Mighty Joe Young (1998)

A legendary fifteen-foot tall mountain gorilla named Joe is taken to an animal sanctuary in California by a zoologist and a young woman whom he grew up with. A poacher from the past returns to seek vengeance on him. I saw Mighty Joe Young for the first time when i was a kid but since then for somehow i never actually watched the film again until today tho. I can't understand why the film even has a 5.6/10 here on IMDb it was freaking amazing from the spectacular animatronics and practical effects to even some of the computer effects that they used, the music that was composed by the late James Horner and the performances by both Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron are terrific and especially Theron that has such a great chemistry with Joe. As for Rade Serbedzija as Strasser? He really sells with his performance as the villain. The final 3rd act where Joe goes loose on the streets and eventually ends up saving a young kids life is one of the best scenes and best parts of the film and only if you're made out of a rock you won't cry. This is one of the most underrated Disney movies i have ever seen it doesn't deserve the rating that it has and sure as hell it's not a bad film it's funny, very much dramatic and has some pretty good moments full of adventure and little kids alongside their parents will definitely enjoy it. (10/10)

The main problems I had with this is not Joe himself, but sadly, the overall story as well as the acting and effects. Despite the implausibility of a gorilla like Joe, he's the only character with any redeeming quality and he's not even real. The 1940's version with the Harryhousen effects are far better than this uninspired outing. The underlying message that this movie and others like it love to convey is 1- that animals are still on this earth solely for our amusement, regardless of the well meaning intentions of a few, and 2-never underestimate the blind stupidity of people in large groups.Basically an oversized ape is taken from the only habitat he's ever known and where he's felt safe all his life and thrown into a fake man-made enclosure on the other side of the world for tourists to gawk at and the media to milk until the next flavour of the month presents itself. During a gala event where Joe is to be displayed in front of high society types, things take a turn for the worse and as usual Joe, like any other wild animal, reacts violently,however as several people with more money than sense got hurt in the ensuing melee the typical consensus is to lock him away to be euthanized. To wrap up, Joe is freed from prison, the poachers trying to kill him are defeated, Joe redeems himself by saving a child from a fire and he ends up roaming free again back in Africa. It's a very syrupy and artificial and kids won't see that it's full of holes but this just isn't enjoyable on any level for anyone over 10 years old. There's lots of silly and deliberate attempts at generating cheap laughs whether it be a sports car getting trampled or a Mercedes getting trashed. It's all very obvious as is the teary premature death of Joe, which even blind Freddy could see coming. A box office bomb if ever there was and it's not hard to see why. A total miss.

Mighty Joe Young tells the tale of a young woman who's an owner of a giant gorilla named Joe and his environment is in danger. So Charlize Theron's charcther and Bill Paxton's charcther decides to go to Los Angelus so Joe can have a normal life as a bunch of poachers are out to get him as they killed Theron's charcthers mother when she was just a baby. Overall the story to this is very good,the music is very good and the cast is also very good. I saw it a few times before on TV and it was on Film 4 today. I may never know why this got a low rating cause I seen nothing wrong with it. Overall I really enjoyed this movie and I also was shocked that the gorilla wasn't a real gorilla AT ALL,he was a animatronic created by Rick Baker.Awesome effects.My verdict watch it.9/10

I watched this film years ago and finally have come to comment on it. The film is a tale of a ape and a woman who decides after the death of Joes mother to take him back to the US. But Joe escapes and hysteria ensues.The film is a kids movie bringing the tale of King Kong back with a different kind of twist that works if you haven't watched King Kong; there are similarities but Joe has a softer quality almost a human touch to him that makes the audience connect.The CGI is quite convincing and the way the animal moves is brilliantly done..... A nice kids movie...