The 37th film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, it is based on the story Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and is the only major motion picture version of the story Tarzan property to be animated. Tarzan is a 1999 American animated adventure musical film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. A prequel-sequel titled Kong: Skull Island is scheduled for release on and will be distributed by Universal Pictures.
It won three Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. The film garnered generally positive reviews from critics and appeared on several "top ten" lists for 2005, though some reviewers criticized it for its 3-hour, 8-minute running time. It also generated $100 million in DVD sales upon its home video release. While performed lower than expected, King Kong made domestic and worldwide grosses that eventually added up to $550 million, becoming the fourth-highest grossing film in Universal Pictures history. It was released on Decemin Germany and on December 16 in the United States, and made an opening of $50.1 million. The film's budget climbed from an initial US$150 million to a record-breaking $207 million. There they encounter Kong, a legendary giant gorilla, whom they capture and display in New York City, with tragic results. Set in 1933, King Kong tells the story of an overly ambitious filmmaker who coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island. Directed, co-written, and produced by Peter Jackson, it stars Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow, Jack Black as Carl Denham, Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll and, through motion capture, Andy Serkis as the title character. King Kong is a 2005 epic monster film and remake of the 1933 film of the same name. Other accounts state that the expedition went into the jungles but never returned to civilization. Some of the people and situations may have been inspired by Gaspar de Carvajal's account of an earlier Amazonian expedition, although Carvajal was not on the historical voyage represented in the film. Although based loosely on what is known of the historical figure of Aguirre, the film's storyline is, as Herzog acknowledged years after the film's release, a work of imagination. Using a minimalist story and dialogue, the film creates a vision of madness and folly, counterpointed by the lush but unforgiving Amazonian jungle. The story follows the travels of Spanish soldier Lope de Aguirre, who leads a group of conquistadores down the Orinoco and Amazon River in South America in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. The soundtrack was composed and performed by German progressive/Krautrock band Popol Vuh. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (German: Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes), known in the UK as Aguirre, Wrath of God, is a 1972 West German epic film written and directed by Werner Herzog.