obscure and least-known appearances, and fans will be entertained and perplexed by it.
T-Rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood also included a number of other deliberately cheesy visual effects sequences, including a scene where a T-Rex skeleton marches through a museum, an ‘interview’ with an incredible fake-looking CGI alien with a cockney accent in a British pub, and a scene of a T-Rex running on a treadmill. And although the CGI is definitely not Oscar-worthy, it was still very fun to watch, in a very cheesy sort of way. If watching an incredibly-fake looking T-Rex adjusting its bowtie at a photoshoot sounds hilarious to you, you will probably enjoy T-Rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood, in all its corny glory. After all, here else are you going to see a badly animated T-Rex struggling to answer a rotary telephone with its tiny arms? There was even a very odd scene where the T-Rex auditioned for Jurassic Park, with the actor playing Spielberg clearly having a great time as he gave directions to the CGI reptile, with its roar being so loud that it almost knocked him off his chair when he asked it to demonstrate anger.
It goes without saying that T-Rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood is unquestionably a strange and unique documentary, and monster movie fans will no doubt need to track it down because of its detailed account of how the T-Rex became a Hollywood icon, and because of its surreal interview with King Kong. The documentary was released on DVD, and while it has long been out of print, it is still worth tracking down a copy of this very obscure piece of television history to enjoy one of King Kong’s most peculiar appearances.
