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!

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 (👍)!

I'm so angry this book was discontinued. I'm not buying a priced up copy from someone, so I appreciate this

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.

Ever since I saw Tobi Kadachi, Nargacuga and Zinogre, I fell in love with the idea of dinosaurs with mammalian traits, just like how Carvers almost act like jaguars or tigers and silverceratops become deer like. I have been playing this in the background while I was working on stuff, this is an amazing video.

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

Oh wow, a flightless pterosaur is something I haven’t seen done often. That’s hella creative.

Along with the Star Wars galactic ecosystem, the ecosystem of the skull island never ceases to amaze me with its bio diversity.

Incredible video. One of the most interesting and entertaining I’ve seen on this site in awhile. Keep it up!

I won't lie, the name for each of the ecosystems in this video sounds like perfect monster hunter locals. Great video, very informative.

Actually owned this book as a kid and loved it. Always thought this would be one of the worst places to actually visit. Parasites, bugs, birds, dinosaurs, the natives. 2005’s Kong and Skull Island was always more interesting to me than the newer version of Kong.

Thank you for a 2-hour and 12-minute documentary on Skull Island and its unique animals that call it home. You paid a great tribute to the lost fictional ecosystem.

You sir managed to make me watch an entire two hour video and keep me entertein for its duration ... this video is a love letter to the film and to the work of Jackson and all the artists who have worked in it

The fauna of Skull Island-in any adaptation-has always fascinated me and still does.

I’ve watched this video 3 times maybe more, and it never gets old. I loved the Peter Jackson‘s King Kong and this only makes me love it more. The detail and care put into the designs of the animals as well as the biomes just makes this feel like a once living world, lost to time.

I’ve been hoping to find this book again but it’s being sold second hand at disgustingly expensive prices. You, sir, have saved me time and money and provided me with such an insightful look and reminder of Jackson’s immense world building put into remaking Skull Island. Thank you for the time and effort you put into this. I’ve been listening to this while playing Jurassic world evolution and have been enraptured the entire time. All this lore and natural history just to flesh out Jackson and Weta’s rejected concept art - madness- but absolutely brilliant. Thank you for making this documentary.

This is really in the running for one of, if not the most amazingly beautiful and stunningly complex, absolutely encyclopedic and compendious fantasy ecosystem in the history of modern literature or entertainment and it deserves so much more recognition for that. The creators are all legendary! They should be celebrated!

This is an iconic video. That someone went through the effort to research, script, and narrate this information into a public video is amazing. The unbelievable quality of the video makes it even more so. Thank you mister

I always felt like the idea that Kong and his skeleton being the only extant remains of Skull Island post its seismic collapse was absurd. If there was one thing naturalists on a totally brand new island would do, is to collect samples. Every colonial empire and expedition has ALWAYS without fail collected samples and specimens from new lands to document and describe. Even with as extreme as the wildlife, weather and geology Skull Island was, I'm almost 100% certain specimens were collected on the multiple Project Legacy expeditions. It's inconceivable that not even a wide variety of geologic samples of the coastal and interior rock weren't collected and analyzed for their petrological histories and traits, notwithstanding the 1,000's of zoological discoveries the island hosted. From samples of the native islander past n present carvings and tools, samples galore of the rock, ferns, moss, flora species, many different insects, arthropods, amphibians, hell even some smaller specimens of dinosaurs and potentially bones of the other larger megafauna. A funny feeling bubbled in my gut regarding the fictional nature of this spectacular work; that WW2 postponed the expeditions. I think that's total bullocks honestly. If we were to assume the tenacity of this cinematic universe's researchers and naturalists on the island are like anything our researchers are, there were other expeditions during WW2 that may have been privately funded for the sole purchase to gain patent rights to the unique specimens and collectable species that were easily transferable. Private commerce rights to exotic species would have made a monumental killing, as well as the potential microbial and micro research in the forests. This might be just the kid in me, but I seriously think between WW2 and the island's sinking in-universe, there were many, many more private expeditions hellbent on collecting as many samples of the flora, fauna, archeological history and geology off the island. 4 yrs for an all out secretly run private excavation/exploitation of the island would not be unreasonable given the monetary gain that could be wrought if even simply collecting a whole lot of egg and infant dinosaurs could bring to raise and cultivate. The islands near Madagascar and Indonesia would be opportune spots to transport and house: I would bet serious money that secretly in that universe, they collected a 1%-5% range of species since the reality of Skull Island's geologic instability risked the biggest potential loss of new zoological discovery in 1000 yrs. It would not be that difficult for anything under 100 kg nor for the more docile coastal species.

