Disney: Mighty Joe Young (1998)

I can remember catching a little preview of this on Entertainment Tonight some time in the spring of 1998 and it really caught my attention, as well as my mom's (in fact, Mom may have called me in to see it). While neither of us had seen the original movie at that point (or, at least, I know I hadn't), we both recognized the title, having read about the original in that Crestwood House book on King Kong, and, of course, we always loved these types of big creature movies. Back then, we had a tradition of going to Florida every summer and, while we were there, we usually saw a movie we were interested in seeing in the theater, so we figured this would be the one for that summer (plus, we'd already seen the TriStar Godzilla, so were kind of in a monster movie mood anyway). But, that ended up not happening, as the movie was delayed until that Christmas, but when it finally did come out and we started seeing trailers and commercials for it, we were more than ready. While we were both on Christmas break, the two of us, along with my cousin, Mikey, who'd also been looking forward to it, went to go see it and I can remember that we all really enjoyed it and we especially loved the character of Joe himself. But then, after seeing it once, maybe twice, on TV afterward, as well as getting some behind-the-scenes information on AMC's show, Cinema Secrets (that was my introduction to Rick Baker in general), it kind of went away and I didn't think much about it, save for when I finally saw the original for the first time. Even then, the original kind of replaced it in my mind, especially since, while that movie is revered as an immortal classic, the 1998 version has, to this day, never gotten a really good Blu-Ray release with special features worthy of it. That mindset changed when I found the DVD at McKay's in Chattanooga in 2016, allowing me to see it for the first time in many, many years. Having now re-watched it a handful of times since then, I can say that, while the original is the better movie in my opinion, just like how I feel it's good enough to stand outside of the long shadow of King Kong, Disney's Mighty Joe Young also has enough strength to stand on its own merits. Just like the original, it's a wonderfully well-made film that tells its story in a nicely-paced, entertaining manner, has a very lovable cast of characters, chief among them the title character, and features some truly impressive special effects, particularly the gorilla suit and animatronics courtesy of Rick Baker. That said, I can pick out more flaws than I can with the original, some of which are fairly big, but they're not enough to completely derail it and keep it from being the great movie I feel it is.

While living with her mother, primatologist Dr. Ruth Young, near Mt. Pangani in Africa, little Jill Young becomes friends with Joe, a baby gorilla who's part of a band of mountain gorillas Ruth is studying and who appears to be growing much larger than he should be. One night, the gorillas are attacked by a group of poachers led by the ruthless Andrei Strasser, who kills Joe's mother while she tries to escape with him. He also tries to take Joe alive, but the baby gorilla attacks him, biting off his right thumb and index finger. Regardless, Strasser also fatally shoots Ruth when she arrives to save Joe, and after the poachers retreat, Jill comes across her dying mother in the jungle. Before she goes, Ruth has Jill promise to take care of Joe. Twelve years later, Gregg O'Hara, a biologist and conservationist, comes to the area, interested in the legend of N'gai Zamu, a massive creature said to be the guardian of Mt. Pangani. While searching the area and taking blood samples of the local wildlife, Gregg and his men learn just how real the legend is when they encounter Joe, who's now grown to an enormous size of fifteen feet tall. After attempting and failing to secure him long enough to get a sample of his blood, Gregg follows Joe into the jungle, but is nearly killed by the powerful gorilla, until the now adult Jill, who lives there with Joe, intervenes. Rather than being scared off, Gregg becomes determined to help Jill protect Joe, knowing he's in danger from poachers, and offers to relocate Joe to the preserve he works for in California. Jill, distrustful of Gregg and all outsiders, is initially hesitant to do so, but when Kweli, a friend of Ruth's, convinces her of the coming danger, she agrees, on the condition that she put made fully in charge of Joe. Upon arriving, Joe is initially unsure of his new surroundings, but he acclimates very quickly, to the point where he becomes downright playful with the staff there. However, his peaceful life doesn't last long, as the publicity surrounding his existence gets the attention of Strasser, who now runs a "preserve" in Botswana but actually sells animal body parts on the black market. Intent on both getting revenge for what Joe did to him and making a profit off his innards, Strasser decides to pay Joe a visit and ensure the mighty ape falls into his hands.

Mighty Joe Young was directed by Ron Underwood, a director who I feel is severely underrated, as he's made a lot of movies that are genuine fan favorites, even if they're not a hit with critics or box-office smashes. His first feature was Tremors, which I and a lot of other people absolutely adore (as I do the majority of the franchise it spawned, but that's another story), and after that, he went on to City Slickers, a major critical and commercial success. Unfortunately, he struggled afterward, with neither Heart and Souls, starring Robert Downey Jr., nor Speechless, with Michael Keaton and Geena Davis, doing that well, and Mighty Joe Young was a full on flop, making only $50 million against a budget of $90 million. But, that was nothing compared to the fate of Underwood's next movie: The Adventures of Pluto Nash, the notorious Eddie Murphy disaster, which all but destroyed his theatrical directing career (the only theatrical movie he's made since was 2005's In the Mix, a romantic comedy/crime thriller starring Usher). Since then, he's mainly worked in television, notably with the 2003 TV movie, Stealing Sinatra, and has directed episodes of numerous big-name shows such as Boston Legal, Monk, Ugly Betty, Heroes, Desperate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy, just to name a few.

As in the original movie, we meet both Jill Young and Joe during their respective childhoods; in this case, it's when little Jill (Mika Boorem) is living with her mother as she studies the mountain gorillas who live near Mt. Pangani. Jill has a bond with baby Joe from the get-go, with the two of them playing peek-a-boo during the opening scene, and she's easily able to pick him out among the other young gorillas. Significantly, this causes her mother to realize that Joe is a lot bigger than he should be at his age. However, both of their peaceful existences are shattered on the same night, when the despicable poacher, Andrei Strasser, kills both of their mothers. Finding her mother dying in the jungle, Jill is asked to look after and protect Joe, which she promises to do. In a really touching moment, she and her mother start singing their favorite African song, Windsong, together, until later in the night, when Jill is the only one heard singing. In the middle of her mother's funeral, Jill runs off into the jungle with Joe, vowing to keep her promise.

She stays in the jungle with him for twelve years, living in the same bungalow her mother did and coming down mainly just to buy food from the small village at the base of the mountain. Now played by the lovely Charlize Theron in her first major role, Jill remains adamant to protect Joe and keep him hidden from the world. She absolutely distrusts outsiders, including Gregg O'Hara, even when she learns he's a conservationist, and when she saves him from Joe for the second time, she threatens to let Joe pound him into dust the next time. Even when he offers to help her protect him, Jill is reluctant to take his offer, despite the impending danger due to Joe's cover being blown, as she believes Joe won't be truly free at the preserve in California, even if he's not in a cage. She also proves to be quite courageous when it comes to protecting him, standing up to some poachers who show up in the village, but Kweli, an old friend of Ruth's who's also something of a surrogate father to Jill, warns her that she's not going to be able to keep Joe safe forever. Soon realizing he's right, Jill accepts Gregg's offer, on the condition that she be allowed to be in charge of Joe. She's so distrusting that, when Gregg automatically promises her that she will be allowed to do so, she tests his loyalty by asking him to allow himself to be bitten a spider whose bite will cause him to have a high fever and hallucinations, as well as say what's really in his heart. When Gregg calls this supposed local pact a load of bull, Jill says, "Maybe you're not a fool after all."

As in the original movie, Jill absolutely loves Joe and would do anything for him. They're shown to havr an almost mother/child relationship, where Jill not only tries to keep Joe safe, telling him he mustn't let people see him, but also plays hide-and-seek with him, sings him to sleep and calms him with Windsong, and signals him with her flashlight. Because of his giantism, other gorillas will not accept him, so Jill believes she's all he has, but both Gregg and Kweli tell her she won't be able to keep him free on Mt. Pangani any more than he would be elsewhere. With no other recourse, she agrees to let Gregg take Joe to the conservatory in Los Angeles. Upon arriving, she's initially not so sure she's made the right decision, as she really has to assure Joe nothing will hurt him in order to get him out of the truck and into his paddock, and even though Gregg promised her she would be in charge of him, Harry Ruben, the preserve's supervisor, stymies that. But, when Joe adapts to the place quite quickly, to the point where he plays hide-and-seek with Harry in his paddock (although Harry himself thinks Joe's trying to attack him), Jill is overjoyed. While there in Los Angeles, Jill has her own fish-out-of-water experiences, having trouble with seat-belts, feeling like the place she stays in on the property is akin to a cage, and is amused at what people in the modern world are obsessed with, like hair and fashion. She and Gregg also start to become much closer, something that doesn't go unnoticed by the others, including Joe, who isn't too happy about it. But then, Joe starts freaking out and going into a frenzy, and Jill doesn't understand what the problem is. Knowing something's wrong, she tries to postpone a gala benefit, afraid of what might happen, but her pleas fall on deaf ears and, sure enough, the night of the gala, Joe goes into another frenzy and destroys the place, injuring a number of people. He's sedated and placed in a concrete bunker, where he becomes severely depressed. Learning he may never be allowed to come out of the bunker, Jill accepts an offer to get Joe back to Africa.

Unbeknownst to her, that offer comes from the one who's responsible for both her and Joe being orphans and Joe's erratic behavior lately: Strasser. Not knowing who he is when she meets him, Jill considers his offer to bring Joe to his own "preserve" in Botswana, and takes him up on the offer after Joe's imprisonment. However, after they load Joe up into his transport truck and she heads to the airport with Strasser and

his right-hand man, Garth, Jill sees Strasser's missing fingers and, having overheard him mention what Joe did to him when she was a young girl, realizes who he is. She manages to escape the truck and, shortly afterward, Joe himself escapes and runs amok in Hollywood. Jill and Gregg meet up and try to find Joe, who's in danger of being killed by the local police, while Jill herself becomes a target of Strasser, who fears she might expose him. Eventually, they track Joe down to the Palisades Ocean Park, where Jill and Strasser have a final confrontation where he attempts to kill her. Joe, however, takes care of him, and Jill and Gregg then have to hold off the police, who've arrived in time to see Joe throw Strasser to his death. After Joe saves a young boy, Jason, from a burning Ferris wheel, there's a moment where it seems as though he died in the fall when it collapsed, devastating and almost emotionally crippling Jill. Fortunately, Joe is shown to have just been knocked unconscious and he awakens. Even better, the boy he saved, as well as the police and all the spectators, pitch in money to help open a reserve for him, which she does, finally succeeding in keeping her promise to her mother.

