Mighty Joe Young ~ my kids wanted to give it a ten star rating!

Is there any group more evil than poachers? Not to a five and eight year old who know nothing more of the world than what they see in PG movies. After watching the 1998 Disney remake of Mighty Joe Young, dramaboy and dramagirl are quite convinced that poachers are the worst thing in this world.

On an African mountain, Jill Young and her childhood friend Joe the gorilla are both orphaned on the same horrible night when poachers come around. Twelve years later, Jill is still trying to keep a promise she made to her mother to care for Joe by keeping him out of the public eye, which, for a two thousand pound gorilla, isn’t the easiest thing to do. Representing a California conservancy, Gregg O’Hara offers Jill and Joe safety in the habitat. Once in California, Joe draws more attention than ever, even that of the poacher that had orphaned him so long ago.

That’s pretty much the meat of the movie. There is also a very mild love story between Jill and Gregg, some political happenings with the conservancy, and a little bit more to do with the poachers. But none of that is even why the kids loved it (“Mom, that was awesome! I would so give that ten out of five stars if I were you!”) and I enjoyed it well enough. It was all about Joe. The special effects were decent, bordering on great when the shot was of Joe alone. They created a giant, sweet, playful, puppy-like gorilla who just happened to be as big as the nearest tree.

Charlize Theron played Jill and annoyed me more than once with her wooden acting, but luckily she co starred with Bill Paxton who has a tendency to overact and steal most scenes he’s in. They balanced each other out pretty well. Nothing, however, could save the moment when Jill laid in Joe’s arms and they dubbed in some other woman’s voice, some woman with a much deeper voice than Theron’s, singing Joe an African lullaby. That was when I chose to go refill the popcorn, and I would strongly urge you all to do the same thing if you watch this.

Crazy dubbed song aside, this remake of Mighty Joe Young was touching, sweet, adventuresome and action-packed enough to enthrall the kids and entertain me, all without crazy violence, swearing and sex. I can’t really ask for much more than that out of a family night movie choice these days. And though I value my daughter’s opinions, I have to respectfully disagree with her assessment of 10/5 stars and go with something closer to 4.

DVD Bonus Features:

Pretty sparse here, there was the normal chapter selection, a few Disney previews, the first movie trailer for this 1998 version of Mighty Joe Young and a "Featurette" that was pretty much the trailer again, only with a couple two minute shots of the actors talking about their characters.


Movie Details:
Rated: PG
Runtime: 114 minutes
Written by: Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner based on the 1949 screenplay
Directed by: Ron Underwood
Starring: Jill Young ~ Charlize Theron (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers)
Gregg O’Hara ~ Bill Paxton (Titanic)
Main Poacher ~ Rade Serbedzija (24 Day 5 and Mission Impossible: II)
Also check out one of the greasy poachers played by Naveen Andrews (Sayid from Lost)