King Kong

It never ceases to amaze me how a little personification of a 25-foot gorilla can make people cry over the fact that a woman is in love with the said primate.

Granted, it was a good film and was very well done, but doesn't anyone think the inter-species love connection was a little odd? I know the love part of the story was't the main idea in the movie, but the falling-in-love scenes were sure played up.

Everyone I've talked to about the film has said that they cried at the end - guy and girl alike. First of all, don't you expect that he's going to die? I've never seen the old movies to know the actual plot of the story, but just from context clues alone I knew the ape would die. It's like when people cry when watching Romeo and Juliet. If you've paid attention at all at any point in your life to a Shakespeare reference, you know what to expect. Anyway, I don't think anyone would cry so much over it if Kong wasn't a CG-created person in a 25-foot gorilla costume. He laughed, he threw a tantrum, he fought desperately for his love, he was sad and he was defeated. He was essentially a person made to look like a gorilla.

It's always odd to me when movie makers make animals seem more like humans. You know, when they talk or express human emotions. It's like it's all to create a stronger emotional tie to the animals.

Did anyone see March of the Penguins? Again, a very well-done film, but one that capitalized on the human emotions of love and committment that the non-human penguins expressed. Morgan Freeman, the narrator, even said that the film was the story of love. And so many people cried at that film too. Now, there are penguins everywhere. They're in magazines, new Coke ads, billboards, tee shirts - anywhere a penguin could possibly land in an attempt to make people go "Awww..."

My prediction is that Kong finds his way very soon to similar places - and not just the Kong from the film (because the marketing for such a large film is inevitable) but gorillas in general. I think that sign language gorilla will make a come-back in the next year. Maybe we'll see her in a Coke ad.

I'm not just saying this because I don't really like animals. I'm saying this because I don't believe that animals are capable of expressing human facial expressions or emotions. Yes, I think that at times my dog looks sad or happy but I do not think that he ever experiences anything as complex as guilt or love, both of which are emotions influenced and created by a society my dog has no concept of. If my dog were to be in a movie, I would not want them to CG his face or give him a voice. I would not want my dog to be the connection between a complex, abstract emotion and a full audience. I would not want my dog to create more on-screen connections with audience members than those audience members have with their own families.

More tears should be shed for real-life situations than for over-personified, CG-created animals.