‘Skull Island’ washes a weak addition to Kong’s ‘MonsterVerse’ ashore on Netflix
For a show about giant monsters, “Skull Island” feels puny in every conceivable way, from the characters to the story to the uninspired animation. Designed as a TV foray into the cinematic “MonsterVerse” occupied by Kong and Godzilla, the series that washes ashore via Netflix is mostly aimed at adults, just not particularly well.
“King Kong” has been around for 90 years, and the huge ape is no stranger to animation, including a children’s series in the 1960s most memorable for its catchy theme song (if the line “Ten times as big as a man” rings a bell, congrats, you’re old), and another in 2000.
The latest anime effort seeks to build and expand upon what Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. (which releases the films, and like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery) have delivered theatrically, with individual Kong and Godzilla titles building toward the showdown of “alpha titans,” “Godzilla vs. Kong,” in 2021.
Here, Kong is at best a peripheral player, going unseen for most of the eight episodes, which focus on a group of explorers shipwrecked on the island he calls home – a place inhabited by an assortment of ghastly creatures intent on killing people that venture into their territory.
"Skull Island" features characters shipwrecked on Kong's monster-filled home. - Courtesy of Netflix
Like Kong himself, the design of those beasts looks blocky and stiffly lame, while the humans running for their lives include the teenage Charlie (voiced by Nicolas Cantu), a resourceful and mysterious young woman named Annie (Mae Whitman), Charlie’s friend Mike (Darren Barnet) and Charlie’s father Cap (Benjamin Bratt), who has been searching the oceans specifically seeking to encounter mythical creatures.
Created by Brian Duffield (“Love and Monsters”), “Skull Island” falls into a sort-of middle realm, with the production values of an old Saturday-morning show but higher stakes and jeopardy that tilts more toward an adult sensibility, including Charlie’s infatuation with Annie.
It’s worth noting that the MonsterVerse is about to get more crowded, in theaters as well as streaming. A fifth movie, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” is scheduled to be released next year, along with a live-action series, “Godzilla and the Titans,” which will land on Apple TV+.
“Skull Island” charitably offers a streaming distraction to tide fans over until then, albeit with a series that has the Eighth Wonder of the World in its corner and merely leaves one wondering what they were thinking.
“Skull Island” premieres June 22 on Netflix.
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