Volkswagen 411 Four-Door Sudan featuring King Kong (1970)

Other Commercial

Comments

What an interesting spot...

Nice change from the Beetle that Volkswagen was producing for the masses...

This, however, was partially based on the beetle chassis, so it was not all that different...

Nice spot, though... : )

I hope that most consumers aren't dumb enough to believe Kong actually exists...

I bet the entire population of NYC could fit in that car!

Ok this just proves how STUPID consumers are... they were dumb enough to believe the car was AS BIG as Kong? If thats true then Americans started plummeting intellectualy downward far before the early 90's. And thats NOT reassuring

I doubt the car was actally that big!

This 1974 commercial was animated by David Allen. In 1970, when Allen finished WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (which got nominated for best special effects by it got beaten by BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS), British film studio, Hammer decided to buy the rights for KING KONG (after making there own versions of Hollywood horror films which are graphic versions of Universal chillers). Allen recreated the plane fight from the original in color using the original as his soundtrack. Hammer's KING KONG never lived to see the light of day.
An agency at Volkswagon saw his reel and he was hired to work on the commercial dropping the gorilla-suit idea. The giant hands for the close-ups were created and acted by Rick Baker (who later played the title role in the 1976 remake). The girl in the hands of Kong is played by Vicki Risskin. Fay Wray's daughter! Family tradition.
Sadly, the commercial aired for a very limited time on TV, because it scared people when they saw the car. They thought it was big. Another reason was that it scared the heck out of the Head of Volkswagon's daughter.

David Allen also worked on HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS (1989), CAVEMAN (1981), ROBOT JOX(1990), Q THE WINGED SERPENT (1982), and animated Kong again in the IMAX special SPECIAL EFFECTS: ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN (1996).

David Allen worked on a project called THE PRIMEVALS. It was going in and out of production since 1968. David died of cancer in August 1999. Chris Endicot, his colleague, vowed to complete cinema's greatest movie never made.