Creature From The Black Lagoon 4k Review
Cori Lenon
Since NECA announced they were picking up the Universal Monsters characters in their 7" action figure line, I have been anticipating one in particular. While I'm a huge fan of the entire stable of characters, having spent my childhood watching them every Saturday afternoon on Sir Graves Ghastly, there was one that has always been at the top of the pack - the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
It isn't because this was the best film they produced. Frankenstein was far superior, and Dracula was a better overall movie as well. But CFTBL had something they did not - one of the top three best 'man in a rubber suit' creature designs of all time.
The suit was designed by Milicent Patrick, an animator for Disney who also created the terrific Metaluna Mutant and Moleman. She was fired from her role as a designer by Bud Westmore after the Creature started to gain notoriety, because he had taken sole credit for the Creature design and wanted to keep it that way.
As is the norm with this series, I assmue there is both a color and black and white version. I'm looking at the color tonight, as I've usually (though not exclusively) stuck with the color versions. I also haven't seen the black and white yet anywhere. There was also a Glow in the Dark release, put out as a SDCC exclusive.
Packaging - ***1/2
The box sports some great poster themed graphics, right from the original film. Like the rest of the series, this fifth panel box gives you a good look at the figure and accessories inside, and is very sturdy and damage resistant. It's also fairly collector friendly, although I did have to snip a handful of twist ties, pulling down my score a smidge.
There are three head sculpts to choose from. He comes wearing a slightly open mouth (he was always a mouth breather), but you can switch that to an open mouth expression, or a wide open mouth expression. Hey, he wasn't the most expressive guy - most fish aren't - but by going with three very distinct mouth poses, they created three very different looks. The mouth pose also translates to a slightly different look with the gills. The wider the mouth, the angrier the expression, the more flared the gills are.
There's a ton of detail on the texture of the skin and scales. You can tell this is the costume worn by Ben Chapman for the land scenes, because he was much larger than Rico Browning (who did the underwater scenes), and required three plates across the chest, rather than two.
I will say that it's slightly too dark for my tastes. Of course, the original release was in black and white, so any color is going to be a judgement call. The actual suit was a color IRL, but with black and white films that color was often dictated by what looked good when converted to gray scale, not necessarily what looked 'realistic'. This is actually pretty realistic, putting a lot of the 'frog' in 'frogman', but it is darker than he looks in my own mind's eye. Your mileage will clearly vary.
Articulation - ****
What really surprised me was the articulation. There have been lots and lots and lots of gillman action figures over the years - tomorrow I'm going to do my top ten video at the youtube channel for the CIOPCC - but none have managed to incorporate useful articulation this well into the figure, and maintain such a high quality sculpt.
There's a ball jointed neck, and you can get tons of personality in every pose. The shoulders are rotating hinge, well hidden but with a good range of movement, and the elbows are rotating hinge and doubled up! Yep, there's two joints at the elbow to provide a ton of range, yet they are well hidden under the various scales. The wrists are the usual rotating hinge joints, and the hands swap easily.
The hips are ball joints, with the same doubled up joints for the knees that we saw at the elbows, and the ankles have good rocker or side to side movement, allowing for the big feet to be flat on the ground in shallow to medium stances.
Finally, there's not one but two torso joints that give you a lot of lean and tilt in every direction. While you will notice it in the sculpt of course, you can use these to break up the stiff straight lines in the torso and make poses more natural looking.
Accessories - ***1/2
He doesn't come with a ton of extras outside the heads, but those additional two portraits really boost this score. I already raved about the quality, but it's worth noting that they swap easily as well, and stay in place while posing.
The same can be said of the various hands. They give you six more hands to go with the two he comes wearing, each sculpted in a slightly different pose. While the differences might seem minor, they can make a very big difference in the look of any overall figure pose.
Fun Factor - ****
You're going to have a ton of fun posing this guy, thanks to the excellent articulation. Swapping in different heads and hands with a certain pose will also provide hours of fun, as you look for the perfect combination of the three for your display.
