Homages on the Planet of the Apes

By now everyone who wanted to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes has probably seen it. As you can probably tell by now, Karen and I both loved it. Today we thought we'd take just a minute or two to tell some of the nods to the previous Apes incarnations that we spied while watching this very fun film. We'll list our suggestions, but it's certainly not to say that we didn't both catch things off of each list. What follows is actually an email exchange between us as we discussed how much we both enjoyed the movie. If we've missed anything that you caught, we'd certainly love to hear it!

Karen:

• Did you see Caesar playing with a Statue of Liberty toy before John Lithgow had the confrontation with the neighbor?
• References to the spaceflight of the Icarus, including the newspaper that read, "Lost in Space"?
• The gorilla in the cage that Caesar releases is named Buck -like actor Buck Kartalian, who played Taylor's jailer Julius?
• The father and son who ran the primate center were named Landon (name of the one of the POTA astronauts)? In fact, the son's first name was Dodge!
• Caesar's mother was called 'Bright Eyes' -the same name Zira gave Taylor!

Doug:

• "It's a mad house! It's a mad house!" the first time the apes get stirred up against the blond-haired keeper.
• Ape names when the humans are in the primate house while on the double-date: Cornelia, and Maurice (ref. to Maurice Evans, Dr. Zaius)
• "Get your hands off me you damned dirty ape!"
• Fire hose used against Caesar was like the scene when Julius turned a fire hose on Taylor
• Humans hunting apes at beginning echoed apes hunting humans at beginning of '68 film
• "Jacobs", the name of the company financier, was a reference to Arthur Jacobs
• Stacking test to test the chimps' intelligence was like what Zira had to do in "Escape"
• Caesar on the horse foreshadowed gorillas on horses in POTA
• The name "Caesar" itself refers to Escape/Conquest/Battle
• In one of the first five films, either Cornelius or Caesar says that the first ape's first word was "no" -- Caesar's first word was "no"

So again, do you have others?

Monkey Business: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Karen: Let's hear your opinions of this new film. Is it a worthy entry or re-start of the series?