Why The Monkey Has A Drum Instead Of Cymbals Like In Stephen King's Book

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Monkey.Osgood Perkins' newest horror movie, The Monkey, serves as an adaptation of the Stephen King short story of the same name. The movie follows brothers Hal and Bill, who learn that a monkey toy that frightened them as children is back and has resumed its elaborate, violent killings. The Monkey's cast features Theo James as Hal and Bill, alongside other notable stars, like Elijah Wood and Tatiana Maslany, who bring the horror to life. Though the monkey causes deaths that are especially gruesome and random, The Monkey's ending sees Hal finally realize it's not going anywhere.

While both the movie and the story are great, The Monkey has several differences from the original King story. In fact, some of the major aspects of the movie's story, including the existence of Hal's twin brother Bill, are completely new. Luckily, Perkins' adaptation has received a positive response from Stephen King for the extremes that the film is willing to go to. However, there is one much smaller detail that is changed from the book concerning the monkey itself that has a very surprising reason.

Disney's Toy Story 3 Copyright Forced The Monkey To Change The Toy's Design

Perkins' Movie Could Not Use The Cymbals

The unusual reason that The Monkey had to change the toy from a cymbal-banging monkey to a drumming monkey was that the film's producer told Perkins that Disney owned the rights to the cymbal-banging toy thanks to its appearance in Toy Story 3. In the animated movie, the monkey serves as a sort of guard that keeps Andy's toys from escaping the day care, becoming one of the scariest characters in that film too. Even this detail is likely thanks to the creepy nature that Stephen King bestowed upon the toy 45 years ago.

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Because of Disney's ownership, Perkins had to think outside the box to find a solution that was even better than the original story. While the cymbal-banging monkey is undoubtedly iconic, and makes the original story perfectly scary, the drumming monkey does help make the movie a little more its own. This is also aided by the other changes that Perkins made to the plot. Though the clanging of the cymbals are arguably still slightly more jarring, the drumming actually fits better with the horror comedy tone of The Monkey.

The Monkey's Instrument Change Improved The Movie According To The Director

The Drums Actually Added A New Element To The Horror

Despite the difference from the original King story, Perkins has actually stated that he feels the change improved the movie. When speaking to SFX Magazine, Perkins argued that "it's one of those things where a limitation becomes an opportunity." Rather than become frustrated by the necessary alteration, using a drumming monkey emerged as the better choice for the horror director because he saw it as the monkey giving a drum roll before it killed its next victim.

Perkins continued: "The drum is like a marching drum. It's like, 'Drum roll, please!' before something happens. That's better than cymbals." Indeed, the drumming of the monkey does seem to perfectly bring the scenes to a climax before the graphic deaths occur. This proves that the initially strange news of Disney's ownership of the original toy ended up having an impressive impact on the audience. Likewise, even the director of The Monkey himself saw the benefit of the change, creating the perfect tone for the movie.