Son of Kong (1933)

Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack

Starring: Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack, Frank Reicher, John Marston, Victor Wong, Ed Brady

More info: IMDb

Tagline: SEE! The cannibals! The earthquake! The sea serpent! The fighting monsters of ages past!

Plot: After the disastrous results of his last expedition, Carl Denham leaves New York aboard a ship to escape all the trouble. After a mutiny, he and a few companions are left behind on Skull island, where they meet a smaller relative of King Kong and make friends with him.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yes

I was a kid the last time I saw this so I basically had no recollection of anything about this picture while watching it last night.  You shouldn't go into this looking for something that's as good as KING KONG (1933). Tonally, it's a different film altogether.  I loved how they brought back Robert Armstrong as Carl Denham and how it picks up right after KK.  He's a lot of fun.  A couple other actors returned, too, as well as the director and more of the behind the scenes folks.  The jungle action is a lot of fun.  I dig that kind of adventure.  What makes this different than KK is the humor.

Kong's son makes faces and shows human expressions that are really silly and over the top but, as long as you're not looking for something as serious as KK and you just want to be entertained and understand this one is for the kids, then you'll be just fine.  I enjoyed it.  The animation isn't as refined as KK.  It's funny because the first moment I saw Kong's son I couldn't help but think of the abominable snowman from RUDOLPH, THE RED-NOSED REINDEER (1964) and got a couple of laughs out of it.  The island in SoK disappears rather quickly, doesn't it?  At 70 minutes it feels even shorter.  It's a fun little picture.