Maybe "King Kong" (1933) has garnered such a reputation for boyish appeal, especially after its post-Code censorship, that it might sometimes be forgotten how sexual was the titular giant ape's relationship with Fay Wray, as well as how it was complicated by the era's colonialist and racial attitudes. It also doesn't help that ever since these monster movies have been largely kiddie junk. It happened almost immediately with the cash-grab sequel "Son of Kong" (1933), whereby the King was replaced by an infantilized, diminutive and more friendly Kong. Here, in "Mighty Joe Young," we get merely a large gorilla, who despite his apparent adulthood lacks any demonstrative sex drive. Ditto his human female pal. Even here supposedly romantic relationship with a cowboy is extraordinarily plutonic. This is a matinee flick for children. It was even remade in 1998 by Disney. That's going to be a hard pass from me there. Peter Jackson's sexless version and the MonsterVerse are bad enough. Maybe only the 1976 remake comes close to the original, but even there the sex is handled ham-fistedly.
On the other hand, we do get more stop-motion animation and visual effects overseen by Willis O'Brien, with Ray Harryhausen, who would go on to make "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" (1953), among other films, joining the crew this time. The effects were awarded an Oscar. Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack and Ruth Rose, all from the 1933 production, are back here, along with, apparently, John Ford as a producer. Consequently, perhaps, "Mighty Joe Young" does do fairly well, at least, in reflexively exposing the hypocrisy of Western attitudes towards exotic lands, including Africa. The African-themed nightclub, including with its moving camera work, is outrageously on the nose, chalk-full of offensive stereotypes of Africans and stupid comments by New Yorkers. This meta construction is extended to Robert Armstrong once again playing a showman bringing a giant gorilla to the "civilized" city, his writing bogus press reports, the play-within-plays on the stage and the final film-within-the-film.
The most daring part of this is the inference that the film itself is a fantasy of Africa, which indeed it is, with its jungle film tropes of the white woman mediating between the dark continent and white civilization--as in "King Kong," Tarzan burgers and many other expedition pictures of the day. Like our surrogate audience within the film at the nightclub, then, "Mighty Joe Young" is something of an indictment against its own audience.
On the other hand, we do get more stop-motion animation and visual effects overseen by Willis O'Brien, with Ray Harryhausen, who would go on to make "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" (1953), among other films, joining the crew this time. The effects were awarded an Oscar. Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack and Ruth Rose, all from the 1933 production, are back here, along with, apparently, John Ford as a producer. Consequently, perhaps, "Mighty Joe Young" does do fairly well, at least, in reflexively exposing the hypocrisy of Western attitudes towards exotic lands, including Africa. The African-themed nightclub, including with its moving camera work, is outrageously on the nose, chalk-full of offensive stereotypes of Africans and stupid comments by New Yorkers. This meta construction is extended to Robert Armstrong once again playing a showman bringing a giant gorilla to the "civilized" city, his writing bogus press reports, the play-within-plays on the stage and the final film-within-the-film.
The most daring part of this is the inference that the film itself is a fantasy of Africa, which indeed it is, with its jungle film tropes of the white woman mediating between the dark continent and white civilization--as in "King Kong," Tarzan burgers and many other expedition pictures of the day. Like our surrogate audience within the film at the nightclub, then, "Mighty Joe Young" is something of an indictment against its own audience.