One really cool idea the filmmakers had was to take the two male leads from the original movie, Gregg Johnson and Max O'Hara, and combine them into one character: Bill Paxton's Gregg O'Hara. Like Robert Armstrong's O'Hara in the original, Gregg is the one who finds Joe and Jill in Africa and comes up with the idea to bring them to California, but he's also like Ben Johnson's Gregg in that he's an all-around good guy who has nothing but the noblest of intentions. A biologist and conservationist, Gregg comes to Mt. Pangani to investigate the legend of N'gai Zamu, believing there may be a real creature behind it. From the outset, he makes it clear to his guide, Pindi, and the men he hires that they're going to the mountain simply to observe and take blood samples, not to hunt or capture any animals, and he has to put his foot down when the men try to make off with a leopard they caught. Speaking of Joe, Gregg is awestruck by the amazing gorilla from the moment he sees him, so much so that, after the wild chase he leads them on, he follows him into the jungle. That almost gets him killed when Joe grabs and holds him upside down, but then Jill intervenes and has Joe, literally, drop him. After being knocked unconscious and then awakening in the village infirmary, Gregg knows he just encountered N'gai Zamu, despite what Kweli tries to tell him, and when he spots Jill in the village, he follows her back into the jungle. This leads to another potentially fatal encounter with Joe, one which Jill, again, saves him from. Knowing who Jill is, as he knew of Ruth Young, he offers to help her protect Joe, telling her that, now that he's been seen, she won't be able to keep him safe for much longer. Eventually, she does realize the danger and offers to go with him to the preserve in Los Angeles, as long as she's allowed to be in charge of Joe, which he agrees to.

Paxton is an actor whom I've always liked and it's a shame he's no longer with us, but I've always felt he worked best whenever he was part of an ensemble, like in Aliens, Near Dark, and Apollo 13. Whenever he was an actual lead, be it here or in Twister, he never quite came off as strong to me. He always seemed sincere, as he does here, and he certainly makes Gregg a likable guy, one you can root for along with Jill and Joe, but he just doesn't

have the same energy as he did in some of his other movies. What doesn't help is that the romance between him and Jill feels obligatory and is only average at best. Fortunately, like in the original movie, where it also felt like it was put in the story simply because it was expected, it's not dwelt upon so much that it becomes distracting, but that doesn't change the fact that it is one of the movie's weaker aspects. Plus, there's also a hint that Joe isn't happy to see the two of them becoming close,

and his outbursts even interrupt their growing relationship, but it doesn't go any farther than a couple of scenes. Regardless of all that, Gregg is totally on Jill's side about Joe, becoming frustrated himself when Harry Ruben throws his weight around in regards to her, and is just as concerned as she is when he starts acting up. He, very reluctantly, is the one who first tranquilizes Joe when he crashes the gala, and after he's imprisoned in the bunker, Gregg apologizes to Joe directly, saying he promised he wouldn't be put into a cage. There's a nice moment there where Joe closes his hand around Gregg's, showing he's learned to trust him. So attached is he to the both of them that he goes along with Jill's plan to get Joe back to Africa, regardless of the repercussions it could have for him. But, after he's helped her get Joe into Strasser's truck and they drive off, Gregg realizes the danger Strasser poses when a poacher noisemaker is found at the gala. He races after them and manages to help Jill when she jumps out of the truck, teaming up with her to find Joe after he breaks loose and starts roaming around Hollywood. Like his character in the original, he proves to be a good Samaritan and tries to help get the fire that breaks out at the amusement park, and he's just as devastated as she is when it looks as if Joe died while trying to save the boy from the Ferris wheel. When it's revealed he survived, Gregg and Jill use the money they get from the bystanders to open up the Joe Young Wildlife Park in Africa, where Joe is finally able to be free.

While the original movie had no actual villain, this version does in the form of Andrei Strasser (Rade Serbedzija). Unfortunately, he's pretty weaksauce and is one of the film's more contrived elements. While significant in that he killed both Jill and Joe's mothers when they were very young, and he embodies the many threats rare animals like Joe face, both as an active poacher and later when he uses a "preserve" in Botswana as a front for selling animal parts on the black market, he's very one note and doesn't do much else to make an impact. In the film's opening, when he's younger and is taking part in the actual hunt for the gorillas, he is shown to be quite ruthless with how he kills Joe's mother, tries to capture the baby gorilla, and then shoots Ruth Young in cold blood. But after that, despite his swearing revenge on Joe for biting off the thumb and index finger on his right hand, which he gets a chance to do when media coverage of Joe's arrival at the conservatory catches his attention, he never rises to truly despicable villain levels, as he's now little more than an evil businessman and schemer. He does manipulate Jill into bringing Joe into his hands by telling her of his preserve, as well as by whipping Joe up into a frenzy that causes him to tear up the benefit gala and injure a lot of people, and when Jill realizes who he is, he attempts to kill her to keep her from exposing him, but it's nothing that earth-shattering that makes you really despise him. Plus, despite their history, the final confrontation between Strasser, Jill, and Joe is very anticlimactic, as all that happens is Strasser corners and prepares to shoot Jill, Joe sneaks up behind him, grabs him, throws him onto a power line, and he falls onto a transformer, which electrocutes him to death. Granted, that's a pretty violent death for a Disney movie, but it's also an unimpressive death for an equally unimpressive villain.

For much of the movie, Garth (Peter Firth), Strasser's right-hand man, is just as heartless and ruthless as his boss when it comes to animals, particularly in the first scene where he enrages Joe in his paddock with a poacher noisemaker, clearly taking delight in it, and dreams of what his body parts would be worth. He also drives the truck meant to transport Joe to the airport during the climax, but after both Jill and Joe escape them, Garth shows he's not quite as monstrous as Strasser. This is first hinted at in the opening, when he can be heard saying they should help Ruth Young, but it comes to a head when Strasser actively targets Jill during the climax. Appalled at this, Garth stops Strasser from shooting Jill, causing a misfire that eventually leads to the flames that burn down the Ferris wheel, and tells him, "You're not a hunter, you're a murderer, and I don't want any part of this." However, Strasser knocks Garth unconscious by hitting him in the face with the butt of his rifle before getting out to confront Jill face-to-face.

The two most memorable characters at the conservatory are Dr. Harry Ruben (David Paymer), the supervisor, and Dr. Cecily Banks (Regina King) who, according to Gregg, "Makes sure he doesn't screw it up." Cecily is definitely the most understanding and affable of the two, befriending both Jill and Joe right away, and she also notes how Gregg doesn't immediately take off on his next expedition as he usually does, leading her to rightly guess he has an interest in Jill. Harry, on the other hand, is a little more awkward and pompous, throwing his weight around by refusing to allow Jill the total handling of Joe that Gregg promised her. He's also jealous of Gregg being the one who discovered Joe, saying he'd love to be the one to discover a new species, and so, when Dr. Elliot Baker, the chairman of the board, comes to see Joe, Harry brags about having believed in the legend of N'gai Zamu all along. And then, when they get to his paddock and Joe is a no-show, Harry decides to bring him out so Baker can see him, despite Cecily trying to advise him otherwise. This appears to provoke an attack, as Joe corners Harry behind a row of plants and roars and pounds at him, but it turns out Joe's just playing hide-and-seek, as proven when Jill convinces him to jump out and yell, "You found me!" Following that embarrassing moment for himself, Harry has even more egg on his face when Baker orders him to put Jill in charge of Joe, as well as to put her on the payroll. Following Joe's freakout and his injuring a lot of people at the gala, accumulating a number of lawsuits, Harry has to break it to Jill that Joe will have to stay in the concrete bunker indefinitely and there's nothing he can do. Clearly pained over this, he takes part in their plan to smuggle Joe out and get him back to Africa, sending the guard at the gate on a wild goose chase. Both he and Cecily know this act will probably mean their jobs but neither of them are sorry about it. At the end of the movie, Jill writes to Cecily, telling her about the opening of Joe's reserve in Africa.

Rounding out the cast is Kweli (Robert Wisdom), an African native who was a friend to Ruth Young and has acted as a surrogate father to Jill in the years since her death. Kweli aids Jill in keeping her promise to Ruth, trying to convince Gregg after his first encounter with Joe that he imagined it, but he knows he's not a fool. He also knows Gregg is a good man and tries to make Jill see that, though she doesn't go for it at first. When Jill rashly

confronts some poachers, Kweli calls her out on how foolish that was and also tells her how she won't be able to protect Joe forever. Knowing of Gregg's offer, he strongly suggests she take it and his insistence helps convince her to do so. A less reputable native of the area is Pindi (Naveen Andrews), the guide whom Gregg initially hires to take him to Mt. Pangani. He comes off as rather shady from the get-go, having assembled a group of men who themselves look like they could be poachers, and has to be told by Gregg that they're not going to be hunting anything. When the men capture a leopard, Pindi, despite what Gregg says, tries to take the cat with him and orders them to put it in his truck, but when Gregg puts his foot down about it, he acts very sycophantic and yells at the men to do the same, saying they don't listen. He has the misfortune in getting caught up in the chase for Joe, nearly suffering a bad end when Joe tautly stretches a chain right in his vehicle's path, and while Gregg goes after the gorilla on foot, Pindi and the other men quickly beat it. The last time we see Pindi, it's revealed he works for Strasser, telephoning and telling him about the enormous gorilla. At first, Strasser believes Pindi has been drinking and dismisses his claims, but later learns he was right all along.

Rick Baker insisted to the filmmakers that Ray Harryhausen have an appearance in the movie and, sure enough, Harryhausen does appear, along with Terry Moore, the original Jill Young, in the scene at the gala, billed in the credits as "gentleman at party" and "elegant woman at party." Watching Charlize Theron, Moore says, "She reminds me of somebody, but I can't think who it is," to which Harryhausen responds, "You, when we first met." It has a clever double meaning: in the context of the movie, this old couple is reminiscing on when they first met, but it also alludes to when Harryhausen and Moore worked on the original Mighty Joe Young. Although, I'm ashamed to say that I didn't catch these cameos when I first watched the DVD; I must have been zoned out or something, as I definitely know who they both are.