Overall - ****
I've been anticipating the release of this figure for so long now, that it could have been easy to be disappointed. Thankfully, I was not, and this NECA version takes my top spot for the best Creature action figure produced so far, in any scale. Yep, it even bests the Mondo and Sideshow sixth scale figures, at least for me.
I'm really hoping we see NECA continue this line past the obvious releases, and give us more early monsters like DST and Sideshow did. I'd love a new Metaluna Mutant, Moleman, Fly, Hunchback, and others, and perhaps a few that we never got in the earlier series, like a Clive Dr. Frankenstein. I'm still waiting on my Phantom of the Opera, and we know we're getting another Frankie and Nosferatu, but that can't be the end!
Does he kill people in the movie? Yes but there is always extenuating circumstances. The creature is portrayed as curious. When scientists camp near his lagoon, he goes to investigate their tent, only attacking after someone hurls a lantern at him. When he next see the creature, he is observing some divers.
Kong, despite coming out some twenty years before, has this reflection in its sequel, Son of Kong. Business hound Carl Denham has learned that some things are better left alone. No scientist or businessman in the Creature trilogy can say the same.
The Creature trilogy is a sad story. A remarkable animal, possibly the last of its kind, is hunted and harassed, eventually being horribly disfigured, operated on, and forced into human clothes. We are told that he can no longer even breathe underwater and, in a final gut-wrenching scene, watch as he stares longingly at the ocean.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon trilogy is a series very much of its time. It has aged greatly in some respects as our society has shifted and our views evolved. The same story told today, while similar, would be very different in key aspects.
The real change comes in the perspective. This is a story told by several working-class people, mostly janitorial staff, who work at the lab the creature is taken to. It is impossible to watch The Shape of Water after viewing the Creature trilogy and not see a commentary on those three films.
The Shape of Water is a powerful lesson for storytellers. No, the films of yesterday should not be dismissed because certain elements are outdated or they lack self-awareness on issues that are now front-and-center. Instead, they should be viewed as opportunities to re-examine those ideas with modern sensibilities.
Del Toro understood that the Creature trilogy was about destruction of the natural world and the greed of mankind, so he retold the story in a way that reflected this. He saw the same horror I did. My only complaint is that his Gill-Man does not look nearly as good as the original design. Other than that, kudos to him for seeing the unconscious terror in these movies and making a film that addressed it.
June 30th, marked the premier of Universal Studios Hollywood's Broadway style musical adaptation of Creature from the Black Lagoon. The Creature from the Black Lagoon himself, made an entrance to the theme park in an enormous aquarium on a flat bed truck direct from the rainforest.
The show is 25 minutes in length, and the storyline has been updated from the original movie which debuted in 1954. USH describes the musical as "outrageous, bizarrely romantic, melodic, and outlandishly comedic".
This new show is geared toward a more mature audience, as it contains innuendo and a la Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure, the cast lacks an adequate amount of clothing for most of the show.
Sitting in the front section will provide a look into the detail of the Creature's costume and insight into the technical elements of the show, where as a seat in the upper section will allow for a more comfortable view of the incredible overhead acrobatic sequence.
In the days leading up to the premier, many guests were able to preview the show. Audience reaction has been greatly mixed. Some shows have full houses and are met with thunderous applause. Other shows start full, and halfway through people leave in large numbers.
The 7 members of the cast do a nice job bringing the story to the stage. The lighting is phenomenal, and the sound goes unnoticed (as is the goal of a sound mixer). The music is interesting and reminiscent of Spiderman Rocks.
If you plan on seeing the show, go in with the mindset that the show is "outrageous, bizarrely romantic, melodic, and outlandishly comedic", and you won't be surprised or let down. It is in an air conditioned building, so there is nothing to complain about! It is certainly worth seeing at least once, and depending on your taste you may or may not be a repeat audience member.
I wasn't too sure of this when it was announced, but after seeing these pictures and the video, I have faith. Not a huge fan of movies turned into musicals, but the show looks intriguing, to say the least. The whole concept is pretty 'different'. If it doesn't have the story going for it, at least the sets and acrobatics looks impressive, and that huge creature is pretty darn cool.
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