i absolutely love how you compare the fictional animals and whatever behaviors they have to real ones. it is pretty awesome and can help with inspiration.

I remember I was in elementary school when this movie came out. My mom pulled me out of class just to see it in theaters. Safe to say this movie alone is one if the biggest staples of my childhood, being inspired by this to world build myself and to even write stories. As a child I would ways make scenarios with all my toys about some people getting trapped on a similar island, good thing warner bros never popped in my room and claimed copyright haha. To this day, I'll watch this movie about once every couple of months. I have the big book in my closet right now! Might pull it out and draw inspiration again haha. Great video! Look forward to seeing more of your vids!

I always love when the imaginary creatures are so realistic in a movie.

This was an astonishing video. I wasn’t aware that such a rich natural history was thought of and then made for skull island. This is an amazing video and I love all your stuff.

Peter Jackson's Skull is the best incarnation of skull island, and all the creatures are creative and unique.

To see so much information and detail on the island and the creatures that inhabited it is amazing. I had no idea so much thought went into all of this. Most movies these days just have monsters for the sake of monsters, but not this. The concept of the venatosaurus raptors were around since 1996?? They only had three minutes of screen time in the film. That's nuts! I would love to watch an entire movie of just this island.

As soon as I saw an image of the Arachno-claw I knew I NEEDED the book. I’m very privileged to still own a fairly pristine physical copy, and I still love to flit through it on a rainy day.

I think Peter Jackson's King Kong might just be my favorite movie ever. It is so emotional and full of pathos, and I always prefer movies that gives me the feels in major ways. Other than that, it is a wonderful, but dark adventure, reminiscent of Heart of Darkness, which Hayes also quotes at one point in the film. As the crew dive deeper into the jungles and chasms, they are met with ever-growing terrors and hopelessness, trotting through a land humans were never meant to visit. This movie has hands down the best interpretation and representation of Kong and the classic King Kong narrative. He is such a tragic symbol of ultimate loneliness and, after meeting Ann, desperation and devotion. I find this movie to be much more subtle, deep, and thoughtful than people give it credit for, for example when it comes to scenes like Jack's play, like you mentioned. It makes me sad that people generally just consider it fine or straight up dislike it, and I hope that it one day gets the recognition it deserves. Rarely has a big budget movie ever felt so much like a passion project and a love letter like this one does. Thank you very much for making this video. Ever since I was a kid I have been highly interested in the book, but never had the chance to get it. This really felt like a well made deep dive for those of us who never got to read it. Cheers!

You should totally like, do an 1+ hour long video talking about the evolution, physiology, niches, and behavior of cryptid apes like if they were real, such as the Sasquatch, Yeti, Yowie, Orang pendek, etc. Or possibly like, the "cryptic ecology of North America" which'll explore the speculative ecology and such of cryptids from North American folklore.

I just knew the Vastatosaurus Rex would have parallels with Deviljho, the deformed teeth, and inbreeding.

I've just read the book myself and it is absolutely incredible! I love the movie and I love dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures in general, so this book was paradise for me! And you have done the book justice with your video analysis and read through of it, although you skipped over the part about the native people of Skull Island, I understand why you did it. I liked how you compared particular creatures to the modern animals which they have have similarities with, showing how evolution has given some of these ancient reptiles mammal traits to help them survive. My personal favourite animal was the Foetodon, because this ugly crocodile like creature is like the tiger of Skull Island's jungle, always lurking and sneaking around, ambushing whatever prey it can.