Like the 1949 original, the production values of Disney's Mighty Joe Young are impeccable, to say the least. It's very well shot by cinematographer Donald Peterman (who actually got seriously injured at one point during filming when the camera crane he was sitting on snapped), bringing out the lushness of the jungles; a magical sort of glow to some of the nighttime scenes, such as those inside Ruth and Jill's little bungalow during the opening and Jill and Joe's first night at the

conservatory, with Joe sitting in his paddock and Jill trying to sleep in her quarters, the latter of which has a nice blue lighting to it; an atmospheric, misty vibe to the nighttime scene where Strasser and the poachers hunt the gorillas; and he manages to make the conservatory, Hollywood, and the Palisades Ocean Park feel like very beautiful-looking places. And speaking of beautiful-looking places, the scenes meant to be set in Africa were actually done on the island of Kauai in Hawaii, which I had

a feeling was the case before I even looked it up, as I recognized that environment from Jurassic Park. It is absolutely gorgeous, with lovely, dense jungles, big wide fields for the scene where Gregg and his men chase after Joe, and a spectacular peak that represents Mt. Pangani. The little oasis in the jungle, where Jill and Joe spend most of their time, is especially beautiful and picturesque, with all of the thick foliage and the waterfall in the

background. Also, despite the person who lives there, Strasser's home in Botswana is another lovely location: a big, elegant house in the middle of a large clearing, with giraffes roaming and grazing from the trees. The same goes for the conservatory in Los Angeles, which is a lot smaller than what Joe and Jill are used to, but has a beauty to it all its own, with Joe's area being a quaint little hillside with a waterfall off to the left and many ledges for him to jump and climb on.

The other man-made locations and sets are also top notch, with the most spectacular being the environments in and around Hollywood during the climax, be it the busy streets, Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Hollywood sign itself, and the big canals where Joe, at one point, takes cover from police helicopters. Palisades Ocean Park, the site of the finale, also deserves a mention, with plenty of spots for Joe to get into mischief, like the big spotlight he mistakes for Jill's flashlight signal, a shooting

gallery, a hall of mirrors, and, of course, the Ferris wheel that serves as the centerpiece for the sequence. Like the exterior, the inside of Strasser's home is just as big and elegant, with his massive office and small living area off to the side of it, but on the opposite side of the spectrum is the room in the basement, where the body parts of animals are prepared for the black market. The same can also

be said of the concrete bunker Joe is imprisoned in following his rampage at the gala, which is a fittingly depressing-looking place, very akin to the cage Joe had to stay in full time in the original movie. And there are plenty of scenes on soundstages that stand in well for real environments like the jungle, such as the opening with the gorillas and those used for some scenes between the real actors and Joe.

I completely agree with Roger Ebert's assessment of the film when he described it as, "Not too cynical, violent or fragmented for kids, not too tame for adults," as that's about how I see it. On the one hand, it definitely has its serious and dramatic moments, given how much of the film focuses on the threat of poaching that wild animals face and also how ruthless the poachers themselves can be in getting what they want, to the point where they're willing to commit murder. The opening

especially hammers home that idea, as you see Strasser coldly kill both Joe and Jill's mother, almost take Joe alive, only to suffer greatly for it, and Jill sharing her mother's final moments out in the jungle, while Joe watches on, which is not unlike other such scenes in Disney's history like the death of Bambi's mother or Mufasa's death in The Lion King. You also get further hints of the horrors of poaching and the black market in the scenes at Strasser's home where you see animal parts being

prepared, and the movie manages to become all the more dramatic when Strasser causes Joe to go on a rampage, Joe is put in the bunker and there arises a chance he could die from depression, Jill realizes who Strasser is, and the climax where Joe saves the young boy trapped on the burning Ferris wheel and nearly kills himself in the process. But, as Ebert also noted in his review, the movie has an innocence about it as well, as we see early on what

a genuinely good soul Joe has, and his relationship with Jill, as well as the one he develops with Gregg, is very, very touching. There's just a good feeling about it overall, and the ending, where Joe is finally and truly set free in his own preserve in Africa, warms your heart in that way you'd expect from Disney. In short, it is the definition of a quality family movie.

With any remake of a decades-old movie, you need to update it to make it more accessible for the audience of the time, and in the case of Mighty Joe Young, there's stuff in that original movie that would most definitely not fly today, i.e. the plot-point of bringing back wild animals to feature them in a nightclub. So, it was only logical to go the opposite direction and make conservation the main theme, with poaching being the reason why Joe is brought to

America. Sadly, it's even more relevant nowadays, considering how many animals have gone extinct as a result of poaching or loss of habitat, particularly gorillas, which are critically endangered (they're in better shape than they once were, but they're far from out of the woods). For me, the issue doesn't come off as heavy-handed, that the movie is trying to be preachy about it, but, instead, it feels like a natural part of the story. And speaking of the story, I feel the heroic act which ensures Joe will be

spared from euthanasia is integrated into the climax better than it was originally. While it was still a spectacular sequence, the burning orphanage in the original movie comes right out of left field and feels contrived; here, it comes about as an unexpected side-effect of Garth's stopping Strasser from shooting Jill, as he causes him to misfire with his gun, hit the large spotlight at the park, leading to the fire that spreads and engulfs the Ferris

wheel. But, again, I also have to bring up Strasser and what an unimpressive, typical, one-dimensional villain he is; in fact, you could have easily made this movie without him. You could still have poachers be the reason for both Jill and Joe being orphans and the reason why it's decided to move Joe to California, but you could have had the reason for Joe's rampage at the gala being caused by some reason other than Strasser's provoking

him, like maybe some annoying people aggravating and pushing him to his limit, kind of like what happened in the original but without Joe getting drunk. That in and of itself would reinforce the notion that this place is no better or safer for a wild animal as large as Joe, and could lead to them having to smuggle Joe out and attempt to get him to some place like a secluded place nearby, only for him to get loose, run amok, and eventually perform the heroic act that ensures his life will be spared.

What this movie most certainly does just as well as its predecessor is make Joe a fully realized and very lovable character. Like in the original, he's had a bond with Jill ever since they were both children, but their bond here is both deeper and more tragic because they both lost their mothers on the same night, at the hands of the same man. Ever since then, Jill has looked after him, keeping him safe and hidden from the outside world, while Joe, in turn, has unintentionally taken on the role of N'gai Zamu, the legendary guardian of Mt. Pangani. He demonstrates this role when you first see him as an adult, as he confronts Gregg and his band of men, setting free the leopard they've caged and making it clear to them they're not welcome on the mountain. He proves he can be quite fierce when provoked, smashing up the men's trucks and nearly killing some of them when they chase after him, and he almost kills Gregg when he follows him on foot, though Jill intervenes. However, despite this ferocious introduction, it's not long before we see that Joe is really a big softy, almost child-like, given how much he loves to play hide-and-seek with Jill (a game he's not very good at, given his large size). In this film, an explanation is given for why Joe is so big, as he suffers from a generational genetic disorder that causes giantism, and because of it, other gorillas won't accept him, meaning Jill marks the only true companionship he has. And because of his tangling with Gregg's men, the secret's out and Joe becomes a target for poachers. With no other recourse, Jill agrees to take Joe to Gregg's conservatory in Los Angeles, and in the moment where she tells Joe what's going on, saying she just wants him to be safe, you can see in his eyes he knows things are not right and senses a big change is coming for them. Who knows, he may actually understand completely in his own way. In any case, he goes along with Jill and Gregg, and on the way there, shows more of his childlike innocence by waving back at a kid in a car driving alongside the truck containing him. When they get to the conservatory, he's initially leery, retreating back into the truck when the sound of loud, clacking cameras spooks him, but Jill is able to coax him back out and into his spot at the sanctuary. Much to Jill's relief, Joe adapts much quicker than she expected, as he starts playing hide-and-seek with the staff, even if the way he does so makes it come off as if he's attacking Harry Ruben.

But Joe's peace doesn't last, as Strasser and Garth pay him a visit and we see that he remembers them vividly. When Garth jingles a poacher noisemaker outside his paddock, Joe becomes enraged, roars angrily at him, and even charges, only to be repelled by the electric fence on the edge of it. Later that night, Jill and Gregg are called away from a date when he's so whipped up that he's tearing his habitat apart, and while Jill is able to calm him and sing him to sleep

like a baby, Strasser and Garth return the following night, when the gala is taking place. This time, Joe gets all the more riled up when he recognizes Strasser, remembering how he attacked him and bit off his thumb and finger, and smashes his way into the gala in pursuit of him. He's now so blinded by rage that not even Jill can call him off, and when he sees and locks onto Strasser, he smashes everything in his path to get at him, seriously injuring a lot of people, and forcing Gregg and

other men to shoot him with tranquilizer darts. For this, Joe is imprisoned in a cage in a concrete bunker on the property and becomes depressed to the point where he won't eat. Not only is he depressed about the situation but it's also likely he understands he hurt a lot of people. There is a nice moment here where he finally accepts and bonds with Gregg, who, up to this point, he'd remained unsure and distrusting of, even appearing jealous when he

saw how close he was becoming with Jill, but that doesn't change the fact he may die if he doesn't get out of the bunker. So, naturally, Jill is able to convince him to go along with the plan to get him out of the conservancy and into a truck to be transported to the airport. But, when he sees Jill fall out of the truck and onto the road, he knows something is wrong and breaks out after knocking the truck over onto its side. He then runs amok in Hollywood, not intentionally hurting anyone but causing a lot of havoc regardless, like when he smashes a vacant car whose alarm gets on his nerves, walks across a busy road, and climbs atop Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Spotting the beam of a large spotlight at Palisades Ocean Park, Joe thinks it's Jill signaling him with her flashlight, one of two special parts of their relationship (the other being the African song Jill and her mother used to sing to each other), and heads there. By this point, the police are after him and he has to avoid them, at one point taking cover in some river canals, before finally arriving at the park. But, when he reaches the spotlight, he becomes frustrated upon seeing Jill is nowhere

to be found and starts roaming the park, at one point wandering into a hall of mirrors and scaring the crap out of the patrons in there. He reunites with Jill in time to save her from Strasser, grabbing and throwing him to his death, but when the chief of police sees this, he orders Joe to be shot on sight. Jill and Gregg attempt to stop the officers who show up to kill Joe, but in the midst of the chaos, Joe spots the young boy Jason, who's

trapped atop the burning Ferris wheel, and takes it upon himself to climb up to save him. This, along with the pleas of Jason's mother, convinces the men to lower their weapons, and while Joe is able to retrieve Jason from his car and shield him with his body when the wheel collapses, forcing him to jump, he seemingly dies in the process. Of course, he merely knocked himself unconscious, and when he awakens, Jason and his mother, the other bystanders, and even the police, recognizing his heroism, donate money for a preserve in Africa for him to live. When it's set up, Joe is finally able to free.

