Mighty Joe Young

NO NOT ANOTHER MOVIE ABOUT APES! Oh, wait this one seems pretty good. Interesting note about this movie: director of The Searchers John Ford was the movie's Executive Producer, which makes sense because there are a few cowboys in this movie. Also my apologies about the lack of a cartoon. Something came up at the last minute, but I will have two cartoons next week. But enough with that, let's start the review of Mighty Joe Young.

We start the movie in Africa where a little girl named Jill (Lora Lee Michel) sees some locals with a baby gorilla. She gathers some money, jewels, toys, and her father's flashlight and trades them for the baby gorilla. She names the gorilla Joe and shows him to her father (Regis Toomey). He tells Jill to take care of Joe when he gets older. Twelve years later in New York City, a man named Max O'Hara (Robert Armstrong) is planning to open a night club, but he wants to have an animal act. So he does the logical thing and flies to Africa to capture and train some animals....yeah, sounds like a logical plan. He takes a cowboy named Gregg (Ben Johnson) and a hunter named Crawford (Denis Green). We see that they have caught a lot of animals and are getting ready to go but then they see a gorilla destroying everything so they go after it. The gorilla grabs Mr. O'Hara, and Gregg and Crawford try to shoot it but then a grown up version of Jill (Terry Moore) comes to calm the gorilla who, as it turns out, is Joe.

Jill takes Joe away but Gregg, O'Hara, and Crawford follow her and try and convince her to let Joe have an act in the Night Club. Jill agrees and she and Joe are taken to New York to perform. The opening night is a success: first Joe and Jill do a piano number (like on the poster) and then Joe plays Tug of War against some of the world's strongest men (who actually are real professional wrestlers). Joe wins and everyone seems to love him, but Joe doesn't like it because he is kept in a cage. Jill talks to O'Hara about going back to Africa and he says that he will try to make arrangements. One night Joe has to do an act where he wears a hat and tries to catch fake money that the audience throws at him. This makes Joe mad and the show is cut short. Meanwhile some drunk guys go down to try and talk to Joe but they annoy him and this causes Joe to go on a rampage. This rampage causes a court case and Joe is sentenced to death.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

Jill, Gregg and O'Hara come up with a plan to get Joe back to Africa. O'Hara goes down to say goodbye to Joe and he fakes a heart attack to distract the guard. Jill sneaks down and gets Joe out of the cage and puts him in a truck. They try to throw off the cops by leaving a map to Las Vegas. Gregg and O'Hara meet Jill in the truck. The cops catch on to them and they switch trucks. Joe goes into another truck while O'Hara gets in the first truck. O'Hara is caught by the cops and they start to catch up to Joe. Fortunately they manage to lose the cops. But while escaping they come across a burning orphanage.....really? There just happens to be a burning orphanage...why don't you go a step further and also make it full of puppies, widows, and other gorillas, and at the same time it's being robbed. Another thing to point out is that it's the only scene in the movie that's in color: it is because the movie was colorized in the 80's but then returned to black and white in the 90's. But they kept this scene in color because they felt it worked better. Joe saves two orphans who were trapped inside and he is declared a hero, Jill and Gregg go to Africa with Joe, and O'Hara opens a new night club. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

I like this movie. The stop motion for Joe is really good and believable and you find yourself rooting for Joe most of the time. Joe is very big and lovable and you always want him to win. Now if I do have a problem it's that it does seem to borrow some plot points from King Kong and some of the side characters aren't all that interesting. But I still think this is a good movie to watch if you want to see a lovable ape and his friends. Thank you and see you next time.