King Kong (The LEGO Batman Movie)
| King Kong incarnations | |||||||
|
|
| |||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Joker: “He likes long, violent walks on historic buildings. It's King Kong!”
- King Kong: “Come at me, Gotham!”
- ― Joker introducing King Kong as he falls from the Phantom Zone (The LEGO Batman Movie)
King Kong is a giant ape who appeared in the 2017 superhero film The LEGO Batman Movie. He was imprisoned in the Phantom Zone along with other notorious villains of the LEGO multiverse, and freed as part of a plot by the Joker and Harley Quinn to destroy Gotham City.
Name
- Main article: King Kong#Name.
King Kong's name was conceived by the character's creator, Merian C. Cooper, after he read his friend Douglas Burden's account of traveling to the island of Komodo and encountering Komodo dragons there. In Burden's book, Dragon Lizards of Komodo, he referred to the animal as the "King of Komodo." Fond of hard-sounding words beginning with a "k" sound, Cooper was inspired by this phrase to give his giant ape creation the name of Kong.[1] David O. Selznick eventually added "King" to the title of Cooper's film in order to prevent audiences from confusing it with a docudrama, as Cooper had previously produced multiple such films with one-word titles.[2]
Design
King Kong has the build of a standard LEGO minifigure, although he is comprised of a massive number of mostly lavender and grey bricks rather than solid pieces. He has a gorilla-like head with red glowing eyes as well as a gorilla-like chest and belly.
In LEGO Dimensions, Kong has more luminous eyes and less pronounced pectoral muscles.
Personality
This incarnation of King Kong is a malevolent monster that takes pleasure in terrorizing people and razing enormous buildings. He quickly agreed to ally himself with the Joker in exchange for his freedom from the Phantom Zone. Upon arriving in Gotham City, he proved a highly destructive force and a persistent threat to Batman and his allies.
Origins
Prior to the events of The LEGO Batman Movie, King Kong was imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, which was described by reporter Pippa as "the notorious space jail that houses the greatest supervillains of all time." This could have only been accomplished with a Phantom Zone Projector, which is in Superman's possession at the start of the film, although it is unclear whether he was personally responsible for banishing Kong.
History
- The LEGO Batman Movie (2017)
The LEGO Batman Movie
Prior to the film's events, King Kong was imprisoned in the Phantom Zone along with other notorious villains of the LEGO multiverse. Joker tricked Batman into sending him to the Phantom Zone, and soon found himself face-to-face with King Kong and his fellow inmates. He quickly bored them, but just before the Gremlins could dismantle him, he announced he had a plan to free them all. They quickly agreed to help his master plan to exact revenge on Batman and destroy Gotham City. Harley Quinn stole the Phantom Zone Projector and used it to release all the inmates. Manifesting as a giant face in the clouds, Joker introduced his new allies, with Kong landing atop a skyscraper and bellowing a challenge to the city. Sauron quickly determined to location of the Batcave, situated beneath Wayne Manor, and the villains laid siege to it. Kong quickly made landfall and punched a hole through the Batman insignia inside the cave, allowing Joker and his smaller allies to enter. Joker then demanded Batman's capture.
Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon freed Batman and Robin from Arkham Asylum on the condition that the Caped Crusader work with her to defeat the supervillains. They resolved to retake the Phantom Zone Projector now housed in Wayne Manor. Along with Alfred Pennyworth, they hid inside a skyscraper as the villains closed in, but Kong soon found them and leapt onto the building. He toppled it while the Kraken broke its fall by knocking down another building, leaving the heroes dangling over a river of lava generated by Sauron. They escaped by building a Batwing. As it endured a withering assault from Joker's forces, Kong swiped at the aircraft as it flew back through Gotham.
Kong caught up with Gordon, Robin, and Pennyworth as they stormed Wayne Manor, rechristened Joker Manor, in the Scuttler. He grabbed the vehicle and pulled it apart, then gave chase to Gordon and Pennyworth. Daleks soon surrounded them, allowing Kong to pick up Gordon. Before he could eat her, Robin sent the Batmobile flying at him with the vehicle's self-destruct sequence activated. Batman rescued Robin from the doomed vehicle just before it exploded against Kong's face. His head lit aflame, Kong fell into the sea.
After Batman saved Gotham with the help of all its residents, even the Joker, Kong and the other supervillains returned to exile in the Phantom Zone.
Abilities
Physical strength
Kong is one of the strongest villains freed from the Phantom Zone, able to demolish a large building and dismantle the Scuttler without trouble.
Agility
In addition to possessing formidable strength, Kong is surprisingly agile for a creature of his size, although far less than most of his other incarnations. He is able to jump onto and climb buildings and run at high speeds.
Swimming
When Joker led an assault against Wayne Manor, King Kong was shown backstroking on the way to the island.
Weaknesses
King Kong was knocked out when Robin set the Batmobile to self-destruct and flew it into him, lighting his face on fire and sending him falling into the sea.
Gallery
Screenshots
The LEGO Batman Movie
Video games
- LEGO Dimensions (2017) - Sony PlayStation 4, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii U, Microsoft Xbox One, Microsoft Xbox 360
King Kong in LEGO Dimensions
LEGO Dimensions
To be added.
Trivia
- King Kong came to cross over with Batman again in the Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong collaboration comic book in 2023. Both they and Mechagodzilla were also featured in Ready Player One (2018), but never interacted.
- This version of King Kong is the only outright villainous interpretation of the character, as other interpretations depict him as an anti-hero or hero, and other instances of him being evil were result of him being mind controlled or manipulated by other villains.
- King Kong's voice actor, Seth Green, would later cameo as a fighter jet pilot in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
- This is the first incarnation of King Kong capable of speech.
- The manner in which King Kong is defeated is identical to the defeat of his ally Sauron: a flaming object strikes them point-blank and sends them falling into the sea.
- The end credits of The LEGO Batman Movie list King Kong amongst "The Ubers", along with Voldemort, Sauron, and Phyllis.
References
This is a list of references for King Kong (The LEGO Batman Movie). 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]
|
Comments
Showing 15 comments. When commenting, please remain respectful of other users, stay on topic, and avoid role-playing and excessive punctuation. Comments which violate these guidelines may be removed by administrators.