While he was an excellent makeup artist and creature creator all around, there were two things Rick Baker was especially good at: werewolves and apes, and Joe has to be one of his crowning achievements in the latter category. It's funny because, after Gorillas in the Mist, Baker swore off doing any more apes, then said the same thing after being commissioned to create the gorilla that appears in Baby's Day Out, but when he heard about Mighty Joe Young, he knew he had to do it, as he loves the

original movie. I think this was the perfect ape movie for him to end on (not counting Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes), as I don't think he could have done much better. First off all, he and his crew managed to give Joe a very distinctive look and feel that makes him stand out from the various versions of King Kong and other movie apes. It's most noteworthy in his head, as his skull is clearly quite enlarged from the giantism, and the

hair around his face and mouth makes it look as though he has a big beard. It also helps that he looks, acts, and moves more like an actual gorilla than any other giant ape that had appeared in movies up to that point. But, most importantly, just as Ray Harryhausen did through his stop motion in the original film, Baker and his team really manage to get across that Joe has a heart and a soul. The eyes are indeed the windows of the soul with him, as you can tell what he's feeling and thinking whenever you look into those big, reddish-brown orbs, which is only accentuated by his body language and vocalizations. Speaking of which, while his roar isn't as distinctive as past movie monster roars, his solemn groans, excited, playful exhaling, and the sound of his lips clicking and silently popping do help give him his own identity in an auditory manner.

For the most part, Joe is played by suit-actor John Alexander, who worked with Rick Baker a lot, having played apes in Greystoke and the aforementioned Baby's Day Out, here working in a gorilla suit with an animatronic head. Not only is his performance truly amazing and crucial, but so is how well he's integrated into the scenes with the actors. They worked completely separate from each other and yet, while you can see the edges of the blue screen compositing (though you really have to be

looking for it in some cases), most of the time, you'd swear Charlize Theron, Bill Paxton, and the others were really interacting and connecting with a fifteen-foot gorilla. The miniature sets that Alexander performed on also helped sell the notion of Joe's size and power, especially the moment when Joe smashes up and sits on a vacant car while he's running loose in Hollywood. Similarly, when Joe's a youngster in the movie's opening, he's played by the late Verne Troyer, who also worked a lot with Baker and his

crew. Those moments where you see him running around in the costume look a tad bit fake, but the close-ups of its articulated head and face are just as effective as the adult Joe. However, no such complaints can be made about the suits used for the other members of the gorilla troop in the opening, particularly Joe's mother, whose face was a left over animatronic from Gorillas in the Mist. Just like in that movie, when you look at Joe's mother as she sits in the foliage, munching and keeping watch over her baby, it looks as though you are watching a real gorilla.

In addition to the suits, Baker and his crew created several full-size animatronic versions of Joe: one that stood on all fours, one that was sitting, and another lying on its back for the aftermath of the Ferris wheel falling over. Those animatronics look so much like the suit that it's virtually impossible to figure out which you're looking at in some instances. And finally, digital versions of Joe were used for the really big action scenes, like when he's being chased by Gregg and

his men and the wide shots of him climbing the Ferris wheel, and given the state of CGI at that point, it looks pretty damn good. On that subject, by the way, re-watching this movie was a truly bittersweet experience, knowing they would not even attempt this mixture of suits, miniatures, animatronics, and CGI nowadays, and would just do everything digitally, which is one of the reasons why Baker eventually retired from the industry altogether. That's why 90's creature features and monster movies like this hold a particularly special place in my heart.

The first thing you see when the movie begins is something that's pure Disney: little Joe hanging from a tree branch, when the branch breaks and he drops onto the soft, foliage-covered ground below. He shrugs it off and scampers back to his mother, as their troop of gorillas is being photographed by Dr. Ruth Young, while little Jill sits nearby, looking over some books. Joe, spotting her, chirps and gurgles, and while both of their parents are distracted,

the two of them have a little game of peek-a-boo, poking their heads out and looking at each other from either side of a bush. Joe's mother, however, sees this and lets out a roar. Ruth then also sees what Jill is up to and motions for her to come back over. She tells her it's not good for the gorillas to interact with people, and on the way down the mountain as the sun sets (a truly gorgeous shot, by the way), the two of them argue about whether or

not that little gorilla was Joe, as Ruth figures he's far too young to already be that big. The scene then switches to night and to the more sinister sight of poachers roaming the jungle, using hunting dogs, hacking their way through the brush with machetes, and constantly jingling their noisemakers to spook the animals. One of them comes across an animal skull mounted on a stick that's decorated with paints on the snout and feathers on the back, a sight that spooks him

and some of the others. However, when Garth shows Andrei Strasser what they're afraid of, he scoffs at it and breaks it in half over his knee, before pressing them on. Meanwhile, in their little bungalow in the tiny village nearby, Ruth puts Jill to bed and tells her she's discovered she was right, that the little gorilla was Joe, even though he's only six months old. The two of them start singing their favorite African melody, Windsong, together, when Kweli comes in and tells Ruth to come quickly. Jill,

sensing that something is wrong, wants to come too but both of them tell her to stay there. Outside, Ruth is told of the poachers and she, Kweli, and other villagers rush into the jungle after them. Unbeknownst to them, Jill peeks her out the door and watches them head out.

Amid the poachers, the term "N'gai Zamu" is whispered among them, but Strasser tells them it's "mystical nonsense," adding, "There is only one thing you should be afraid of on this mountain, and it's staring you right in the face." Garth then finds some fresh gorilla droppings and, knowing they're close, they continue on. At the same time, Jill puts on her shoes, grabs a flashlight, and runs off into the jungle herself. The poachers come upon the troop

of gorillas, while Jill and her group spread out to try to stop them. Strasser approaches the gorillas, with one snarling at him as a warning, when he spots Joe's mother trying to escape with her baby, who squeals in terror and confusion. He takes aim, first at Joe and then his mother, and fires. The mother drops immediately and Joe tumbles to the ground. Strasser and Garth approach, intending to take the frightened Joe alive, when he

unexpectedly charges and jumps at Strasser, knocking him to the ground. As Strasser struggles with Joe, Garth attempts to aim at him but can't shoot without hitting Strasser as well, and when Strasser reaches for his holstered handgun, Joe bites down on his right thumb and index finger. Garth knocks Joe off with the butt of his rifle, when Ruth arrives, scoops up Joe, and runs off into the jungle. Strasser quickly gets to his feet with Garth's help, grabs his rifle, and fires at Ruth. He

misses the first time, but when he shoots a second time, Ruth immediately drops. Joe runs for it and jumps onto Jill when he comes across her, knocking her to the ground. Hearing the men approaching, Jill tells the panicking Joe to be quiet, as they sit in the foliage and watch as Strasser and Garth search for Ruth and Joe nearby. Jill overhears Garth mention that Strasser shot "the woman," and Strasser, in turn, says, "These people want to live like heroes, let them die like heroes!" He then groans loudly

and exclaims, "That little demon took off my thumb and trigger finger! Monsterle! Monsterle!" Garth suggests they help Ruth, but when Strasser says they should just get going, he agrees, saying he needs to have that wound attended to. They then leave, with Strasser declaring he will kill Joe for maiming him.

Jill sees someone else walking through the jungle with a flashlight and switches on her own light. When she does, she sees it's her mother, and runs to and embraces her, but Ruth collapses to the ground. She tries to calm her daughter, covering the bad wound on her side with her coat, when she sees Joe sitting behind Jill. He rubs the little gorilla's arm and tells Jill his mother was killed. She asks her to promise to protect Joe

and she does. Ruth embraces Jill and, knowing she's dying, prompts her to start singing Windsong with her, while Joe watches on. The camera slowly pulls out from a wide shot and, in a simple but effectively emotional edit, it dissolves to a shot of the moon in the sky, with Jill's voice now the only one that can be heard singing. It dissolves to Ruth's grave-marker, as Jill is seen standing among the natives, who pay their last respects to her mother. Joe is revealed to be watching from the edge of the jungle, when Jill suddenly runs over to him, ignoring Kweli's calling her, and embraces him. The two of them then walk off into the jungle.

Cut to twelve years later, when Gregg O'Hara arrives in the village near Mt. Pangani and meets up with his guide, Pindi, who shows him he's assembled the men and vehicles he asked for. Though Gregg isn't too sure about the men, as they look sketchy enough to be poachers, when Pindi insists they're the best ones for the job, he decides to go along with it. After making it clear to Pindi they're not going to be hunting anything, that

the rifle he has only shoots tranquilizer darts, he then tells him they're heading for the mountain itself. Pindi attempts to warn Gregg against this but Gregg already knows why the men are leery of the place: N'gai Zamu. Pindi asks him if that happens to be what he's looking for and Gregg, looking at his compass, answers, "Looking for a legend? Why would I want to do that?" Pindi throws up his hands, silently saying it's his

expedition, and they load up and drive into the jungles lining the mountain. Later, Gregg and Pindi are sitting in the jungle, as the former listens to the surrounding sounds, when they hear a gunshot and rush back to the clearing where they parked their vehicles. The men have caged a leopard and Gregg rushes in and has them place it on the ground. He grabs a rod with a syringe at the end of it and uses it to take a sample of the leopard's blood. When he sticks the syringe into the leopard's

side, its pained and frightened snarls echo through the jungle. Now having what he wanted, Gregg tells the men to set the leopard free, but Pindi is reluctant to do so, telling him of a man in Botswana who would pay big money for the leopard and offers to split it evenly with him. He then tells the men to put the leopard in the truck but Gregg glares at Pindi and orders him to make them release it. Pindi quickly becomes sycophantic and yells at the men to do as Gregg says, groaning, "They never understand me."

