Intro by Kevin Schaeffer, Director of Restoration and Library management at the Walt Disney Company

With a screenplay by Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone) and Michael Wilson (The Bridge on the River Kwai), based on the 1963 novel by Pierre Boulle, this classic sci-fi tale brings us an astronaut crew (Charlton Heston, Jeff Burton, and Robert Gunner) that crash-lands on a planet in the distant future, where intelligent talking apes are the dominant species — and humans are the oppressed and enslaved. Also starring Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, James Daly, Maurice Evans, and James Whitemore as apes, in groundbreaking prosthetic makeup by artist John Chambers. Gorgeously shot by Leon Shamroy (Cleopatra) and edited by Academy Award-winner Hugh S. Fowler (Patton, The Seven Year Itch).  

The original Planet of the Apes, based on French author Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel La Planète des signes, was a surprise success that triggered four sequels – Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) – and also a live-action television series in 1974 and an animated series in 1975. In 2001, director Tim Burton remade the original Planet of the Apes, starring Mark Wahlberg and Helena Bonham Carter, but it failed to revive the series. However, a separate reboot Rise of the Planet of Apes (2011) succeeded in bringing the series back with a two sequels – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (1970) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) – to ultimately deliver one of contemporary cinema’s most accomplished trilogies. In 2019, further sequels to the 2011 reboot were announced with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes released in 2024. 

Restored by The Walt Disney Studios, featuring picture restoration by Roundabout Entertainment and audio restoration by Audio Mechanics.