Limited Edition Planet of the Apes – The Evolution DVD Box Set

View larger

Currently Unavailable

This box set was released by 20th Century Fox in 2001. It features all five original films, along with a bonus disc with a documentary on the original Planet of the Apes series of movies, hosted by Roddy McDowell.

The five films in the Planet of the Apes series are enjoyable as pure entertainment and yet substantial enough to inspire academic studies like Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture.

Loosely adapted from the novel by French author Pierre Boulle, Planet of the Apes was released at the height of racial and political unrest in America, adding resonance to its story of a NASA astronaut (Charlton Heston) stranded on a planet where superior apes dominate inferior human slaves. The film’s final image–in which a horrified Heston realizes the fate of humankind–remains one of the most indelible in all of science fiction cinema.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) continues the original’s distant future scenario, pitting militant apes against mutant humans dwelling in the subterranean ruins of New York City. Its phenomenal success spawned Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), in which simian scientists Cornelius and Zira (Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter, reprising their roles from Planet) travel backward in time, setting the stage for the ape supremacy of the first two films. McDowall returned in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) as Caesar, the son of Cornelius, leading an ape revolution that bridges the historical gap of the previous films. Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) ended the five-film cycle with McDowall again playing the chimpanzee leader Caesar, defeating gorillas and human mutants to establish the hierarchy introduced in the original film.

• Planet of the Apes (1968)
  Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
• Beneath The Planet Of The Apes (1970)
  Director: Ted Post
• Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
  Director: Don Taylor
• Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
  Director: J. Lee Thompson
• Battle For The Planet of the Apes (1973)
  Director: J. Lee Thompson
• Behind the Planet of the Apes (1998)
  Directors: Kevin Burns, David Comtois

Special Features

• Photo Gallery
• Planet of The Apes web link
• Planet of The Apes interactive game trailer
• Self contained Web site
• Two-hour documentary hosted by Roddy McDowall titled "Behind the Planet of the Apes"

Specifications

• Aspect Ratio:
  2.35:1
• Region:
  1
• Runtime:
  604
• Number of Discs:
  6