This was just, Incredible. I finally got a chance to sit down and watch the whole thing through and I think its easily your best video yet. It certainly helps that there was so much more information about the fauna of Skull Island compared to your average Monster Hunter beastie, but the extra mile you go with relevant zoological research makes every moment one worth hanging onto. I always though this version of Skull Island would be the worst to get stranded on. Even the MonsterVeres' had large swaths of relatively safe space to camp in, this place is just... hell. I have to wonder what a Jackson Universe Godzilla would have been like in this world.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong is probably one of my favorite movies of all time. Amazing to see it still be so loved sixteen years later :)) great vid

As someone who wanted the Natural History book, I say this is a great substitute. Love this video!

Your videos have honestly been a pretty major inspiration for some of my own worldbuilding. Even if it has more science-fantasy tones, the creatures I try to make do have their own niches and places in the ecosystems of the different planets and dimensions they inhabit. It's honestly pretty fun playing with different mythical creatures and finding places they can fit into an ecosystem.

With some tweaking of the timeline, it’s fun to think that Jimmy would go on to become the boat captain in Jaws. 😆😂😃

this his very impressive spec evo stuff. it seems that alot of skull island inhabitants has traded their speed for agility and dexterity

I've never had the chance to see the black and white originals, but Peter Jackson's King Kong is just phenomenal. I'd say the effects still hold up, and the amount of effort put into the movie is just amazing. My favorite scenes were always the nature ones on the island, the bronto stampede was cool, but I liked it more when the group was just trekking through the woods. The work put in to make skull island feel like a otherworldly place really hit the mark for me, and while I wouldn't want to be on skull island, I'd love to see Peter Jackson make a second movie off the original plot of Carl disappearing and his son going to the island to find him.

Peter Jackson's Skull island needs an entire movie just about the island.

2 hours worth of entertainment 😊

This was amazing... Peter Jackson's King Kong is by far my favorite version of the movies and world building. The game is in my top absolute favorite games I have ever played and this book, wow, just, wow... I would have loved to have a fisical copy of my own but I never found the chance or the oportunity to be able to do so. This video was fenominal and definately some of my best spent 2 hours.

I feel very happy whenever I see one of my favorite movie adaptations be the topic of a video. Peter Jackson's iteration of Skull Island really deserves an expanded universe that further explores its history, perhaps in the form of a comic or miniseries revolving around the expeditions of Project Legacy?

Man, Peter Jackson’s King Kong is incredible. An absolute classic with so much awesome lore. Much love to you for making such a detailed video.

The story of Peter Jackson’s Skull island is truly a poetic and sad one. How fitting that the most in-depth, thought-out and beautifully detailed depiction of Skull Island would have the most tragic story of slowly crumbling into dead nothingness, while the lonesome king of the island dies far, far away from his kingdom and his subjects, confused and frightened by a world he doesn’t belong in.

This movie is honestly in my Top 5 favorites. The tension in some scenes is so unbelievably real (the ENTIRE time Ann is trying to escape the Vastatsauruses…)

I don't think Calcarisaurus is supposed to be an Ankylosaur. Pretty small, doesn't eat plants whatsoever, and no beak. In fact it's head looks more like a regular lizard like a thorny devil

i really love these kinds of fictional biology and speculative evolution. I'm building a fantasy World for a novel i want to eventually write, and i'm doing a completely fictional ecosystem (except for humans). I got quite some inspiration from this!

This was an AMAZING video. I was enthralled for the entire two hours, truly incredible stuff. Thanks so much for breaking down this piece of lost media.

I am most grateful for you doing this video, I had no idea this book existed! I love how in depth this Skull Island is. Compared to the other versions, it's vastly more detailed and feels like a real place with a functional ecosystem backed by history. I'd have loved a series just focusing on explorations of the island after the film.

Universal King Kong is one of my favorite childhood movies ever. I remember being so excited when kong arrives dinosaurs 🦖

Peter Jackson's king kong was the first movie starring kong himself that I saw, I watched it past midnight because of how long it was. I think the only other movie I saw comparable in length was avengers: endgame. Edit: not to say that the movie was bad, in fact I genuinely love it. Also, great video as always! It's a shame it isn't as popular as your others, though, so I hope it gains more traction as you grow as a creator.