A flock of birds flies out of the nearby trees in a panic and the trees begin swaying back and forth, accompanied by the sound of branches cracking and trunks creaking. Just when it gets to the edge of the jungle, it stops and there are a few moments of silence, when Joe comes crashing through the trees and lands next to one of the vehicles. Gregg smiles in awe as Joe lets out a roar, stands on his hind legs, and beats his chest. Pindi starts to

panic and almost takes off running, but Gregg stops him, telling him not to move. Joe makes his way through their camp and stops in front of the cage containing the leopard. He promptly grabs the edge of the its roof and effortlessly tears it open, allowing the leopard to run off into the jungle. He then turns to the men and roars angrily at them, before grabbing the cage and flinging at them, forcing them to dive for cover as it slams into the

side of one of the vehicles. They watch as he walks by them, pushing the vehicle out of his way as he heads for some fields. Gregg is enthralled and excited, telling Pindi they're going after him. Pindi is reluctant, to say the least, saying he and his men are not going to risk their lives, but Gregg offers to triple their pay. He says so in their language and they instantly agree, something Pindi can't argue with. In the next scene, they're driving across the open field in their vehicles, Gregg

ordering the others to herd Joe towards him when they catch up to him. Pindi, who's riding with Gregg, doesn't like the sound of that, but Gregg tells him he needs to be close to get a sample of Joe's blood. Up ahead, Joe senses he's being chased and takes off into a full-on run as the vehicles come over the hill behind him. It doesn't take long for them to catch up to and drive alongside him. When he roars at one vehicle to his right, those inside it panic and go to shoot him with

a tranq dart. Despite Gregg's yelling for them not to, the one man does so, getting Joe in the shoulder with the dart. Now even angrier, Joe backhands the windshield with his massive right hand, smashing a section of it to bits, then follows that up with a slam to the front left tire, before turning it over completely and sending it tumbling across the field. Having seen this, Pindi assures Gregg the men will live, as he jokes, "Bet you provide a great health plan."

Gregg admires the way Joe, who's gotten ahead of them, moves, when he swings around, stops right in front of their jeep, and raises his fist. The jeep's driver quickly swerves to the left to avoid him, getting right in front of one of the other vehicles, which rear-ends them, momentarily stopping them. Another member of the group, riding in a red vehicle, climbs onto the hood and straps himself into a seat there. Ignoring Gregg's yelling at him,

he grabs and holds out a long pole with a large, steel grip at the end of it. When he catches up with Joe, he extends the pole and manages to snare Joe's forearm in the grip. A long chain connected to the grip quickly unwinds from the hood, but when it runs out, rather than stopping Joe, it allows him to use his strength to drag them along, almost upending them at one point. Joe runs into the foliage up ahead, dragging the vehicle through it,

while Gregg tries to make it around a batch of trees in order to cut him off. Joe comes out the other side just as Gregg's jeep is rounding the bend and stands still, waiting for him. When Gregg is in sight, Joe runs perpendicular to him and then suddenly stops. Just as Gregg wonders what he's doing, Joe holds the chain up into the air and pulls it taut right in their path. Unable to stop, Gregg pushes Pindi down to the floor and jumps out of the jeep, as the chain shears right through the windshield.

Gregg tumbles across the ground and stops in time to see Joe rip the grip and chain off his arm, then stand up on his hind legs and start pulling the vehicle to him with its very chain. He gives one strong yank and rips the entire mechanism right out of the vehicle, flinging its operator through the air and into a tree branch before he hits the ground. Satisfied, Joe slowly walks towards the jungle, while everyone lies about, exhausted and defeated. When he reaches the edge, he turns, stands up, and roars while beating his chest, before disappearing into the foliage.

Like before, Gregg is absolutely ecstatic about what he's witnessed, while Pindi and everyone else is scared half to death and ready to get out. He grabs his bag and some equipment and heads into the jungle, telling Pindi to get the men back down the mountain so they can receive medical care. Gregg follows the trail of crushed plants into the jungle, taping everything with his camcorder. After walking for a little bit, he finds Joe's enormous

footprint in the mud and records it, using his hand to show just how big it is. But, as he does, a shadow falls over him and he jumps back when Joe lets out a loud snarl. He falls on the ground and tries to scoot away, but Joe reaches out, grabs his leg, and hoists him upside down, roaring in his face. That's when the now adult Jill comes running, having heard Joe's roaring and Gregg's yelling. She reaches the spot and yells for Joe to stop. He listens to her and stops shaking Gregg, who's able to get a

look at Jill, albeit an upside down view. Gregg asks her if she could get Joe to put him down and Jill says, "Joe, drop him." Joe does as she says and drops Gregg, who hits the ground very roughly, enough to make Jill wince. Gregg immediately faints as a result.

When Gregg awakens, he's in the village infirmary, with Kweli standing over him. They talk, Gregg mentioning how "N'gai Zamu" dropped him on his head, and when Kweli tells him it's just a legend, he responds, "No, he's a giant gorilla with a mean backhand." Gregg then remembers Jill and mentions her to Kweli, who, in turn, suggests he go see a doctor in Kimanjay who's already expecting him. He limps out of the clinic and to his damaged but still

operational vehicle, all while Kweli and Jill observe him from nearby, as the latter picks up some fruit. Kweli tries to tell Jill that Gregg is not someone to be feared, as he's not a poacher, but Jill says, because he's an outsider, he can't be trusted. Gregg films some of the village children who walk past him, when he happens to catch sight of Jill across from him. This doesn't go unnoticed by Jill, and when she asks

Kweli what he told him, he simply says that Gregg is not a fool and knows what he saw. She then walks off into the jungle and Gregg follows her, watching from nearby when she stops at a small oasis by a waterfall. As she takes off her sarongs, exposing her shorts, she turns around to look behind her and he quickly ducks out of sight. As he watches, she hangs her bag up in a tree, removes a flashlight, and heads along the edge of the pool at the base of the waterfall. Looking into

the thick foliage, she flashes her light into it and then whistles. On cue, Joe pushes his way through and steps out at the edge of the jungle. Hiding behind a nearby tree, Gregg films the scene with his camcorder, as Jill tells Joe not to make such a spectacle of himself again, as he's not supposed to let people see him. Joe, in turn, becomes excited and playful, exhaling and hooting in a happy manner. Seeing he wants to play, Jill turns her back, covers her eyes, and starts counting to ten, as Joe

excitedly makes his way into the jungle, not noticing Gregg, whom he walks right past. Jill, who cheats by uncovering her eyes and watching Joe go, quickly finishes counting and follows his path into the jungle; unbeknownst to her, Gregg follows as well. As expected, Joe isn't that hard to find, as Jill comes upon him standing out in the open, covering his face. Playing along as you would with a kid, Jill acts like she can't find Joe, only to run up and yell, "I found you." Joe immediately removes his hand and gets excited, as Jill gives him a loving embrace. All the while, Gregg films them from nearby, as Jill decides to go and hide to see if Joe can find her. She has him close his eyes and quickly runs to find a hiding spot.

After a few seconds, Joe opens his eyes and starts wandering the jungle, passing by Jill as she hides among some elephant ear plants. Heading deeper in, he hears some rustling behind a shrub and yanks it out of the ground, only to expose Gregg instead. Joe immediately becomes enraged at the sight of him and lets out an angry roar. Jill, hearing him, comes running and finds he's cornered Gregg against a tree, threatening to pound him. She tells

Joe to leave and, after looking down at Gregg and backhanding him hard enough to make him face-plant, does so. Approaching Gregg, Jill asks him if anything's broken and he says no. She appears to go to help him up, but instead picks up his camcorder. Inspecting it, she says it's still functional, but promptly remedies that by smashing it against the tree trunk. She storms off but Gregg chases after her, trying to get on her good side. She tells him

that she'll just let Joe crush him next time, and Gregg says he understands, before admitting he knows who she is and who her mother was. Regardless, Jill tells him she wants nothing to do with him, saying he'll expose Joe to the outside world, but he tells her that's going to happen anyway, as he's not the only one who saw him the day before. He offers to let the people he works for care for Joe but Jill isn't convinced, feeling Joe won't free, even if he's brought to a preserve rather

than put in a cage. She walks away, but Gregg warns her that soon, people will come to hunt Joe. We're then reintroduced to Strasser, as he now runs his supposed preserve in Botswana. He's seen speaking with a client about Morris, a panda who's outgrown his habitat at the zoo he lives at, and looks at a picture of him, when Garth comes in to tell him he has an urgent call. He excuses himself and heads down into his house's cellar to take the call. There, as animal parts are being packaged to be sold on the black market, Strasser hands Garth the photo and asks him to find the worth of his organs. Taking the call, he talks with Pindi, who tells him about the enormous gorilla, but Strasser writes him off as being drunk and hangs up on him.

Back at the village, Jill confronts a couple of would-be poachers, having found some netting in the jungle. She steps right in front of their vehicle, forcing them to stop, and then throws it at them, before slamming her hands on their hood and telling them to get off the mountain. The two men climb out of their seats and Kweli, seeing things are about to get nasty, runs up and tells her he needs to talk to her. Jill, however, isn't leaving

without making her point. She walks right up to the one poacher and snarls, "Murderer," at him. Kweli has to separate them and send Jill off, as well as dissuade them from following after her, as she and them exchange threats in Swahili. Later, in her mother's old home and office, Kweli confronts Jill about her rash behavior, telling her it's becoming too dangerous in the area for both her and Joe and that there's nothing she can do to stop it. He also mentions that

he knows of Gregg's offer and asks her to consider it, leaving her alone in the bungalow with her thoughts. At the village, Gregg sees that the poachers are massing and preparing for the hunt with their weapons and noisemakers. Jill meets up with him, as says he's going to try to lead the poachers off Joe's trail and suggests she get him as deep into the jungle as she can. She then agrees to take Joe to his conservancy in California, under the connection that she be in charge of him. To

prove how trustworthiness, she asks Gregg to make a pact by enduring the bite of a Makiki spider, which would cause him to have hallucinations and say whatever he truly thinks. Gregg, in turn, calls her on this, calling it a load of crap and she says he's not such a fool. Seeing and hearing the poachers getting worked up by shooting their rifles into the air, Gregg tells her to get her things together, as they're leaving immediately. After that comes a tender moment where Jill tells Joe that she just wants him to be safe, and the two of them have one last look at the only home they've known for many, many years.

