Meat-Eater
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The Meat-Eater[5][6] is a carnivorous theropod dinosaur that famously battled King Kong in the 1933 RKO Radio Pictures film King Kong, as well as the 1932 novelization based on its screenplay. The meat-eater also appeared in Joe DeVito and Brad Strickland's 2005 rewrite of the novelization titled Merian C. Cooper's King Kong, and other members of its species were featured in the book's official prequel/sequel, Kong: King of Skull Island.
It has been debated for many years whether or not the theropod dinosaur that King Kong fought in the 1933 film was actually a Tyrannosaurus or Allosaurus. In the film's screenplay[5] and novelization, it is only referred to as a "meat-eater." Director Merian C. Cooper referred to the theropod as an Allosaurus, while stop-motion animators Willis O'Brien and Marcel Delgado identified it as a Tyrannosaurus.[7] In its more recent appearances in literature where it is depicted more clearly as a fictional theropod, the meat-eater's description more closely matches that of a Tyrannosaurus than an Allosaurus.
Name
The dinosaur is never referred to by any specific name onscreen; however, the screenplay for King Kong[5] as well as the film's 1932 novelization[6] refer to it as the "meat-eater." The dinosaur is also referred to as a "meat eater" (unhyphenated) in the 2005 rewrite of the novelization by Brad Strickland and Joe DeVito. The novel's prequel/sequel Kong: King of Skull Island features another dinosaur with the same name which more closely resembles a Tyrannosaurus rex, and also refers to it as a king dinosaur. Willis O'Brien had stated that the dinosaur was meant to be a T. rex and, as a result, the creature is often considered to be such by most audiences, though director Merian C. Cooper referred to the dinosaur as an Allosaurus.[7] In Kong Reborn, Russell Blackford's 2005 sequel to the original novelization, the Meat-Eater is referred to by the narrator as an allosaur which, while not being specifically an Allosaurus, would point to it being in the clade Allosauridae.
Development
The Tyrannosaurus rex stop motion model used in the original King Kong was originally created for Willis O'Brien's canceled film Creation, as was the case with many of the creatures featured in the film.
Design
The Meat-Eater's puppet as seen in the original King Kong was based on the famous tail-dragging skeletal mount of the Tyrannosaurus rex displayed at the American Museum of Natural History in the early 20th century, which was later reconfigured in the 1980s because it was anatomically inaccurate.[7] Its bumpy skin is shown to be pinkish-brown in the colorized version of the film; however, the novelization's dust jacket portrays it with smooth green skin and a crest of spines running down its back, where its head is additionally supported by a supple, serpentine neck. The novel Kong Reborn also refers to the Meat-Eater as "jungle green" in color. Its mouth is filled with sharp teeth, and it has two small, nearly useless arms that are described as only being useful for putting food into its mouth. Its strong hind legs allowed it to move around through a series of short hops. In the film and the original novelization, the Meat-Eater is depicted with three digits on its hands. In Merian C. Cooper's King Kong and Kong: King of Skull Island, the Meat-Eater is redesigned to reflect more modern reconstructions of Tyrannosaurus rex, with a more horizontal posture and its tail held suspended in the air behind it, as well as a shorter and less curved neck. The Meat-Eater still has a crest of spikes running all the way from the top of its head to its tail. In these novels, the Meat-Eater now has only two digits on its hands, like Tyrannosaurus rex is now known to have possessed. In Kong of Skull Island, the Meat-Eaters are covered with small orange scales and a row of spines going down their backs and tails. They possess large heads resembling those of spinosaurids, with long mandibles, small eyes, and singular crests on top of their heads. They also possess slender arms with three clawed fingers, long muscular legs, and a serpentine-like tail.
Ecology
In Kong: King of Skull Island, the Meat-Eater is shown to be a carrion feeder, preying in the wake of Gaw and her Deathrunners. Its young bore feathers that fell off with age.[8] This is supported in Kong Reborn, in which the Meat-Eater is reported to normally bully smaller predators out of their meals while being equally capable of taking down prey for itself.
In Kong Reborn it is theorized that the Meat-Eater is a descendant of the Allosaurus that were stranded on Skull Island during tectonic migration, and that they grew to be far larger than even the Tyrannosaurus.
