Customer Reviews

The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island (King Kong)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One problem with lost world stories is authors have always assumed that evolution would suddenly come to a grinding halt 65 million years ago. That's why you get prehistoric plateaus, mysterious islands and underground worlds filled with T. rexes and triceratops resembling their ancient counterparts. I believe it was Greg Bear who first broke this trend in this novel Dinosaur Summer. And I'm glad to see the filmmakers of King Kong have decided to break it as well.

Both science fiction fans and paleontology lovers will enjoy The World of Kong. It is a bestiary and field guide to the wildlife of Skull Island, at times amazing in its detail, documenting even the insects and fish that thrive in the imaginary ecosystem. The folks at the special effects Weta Workshop let their imaginations run wild in this collaborative effort, but kept their beasts mostly grounded in science. In these pages are the descendants of Permian mammal-like reptiles, dinosaurs and even prehistoric terror birds, along with a few new creatures like flying rats (but, alas, no pterosaurs other than one short mention). The book is full of gorgeous color illustrations accompanied by short, concise articles documenting the behavior and evolutionary history of the species described in it.

I would give this work 4 1/2 stars if that were possible because there are some minor problems. There is too much focus on predators, as if everyone at Weta was in a competition to dream up the scariest monster. The authors also play up the "lizardness" of their dinosaurs despite the evolutionary link to birds, giving their V. rex (an evolved T. rex) crocodile-like hide and their "raptors" a snake-like skin. And if you wanted to be priggish about it, an island is far too small an area to support all these large animals, and some of the insects and spiders are far larger than what is physically possible. (A dinosaur-eating spider?!) But these are minor complaints. Creature lovers and fans of fantasy illustration will dig this book.

Finally someone did it right! And, no I'm not talking about a remake of King Kong. Rather, someone published a book of movie development art that actually reflects some of the fictional element of the film in a stylish way. Crammed full of gorgeous paintings, this book also features text that gives the reader the impression that he or she is studying the results of some paleo-expedition to Skull Island. Rather than repeat the same old "making-of" quality of other movie art books, this one serves as a nice compliment to the movie.

The only drawback is that most of the book deals with the numerous dinosaurs and giant bugs that inhabit the island and paintings of Kong (our hero, after all) are few and relegated to the last few pages. I personally would have also like to have seen more of the tribal village, but that's nitpicking.

That said, if you're a Kong fan, of all the merchandise that's bound to spew forth from Peter Jackson's remake, this book will by far be the most stylish.

The World of Kong is a fantastic book that depicts the world beyond what you're going to see in the movie. All of the art is original designs of environments, creatures and their brief "archeological" explanations. They're seemingly a mixture of digital and traditional art. No still shots/photos from the movie or script included.

The "expedition journal" format breaks up the material very well and makes it a fun read. The book cover itself is jungle green with gold text and image of Kong. There is more in depth information of the various creatures that inhabit Skull island from dinosaurs, insects, and aquatic life. Great landscape artwork gives you a solid idea of what Skull Island is

The book may be short of images of Kong (actually, there are several) the people and everything you'll see in the movie, but... that's what the movie is for!

Let me start my review by saying that you shouldn't buy this book if you didn't like the movie, which should be a given. This book is not a behind-the-scenes look at King Kong, nor is it a book on the process of bringing the World of Kong to life, it's more of a fantasy-encyclopeedia for those who loved the movie and would like to explore the world of Kong further. The book does present some impressive artwork, and its a pity that more of the creatures displayed couldn't be in the movie. This book is a must have for fans of Kong.

The Book is a *wink wink* reissue of the scientific discoveries of several expeditions to Skull Island to study the Dinosaurs and other weird creatures that have developed apart from the rest of the world. An Australia from Hell.

Creatures from the Cretaceous somehow survived the Great Extinction Event and have evolved into forms similar to their ancestors. Since many of the creatures resemble those of the Montana Creataceous rather than those of the Gobi, perhaps skull Isle like India drifted with the continents and slow sank into the Indian Ocean rather than crashing into asia to form the Himilayas.

Here we find descendants of T. Rex, Apatosaurus(now renamed again Brontosaurus), Triceratops, and Velosiraptor. Unfortunately the Giant Apes went extinct when Kong died.

The Art in the book is great and reminds me of some of the Art Collections for the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Much thought was given to how the dinosaurs may have evolved and adapted cut off from the rest of the world.

I especially liked the fish as you could envision many of the species existing in some forgotten tributary of the Congo, the Amazon, or the Mekong.

Overall a great companion to the Peter Jackson film. A better reimaging of the Classic than the late 70's movie which in my opinion was even worse than the King kong vs Godzilla films from Japan.

This is an awesome book, but only for die hard King Kong fans. Worth every penny if you are into this kind of stuff. If not, you won't really like it, but then why would you have bought it anyway?

No, I haven't seen the latest King Kong movie.(not yet anyway) I did however pick up The World of Kong at my local library and loved it! The book is a field guide to Skull Island featuring over 200 pages of fantastic creatures and beautiful artwork. I have to have a copy! Even then I will be begging my 11 year old just to have chance to look at it!

A fine book, filled with gorgeous art. If you are as in awe of Skull Island as I am, is a must-read. It is amazing how much thought has gone into creating this fantasy environment.

Like a couple of other reviewers though, I too wish they had stuck just a little closer to scientific accuracy and a little less on the overwhelming dependence on fangs and scales. This really isn't a shortcoming but a bit of a missed opportunity to add the next layer of depth to the meaning of Skull Island. The section on Kong himself is nice, but can be found in other books as well (and of course is well explained in the film).

Also, I suppose I would have just preferred to have paid more and had one simply gorgeous book on this film, instead of this and the "making of" seperately.

One note: Amazon has done a terrible job of shipping this book to me on three seperate occasions. It arrives in a box sliding all around -- which is always a problem, but with this particular book more so because of the nature of the dustjacket finish. I have finally given up and just kept my copy with the smashed corners. Grrrr....

I would say it was even more enjoyable than the movie, although I liked Peter Jackson's remake. This book catelogs the horrendous and fascinating wildlife that inhabits Kong's home. The vibe Skull Island gave you in the film is that this is a seriously dangerous place, and this book reinforces that idea in a fun way.

Obviously, this is fantasy. But it shows a fair amount of biological and paleontological research went into crafting these fantasy prehistoric creatures. I saw "prehistoric" loosely because in Jackson's Skull Island animals have been here for too long to be considered "prehistoric" and have evolved into a variety of forms. My favorites include the pug bats(bat-like mammalian reptiles that attack their prey in packs), the Carnictus(those horrible phallic flesh-eating worms) and the Piranadon(a monstrous fish who was actually featured in the film but cut out). Despite being fantasy, it is a little hard to believe so many large predators and other creatures could occupy such a small Hawaii-sized island. Also, some of the creatures are too similar. There doesn't seem to be much of a difference between the shore-dwelling Tartarasaur and the jungle-dwelling Carver.

The one star reviewer below is taking things WAY too seriously. First of all, this is simply a fun book. Second of all, this isn't Merian C. Cooper's Kong, its Peter Jackson's Kong, and he did a marvelous job making up for the Dino De Laurentis travesty anyways!

This book is unique in that it gives a natural history to what most might think of as movie monsters. Rather than just describe the animals, it gives a good discription of their physiology and behavior. It actually sounds like there was a Skull Island and that there were field scientists studiing it. The art work is breath taking. Great book for Kong fans