The World of Kong : A Natural History of Skull Island

The assorted creatures seen in Peter Jackson's King Kong were merely the tip of the iceberg of the vast menagerie of Skull Island. Here we'll explore both them and their fellow denizens of the island in one of the best fictional ecosystems created.

0:00 - Introduction
4:10 - The Crumbling Coast and Village
14:05 - The Shrinking Lowlands
45:35 - The Winding Swamps and Waterways
1:03:28 - The Steaming Jungle
1:33:23 - The Abyssal Chasms
1:41:38 - The Barren Uplands
2:02:10 - Final thoughts and Closing Comments

[GregBroadmore]

What a fantastic deep dive and a great tribute, thank you! It's a treat to see someone revel in the work we did to this degree and absorb all the little details. Loved how you compared the various species to real-world examples as well as reflecting the book against the needs of film and it's conceptual development. Thank you and keep up the great work!

[bradyvelvet]

Seriously, I wish Jackson could make a two hour mock-nature documentary about Skull Island.

[misterbubbles]

Something I really like is the fact that Skull Island isn't full of hyper-aggressive monsters just to be scary, but because the island's ecosystem is collapsing and the animal population is on its last legs. It's actually a pretty comparable status to the Cretaceous period following the K-T asteroid impact

[The-Black-Death]

This version of Skull Island DESERVES another movie, specifically one that takes place after the 2005 movie that covers the expeditions there and expands the lore of the island overall.

[thewittywhygaming]

The entire team that created the lore and history of this movie deserve the highest praise.

[jamescampbell]

It’s interesting to see skull island dinosaurs having a design that’s a mix really old and new dinosaur looks, like if you mixed the first and newest versions of megalosaurus

[colinbaldwin]

Carl Denham is without a doubt the most interesting character in the whole movie. As you say, he is such a layered villain. He seems to be driven not so much by greed as by his own reckless ambition. He genuinely wants to document the world's hitherto-unknown wonders and is willing to cut corners and compromise on ethical conduct in order to accomplish that. When Mike and Herb are killed, he is genuinely upset, but tries to ennoble their deaths in the name of his grand quest. This contributes to the decline of his moral compass as the story progresses, and the destruction of his camera pushes him over the edge. What's interesting is that Denham's exploitation of Kong is in some respects at odds with his original intentions. When he had the camera, he could film the fauna of Skull Island in their natural habitat. Upon capturing Kong, however, he exhibits the ape in a grandiose dog-and-pony Broadway show. In so doing, he acquires fame and fortune, purchased at the cost of his once-fervently-held integrity. In the end, Kong's escape flips Denham back; he's left staring at the ravaged theater as the realization of who he's become finally strikes him.

[jesserodriguez]

I wish we could’ve gotten a full documentary of Skull Island, about an hour and a half long talking about the dinosaurs, natives, and other creatures of Skull Island.The introduction with how Skull Island can to be and end showing us the island sinking.

[delmerputnam]

I so wish more monster movies created cool ecosystems like this. This was a truly fascinating dive I got the nature of the island and it’s a shame the book is out of print

[alejandroelluxray]

4:13 Coastline
14:10 Lowlands
45:36 Swamps
1:03:29 Jungles
1:33:22 The Chasms
1:41:38 Uplands
2:02:09 Conclusions

All the soundtracks of the video

[thegardenofdagon]

This is my favorite version of Skull Island and I love the unused creatures, especially nefundusaurus and the carvers.

[livelybubbs]

I’d die for an open world game with Carl Denham as our teammate. And the more we explore, the more the island is mapped out, and with every encounter we’d get a creature dossier on a journal or something.

[purplehaze]

I actually really respect the dedication required to make a wholeass clay model just to get a solid base for the digital model of an animal whose sole appearance is as an actual corpse.

[masonhall]

I always disliked that Skull Island sunk into the ocean, I always preferred the idea that Skull Island persisted in a similar way to Isla Sorna from "The Lost World: Jurassic Park", the island set to be left alone to allow the dinosaurs and other animals to live naturally, without human interference.

[thenumbahbirdman]

One interesting little easter egg in the book is the inclusion of the sumatran rat monkey, from an earlier PJ Horror film, where it carried a zombie virus and was first found on skull island. You can actually see one in the shadows of the big two-page spread of the bug pit in the book, on the left page.

[kennethsatria]

Ah the segment for the Megaprimitus Kong was well worth the wait.

Honestly the current Monsterverse's Kong can't hold a candle to the tragic old silverback, its one thing to have lost your parents at such a young age for a long lived creature, its another when they might have lived most of their life with family only to loose them one by one and be left alone at the end of its days.

The way you described his desperation to find Ann Darrow to not to be alone again really hurts XD

[velociraptoryou]

This is the documentary about Peter Jackson's "King Kong" that I WISH Universal would've produced in the wake of the film itself! The "Skull Island: A Natural History" documentary on one of the home media releases *is* good, but this takes the VERY good "World of Kong" art book (which I happen to own) and goes scientifically in-depth about this version of the classic islands' ecosystems and fauna. GOOD job (👍)!

[theOriginalRudeDude]

Skull Island just isn’t the same without dinosaurs, the Peter Jackson version really made them seem hyper evolved. Especially the Rexes. The snaggle teeth looked wicked.

[tallman]

It's insane that Jack Driscoll made it from the pit, through the jungle, up the mountain and back to gate without a weapon.

[milesbradshaw]

Easily myself favorite depiction of Skull Island. Apart from the Monsterverse version, the 2005 Skull Island not only had the most lore and backstory, but Kong and the other creatures are fascinating and almost look like they could exist in the real world. Peter Jackson and his crew did a wonderful job with the island and their King Kong film in general.