Search - Kong - King of Atlantis on DVD

Ghastly.

Christopher Mcfeely | Londonderry, Londonderry United Kingdom | 11/20/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"As someone who watched and enjoyed the original "Kong: The Animated Series" show upon which this feature is based, I went into this movie - premiered on the UK's Cartoon Network and Toonami channels in early November 2005 - expecting it to be just as enjoyable.



Oh, my word, was I wrong. Right off the bat, the animation quality is noticeably weaker than the series, but the story seems to be moving in a fair direction, until the biggest shocker suddenly comes out of nowhere and hits you in the face - the characters start singing. Singing BAD songs. I cannot even *conceive* how this idea got off the ground. The series was in no way suited to musical treatment like this, and it sticks out like a sore and painful thumb. Thankfully, there are only three songs in the feature, but they're dripping with cliche, full of generic lyrics that could have been churned out by a songwriting computer program.



It's clearly - pardon the pun - apeing Disney's standard formula, right down to a completely unnecessary funny animal sidekick, in this case an excessively humanised bear cub (though we must be thankful he doesn't talk). There's even a ridiculously forced, unfeasible "love story" jammed into the middle.



As for the story itself, it sees the sunken nation of Atlantis attempt to reinstate the new Kong as their king (the former Kong, who the current one is cloned from, having being the former ruler). The series itself had previously estalished that Kong Island was formerly a part of Atlantis, but I'm not entirely sure if the city as presented in the movie here even agrees with what was shown of its history in the series. Anyway, Kong's going to be the king... oh, but the current queen of the city is eeeevil, and she's going to control Kong's mind with a magic crown, so that Atlantis can invade Earth! You may insert a peal of evil laughter here, folks.



This film is absolute and utter garbage. It's 90 minutes of my life that I *want back.* And what makes it sting so, SO much more is that it's based on a series that was actually GOOD. Where did it all go wrong? Probably somewhere around the decision to have them frickin' SING."