I’ve spent the last couple of reviews basically grumbling about the lack of Kong in this Kong related series, but in a much needed effort to changez le disc, I’m going to try and look at Skull Island from another angle.
For example, the main clue is literally in that title – SKULL ISLAND – one that I’ll point out doesn’t actually have Kong anywhere in it and if you take the lead from that bit of annoyingly obvious news, then Brian Duffield’s prequel/sequel animated series sort of makes perfect sense. The show is primarily about the island and all the weird and woeful critters that scamper around on it and our leads provide the drama as they try not to be eaten.
However, while this is all well and good, the big issue still remains that we have a 104 foot ape in the middle of the room that literally nobody is talking about and the fact remains that we have a show set in Kong’s franchise that’s based on Kong’s island and yet, Kong is barely anywhere to be seen.
Mike’s wound he received from that giant Kraken that zapped him way back in episode one has finally caught up to him and as he lies in a weakened state, his chest looks like an untrained tattoo artist has gone to town on it. Cap states the obvious: if he doesn’t get off the island, he will die – but to be perfectly honest, that sounds like the fate of most people trapped on Skull Island whether they’ve been electrocuted by a giant octopus or not.
Elsewhere, Annie has awoken from being tranquilizer and is none too pleased with Irene for arranging for her monster protector, Dog, to be carried off by a giant bird. However, as the episode progresses, we finally see how Annie and Dog met, but this is almost eclipsed by the fact that Irene finally reveals to the rebellious child that she’s her mother which is a cue for another flashback which clues us in to what actually happened when she and her mercenaries first got to the Island.
While all this is happening, Dog and Charlie, who were separated from the group after being whisked away by the aforementioned bird, have made their way back to camp despite hardly bonding, but while they try to cook up a plan to liberate Annie, Mike and Cap from the mercs (they don’t know they’re now all on the same team, remember), they stir up a nest of grey, toothy bug creatures that attack everyone. However, in the aftermath, it seem that some genuine healing has occured – well, not with Mike. Mike’s fucked – as Annie and Irene manage to get all their bad blood squared away with some simple, but well placed, apologies.
Things seem like their slowly getting under control until that pesky Kraken puts a dampener on things by reaching one of its tentacles inland and snatching yet another faceless victim for a snack. If the survivors are going to have any hope of leaving, that overgrown squid needs dealing with and Charlie has a plan.
So, continuing in my efforts to try and produce a Skull Island review that isn’t just an entire column of me complaining that the misuse of King Kong in the show is the greatest injustice performed on a simian since the shooting of Harambe, I’m going to try and focus on the many good points the series has. To be honest, Terms Of Endearment is a good episode to do this with, as there’s a lot of character stuff and flashbacks to sink our teeth into and an aspect I really haven’t dug into enough is the quality of the voice acting.
Mae Whitman has a sizable body of work in TV and voice acting and while Annie could have been something of an annoyance, the actress never lets us forget that living on this island of killer things is all she’s ever known and her cavalier attitude comes from the fact that she’s been Tarzan-ing this shit since her father was killed after their ship ran aground many years prior. Also nailing their role and putting in some impressive heavy lifting for a Netflix animated show is Betty Gilpin who goes all out in literally giving Irene a distinctive voice be it some emotional outpouring at the anguish of having already buried her daughter to dropping some typical, Brian Duffield one liners to punctuate the mood. Finally, and this might cause a little bit of contention, but I have to say that despite the fact that Charlie is something of a Marmite character, what with his constant shrieking and panicked disposition (if he was a live action character, he’d be constantly drenched in sweat), Nicholas Cantu certainly hasn’t phoned in his performance as he genuinely sounds like he’s having an actual nervous breakdown within the recording booth. Is the character grating? Sure, but you have to give credit where credit is due, thecdude’s definitely not just cashing his check and going home.
The addition of some flashbacks to fill in some blanks may not be as revealing as you’d think, due to the fact we’d already been told a lot of the information prior to seeing it, but it does mark the end of a lot of character squabbles such as the mercenaries and Dog continually trying to kill each other and the majority of the animosity between Annie and Irene.
We now also have confirmation of who Skull Island’s big bad is and, of course, it was always going to be the huge Kraken started this entire mess in the first place. We’ve obviously seen it strand the entire cast on the island, wound Mike and nonchalantly tear rescue helicopters in half like an old school strong man taking his frustrations out on a phonebook, but with the final words of the episode, it’s all but set in stone and Charlie brings up the existence of Kong.
Ah yes… Kong. I guess, in the dying moments of the review, I am going to have to break my promise and go on another Kong rant and while the last episode seemingly integrated the King of Skull Island into the story, there isn’t a single, solitary second of the big guy in the episode at all. The fact that our lead characters are now going to use Kong as a blunt instrument against a squid that flings whales about like a toddler throwing a tantrum. While it’s a good spot of problem solving for our heroes, it does nothing for Kong character at all, especially considering that the show could have been a fantasic excuse to spend some quality time with the big ape and expand on some of those more human traits that popped up in both of his newest movie appearances.
Still, surely it means he’s bound to have a larger role in the next episode (although I’ve been wrong before), but while most all the pieces of Skull Island are still functioning nicely, the biggest piece is still noticably AWOL.
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