Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
You know, between the time the original KING KONG and SON OF KONG came out and the original MIGHTY JOE YOUNG got released (i.e. between 1933 to 1949), there wasn’t a single stop-motion animated feature-film made in Hollywood. Sure there was George Pal’s Puppetoons, but they were short subjects. Ray Harryhausen was exercising his stop-motion film-making skills with EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD (1938-1940). There was THE LOST ATLANTIS (1937-1940), which was Columbia Pictures’ attempt to cash-in on the success of the original KING KONG. MGM’s epic that never was, WAR EAGLES by the people who did the original KING KONG. United Artists scrapped the stop-motion dinosaurs in favor of decorated lizards and gators because they looked so real in Hal Roach’s prehistoric masterpiece, ONE MILLION B.C. (1940). Willis O’Brien tried to get his cowboys vs. dinosaur flick, GWANGI green lighted in 1942. Guess what? They all never happened! So did MONSTERS ON THE MOON. In 1942, Lou Bunin and Michael Myerberg were at Universal Pictures to do an adaptation of Robert Wagner’s 14 hour opera cycle, THE RING OF THE NIBELUNG. That was scrapped because of World War 2. Another one that was scrapped was another Willis O’Brien project, GWANGI in 1942. That project for RKO was reworked by Warner Bros. in 1969.
So you want a deep look inside MONSTERS OF THE MOON, here are some links that can help you out.
fanac.org/fanzines/Monsters_of_the_Moon/Monsters_of_the_Moon1.pdf
cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cinema-gems-from-the-vaults-of-dr-film
youtube.com/watch?v=fsH4oGWxz4U
Enjoy.
All copyrights acknowledged.)
(For research and archival purposes only.)
#StopMotionRarities #MonstersOfTheMoon
You know, between the time the original KING KONG and SON OF KONG came out and the original MIGHTY JOE YOUNG got released (i.e. between 1933 to 1949), there wasn’t a single stop-motion animated feature-film made in Hollywood. Sure there was George Pal’s Puppetoons, but they were short subjects. Ray Harryhausen was exercising his stop-motion film-making skills with EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD (1938-1940). There was THE LOST ATLANTIS (1937-1940), which was Columbia Pictures’ attempt to cash-in on the success of the original KING KONG. MGM’s epic that never was, WAR EAGLES by the people who did the original KING KONG. United Artists scrapped the stop-motion dinosaurs in favor of decorated lizards and gators because they looked so real in Hal Roach’s prehistoric masterpiece, ONE MILLION B.C. (1940). Willis O’Brien tried to get his cowboys vs. dinosaur flick, GWANGI green lighted in 1942. Guess what? They all never happened! So did MONSTERS ON THE MOON. In 1942, Lou Bunin and Michael Myerberg were at Universal Pictures to do an adaptation of Robert Wagner’s 14 hour opera cycle, THE RING OF THE NIBELUNG. That was scrapped because of World War 2. Another one that was scrapped was another Willis O’Brien project, GWANGI in 1942. That project for RKO was reworked by Warner Bros. in 1969.
So you want a deep look inside MONSTERS OF THE MOON, here are some links that can help you out.
fanac.org/fanzines/Monsters_of_the_Moon/Monsters_of_the_Moon1.pdf
cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cinema-gems-from-the-vaults-of-dr-film
youtube.com/watch?v=fsH4oGWxz4U
Enjoy.
All copyrights acknowledged.)
(For research and archival purposes only.)
#StopMotionRarities #MonstersOfTheMoon
