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King Kong Escapes (キングコングの逆襲, Kingu Kongu no Gyakushū, lit. 'King Kong's Counterattack') is a 1967 kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film was a Japanese–American co-production between Toho and Rankin/Bass, and stars Rhodes Reason, Linda Miller, Akira Takarada, Mie Hama, Eisei Amamoto, with Haruo Nakajima as King Kong and Hiroshi Sekita as Mechani-Kong and Gorosaurus. The film is loosely based on Rankin/Bass' series, The King Kong Show, and was the second and final Toho-produced film featuring King Kong. King Kong Escapes was released in Japan on July 22, 1967, and released in the United States on June 19, 1968. It is the fourth entry in the King Kong franchise.

Dubbing History[]

The film would be dubbed into English in the United States at Glen Glenn Sound Co. for Rankin/Bass Enterprises. Riley Jackson, who had previously been involved with the English version of Invasion of Astro-Monster for UPA, served as the supervisor for the dubbing. Veteran voice actor Paul Frees would direct and dub most of the male voices himself with the aid of Jackson. Commander Nelson would be the only male character not dubbed by Frees or Jackson as Rhodes Reason would return to dub his own voice. In an interview with Reason on the making of this film, Paul Frees apparently asked Reason why he was there and said as a joke: "Why are you here? I could probably do a better version of you than you could."

Julie Bennett would also dub all the female voices, including Linda Jo Miller's voice despite already being an English speaker. Miller hated her dubbed voice in the American version, but loved the Japanese voice. She was extremely mad at Arthur Rankin, the producer, for not inviting her to dub her own lines when Rhodes Reason was able to re-dub his. It turned out to work this way because Reason was a part of the Screen Actors Guild, and Linda Miller was only a model, and still residing in Japan at the time (transportation costs to New York would have been prohibitive).

The American version runs at least 8 minutes shorter than the original Japanese version.

Cast[]

Character Original Actor Seiyū Dub Actor
Commander Carl Nelson Rhodes Reason Kei Taguchi Rhodes Reason
Lt. Commander Jiro Nomura Akira Takarada N/A Paul Frees
Lt. Susan Watson Linda Jo Miller Akiko Santou Julie Bennett
Dr. Who Hideyo Amamoto N/A Paul Frees
Madame Piranha Mie Hama Julie Bennett

Additional Voices[]

Notes[]

  • In the original Japanese version, Rhodes Reason and Linda Jo Miller also had their voices dubbed over by Kei Taguchi and Akiko Santou respectively. This was likely to have them sound more natural among the Japanese cast.

Video Releases[]

Distributor Year Format Region Country
Universal Home Entertainment 2005 DVD 1
NTSC
United States United States
2009
2014 BD A
DVB-T
Llamentol 2015 B
DVB-T
Spain Spain
Universal Home Entertainment 2017 United Kingdom United Kingdom
Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia Australia

See Also[]

External Links[]

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