History
King Kong (1933)
The Meat-Eater was among the prehistoric creatures living on Skull Island in 1933. As King Kong was travelling across Skull Island with his "bride," Ann Darrow, he realized that the crew of the Venture were following him, and so he set Ann down atop a tree while he went to attack the expedition. While Kong was distracted by this, the Meat-Eater, which was walking by in the jungle, came into view of Ann Darrow. Horrified by the sight of it, Ann screamed, which only attracted the beast's attention. The beast then approached the dead tree intent on eating her. After hearing Ann's screams, Kong rushed to her aid, and tackled the dinosaur. After a long and drawn-out battle, Kong climbed on the dinosaur's back and snapped the Meat-Eater's jaws, incapacitating it, before continuing on his way with Ann. A short time later, Jack Driscoll encountered the Meat-Eater, still breathing but barely alive. As he watched, the dinosaur finally died.
Books
- King Kong (1932)
- King Kong (1933) - Boys' Magazine
- King Kong (1933) - The Mystery Magazine
- King Kong (1933) - London Daily Herald
- The Illustrated King Kong (1976)
- King Kong (1983) - Step Up Adventures
- Anthony Browne's King Kong (1994)
- Kong: King of Skull Island (2005)
- Merian C. Cooper's King Kong (2005)
- Kong Reborn (2005)
King Kong (1932)
After hopping out of the jungle, the Meat-Eater saw Ann Darrow in a tree while Kong was distracted by shaking the crew of the S.S. Venture off of a log bridging a chasm. After Ann screamed in terror, Kong threw the log into the pit and sprang on the Meat-Eater. The dinosaur quickly kicked Kong off with its incredible hind leg strength, but Kong was able to circumvent this by injuring one of its legs. Kong then easily overpowered the Meat-Eater and pried open its jaws, leaving them broken, and the creature dead.
Merian C. Cooper's King Kong
The Meat Eater discovered Darrow high up in a tree, and extended to its full height to examine her before Kong came running. Kong beat the beast back, and it snapped to try and retaliate, but Kong pushed the beast over. The bulky Meat-Eater flailed about in an attempt to regain its footing while Kong roared in victory. The Meat-Eater roared back in defiance, and was nearly back on its feet before Kong began beating it again. The Meat Eater, once again, pushed Kong away with a kick before he returned and tried to attack it again. The Meat-Eater however, turned around and struck him with its tail. Kong grabbed the tail, and began to pound the Meat Eater’s hips mercilessly, causing one of its legs to give way and break under the weight. As the Meat-Eater attempted to get up, Kong grabbed its skull from behind and beat the reptile’s head, shattering many of its teeth. The Meat-Eater attempted to thrash Kong off to the bitter end, when he snapped its jaws.
Kong: King of Skull Island
After Gaw and her vicious pack of Deathrunners slaughtered a mother and father kong and left their adolescent son for dead, a meat eater and its offspring scavenging for food came upon the carcass of the father kong and began to eat it. Mistaking the meat eater as being responsible for killing his parents, the young kong attacked the dinosaur. The meat eater managed to knock the young kong into a ravine by hitting him with its tail, then it and its offspring returned to their meal.
Kong Reborn
After lumbering out of the jungle to a nearby watering hole searching for food, the Meat-Eater decided not to challenge a pack of raptors for their hadrosaur calf and instead it set its sights on a limping gigantic rhinoceros. After a brief battle, the Meat-Eater took a considerable bite out of the rhino's back and while it did continue to fight, the Meat-Eater leaped on its back and bit down on its neck, killing it. The Meat-Eater then dragged the carcass away to eat it and to digest it for a few days, reveling in its position as Skull Island's uncontested top predator.
In January of 2009, a Meat-Eater spotted a Giant Guar grazing near the Skull Island Wall. The bull ran away, but the Meat-Eater chased after it and quickly caught up. It killed its prey completely oblivious to the humans that had invaded its home. A few days later, and far deeper into the jungle, a Meat-Eater, either the one that had taken the Guar, or another one, came across a much larger party of humans and attacked. It crushed one of the humans underfoot while charging, and tore another in half with its jaws. It quickly turned around and used its muscular tail to injure a great deal of the party. The rest of the humans attacked with tranquilizer darts and live rounds as Kong attacked. Not being fully grown, Kong maneuvered under the Meat-Eater and began biting at its throat. Despite the reptile's best efforts, it eventually succumbed to the onslaught of man and ape.
Comics
- Kong: King of Skull Island (2007)
- Kong of Skull Island (2016-17)
Kong of Skull Island
Issue #2
After a giant mosasaur tipped the Tagu's boat, some of the passengers made it to shore. They thought they were safe from the monsters in the water, only to be attacked by a pack of theropods. However, a Kong called Tul arrived and fought the dinosaurs off.
