306-Time of the Apes

Film Year:  1987 (edited from a 1974 TV series)

Genre:  Science Fiction, Fantasy

Director:  Atsuo Okunaka, Kiyo Sumi Fukazawa

Starring:  Reiko Tokunaga, Hiroko Saito, Masaaki Kaji, Tetsuya Ushio, Badu Hatakeyama, Kazue Takita 

MST Season:  3

The Movie

A Japanese TV series evolved from the Planet of the Apes franchise?  You did it.  You finally really did it!

Of course this had to happen.  Why wouldn't it?  In the mid-70's, Planet of the Apes was so hot that other countries were bound to want their own versions, and Japan went to their most popular company for tokusatsu shows at the time, Tsuburaya Productions, best known for their Ultraman franchise and also the effects house that created the original Godzilla.  They create their own little lore for a future conquered by simians, though it's a rather childish and mostly complete nonsense.

Aired in Japan under the title of Army of the Apes, this series was about a pair of children named Johnny (originally Jiro) and Caroline (originally Yurika) who visit their uncle's science lab.  During an earthquake they and a lady scientist named Catherine (originally Kazuko) accidentally get frozen in cryogenic tubes and covered in rubble, which left them lost for generations.  They awaken in a future where apes have taken over society and aren't exactly friendly to humans (though oddly more accepting than those in the Planet of the Apes franchise).  They meet a human in the wild named Godo and a child ape named Pepe and the quintet live on the run from ape soldiers.

Around the time Army of the Apes was airing, Planet of the Apes also made a move to television with its own TV series in America (starring the series mainstay Roddy McDowall).  That series was an episodic "heroic misunderstood vagrant" series like The Fugitive, where the characters went from town to town, sometimes got into some mischief, but mostly fixed some local problem.  It wasn't a great show, but it was what TV at the time expected it to be even if it was too expensive to produce for the ratings it gathered.  Army of the Apes seems to be more serialized, as from what I can tell each episode led into the next and the whole series told one giant story.

This particular version is an import edit called Time of the Apes, where American producer Sandy Frank took all 26 episodes of Army of the Apes and whittled it down to an endless supply of chase scenes that barely make sense.  Humans wake up and there are apes!  Why are there apes?  Doesn't matter.  Just run!  They meet a guy named Godo.  Who is he?  Nobody cares.  He helps them.  Ape soldier wants Godo dead.  Is there a reason?  He doesn't really have one (not until the conclusion anyway).  He's a threat, so more running!  The apes are rebelling!  Why?  Who's to say?  But the ape in charge is like "Stop, please" and they're like "Okay."  There is a UFO in the sky!  Is it relevant to anything?  Not really.  But it will help write us out of a corner at the end.  It won't do it well, but it's something.

I have no idea if any of this is fleshed out more in the original Japanese series, but grinding away eleven hours into a lean ninety minutes is bound to lose something.  Time of the Apes is all action and no context.

Tokusatsu fans will likely look to this production just to see what a Tsuburaya version of Planet of the Apes might look like.  The apes in this movie aren't as expressive as John Chambers' impressive make-up from the original Planet of the Apes films as Army of the Apes looked more like slightly mobile gorilla masks.  The one thing I will give the ape design here is that the main apes all look distinct from each other.  Planet of the Apes usually relied on the actors to make each ape distinguishable from the next, but here there is more effort to make each ape look different than the previous, which does wonders for character distinction.  Less effort is put into ape extras (which was true for Planet of the Apes as well), but there is a clear effort here.  Both the series and the resulting film re-edit are silly as hell, but there are a few things worth praising here.

The Episode

Being a Planet of the Apes fan, I always find myself thinking fondly of Time of the Apes.  I might have a slight bias as a non-apologetic lover of dystopian simian fantasy and tokusatsu though.  Should I recommend this episode to the average MSTie?  Maybe.  I do think it's quite funny even if the movie is frantic nonsense.  The KTMA version succumbs to that frantic nonsense and the riffing kind of seemed like a loss for words.  Given that this third season revisit is much more planned out than that vintage episode, there is definitely stronger material being tossed at the film, flung like apes with poo in their hands.

The answer is yes, there are a lot of poo flinging jokes.  Bear with that or just sit back and have a giggle.

One would expect there to be more Planet of the Apes references in this episode, but aside from a mention or two of "Ape Law" there isn't really much to write about.  The confounding plotting of the movie is more of a target, while there are more monkey jokes than anything.  Our characters are one-note, though the riffers take particular target at the character of Johnny and they turn his introductory line of "I don't care!" into his entire personality.  It works for Johnny's character, because he's a bit brash and really doesn't seem to care about the consequences of his actions.

"I don't want to be killed by a monkey!"

"I want to die by my own hand!"

And of course the episode starts a rather targeted disdain for American producer Sandy Frank, who imported this and several other Japanese shows and movies to America and edited them into VHS tapes for the children's market then kindly licensed them to this show for mockery.  Obviously he is our enemy.  Joel and the Bots take the theme for Time of the Apes and dub over it with their own song giving Sandy Frank the business.  Honestly even back when I first watched this episode I thought it was kind of mean and a bit aimless, but I like Joel's dance, so there's that.  Other host segments take more specific aim at the movie as Servo gives a presentation on why "Johnny Doesn't Care," an Ape fashion show, and a debate on ape/man evolution, which are a bit stronger and add to the flavor of the episode.  I also like them breaching the hull by playing baseball during the opening, which is cute and fun.  The Invention Exchange has Joel's cellulite phone and Dr. Forrester and Frank playing god with Miracle Baby Growth Formula.

One small thought I had while watching the Invention Exchange is how the baby they used would be just barely 30 now.  I wonder what he's up to these days?  And if he knows his parents pawned him off to a puppet show for a day?  The credits list him as Eli Kenneth Mallon.  Jim Mallon's son?

Fans of Japanese cheese and Planet of the Apes alike will find stars aligning on this episode, as it's a gold mine of an incomprehensible rip-off film and mockery of it.  Those who actually watch the show and hope to actually follow the plot of a goofy movie will be left in the wind, because there is not really one here.  The laughs are strong and if one is willing to keep pace with the film they will find themselves rewarded with solid laughs.  I'm personally not waiting for others to keep up so I'll call this a series highlight.

Classic

"I don't care!"

The DVD

We awoke in the Time of the Apes in Shout Factory's Volume XXII collection, with good audio and video.  The disc features an interview with Japanese media historian August Ragone discussing the history of the project and how it was born out of the popular airings of Planet of the Apes in Japan.  He also covers the pedigree behind the film and how it was surprisingly strong for a show of this type.  Also included are MST Hour segments.