The film transitions to Los Angeles, where Gregg and Jill are driving ahead of the large cargo truck transporting Joe. Jill is a nervous wreck, asking twice if Joe's okay back there, but Gregg tries to get her to relax, even having some fun with her being so tense. Joe, meanwhile, is looking out the holes in the container, watching the passing scenery with curiosity. A car with a young boy in the passenger seat ends up beside the truck

and the boy, able to see a little bit of Joe through the holes, rolls down his window. Joe is immediately taken with the sight of him, and when he waves at him, he sticks two of his big fingers through an opening and waves back. Seeing this, the boy excitedly tries to tell his mom about it as she drives on ahead of the truck. The vehicles reach the conservancy, with the guard at the main gate radioing Cecily Banks about it, and she exclaims

to those around her, "Okay, everybody! Elvis is in the building!" As the truck drives past the animals' habitats, they react to Joe's scent, and then Gregg and Jill arrive at the spot in front of the section meant for Joe. There, he introduces Jill to both Cecily and supervisor Harry Ruben, and when the truck pulls up nearby, they hear Joe groaning and hooting from inside. Jill prepares to guide him out, when she sees that the habitat meant for him is

smaller than she was expecting; Cecily assures her that Joe will have more room to roam than it initially seems. Harry tells two men to prepare some sedatives but Jill tells him that won't be necessary and, when he starts to object, Gregg reminds him of their agreement about her being in charge. The two men open the door and attempt to coax Joe out themselves, but Jill climbs up and assures them she can do it. Using her flashlight and a soft voice, she's able to get Joe to stand up and

slowly walk out of the container. Everyone is in absolute awe when they see him, while he stops right outside the container and looks around, not sure what to make of his surroundings. Harry tells one of his men, Verne, to get some pictures, and he tries to approach Joe for a sense of perspective. But, when Joe hears the sound of the cameras clicking and clacking, he gets spooked and climbs back inside the container. Jill chases after him and comforts him, promising him she won't let anything happen

to him. Again, she's able to coax him out, and this time, he walks across the small bridge extending into his habitat, earning applause from everyone. Jill crosses back over, only for Harry to remove the bridge and overrule her when she says she wants to go back across. Joe lets out an unhappy moan over not being able to be near Jill.

The night passes with Joe sitting rather glumly in his paddock, as Gregg watches him from nearby. He notices that Joe seems intrigued by a light on a nearby power pole, likely because it reminds him of Jill's flashlight. At the same time, in the small apartment she's been given, Jill is having trouble adapting to this new way of life as well. The next morning, Harry and Cecily meet with Dr. Elliot Baker, the chairman of the board, who drops by to

see Joe for himself. But, when they make their way up to his paddock, there's no sign of him, and he doesn't respond when Harry calls and claps for him. Baker makes it clear he wants to see Joe, so Harry to decides to go into the paddock himself in order to feed Joe, despite Cecily's warnings. Meanwhile, in her room, Jill is amused by a commercial about a spray used to cover up baldness, when she hears an alarm outside. She runs out

to find a lot of chaos, with security people loading up into vehicles, armed with rifles. She meets up with Gregg, who tells her the alarm is from Joe's habitat. When they arrive, they can hear Joe roaring, Cecily telling them he's going berserk. They rush through the gate to the paddock and find that Joe has apparently cornered Harry behind some large plants. He rips up one and slams it down, swings his arm through them, and roars at Harry. After getting the security

guards there to lower their weapons, Gregg and Jill get to a spot where they can observe what's happening. Joe roars again and starts making his excited sounds, glancing at Jill. Knowing what's going on, Jill breathes a sigh of relief and, assuring Harry he's okay, tells him to jump out from behind the plants. Harry isn't too keen on doing that, but after some coaxing from both Jill and Gregg, he does so, hopping out and, as Jill told him, exclaims, "You found me!" Much to his surprise, Joe scampers

away, hooting and grunting in a happy manner, before walking into some nearby reeds. Jill walks over to Harry and tells him Joe's playing hide-and-seek with him. They look over at Joe, who tries to duck down into the reeds, and Jill demonstrates by running over to him, acting like she can't find him, only to run up to and embrace him. Harry ducks out of the habitat, as Gregg jokes to him, "Good thing Joe didn't wanna play 'doctor.'"

None of this has gone unnoticed by Baker, who tells Harry to put Jill in charge of Joe, saying, "That ape is the best fundraising tool this conservancy has ever had. He's happy, I'm happy... Put her on the payroll, Harry." Meanwhile, Jill is ecstatic to see that Joe loves being there, and excitedly runs over to Gregg and embraces him. Joe does not like the sight of that, and Gregg notices this, but Jill obliviously runs around, telling anyone

who will listen what was going on. Cecily, meanwhile, tells Gregg that she believes he has an interest in Jill that goes beyond her relationship with Joe, which Gregg denies, but his facial expressions as he watches Jill belie what he's really feeling. Within a month, news coverage of Joe's existence goes worldwide, with Strasser watching a CNN report on him in Botswana. At first, Strasser is simply amazed that Pindi's wild claims about a huge gorilla were right, but when the report

mentions how Joe was raised by Jill, the daughter of Ruth Young, he puts two and two together and realizes he's the gorilla that maimed him years ago. Looking at his right hand, Strasser tells Garth, "I'm always amazed how, if you wait long enough, the opportunity for justice finally comes. Garth, book us two tickets to America. We are going to a pay visit to this incredible animal. I think I know how to convince his current owners to part with him."

And so, in the next scene, as Harry gives some visitors a tour of the conservancy, Garth is revealed to be among them. He slips away and heads over to Joe's habitat, where he's casually munching on some vegetation. Standing at the edge, Garth pulls a poacher noisemaker out of his pocket, dangles it over the railing, and jingles it. The instant he hears it, Joe reacts, standing up and roaring at Garth. Happy to see this, Garth

persists with the jingling, prompting Joe to charge down the hillside at him, only to be repelled by the electric fence at the base. Regardless, Joe snarls and growls at Garth, who says, "You remember, don't you?" Joe lets out an angry roar as an answer, and Garth continues provoking him with the noise. That night, Gregg and Jill are out on a date by a boardwalk, growing ever closer. They almost kiss, when Jill's pager buzzes, alerting her

that something's wrong with Joe. Indeed, he's going berserk in his habitat, ripping out plants, throwing clumps of soil, breaking open irrigation pipes, to the point where water is rushing out of the gate, and smashing their electric components. Gregg and Jill arrive, meet up with Harry, Cecily, and two of the maintenance men, and rush through the gate. When Jill is able to reach him, he's almost totally destroyed the habitat, but the minute he sees her, he calms down. She then sits in his lap and sings Windsong

to him. Gregg watches from nearby, but when Joe sees him, makes a subtle warning not to come any closer, sneering at him and growling quietly. He goes back to listening to the song and gently brushes his big fingers against the side of Jill's face before drifting off to sleep. The next day, Jill tries to convince Baker to postpone a fundraising gala meant to take place right beside Joe's habitat that night, telling him that Joe is too agitated to be exposed to strange

people, but he writes off her concerns and tells her to start worrying about what she's going to wear to the party. Frustrated, she storms out and literally runs into Strasser. He introduces himself as an "old friend" of her mother's and says he's come to speak with Baker about Joe, that he has a 25,000 acre preserve in Botswana he believes would suit him better. He gives her his card and tells her he will be at the benefit as well.

The night of the benefit, Jill shows up dressed to conquer in a gorgeous white dress that Cecily picked out for her (doesn't she kind of look the way Naomi Watts later would in Peter Jackson's King Kong?), although she tells Gregg she feels stupid wearing it and is self-conscious about how everyone is staring at her. As he promised, Strasser is there, along with Garth, and they note that the large turnout will serve their purposes nicely. While Baker has

everyone take their seats, the two of them head outside, although Garth bumps into Verne, causing him to momentarily drop his noisemaker, which he says is just his key-chain. They walk to the railing at the edge of Joe's habitat and, like before, Garth's jingling the noisemaker gets him riled up. He roars loudly, the sound of which startles the people inside the tent, and does a small charge when he sees Strasser. He says, "So, you haven't forgotten me? Good?", before holding up his gloved right

hand and asking, "Have you forgotten this?" When Joe sees the glove, he flashes back to the night when he bit his thumb and finger off and furrows his brows in absolute rage, all while Garth continues jingling the noisemaker. The two of them discuss how much Joe is worth, when he brings his fist down onto the ground, again startling those in the tent. Garth, knowing he's sufficiently agitated, tells him, "Now, be a good boy, and frighten the ladies," and he and Strasser head back inside. 

There, Baker brings Harry up to the podium to make a speech. Joe can be heard roaring outside and Jill, who glances behind her to see Strasser and Garth standing back there, whispers to Gregg that there's something wrong. Harry is just about to pull back the curtain behind him and formally introduce Joe, when his anger boils over and he pushes a tree over the edge of his habitat, which tears through the roof of the tent.

Gregg rushes and pulls Harry out of the way just in time, as Joe bounds in and lets out a ferocious roar. Jill tries to calm him down but now, he's so enraged that he doesn't listen; instead, he scans the room until he spots Strasser and then, with a roar, charges right through the middle of the crowd, sending people flying, and grabs someone in the back. But, when he turns him around and looks at him, he sees it's not Strasser, and

throws the man against the wall behind the refreshment table, bouncing him off it and through the table. Gregg, seeing he's out of control, runs to grab a tranq rifle, while Jill insists she can stop him. This proves to not be the case, as Joe, fixated on Strasser, chases him to the back of the tent, stomping on the leg of a man who's fallen to the floor with his fist. Garth, in a panic, knocks another woman to the floor behind him, while Strasser tries to push through the

panicking people to escape. One panicked party-goer causes a security guard to misfire his tranq rifle and hit Baker in the rear end, causing him to immediately conk out on top of a table. Joe plows through more tables, which, thankfully, are empty, and corners Strasser against a fallen, decorative tree. He reaches for him, when Gregg shoots him in the left shoulder with a tranq dart. Joe swings around and snarls at him, as he has a regretful expression on his face. The security guards follow suit, shooting him with more darts until he falls backwards onto a table, as Jill watches on helplessly, while Strasser breathes a sigh of relief.