Issue #3
A pair of theropods preyed on some of the Tagu that managed to arrive on Skull Island.
Issue #4
A pack of theropods attacked some humans during the siege of Skull Island. An Atu Kong trainer named Gret sent two of his Kongs to attack them head on. After a fierce battle, a badly injured female Kong drove the remaining individuals off the edge of an ocean cliff and into the mouth of a marine reptile. Some time later, another pack of theropods attacked the Tagu's fortress, but were quickly dispatched by various Atu Kongs.
Issue #5
As some Kongs returned from hunting in the jungle, they brought back many theropod carcasses. Later, a smaller theropod attacks a pair of Atu, but was quickly killed by human warriors.
Issue #7
A pair of theropods attacked a Triceratops, but were interrupted by Valla, who managed to kill them after a brutal battle.
Issue #9
A pack of theropods stalked an Atu caravan, but at the last moment Valla arrived and defeated them.
Issue #12
Various theropods were seen battling against other dinosaurs inside the Citadel after the scent Aguul and his army had been putting out sent these creatures into a murderous rampage.
Video games
King Kong: Skull Island Adventure
During the events of Kong: King of Skull Island, Vincent Denham looked over the Skull Island Wall and saw a Meat-Eater, which he noted only as a previously unidentified species, feasting on the corpse of a giant snail. Whether or not the Meat-Eater killed the mollusk or simply found it as carrion is unclear.
Abilities
Jaws
Due to their small arms, the Meat-Eaters' jaws are their main weapon. In Kong: King of Skull Island, the Meat-Eater's maw is said to be able to kill King Kong in one bite.
Tail
In Kong: King of Skull Island, the Meat-Eater uses its tail as a weapon to knock Kong off balance with its sheer strength. In the film, the Meat-Eater can be seen using its tail more subtly to do the same thing.
Kick
In all of its appearances, the Meat-Eater's most effective attack has been its powerful legs and the strong kick they deliver.
Strength
These dinosaurs are relatively powerful, being able to hold their own against other, bulkier dinosaurs such as Triceratops.
Agility
Because of their relatively lanky builds, these theropods are extremely fast and agile. They are able to outrun and outmaneuver most creatures they fight against.
Weaknesses
Despite their intense aggression, these predators are fragile compared to stronger and more muscular creatures like the Kongs.
Gallery
- Main article: Meat-Eater/Gallery.
Roar
The Meat-Eater's roar was developed by the film's sound technician Murray Spivak, who created the roars for all of the film's creatures. All of the dinosaurs in the film use sounds from a compressed air machine, and croaking sounds made by Spivak himself, but the Meat-Eater's roar added the reversed roar of a panther.[9]
Video
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Trivia
- Due to its iconic battle with Kong, the Meat-Eater has both been paid homage and spoofed in other works referencing the original film:
- The 1969 film The Mighty Gorga featured a dinosaur that attempts to devour the protagonists after they had stumbled upon its nest of eggs, only to then battle and be killed by the titular giant gorilla. This particular Meat-Eater homage is infamous for being portrayed by an exceptionally unconvincing hand puppet. The same puppet would be re-used later in the same year in the even lower-budgeted nudie comedy One Million AC/DC.
- The 1976 British-West German comedy Queen Kong featured a tyrannosaur-like creature dubbed the Dinosauropteryx.
- In the 1985 fantasy film The Adventures of Hercules, the mythological King Minos assumes the form of a giant energy dinosaur during his climactic battle with Hercules who himself becomes a giant energy gorilla to combat the villain. The effects animation for both characters was rotoscoped from Kong's battle with the Meat-Eater.
- In the The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror III", King Homer is briefly seen fighting a dwarf Ape Island dinosaur.
- The Johnny Bravo segment "Ape Is Enough" featured a bipedal two-headed rabbit monster as its Meat-Eater stand-in.
- The erotic spoof film Kinky Kong (2006) featured a crossed-eye dinosaur who is dispatched in an extremely crude manner by the titular monster gorilla.
- The titular creature of The Valley of Gwangi (1969) directly mimicks the Meat-Eater's movements in two brief sight gags. Ray Harryhausen re-confirmed in latter-day interviews that these were deliberately done as a homage to his mentor, Willis O'Brien.
- In the 1997 film The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the buck T. rex can be seen scratching its head as an homage to the Meat-Eater in the original King Kong film, one of Steven Spielberg's favorite movies growing up.
See also
References
This is a list of references for Meat-Eater. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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