King Kong has been reigning over the world of movie monsters for more than 90 years since he was first discovered on Skull Island way back in 1933. In that time, he's been portrayed as both a hero and a villain, a creature of horror and a saviour of the planet. And the design of the creature has pushed the boundaries of special effects along the way.
With the king of beasts about to appear on the big screen again in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, we look back at how the character design has evolved, from stop motion and rubber suits to motion capture CGI with massive scale. For a history of Kong's counterpart, see our piece on the evolution of Godzilla design.
The original King Kong (1933)
The OG King Kong was released by RKO Pictures over 90 years ago in 1933. Directed by Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, the film set the bar for monster movies for years to come with its mix of adventure, terror and practical effects. The story has a few turns but the premise is fairly simple. Kong is brought from dinosaur-infested Skull Island to New York City to be shown off. Carnage ensues.
The special effects were groundbreaking, if not very natural looking. A variety of cutting-edge techniques employed, including stop-motion animation, matte painting, rear projection and use of miniatures. Willis H. O'Brien, who had worked on the 1925 film The Lost World, was responsible for the stop motion used to bring prehistoric creatures to life, meanwhile the backdrops of several scenes on Skull Island were painted on to glass to give a sense of depth and allow rear projection. in some scenes, an optical printer was used to combine several strips of film into a single composited image.
As for Kong himself, Cooper wanted the the monster to measure 40 to 50 feet, and that's the claim that was used in marketing. The models built by Marcel Delgado used a scale of 1 inch to 1 foot and would make Kong between 18 and 24 feet tall depending on the scene. However, the production also used a bust of Kong's head and upper chest, which was maneuvered by three people inside it. This would have made Kong 30 to 40 feet tall. Even at the time, reviewers noted the mechanical feel of Kong's movements and the inconsistent changes in size, but the film was a huge hit. Sidney Saunders and Fred Jackman received a Special Achievement Oscar for developing the translucent screen used for rear-screen projection.
The Son of Kong (1933)
Proof that Hollywood's appetite for sequels is nothing new, the King Kong sequel Son of Kong was released just nine months after the first picture – pretty impressive for a film that wasn't shot concurrently. The same team was involved, and the story picks up where the first left off. Facing bankruptcy due to lawsuits in the aftermath of Kong's New York carnage, filmmaker Carl Denham turns treasure hunter and returns to Skull Island, because people in films just never learn.
Kong himself makes no appearance since he's dead, but the pirates come upon a surprisingly good-natured albino gorilla who is assumed to be Kong's son. He towers over the humans but is said to be half the size of the King himself. To return the favour after they save him from quicksand, 'Little Kong' goes on to help the humans, saving them from dinosaurs and giant bears and sacrificing himself so they can loot a jewel as his island is destroyed.
It's clear Son of Kong wasn't made with the same seriousness as the first film, with an emphasis on humour more than terror. Several planned sequences were dropped due to budget and time constraints.
Kong Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is not the two kaijus' first encounter. Far from it. Long before they were teamed up in Legendary's MonsterVerse, the two came to blows in the barmy 1962 Japanese film Kong Kong vs. Godzilla.
Hollywood had lost interest in Kong after the first sequel. O'Brien, the special effects pioneer, wanted to make a King Kong vs Frankenstein (yes, really), but producer John Beck couldn't find a studio to take it so he offered the script to Japan's Toho Company, which bought the rights to King Kong. In the end, Toho replaced Frankenstein's monster with its own Godzilla, which was surely for the best.
Toho's third Showa-era Godzilla picture presents a Kong that has evolved notably in his 30-year absence from the screen. His height was increased to a massive 150ft to give him a better chance against 'Zilla, and he's given a new power: the ability to charge up with electricity (an ability Godzilla also picks up in later films). However, he also has an apparent susceptibility for red berry juice.
As for the effects, Eiji Tsuburaya considered using O'Brien's stop-motion technique but budget concerns eventually led him to stick with the suitmation process used in the first two Godzilla films. A couple of stop-motion sequences were used, animated by Minoru Nakano.
