Director
Ron Underwood

Cast
Charlize Theron,
Bill Paxton,
Rade Sherbedgia,
Regina King,
David Palmer

Music
James Horner

In 1949 RKO Pictures came up with a new spin on King Kong, as a 12 foot gorilla named Joe Young, now 50 years later, and Disney updated this particular version of the King and made him a little bigger at 15 foot (about 5 metres), and being the nineties threw in a tough going Jungle Queen too boot. 

Opening 12 years earlier, Ruth Young (Linda Pearl), this movie's version of Diane Fossey is out studying the gorillas in Central Africa, with her young daughter Jill. 
One night Poachers, headed by Lithuanian baddie Strasser(Rade Sherbedgia), attempt to capture the gorillas, When Strasser snares Joe, his thumb and index finger are bitten off by the baby gorilla, allowing Joe to escape, but Jill's mum and Joe's mum are killed, leaving them both orphans.

Now 12 years later, Jill (Charlize Theron) still lives in Central Africa, carrying on her mothers research, and at the same time protecting Joe (who hides out alone in the jungles)
Enter American Zoologist Gregg O'hara (Bill Paxton).  Gregg has heard of a legend of N'gai Zamu, (the oversized gorilla who protects Mount Pangani)...which just happens to be the mountain near to where Jill lives, and this legend just happens to be Joe.
In one of Gregg's expeditions to capture a leopard (to only take a blood sample), Joe appears on the scene and frees the caged leopard...Then as Joe runs away, Gregg takes chase and ends up nearly being killed by Joe, but is rescued by Jill. 
After a quick recovery in hospital, Gregg meets up with Jill to propose he take Joe back to an Animal Sanctuary run by the company he works for in California.
As Jill fears Joe may be captured and killed by poaches, she agrees and the three head back to the good 'ol USA.
With the discovery of Joe making international News.  Strasser heads for the USA to get Mighty Joe Young.

Though played as a kids movie, Mighty Joe Young is perhaps a little too intense for the young ones, and has appropriately been rated PG (due to some violence), and it running a whopping 110 minutes, and I found myself a bit restless toward the long winded ending, imagine how kids would find it. 

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up??
The quality of the movies appearing on DVD from Buena Vista cover all bases.   Some are absolutely terrible and some absolutely stunning.  The 1.78:1 framed Anamorphic picture of MJY comes very close to the latter.  The black level was just a hair to high for my liking, and there were a few moments of ever so slight image smearing(a trait quite common to BV titles I've found)..Thankfully, neither problems take away too much from the wonderfully colourful transfer on show.  The sharpness of MTJ is first rate, you don't get any sharper than this, it's near 3 dimensional I tell ya.   It's impressive to say the least.
With this begin a Dual Layered Disc, the increased bit rate has no doubt helped here (it sat around 7-8 mbs throughout).  The layer change occurs "within" chapter 11 at 60:55.  It seemed a little abrupt, but I'm happier with that than having to get off my butt to flip the disc.

As for the audio...You'll know exactly how good it is within the first 5 seconds of the awesome Jungle beats...I'm not kidding!!!  This is a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix of Reference Quality.   The music score by the ever reliable James Horner simply fills the room, with such clarity and detail, and the African choir music is wonderfully uplifting...a real joy to listen to.  The bass attack is fast, tight and very frequently occurring without being overdone.

Though it's candy for the eyes and ears, it totally bombs in the extras department.  None, Nada, Zip.  Not even a Theatrical Trailer here I'm afraid..... This is ANOTHER trait common to region 4 Buena Vista Titles (come on Warner!!)

Personally I didn't enjoy MJY that much...too long a movie for a kids film, but it still doesn't stop this from being a demo quality DVD.

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717  (using RGB outputs)
Receiver: Marantz SR870 & Sony SDP-EP9ES
Speakers:-
     Fronts: B&W 602
     Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
     Rears: Jamo Magic 14
     Subby: M&K V125 

- reviewed 14th November 1999