Top Five Cinematic Apes & Monkeys

Published on March 1, 2010 by Alex Wagner   ·   View Comments

If you have been to the cinema recently you may have noticed a poster or indeed a trailer for the new Robin Williams, John Travolta, Seth Green vehicle titled Old Dogs. The poster features Green cradled in the arms of a gorilla and the trailer shows what I presume to be the same gorilla hurling a tyre at Travolta and smacking him in the face.

While I am ashamed to admit I actually laughed at seeing a scientologist get his ass kicked by a gorilla I think we can all assume that film is going to be utter crap. Anyway as rubbish as I think the film may be I do like apes and monkeys. They just make me laugh, sigh… it’s the little things in life I suppose.

Anyway, this got me thinking about my favourite movies starring “Monkeys and Apes” – and here is what I have come up with. Feel free to add anymore you think I should have included or to generally take the piss about how pointless this article is.

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KING KONG
Bit of a no brainer really. You can’t have an Ape/Monkey list without including Kong. Star of countless movies and the world’s second hairiest leading man after Benicio. The 8th wonder of the world is pure awesome power incarnate.

His only weakness was love and in the end it was his downfall. He has acted alongside Jeff Bridges, Jack Black and has fought countless T-Rex’s and Godzilla himself.

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CLYDE
The much love orang-utan that managed to out act and steal two entire films from the legend that is Clint Eastwood. Even though Clyde is the supporting character on paper audiences all over the world knew who the real star was. Every Which Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can are two of the highest grossing films Eastwood ever did but I can assure you that without Clyde the films would have tanked big time.

If you want proof of how much of a star Clyde was then all you have to do is watch Shaun Of The Dead.

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RAFIKI
What could be better than a shamanastic mandrill/baboon hybrid that baptizes a lion cub and then holds him out over a rock for an entire procession of animals to see?

Rafiki from the Lion King can also kick hyena butt with his kung fu and has contributed to the Disney cookbook with a delicious coconut drink. A monkey of many talents.

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THAT GORILLA FROM BABY’S DAY OUT
This entry could be cheating as this particular Gorilla is a guy in a suit but I shall look this fact over for now because not only does he pick up Joe Mantegna and imbed him into a cage but he has much better paternal instincts than baby bink’s real father.

Oh, and Verne Troyer played Baby Bink’s stunt double. How funny must it have been to film a scene with a guy in a Gorilla costume and a man with cartilage-hair hypoplasia dwarfism dressed as a baby!

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KING LOUIS
The second orang-utan to be honoured on this list. King Louis is of course, the king of the swingers and the jungle VIP. He does kidnap Mowgli to learn about man’s red fire and this may make him seem like a bad guy in many people’s eyes but how can anybody stay mad at such a soulful primate.

I’ve heard that he despises the Jonas Brothers for ruining his song too.

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So there you have it. Oh, but what of those forgotten candidates that didn’t make the grade. What about Aladdin’s mate Abu or that ape in George of the Jungle… no not Brendan Fraser. That one that sounds a lot like John Cleese. What about curious George or Spike the capuchin monkey from Ace Ventura. How about that monkey from ‘raiders’ who eats a date that doesn’t agree with him. Also, bone-wielding pre-historical monkey from 2001 and I can’t believe I didn’t include good old Dr. Zaius.

Tags: Apes, Baby's Day Out, Clyde, King Kong, King Louis, Monkeys, Old Dogs, Rafiki

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