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| Special Features: |
Widescreen letterbox format.
Chapter selection.
Theatrical trailer.
Featurette (yeah right!)
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| Video Format: |
Widescreen (1.85:1)
[SS-SL]
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| Languages: |
English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
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| Subtitles: |
English.
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| Captions: |
Yes
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| Casing: |
1-Disc Keep Case
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In 1948, master of animation Willis O’Brien and his protégé Ray Harryhausen produced the family classic "Mighty Joe Young." The story revolved around a young girl who raised a gorilla which turned out to be a giant. When the young woman reached adulthood, her plantation was visited by a showman who convinced her to bring Joe to America. She relented. Of course Joe escaped. Just when he is in danger of being shot by the police, Joe saves some children from a burning orphanage. Branded a hero, Joe is allowed to return to Africa with his lady friend and her new husband. Fade out. The original "Mighty Joe Young" didn’t reach the classic status of O’Brien’s earlier "King Kong," but it is still a magical movie experience. Unfortunately, the remake replaces all the magic of the original with ugly violence, bad acting and special effects that work in some scenes but fail miserably in others.
Charlize Theron and Bill Paxton play the roles played by Terry Moore (Mrs. Howard Hughes) and Ben Johnson in the original. In this version, Ms. Theron’s character as a child and little Joe Young sit in horror as both of their mothers are murdered. Great images for children to see. Thanks Disney! Almost as bad is the performance by the likable Bill Paxton. His hammy acting doesn’t rise to the putrid perfection he achieved in "Twister" but it comes close. The only decent performance in the movie comes from Joe Young, and he is a computer animated figure. Joe is impressive and personable. Any redeeming value this horrible movie has comes from the CGI gorilla. Of course, there are some big problems with the special effects during some of the film’s long shots of Joe running across the African Savannah. The image doesn’t appear to interact with its surroundings.
Ray Harryhausen and Terry Moore make a cameo appearance during the scene in which Joe escapes. Disney even screwed up the cameo! Charlize Theron enters the gala event is the sexiest white, skin-tight evening dress you ever saw. She is incredible. Suddenly a woman’s voice is heard to ask "Who is that woman? She look so familiar!" Cut to an elegant older couple (Moore and Harryhausen). The man replies, "She is you 30 years ago." It is so cheesy, but par for the course for this horrible mess. It is a shame because it could have been a wonderful film. Those who forget the past are condemned to really screw up the present.
Terrible movie. Great picture and sound. Pathetic extras. Over priced as they come!
Picture Quality: 10/10
Charlize Theron never looked so good fully dressed. Great scenery in Africa, and dazzling special effects for the most part are all on display. To bad the story, acting and everything else is so bad. Of course the picture is so good that it does show up the goofs in the special effects during the aforementioned shots. The final scene is especially bad.
Sound Quality: 10/10
Crank up the Home Theater System, max out the bass and listen to Joe pound on his chest. Wow. Excellent use of surround sound.
Menu: 5/10
Cheesy. Easy to navigate though. Of course with as little product as is on this single layered disk, it would be hard to screw up the navigation.
Extra Features: 1/10
What an insult to call a trailer and a so-called featurette extras! The "featurette" is nothing more than a trailer with about a minute and a half of interview snips inserted. Walt would turn over in his grave if he knew what his company turned out.
The Final Word:
How dare Disney charge so much for this DVD. There are no extras! This is a vanilla DVD plain and simple. I guess Disney is so pompous that they figure people will overpay just because it is a Disney product. Give me a break.
I rented this from cafeDVD.com because the kids wanted to see it. It's not cafeDVD.com's fault this movie sucked. Instead of getting this one, log onto their site and rent something else. They have a lot of other great family films among others.
Rusty White
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