Who here is an APES fan?

[johnpauljones]

POTA is one of my absolute favorites. One of the finest sci fi franchises, which also happens to have the worst continuity of any franchise. (changing years: 3978 in the first movie 3955 in the second which takes place afterward, Why was Brent sent to find Taylor after they lost contact? They should lose contact if the mission was to prove that time travelled faster close to light than on earth)
Whoops! Almost got carried away. My first MEGO was the Soldier Ape. I remember specifically one time when I got in trouble and had to stay in at recess in 2nd grade, thinking over and over "Planet of the Apes is more important than school."
Favorite sci fi franchise EVER!

[toysrus]

The time thing!

Its too bad they screwed up the time thing in the Ape movies. And even though i still enjoy watching " Battle for the POTA" I would have liked to see a much bigger budget, but they did what they could!

But with the name alone i still cant believe there isnt a sci-fi show based on the POTA. Or even a new Cartoon! Or straight to DVD toons? It has to sell! I did ot enjoy the 2001 POTA, they should have went with the old style ape look and continued with Ceasar after battle!

POTA is one of my absolute favorites. One of the finest sci fi franchises, which also happens to have the worst continuity of any franchise. (changing years: 3978 in the first movie 3955 in the second which takes place afterward, Why was Brent sent to find Taylor after they lost contact? They should lose contact if the mission was to prove that time travelled faster close to light than on earth)
Whoops! Almost got carried away. My first MEGO was the Soldier Ape. I remember specifically one time when I got in trouble and had to stay in at recess in 2nd grade, thinking over and over "Planet of the Apes is more important than school."
Favorite sci fi franchise EVER!

[censy]

go ape!

I consider myself a huge apes fan.

The first film is my favorite movie all time. I have the films and tv series on dvd. Boy, are there some silly tv episodes : ) I have a side-show Cornelius proudly displayed on my desk, next to my computer. I saw, but despise the remake by Tim Burton. I read and enjoyed the original novel by Pierre Boulle. Also, I live by the motto, ape must never kill ape.

Lastly, its the ONLY complete mego line I own.

Chris

[kingcarm]

Lastly, its the ONLY complete mego line I own.

Chris

I too am as big an Ape fan as they come and I also have the entire set....carded of course.

[monkey tennis]

I am NOT an Apes fan...apparently

[johnpauljones]

Its too bad they screwed up the time thing in the Ape movies. And even though i still enjoy watching " Battle for the POTA" I would have liked to see a much bigger budget, but they did what they could!

But with the name alone i still cant believe there isnt a sci-fi show based on the POTA. Or even a new Cartoon! Or straight to DVD toons? It has to sell! I did ot enjoy the 2001 POTA, they should have went with the old style ape look and continued with Ceasar after battle!

According to the "Behind the POA" documentary, the formula for sequel budgets then was opposite what it is today. They expected "Beneath" to make half the money the first one did so they allotted half the amount of money that they did for the first one, as opposed to nowdays where they figure that they need to spend more on sequels. They continued with the same type of cuts throughout the 5 movies.
Return (the cartoon series) was really low budget. There were usually cutaways when someone was speaking. There are more still frames in that cartoon than any I have seen. Still, in spite of all that, Apes is my favorite franchise. I don't think any ape movie will be as effective now because POTA at its best is an even mix of action and social commentary, and every social issue that works in "ape" format has been addressed. That said, a pure action apes movie needs a true action\blockbuster director. Spielberg, Emmerich, Bryan Singer, or Ridley Scott. It might be good then.

[apes3978]

According to the "Behind the POA" documentary, the formula for sequel budgets then was opposite what it is today. They expected "Beneath" to make half the money the first one did so they allotted half the amount of money that they did for the first one, as opposed to nowdays where they figure that they need to spend more on sequels. They continued with the same type of cuts throughout the 5 movies.

Not entirely true... Ted Post said on there that the BENEATH budget was cut due to a lot of nervous "money people" at FOX... They were slashing the budgets on all films, not just BENEATH, because a bunch of "big budget" films failed to live up to their expectations.

As far as the rest of the sequels, they were lower budgeted more in the way you mentioned above, and that was basically said by Frank Capra Jr. when talking about ESCAPE (I think), he said something like "Because # 2 didn't quite do the business that #1 did, then it would follow that # 3 would probably not do the business that # 2 did..." etc...

[toysrus]

Another Ape Movie?

But do you guys think we will evntually see another POTA movie? Series? sci-Fi mini series, Cartoon? I sure hope we do in our time.

[censy]

ouch!

I too am as big an Ape fan as they come and I also have the entire set....carded of course.

Damn, I am jealous. Mine are all loose, but I plan to buy them carded one day.

Apes question to all...is the animated series worth getting? I know the animation is a lttle weak and I have resisted getting it so far. Do you actually enjoy watching the episodes now?

Thanks!

Chris

[ABMAC]

Apes question to all...is the animated series worth getting? I know the animation is a lttle weak and I have resisted getting it so far. Do you actually enjoy watching the episodes now?

The cartoon's pacing is slow. <music cue> Painfully <music cue> slow.

The stories are often dumb; they haphazardly mix and mangle elements from Planet, Beneath, and the TV series; the animation is wooden; and the main villain (inexplicably named "Urko") sounds like Fred Flintstone.

But hey, it's official Apes product, and it's worth watching just to hear "I'm Going Humanoid Over You" again. I like to watch it, but only if there are no distractions.

[palitoy]

the main villain (inexplicably named "Urko") sounds like Fred Flintstone.

Fake Fred Flinstone, it's not Allan Reed doing the voice it's (Canadian!) Henry Corden.

I find the show charming in it's attempt to revise the Ape legend and tell the story in it's own way. I'm curious as to why it's done.

It *is* slowly paced, I can't deny it but my five year old absolutely loves it and requests it often. There aren't too many Ape fans in his demographic....

[ABMAC]

The cartoon presents some things that were conspicuously missing from the movies and the live-action series:

• Judy, the female astronaut, survives the landing and is generally treated as an equal by her male companions.
• The degenerate humans (called humanoids in the cartoon) are shown to be more than dumb animals.
• Non-humanoid mutant lifeforms are explored beyond the banana/orange oper hybrid.
• It's made clear that Ape technology is largely copied from Human artifacts.
• The gorillas' position in the Ape hierarchy is clearly defined.

All of these make it a thought-provoking series, even though it's obviously aimed at kids.

The three novels based on the cartoon were aimed at adults, and they're pretty good, also.

[censy]

thank you!

Thanks for sharing your opinions guys. The dvds are reasonably priced, so I think I'll pick it up at some point. I watched it on saturday mornings when I was little, so I'm sure it will bring back some memories, if nothing else.

Chris

[JonnyO]

I'm an Ape Fan!

I've been watching the apes since the Tv series.The cartoon also.I still believe it to be the most adult oriented cartoon of it's time.Even more than the Trek cartoon which was out about the same time.Before that I remember the movies being on TV and watching them all.I have all the Mego's except for Zira and the Astronaut.I have viewmaster reels,Mix'N Molds,parachutists,dart guns,DVD's,Costumes,Multiple Toymakers sets and figures.If it's on the tube,I'm watching it.All classic apes are for me.Tim Burton?No thank you.

[mego73]

Give the cartoon a try, I've always liked it, ackknowledging all the shortcomings discussed here.