By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
The film crew for "Godzilla" takes to boats at Waikane
Pier during shooting last summer in Hawaii.

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Battling giants spawned
in Hawaii

By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

The battle of the titans will hit the big screen this year thanks to some help from Hawaii.

TriStar Pictures' Godzilla and Walt Disney Company's Mighty Joe Young both found themselves tromping through Kualoa Ranch but with different results. While Godzilla wreaked havoc on a small native village -- supposedly Panama -- Mighty Joe simply got captured there to be taken to the United States for exhibition.

"Godzilla" is scheduled for a Memorial Day weekend release and "Mighty Joe Young," which was going to be released this summer, has been rescheduled for December, Disney officials said.

Thus far there have been no trailers for "Godzilla" and no images of the great beast, but "Mighty Joe will" be teased to audiences with the release this week of "Krippendorf's Tribe." another Disney flick.

MJY is a kind of cousin to King Kong but with a smaller frame and a gentler heart. His story was first told in 1948 by RKO Studios, which already had enormous box-office success with "King Kong" and "Son of Kong."

Disney has acquired the RKO library of films and decided to make "MJY," which some executives see as a kind of "E.T." with a giant ape instead of an alien.

"MJY" is the most ambitious film Disney has ever made, Disney officials have said.

The story is filled with suspense and thrills. It will be a bit frightening, but it's a real family film, Disney has promised.

To bring Mighty Joe to life, Disney contacted Rick Baker, who designed and played the giant ape for the 1976 remake of "King Kong." He also designed the gorillas for "Gorillas in the Mist."

Baker and his staff built three full-scale 15-foot hydraulic gorillas, two gorilla suits to be worn by actor John Alexander and six full-scale gorilla heads. But there will also be scenes in which Joe is completely computer generated. In 1948, he was an animated puppet. Today he'll be a virtual-reality puppet.

In the 1948 film, MJY was created one frame at a time by special-effects pioneers Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen, who were awarded a special Oscar for bringing Mighty Joe to life. As a tribute to their work, Ray makes a cameo appearance in the film.

There's also a cameo by Terry Moore, who played the woman who tames the beast in the original film. In the remake, the part is played by Charlize Theron, the star of such films as "The Devil's Advocate," "That Thing You Do!" and "2 Days in the Valley."

Interestingly, there are no real gorillas anywhere in this remake. Even Joe's African family are played by actors in suits.

Theron's human co-star in "Mighty Joe Young" is Bill Paxton, who battled tornadoes in "Twister."

But MJY is not the only giant creature stomping his way to the screen this year.

TriStar Pictures will release "Godzilla," based on the reptilian hero of dozens of Japanese films, over Labor Day weekend. The film is produced by Dean Devlin and Ute Emmeriche, who also produced "Independence Day."

"Meet the Deedles," another Disney picture filmed in Hawaii last summer, will be released March 27.

The story is about two surfer brothers, Phil and Stew Deedle, who have to prove to their millionaire father that they've matured or risk being disinherited.

They train as rookie rangers in Yellowstone National Park and find themselves in hot water when they uncover a plot by a deranged ranger to turn off Old Faithful.