What is the backstory regarding King Kong’s origins, if any? I checked wiki and googled but came up with nothing. What happened to his parents? Were they normal sized? Is /was there a troop of gorillas on the island? Why is he so big? Sorry for n00bness of question.
OR
There is none (at least, not in the original, which I understand Jackson is sticking with). Kong was Kong. No backstory was needed.
I don’t think any of the old movies or novelizations answered this. In Son of Kong (which was rushed to the market and grossly inadequately funded), Kong has a king-sized Son, so presumably he had a Queen-sized mommy, who never appears. The existence of only three huge apes seems improbable, so you’d expect there to be a whole bunch of them.
Of course, that’s the Real World. In the world of Fiction you could have just one or two big apes with no reasons for them being there, and the hell with reality. What are giant apes doing on a South Pacific island full of dinosaurs from wildly different eras (Cretaceus T. Rex side-by-siode with Jurassic oversized Stegosaurs and Brontosaurs) and different locales anyway?
Some people try to make sense. There’s an ilustrated book Kong: King of Skull Island that came out last year and, I think, tries to bring some sort of sense to all this. I’ve only leafed through it. Maybe the guy who writes the novelization for this new movie will attempt something.
Complete and utter hijack –
CalMeacham, that sig line just made me do something that I had always thought was one of those things that people talk about, but it doesn’t actually happen. My sinuses are now burning from the Pepsi One that was forcibly ejected through my nose. It all landed on my pants, giving the distinct impression that I pissed myself.
I’m in pain, I can’t leave my desk without embarrassment, and I thank you for it.
Um…
A radioactive satellite fell to earth?
:Scratches the back of his head and stick his 
out:
Almost – a chimp got sent up in a test satellite in the laste 1950s and two meteors crashed into each other near him. When he landed he started growing, and green rays came outta his eyes.
Later on he looked more like a gorilla, 'cause it was cooler.
The World of Kong: An Natural History of Skull Island is a beautifully illustrated new book that attempts to explain the flora and fauna of Skull Island. I haven’t read the whole thing, but the Kong chapter explains that Kong is the last survivor of a race of giant gorillas on the island. I don’t know who gets to decide what’s canon in Kong’s world, but it’s a really nice book.
Here, I’ll make up a backstory for you:
Kong is the last remaining example of a species of giant ape. They are very long-lived, almost immortal by human standards, and take many centuries to reach full size and maturity. Since they were never numerous, their fossil remains have never been unearthed.
I’ve read it. Wish I hadn’t
The illos are nice, but the backstory makes no sense. And the writing quality goes downhill the further you get into the book. By the time you reach Kong’s origins, you no longer care.
It’s like Highlander 2–it needs to not exist. :dubious:
According one movie review I read, we do see
the remains of Kong’s ancestors
Brian
WHOOPS! I actually read Kong: King Of Skull Island.
That’s the one that sucked.
(I had to fix your spoiler box, otherwise it messed mine up!)
Well, as a matter of fact:
Kong takes Ann to his lair/cave, which is strewn with the skeletons of giant apes.
And, in addtion–
Skull Island has obviously seen human(?) habitation in the distant past, as there are ruins in various places besides the great wall.
Posted by Blondebear:
I noticed that (saw the movie today). Which leads to the question:
[spoiler]How did anything get built there? The dinosaurs alone make the place a deathtrap, and they were obviously around long before humans came to the island. They should call that place Five Minute Island, because every five minutes something out of a freaking nightmare tries to eat you.
There was something very sad about Kong in his lair, the last of his kind, alone with the bones of his ancestors.[/spoiler]
The Mad Lib backstory for King Kong:
There. Now somebody can make that into a story, plug in the various things, and boom. Instant backstory. Make your own! 
Well, I hope the backstory cooked up by Jackson rings true, because it’s part of the success of the original that there is no backstory. The implication is that he’s been there forever, pretty much; he shares the island with a bunch a dinosaurs. The land that time forgot, and all that. He is mysterious an eternal; he’s explicity referred to as a god. So I don’t think a backstory is really necessary. He just is.
Hmmm, I thought big mammals got smaller when they’re isolated on islands for long periods of time…
[Kongstanza]
I was in the pool! I was in the pool!
[/Kongstanza]
If you’re interested in the real-life backstory, the movie was apparently inspired in part by W. Douglas Burden’s expedition to capture a komodo dragon and return it to New York City. I haven’t read the book, but I’m told it’s quite good.
Only on islands where they don’t have to fight dinosaurs.
Hm. As John Ford aficionado–he and Merian C. Cooper later had a long-lived partnership–I’ve seen a few Cooper bios, and some peripheral stuff about the origins of King Kong, and I’ve never seen this mentioned. Cooper was something of an adventurer himself, and famously trekked to some pretty far corners to film some of his earlier movies. (His silent documentary about the nomad tribes of Iran, 1925’s Grass, is pretty amazing.) Charging lions, that sort of thing. IIRC, *King Kong *was an exaggerated fantasy based on his own life, not that of someone else. Is there another cite for this Komodo story?