In the aftermath, media coverage of Joe's rampage hits the airwaves. At the scene, an ABC News reporter mentions that three lawsuits have been filed against the conservancy and there are calls for Joe to be euthanized. He then talks with Baker, who announces that Joe has been moved to a concrete bunker, one he won't be getting out of any time soon. Inside said bunker, Gregg and Jill are watching over a depressed Joe,

discussing what might have caused him to go nuts; all the while, Jill insists he wouldn't have done what he did unprovoked. Harry comes in and asks to speak with Jill for a second. She leaves Gregg alone with Joe, who looks at him as he sits in his cage and says, "Well, this wasn't in the brochure, was it? I promised you wouldn't be put in a cage. I'm sorry, Joe." Joe has his head turned away, but Gregg then bends down, slips his hand through the bars, and puts it in Joe's. Joe

turns to look at him and responds by closing his hand around his, indicating he's finally accepted and trusts him. Meanwhile, Harry breaks it to Jill that it's been decided Joe will have to stay in the bunker until a decision is made, despite Jill's warning he'll die from depression if he stays. Harry, in turn, tells her he's now a public relations nightmare, that no zoo will take him, and unless she's got a lot of money for a place, he doesn't have anywhere to go. After he leaves, Jill comes to a decision and tells Gregg she needs his help.

That night, the two of them, along with Cecily, talk their way into the bunker under the pretense of giving Joe more sedatives. Once inside, Cecily unlocks Joe's cage and throws the keys over to Gregg, who unlocks a cabinet. As Joe walks through the open cage, Jill tells him they're leaving, but before they can get started, the guard they talked to outside walks in and cocks his rifle, demanding to know what they're doing. Cecily says they need to take Joe over to the clinic to give him

his medication but the guard isn't buying it, saying he only listens to Baker, and orders Joe to be put back in his cage. Not liking the way that sounds, Joe roars at him, and Gregg has to get between them, telling the guard, "Officer, you don't want to point that thing at him, believe me." Suddenly, a tranquilizer dart flies through the air and hits him right in the neck. Gregg, shocked, turns to look (as does Joe behind him), and they see Jill used a spray canister as a makeshift dart gun. As the guard

collapses to the floor, she says, "He didn't believe you." Outside, Cecily signals for a large transport truck to back up to the bunker and tells the others to bring Joe out. When they do, Jill and Gregg coax him into the truck's large container. As they close the back, Cecily says her goodbyes to Joe, saying she's going to miss his big, brown eyes. Harry then shows up to say his own goodbye, saying, "I was just starting to get the hang of hide and seek." He tells Jill that he called the gate guard away on

"urgent business," and the two of them embrace, with Harry wishing her good luck. Jill also hugs Cecily, who has her promise to write to them when she gets Joe settled into where they're going. Finally, Gregg tells Jill he's going to stay behind to make sure no one notices they're gone. They have an initially awkward goodbye, with Jill suggesting he look her up if he ever finds himself in Botswana, but Gregg silences her with a kiss.

Strasser then reveals himself to be sitting in the passenger seat, telling Jill they need to go. She runs over to the door and climbs up into the cab with him and Garth. They pull out and head to the gate, Strasser telling Jill, "Soon, Joe will be back home again." Gregg and the others watch them leave, with Harry and Cecily wondering how long it will take before Joe's reported missing, as well as how long before they'll be searching for new jobs. Just then, the two

maintenance workers pull up and show them a box of weird stuff they found while cleaning up the remains of the gala tent. One of them happens to be Garth's noisemaker, and when Gregg hears its distinct jingling, he rushes over and grabs it. When they explain they found it near Joe's habitat and mention the two men who had it, one of whom was Russian, Gregg rushes to his car and drives off, knowing Jill and Joe are in danger.

Jill, worrying about Joe, asks Garth to be careful when his driving causes the truck to bounce a little bit, and Strasser comments how this is something she has in common with her mother. He adds that her concerns over the gorillas made her a lot of enemies, that, "It led to tragedy." Somewhat rattled by his attitude, Jill then notices Strasser's gloved right hand for the first time and can't help but stare at it. He notices her staring and when she asks how it happened, he, after exchanging glances with

Garth, says, "Well, you could say I had an encounter with a monster. Monsterle." That triggers Jill's memory, as she remembers the poacher who killed her and Joe's mothers having talked about his finger and thumb being bitten off, as well as using the term "monsterle." Now knowing who he is, Jill's eyes begin to well up with tears. Behind them, Gregg weaves in and out of traffic, blowing his horn, in a desperate race to catch up to them. He even drives off the road and across the sidewalk in

order to get right behind the truck. Both Jill and Strasser see him in the rear-view mirror and exchange looks. Knowing the jig is up, Strasser reaches for his gun inside his shirt, but Jill quickly elbows him in the face, calling him a murderer, and slams his head into the dashboard. She climbs over his body, with Garth reaching for and trying to stop her, only for her to kick him in the face. She opens the passenger-side door and hangs on it in the middle of the traffic. Strasser sits back up in his

seat and points his handgun at her, when she jumps and tumbles across the road, right in front of a car, which swerves and slams into another car parked alongside the street. Joe sees this happening through the openings in his container and becomes enraged. Jill screams at him to escape, while Gregg pulls up beside Jill and gets out to help her. She tells him who Strasser and Garth are and they pile back into Gregg's car. Meanwhile, Joe slams back and forth

inside the container, causing the entire truck to rock violently, with Garth having difficulty maintaining his balance in the cab in order to drive. Joe smashes his fist into the container's wall, causing that section to bulge out on the outside, and Garth struggles to avoid staying on his side of the road and not crash into oncoming traffic; at the same time, Gregg and Jill find it hard to get around the large traffic jam that's built up around them. Joe finally hits with enough force to tip the entire truck over onto its side and cause it to skid to a halt, with cars swerving to avoid it, only to crash into each other. Tourists on a double-decker bus and numerous passersby stop to look at the scene of the accident.

Joe then smashes his enormous fist up through the bent section of the container, rips open a large hole, and pulls himself out. The sight of this sends a lot of the spectators running, especially when he stands up on his hind legs atop the container and roars while pounding his chest, although some onlookers are more in awe of him than anything else, with one teen exclaiming, "Phat!" Back down the street, one guy who doesn't see what's going on, loses his patience and drives through the stopped

cars, only to reach the truck in time for Joe to jump right on his hood, climb over the roof, and smash the trunk while climbing off. All the while, the guy screams and cries like a frightened girl, and Joe looks back at him and shakes his head in disbelief before moving on. Strasser and Garth then climb out of the cab, and while Garth insists they need to escape before the police arrive, Strasser has something else on his mind. Joe wanders down Hollywood Boulevard, roaring at some people

sitting on a bench, when he becomes intrigued at the sight of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. He's so distracted that he bumps into a parked car, setting off its alarm, the sound of which Joe finds very irritating. He smashes his fist down on its hood in aggravation, causing it to let out a louder, even more obnoxious sound. Some kids sitting nearby laugh as they watch him then pound the car's trunk, setting off yet another alarm. Fed up, Joe sits down on the car's midsection, does a small bounce for

good measure, and then grabs and pulls the trunk up. This finally ends the noise, and Joe nods and lets out a satisfied grunt with an equally satisfied expression on his face (I can remember that shot from so many of the TV spots). After that, with the police approaching, Joe walks across the road, snarling in aggravation as cars repeatedly slam into each in front of him. Heading to the other side of the street, he comes across a parked convertible

full of teenage girls, who panic at the sight of him. As if to say, "Excuse me, ladies," Joe grabs the car's mid-section and moves it aside before walking on. While three of the girls are freaked out, the one in the passenger seat can't help but laugh, telling her friends, "That was so cool!" (That's another moment I remember from the movie's marketing.) Joe approaches the ticket booth at Grauman's Chinese, thoroughly freaking

out the woman working it, when he hears a police siren chirp. In response, he climbs the front of the theater up to the roof, with a number of onlookers watching him. Again, he beats his chest and roars mightily, which actually endears him to the crowd. The police arrive to shoot him, but by the time they reach the theater, he's disappeared.

Gregg and Jill reach the crash site, only to find no sign of Joe. Seeing some people gathering up ahead, they follow them, only to overhear a police officer mention they have orders to shoot to kill. She argues with the man, yelling that Joe isn't dangerous, but Gregg pulls her away, telling her they need to find Joe before the police do. Seeing a helicopter searching the area, he gets the idea to follow it. Elsewhere, Joe climbs up onto the Hollywood sign and sees the beam of a

spotlight far in the distance. Thinking it's Jill signaling for him, he jumps off and makes for the road at the bottom of the hillside. Back in the city, Strasser spots Jill and Gregg rushing to the latter's car. Attaching a scope to his rifle, and ignoring Garth's insisting they can't pursue Joe now, he says they need a car. They then find someone who's parked nearby and yank him out in order to commandeer his vehicle. Meanwhile, a man in boxer shorts and a tanktop calls the police,

as Joe has just plowed through his yard on his way to the highway. Reaching the edge of the road, he looks across the way and sees he's getting closer to the spotlight, when he's suddenly illuminated by a police helicopter. He runs across the left section of the highway, avoiding the cars, and after stopping momentarily to look at the light, he heads to the other side, as vehicles swerve to miss him. An eighteen-wheeler truck is unable to stop in time and slams into his side, momentarily

knocking him to the ground. Getting up and snarling at the driver, Joe rushes into the brush, as the helicopters above him have SWAT officers training their rifles down below. Rushing through the bushes, Joe nearly slips off the edge of a large, concrete canal. Hearing and then seeing the helicopters coming for him, he runs across the edge, but when the men start shooting at him, hitting the ground right near his feet, he jumps

down into the canal, grabs and swings across the underside of an overpass, and then jumps down into the water and runs straight through. This makes him an easy target for the SWAT officers, who fire again and, like before, come very close to hitting him. The helicopters have to pull up to avoid flying into electrical wires and then see Joe heading for another overpass. Thinking they've got him trapped, they attempt to cut him off when he runs

underneath it, only to hover down and find he's not there. Spotting a dirt-covered access ramp, they decide to search up there. When they leave, it's revealed Joe was holding onto the underside of the overpass. He jumps down from there and, waiting for them to fly out of sight, heads back up the canal towards the spotlight. Meanwhile, as she and Gregg follow his trail, Jill sees the spotlight and realizes it's where Joe is heading. They drive towards it, with Strasser and Garth right behind them.