This is awesome, as someone who’s always wanted the book but never managed to find one I thank you for bringing it to life here.

a skull island survival game would be sick

Always loved King Kong as a kid. It’s so cool how much world building there is.

In all honesty, I've always wanted to see more with the island and how the ecosystem works. It was such a fascinating aspect of the Peter Jackson movies that makes it my favorite rendition of Kong. However, I do feel that they should retcon the island's destruction. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like it's a waste to just go 'and then the island sank' instead of having it be a world where dinosaurs and other oddities still inhabit in a 'lost land' and how humans make ventures on this place. This was a fantastic dive into the island and it's inhabitants. Great work.

The original black and white from 1933 may be my favorite movie ever. I used to watch it religiously every Thanksgiving Day when it would be aired before the Football Games would start. I even love its movie posters too.

That commentary on Skull Island (Bonus Disc/Kong 2005) was done so good, I thought it was real at first.

ah, best use of 2 hours this year

Genuinely one of my favorite channels,

Great video! I just gave King Kong another watch after not seeing it for almost a decade, it's still one of my favorite films. It's not a perfect film but I still get totally invested in most of the scenes. When I fist saw it when I was sixteen it completely blew my mind.

I think the highest praise I can give is how I didn't realize it was 2 hours long until the end. It took a very dense topic that, if covered poorly, easily could have become dry and repetitive. But you held my attention throughout it all, and covered the topic masterfully. You have easily earned a new subscriber, and now I'm off to rewatch the movie

The amount of work and quality for this vid, damn that’s dedication allright.

I always found the chasms full of invertebrates to be the most interesting locations on Skull Island. It's as repulsive as it is fascinating. It would make my skin crawl but I'd love to have some kind of drone to safely observe the going ons there.

It took me over an hour to realise how long I’d been watching, a very engaging and informative video that could inspire any speculative evolution artist! Fantastic video!

I haven’t read the book despite that I’m both a Kaiju and dinosaur fan, but it’s interesting to learn all about the animals of the Peter Jackson version of Skull Island that many didn’t appear on-screen.

this movie was incredible to see. But seeing the insect pit scene when I was 5 years old was somewhat mentally damaging

The indigenous people make sense for their aggression since how dangerous the island is.

I have this book too! It so much fun to read! 😃💕📖 Thank goodness I got this book back when it wasn’t too expensive!

I drew inspiration from this version of Skull Island while writing my own dinosaur book series.

Another fantastic video to join the catalogue. Two hours and twelve minutes? You spoil us. Seeing how this is essentially a reading of a field guide, there's naturally not as much room for guesswork and speculation this time around but no one's happier than me for this video anyways. I think you said almost everything there is to say about how incredible this book and its worldbuilding is, so I'll just add that I feel like there's an incredible amount of life imitating art on a meta-level with this book. Ferrucutus' and the other ceratopsians' centrosaurine affinities and diet of tougher foodstuffs playing into their survival on Skull Island, the fact that Atercurisaurus is being replaced by other herbivores in the exact same way that its mainland relatives were, and the ontogenetic niche differentiation between the different age groups of Vastatosaurus for instance. Considering all the cited studies were published after the book, that seems like an extraordinary coincidence. I guess it's just so good at portraying a functioning ecosystem that it accidentally predicted discoveries that would be made ten years after its publishing. I love the movie the book is based off too, for essentially the same reasons you do. It and Lord of the Rings were probably the first really long movies I ever saw, and they always felt so epic and grand to me in a way few things have since. Kong himself is a marvel of visual effects and I think the blending of CGI and practical effects is mostly extremely well done. I will say I am definitely not a fan of the portrayal of the natives however. Maybe they're cast in a more nuanced light in the book and they are probably meant more to be pitied than feared, but I don't think the movie did a good job of portraying that. Lastly, I really think this was a great time for this video to be made considering the giant upstick of interest in spec-evo that's come from the recent All Tomorrows fandom. And with all of these newer spec-evo projects around: Serina, The Neocene Project, The Speculative Dinosaur Project, Snaiad etc, it was really cool to go back to one of the older and more developed ones. Especially of this quality. Great video, great book! I'm glad to hear the Future Predator will be featured, do you think you'll do the other future Primeval creatures aswell? Like the Mer or the Camouflage Beast?

