"King Kong Escapes" looks like Toho Studios attempt to make a James Bond/Kong hybrid. First, there's an evil bad guy named Dr. Who. You know he's bad because he's wearing a black cape with a goofy collar (and he's got a really bad row of bottom teeth...poor guy). There is a beautiful but evil henchman named Madame X and a hero, Commander Carl Nelson, who is a Sean Connery lookalike.

Dr. Who creates a big robot gorilla to dig for 'Element X' which is easily converted to nuclear weapons, I guess. Commander Nelson is accompanied by a pretty officer named Susan Watson. Nelson and crew check out King Kong's island in the name of science or something. Kong sees Susan and promptly falls in love. Susan shockingly escapes Kong's clutches.

Dr. Who's Kong-bot shorts out digging for Element X. Dr. Who captures Kong and hypnotizes him to dig for Element X. Kong escapes and Dr. Who rebuilds the Kong-bot who naturally attacks Tokyo. The real Kong hooks back up with Susan in Tokyo and fights Kong-bot on Tokyo Tower. Hilarity ensues.

This movie is seriously nutty but it's actually a pretty good time. There's lots of action and the Kong-bot is pretty cool. King Kong looks even more stupid than he did in "King Kong Vs. Godzilla" (if that's possible). This movie is made even wackier as it's co-produced by Rankin/Bass. The most obvious impact of this relationship to me was with the dubbed voices of the characters. I noticed right off that the voice of Dr. Who was the same guy who voiced Burgermeister Meisterburger in the Rankin/Bass produced "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" TV Christmas special. Funny, funny stuff.

I have to add that I really love the look of the miniatures and sets. It's really what geeks me out about Toho studio productions.