The spotlight is at Palisades Ocean Park, which is full of tourists enjoying the rides and attractions. There, a young boy named Jason makes the decision to ride the Ferris wheel by himself, as his mother threw up the last time. At that moment, Joe enters the park gates, bumping his head on them, and roars, sending those who see him running off in a panic. Turning his attention to the light, he walks to the source, near a young girl whose mother grabs and drags her to the parking lot,

although she's so enchanted at the sight of Joe that she wants to stay! Reaching the light, Joe becomes confused when he doesn't find Jill there, and after recoiling and yelling when the light shines right in his face, he turns and roars in frustration. The Ferris wheel is then stopped momentarily, the operator getting the kids out and telling them there's a wild animal roaming around. Joe then wanders by some people at the shooting gallery, who are oblivious to the chaos around them due to

their earmuffs. However, the guy running the stand doesn't have that luxury, and takes off running when Joe stops and snarls at him. Gregg and Jill arrive and, not finding him at the spotlight, rush into the heart of the park. In the parking lot, Strasser has his sights trained on Jill, telling Garth, who's horrified to learn of his intentions, she could expose and destroy their entire operation. He's about to take the shot, when Garth pushes aside the rifle's barrel, causing Strasser to misfire and hit the

spotlight, sparking and creating a line of flames that quickly spreads throughout the park. Seeing what's happening, Gregg goes to help, sending Jill to find Joe. Garth tells Strasser he wants nothing to do with murder, and Strasser, in turn, knocks him unconscious by hitting him in the head with the butt of his rifle, asking, "Anything else on your mind?" With the fire spreading and engulfing stand after stand, Gregg runs to the Ferris wheel to help

get the remaining kids off. As Strasser closes in on Jill, Gregg and the wheel operator think they've saved every kid and abandon the platform. A man attempts to extinguish the fire at the base of the wheel, only to open the power panel and get blown clear across when the machinery explodes in his face, stopping the wheel dead. Amid the pandemonium, Jason's mother frantically tries to find her son.

Joe, meanwhile, sends everyone running out of the house of mirrors, and as Gregg helps extinguish the flames at the base of the Ferris wheel, Strasser removes his handgun as he walks through the crowd. Jill sees Joe's shadow behind some tents, but when she rushes towards him, Strasser steps out in front of her and points his gun at her head. He growls, "Goodbye, Jill. Meet your mother... in hell," but unbeknownst to him, Joe is creeping up behind him. Seeing this, Jill confidently says

goodbye, as Strasser turns around and sees Joe looming over him. Joe grabs the hand holding the gun and hoists him up into the air, as he pulls the trigger. Joe roars right in his face before throwing him through the air. He crashes through a billboard and lands on some electrical cables above a transformer. He tries to hold onto them but is unable to because of his missing fingers and falls right onto the transformer, where he's electrocuted to death. Unfortunately, the police happened to

arrive just in time to see Joe do this, and the chief orders the marksmen to be brought in. Jill and Joe exchange meaningful glances, with Jill walking up to her friend and stroking his arm, knowing that act probably just doomed him. Meanwhile, Gregg and the others have failed to stop the fire, and even though a fire engine is approaching, it's so out of control that it almost doesn't matter. At the same time, trucks of heavily armed police officers arrive, ready to gun Joe down. Gregg

meets back up with Jill and Joe, and Jill tells Gregg that Joe killed Strasser and they need to escape. But, with the marksmen approaching, he tells her it's too late for that and they decide to try to hold them off. While they rush to the men and attempt to make them hold their fire, Joe hears something and looks up to see Jason trapped on a car at the very top of the Ferris wheel, frightened and yelling for his mother. As Jason's mother continues looking for

him, Joe makes his way around the fire at the base of the wheel and, ripping off a section of guardrail, climbs up onto the platform. Jill sees this and, after he glances at her, he begins climbing up the front of the wheel. The police chief orders his men to fire on his command, when Jason's mother runs in to tell the chief she can't find her son, adding that she never saw him get off the Ferris wheel. Jill looks up and points out that Jason is stuck on the top, horrifying his mother. Joe reaches the middle of the wheel and climbs over to the side to avoid an explosion of sparks, with Jill realizing he's trying to save Jason. He tells the police not to shoot and the chief, looking at Jason's mother, orders his men to hold their fire.

They all watch as Joe continues making his way up to Jason, as a television crew arrives to film the whole thing at the same time as the fire department. A sudden blast causes him to temporarily lose his grip with his right hand but he promptly reclaims it, and hearing Jason's continuing cries for help spurs him on. Down below, Jill is sure the kid is going to be okay, while both Jason and his mother look at each other helplessly. Joe reaches Jason, who's initially afraid of him when he reaches his big hand

towards him, but when he looks in his eyes and sees he means no harm, he allows Joe to take him. At that moment, a spark causes Joe to slam roughly against the wheel and it's all he can do to keep from losing his grip. Gregg then sees that the wheel's supports are giving way and he yells for everyone to run, as it's about to fall over. Both Jill and Jason's mother have to be forced to run, given how upset they both are, and once they're out of harm's way, they see the supports completely blow

out and the wheel tips over. Both Joe and Jason yell as they fall with the wheel, and when it gets about halfway, Joe jumps off, shielding Jason as he lands on his back, with the wheel crushing a police car when it hits. Once the ensuing explosion abates, Jill and Gregg see that Joe's lying on the ground, not moving. Along with Jason's mother, they rush over to him, and while Gregg is able to remove the bruised but okay kid from Joe's grip

and hand him to his mother, Jill finds Joe isn't responding to her cries for him to open his eyes. Jason's mother tearfully apologizes to them for what's happened, while Jason asks if Joe is going to be okay. Panicked, Jill runs to Joe's chest and puts her ear to it, but becomes distraught when she doesn't hear anything. Gregg and the police keep back a crowd of onlookers and news reporters, while Jill mournfully screams, as it seems as

though Joe died in the fall, and lies down on his arm while stroking the side of his face, quietly pleading for him not to leave her. She then virtually shuts down while lying beside her fallen friend, as if she's completely lost the will to go on (Charlize Theron's performance here is truly heartrending), and Gregg himself is also on the verge of tears, as are some of the onlookers.

Then, Joe's finger brushes against the side of Jill's face and she sits up to see his eyes slowly open, as he lets out a groan. She happily tells Gregg and everyone else that he's alive, and as she repeatedly kisses him on the side of the face, Gregg rushes back over. Standing over and looking down at his face, Gregg says, "Joe, you big palooka! That's no way to ride a Ferris wheel!", while Jill is just happy he's alive (Joe himself seems like he's still knocked pretty senseless from the fall). Gregg says

they need to get him somewhere safe, but Jill says, "'Somewhere safe' means a new home for Joe. Where are we gonna get that kind of money?" Jason then gratefully donates a little bit of money for him, as does the police chief, and soon, all of the onlookers are doing the same, with Jill being touched by their generosity. The film comes full circle back at Mt. Pangani, at the opening of the Joe Young Wildlife Park, where Jill slices open the string running across the gate with a machete

that Kweli hands her. In a voiceover, Jill writes to Cecily, "I promised to write you when Joe was settled, and now, I finally can. With all the contributions people sent in for Joe, we were able to buy a beautiful land preserve that's even big enough for him. We dedicated the Joe Young Wildlife Park today, and it was one of the happiest days of my life. At last, I have kept my promise to my mother." Amid the celebration shown, Joe

appears right outside the gate and, after making an excited and happy gesture, runs off into the wilderness, while Jill and Gregg look on happily. The movie ends with Jill saying, "The people here are saying N'gai Zamu, the sacred guardian, has returned to protect the mountains. Other people still say N'gai Zamu is just a legend. I say, legends live forever."

The late, great James Horner did the music for the film and while, overall, it's not one of his greatest scores, it still does what you would expect from him, which is both enthrall and tug at your heartstrings. The best part of the score is Windsong, the little African tune that serves as a bonding element first between Jill and her mother, and then between Jill and Joe. It's a really beautiful song and the way it's introduced, first when Jill and Ruth sing when the former is being put to bed and then in their final moments together before Ruth dies, is so genuinely touching, and then, you hear it sung in a chorus during Ruth's funeral, adding all the more to the poignancy of it all (I'm not gonna lie, I did tear up a little bit when I watched it again). It's just as beautiful when Charlize Theron herself sings it to calm Joe, and you hear the full chorus version again, this time in all its glory, during the ending credits, bringing home the notion that Jill has kept her promise to her mother and Joe is now finally and truly free. Instrumental portions of the song, sometimes played on a flute and other times played on strings, serve as a leitmotif for both Joe and Jill, playing not only when they're together but when Joe is obviously thinking of Jill, and vice versa. Horner also definitely took the movie's initial African setting and ran with it, as you can often hear drumming and chanting on the soundtrack during the first act. The rest of the music isn't all that memorable but fits well with the scenes it's put to, such as the dark, menacing theme for Strasser and the poachers, the fun and thrilling music for the action scenes, and the very dramatic music during the climax on the Ferris wheel and the aftermath where it seems as though Joe is dead.

It's a real shame that Disney's Mighty Joe Young didn't do well when it was originally released and has become a rather obscure movie in the years since, as I think it's a very lovely and heartfelt film. While the original 1949 film is a bona fide classic and is the better movie, this has so much going for it, such as a good cast, especially Charlize Theron, lovely cinematography, location work, and production design, excellent effects work that help make Joe as fully realized and lovable a character as he was originally, many memorable and exciting sequences, a good music score, and it's chock full of that heartwarming sense of wonder Disney brings you when it's at its best, without being so kiddish that adults can't enjoy it. While it does suffer from some weak and contrived plot elements, like the romance between Jill and Gregg and the portrayal of the villain, and there are some effects that haven't aged well, mainly the blue screen work, it's still a wonderful movie overall and a rare example of a big creature flick that I can recommend for the whole family.