The scavenger pit with all its invertebrates still gives me the creeps nearly 20 years later.

This video was amazing. It made me dig out my copy of the book. That book (and The Wildlife Of Star Wars( were huge influences on my world creation as a kid and even today. This was a blast to watch. Thanks for the video

The Peter Jackson´s King Kong its definitely my favorite, all the lore of Skull island its beautiful and one of the best cience fiction/seculative evolution proyects in my opinion. Thanks by the awesome video, a great job.

While only appearing near the end of this video, I honestly think the native humans of Skull Island are among the most tragic of its life when looked at as a whole. The book specifies they once were a thriving civilization that ruled on the island, probably prestigious and mighty. But when the island began to sink into the ocean, the island's animal life swarmed their cities and pushed the humans deeper and deeper into desperation. By the time the west finally found the island, the populace are nothing more than scared, violent people: The 'city' is actually the ancient burial ground of their former capital (meaning the only safe place for them is their graveyard), the island's sinking and increasingly desperate fauna keep pressuring them, and all their efforts to hold back the downfall of their people are in vain. Making it worse, the crazy old woman seen in the film is actually the tribe's leader, meaning if she's as insane as she looks and acts in the film (assuming we're taking direct interpretation of her actions), then the only leadership these people have left is a deranged madwoman. And all of this ending with the island, and themselves, sinking into the depths of the ocean in the end. They might've been brutal on-screen, but human desperation can drive people to do anything they have to if they think it will keep them alive...

There is nothing I can add that many others have not already. This popped up on my feed and whiten 10 minutes I was hooked. Simply Outstanding!

I love how believeable they were able to make all these crazy monsters.

I don't know why I watched this whole video when I have the book at home, but I really enjoyed it! I remember when the movie came out and I was just a tween. My grandmother got this book for me and its been one of my most prized possessions ever since.

Man, I would have loved a sequel to Peter Jackson's King kong that explored the exploits of one of these expedition teams. Skull island has always intrigued me, weather it was from watching the movie, playing the game or watching videos like this.

Finding Books like this one is the reason I love going to 2nd hand books shops anytime I go into town.

Thanks for this wanted to buy the book but it was too expensive one of my favorite exercises in world building

I remember seeing this book back around when the movie first came out. I wish I had bought it when I saw it. Glad to see this up on KZfaq so I can enjoy it.

This was one of the most awesome and complete videos I've seen in a while on any subject! You should also do a video on the humans of Skull Island. That would also be very interesting I reckon.

So glad I FINALLY had a chance to watch this and I have to say you did a phenomenal job covering the material from the book and tying it into the production of the film. Skull Island truly is one of the best spec-evo projects seen in mainstream media and really deserves a lot more attention for it. As usual the parallels you drew with real world biology were on-point (the only one I disagree with is the Liaoningasaurus comparison, since there's a lot less support for that original hypothesis of a semi-aquatic piscivorous ankylosaur). Well structured with a nice little summary at the end, very happy to see this video from you and I look forward to future topics outside of Monster Hunter you will cover next.

People give Bruce Baxter a bad rap but he was honestly the smartest guy in the whole expedition. He goes back to base after admitting he's no hero, insists on a rescue party so he boldly comes back with reinforcements, more guns, and hesitates whenever Carl tells him to do something stupid for camera. Then, after cashing his check and taking the (kinda) deserved credit for saving the first expedition, earning an easy paycheck at Carl's first doomed showing of the Eighth Wonder of the World, then leaving just when he notices Kong getting agitated by the camera flashes.

Thank you king Julian, for teaching me about the lost fauna of skull island. :)