King Kong Escapes (1967)
If you think Kong's outings couldn't get any weirder, think again. Toho followed up on Kong Kong vs Godzilla with a film that was vaguely based on the Rankin/Bass' cartoon series The King Kong Show. There's an evil genius called Dr. Who (no relation to our favourite Timelord currently fighting AI at the BBC, though he does seem to share the William Hartnell doctor's fashion sense) and there's a robot Kong with blinding headlights for eyes (built to extract Element X at the North Pole, of course).
When the robot fails, the doctor turns to the real Kong, who now lives on Mondo Island. The real Kong ends up fighting robot Kong on the Tokyo Tower. Again, suits were used for both Kongs. The real Kong suit would later be reused for a gorilla in an episode of the TV series Go! Greenman.
King Kong (1976)
It wasn't until 1976 that Hollywood would have another go at Kong after Dino De Laurentiis got hold of the rights. He opted for a fairly straight remake, updating the back story from a quest for treasure to a quest for oil and relocating the finale from the Empire State Building to the World Trade Center.
A suit was used, and Kong is somewhat shorter than in his Japanese incarnations at 55ft. Special effects artist Rick Baker and Carlo Rambaldi also crafted a much more emotionally nuanced Kong, with mechanical masks used to show a broader range of expressions (Baker also played Kong inside the suit). Rambaldi also made a 40-foot tall, 13,000lb mechanical Kong but mechanical problems meant that it was barely used.
King Kong Lives (1986)
Ten years later, this sequel picks up the story in real-world time, revealing that a decade after he fell from the World Trade Center, Kong is alive. He's in a coma, though, and he needs a blood transfusion. Therefore, a surgeon played by Linda Hamilton sends Brian Kerwin off to Borneo to find a Lady Kong donor, after which the two giant ape elope.
There's a happy ending for at least some of the Kong family, but the visual effects failed to raise a smile. They were nominated for a Golden Raspberry but lost out to Industrial Light and Magic for their work on Howard the Duck.
King Kong (2005)
The next King Kong remake came courtesy of Peter Jackson in 2005. Fresh from Lord of the Rings, Jackson brought a period fantasy feel to the film and more modern approaches to the special effects. Weta Digital, now Weta FX, employed the motion capture CGI technique they had used for Sméagol / Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, again with Andy Serkis as the actor behind the digital skeleton used to generate the animation data.
Jackson was more determined to make Kong look natural, and the monster's movements were inspired by studying hours of footage of silverback gorillas – Serkis spent time with gorillas at the London Zoo and even visited Rwanda to see them in the wild. Kong was also scaled down to a marginally more believable 25ft. An Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects was well deserved.
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Legendary took up Kong in 2017 for the second title in its MonsterVerse franchise, following Godzilla in 2014. And it made quite a departure in terms of the Kong character and story. Kong is now a protector of Skull Island, defending it from reptilian creatures called Skullcrawlers.
Motion capture was used again, with Terry Notary playing Kong. But Kong is made to look more human, a bit closer to the original 1933 monster in concept than Jackson's more gorilla-like version. But Kong is also insanely big, measuring 100ft. But perhaps where Kong: Skull Island most departs from previous outings is that it's not all about Kong: Jordan Vogt-Roberts wanted to pay as much attention to the design of the other monsters and the whole environment of the island.
Godzilla vs Kong (2021)
Adding Kong to the MonsterVerse paved the way for the inevitable: another clash with Godzilla. Like with their first encounter back in 1962, Kong is given a little help to even the odds, with his height tripled to 335 feet. That's still way shorter than the now 394-foot-tall Godzilla, but he also gains a massive axe made from one of Godzilla's dorsal plates. Sure, Legendary is just making this up at they go along, but it's a wild ride. Weta handled effects again, with Allan Henry donning the mocap suit on this outing.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
That brings us up to this year's Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and King Kong design has evolved again. Adam Wingard has chosen to make Kong look a little older and more bedraggled, growing his beard out and giving him more grey hair. He retains the massive scale from the previous film but looks wiser maybe? We'll find out when Godzilla x Kong is released on 12 April.
For more inspiration, see our pick of the best movie monster designs.
