In pre-DVD times (a.k.a. the Good Old Days) Castle Films released an edited 8mm version of Son of Kong for home viewing. The artwork of Kiko on
the box appears to have been copied from the poster for 1949’s Mighty Joe Young and ignored Kiko’s white coloration.

did in Godzilla vs. Kong. The Kong-scale simian truly does look and behave like a full-grown
Kiko when he isn’t in an induced berserker rage.
(The 1986 “Rampage” arcade videogame also
featured “Lizzie,” a Godzilla homage.) George
was made albino for the film version to distinguish him from Kong.
Kiko’s pale appearance gave him asofter, vulnerable and even symbolically purer
countenance than his untamed darker father. Hisfeatures and expressions were softened as well,often portrayed as curious or comical. Alongwith these features, he was friendly, and moregorilla-like, which made him a direct prototype
for the next major cinematic enormous ape, “Mr.
Joseph Young” of Africa.
The old King Kong dream team reunited once more to create 1949’s Mighty JoeYoung. Cooper and Schoedsack once again sent
Armstrong on a safari to exotic locales where hediscovers yet another giant ape, a friendly tenfoot gorilla. O’Brien also returned, with prodigy protégé Ray Harryhausen, armed with advanced techniques that allowed them to animate more expressive emotions and behaviors
than with Kong, which helped win O’Brien his
only Academy Award.
The old Kong clique seemed to want
to redeem themselves for “murdering” the father and son grand great apes by devising a decidedly more upbeat variation on the theme,
aimed at postwar audiences seeking escapist
family fun. They employed the same basic

premise as King Kong, bringing a giant simian
to America for exhibition, but this time as aninvited paid guest performer (along with hischarming and feisty sisterly teenage blondecompanion) rather than as a violent abductedcaptive. Ultimately the deed was no less exploitative, resulting in an obligatory rampage
and a fiery climax that nearly ends in tragedy,
but luckily offers a happy ending for everyone.
Teary-eyed viewers truly worry forthe kind and noble Joe when he nearly dies saving kids from a burning orphanage. (I’ve alwaysassumed S.E. Hinton must have been emotion-

ally impacted by that movie as a child and crafted
a nearly identical climax for the novel/script The
Outsiders, written in her teens, albeit adding a
tragic death to the finalé.)Interestingly, both Kiko and Joe sharebasic dimensions and presumed intelligencewith the real-life prehistoric Gigantopithecus, aCenozoic bipedal ape that remarkably exceeded ten-feet-tall and twelve-hundred pounds.
There were likely other as-yet-undiscovered
giant apes, perhaps much larger!
Surprisingly, there has been only oneknown albino gorilla in the real world, a Western Lowland gorilla named
Snowflake, who spent thefour decades of his life inSpain’s Barcelona Zoo until
his death in 2003. His earlier
names included Nfumu Ngui(“white gorilla”) and Floquet
de Neu (“little snowflake”).
He was the March 1967 cover story of National Geographic and was featured in a2011 fictionalized movie. Actor Dwayne Johnson statedthe movie version of Georgein Rampage was based on
Snowflake.
People rightly forget thatthe 1976 King Kong remake
had its own far more horrible,
George of 2018’s Rampage is a direct filmic descendent of Kiko.
beyond-campy sequel, creatG-FAN, FALL, 2023

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