10 Best Live-Action Primates

The War for the Planet of the Apes is hitting theaters, bringing fans the final installment of the prequel trilogy based on the original 1968 Planet of the Apes film.

The film is currently the highest rated Apes film of them all, sitting at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes (Add in the anticipation ranking for CB), with critics praising both the direction of Matt Reeves and the motion capture work of Andy Serkis.

Even our own Brandon Davis called the film a "compelling and emotional masterpiece" in his review, which you can read here.

That got us thinking about all of our favorite apes and monkeys from movies-past so we here at PopCulture.com decided to rank our favorites with the "10 Best Live-Action Primates."

One of our very favorites is King Louie from The Jungle Book, which lands in our No. 3 spot.

Unlike most of the famous animals from Rudyard Kipling's original stories, King Louie wasn't in the book at all, but instead created specifically for Walt Disney's animated adaptation in 1967. He was voiced by Louis Prima and immediately became a hit, thanks in part to the now-classic tune, "I Wan'na Be Like You."

Because we're covering the 10 best live-action primates and that version of Louie is from an animated film, he doesn't count. He did pop up in the 1994 live-action Disney reboot as well, but the interpretation that really cemented King Louie for such a high spot belongs to 2016's The Jungle Book. Directed by Jon Favreau, the orangutan-now-turned-Gigantopithecus was voiced by Christopher Walken who described Louie as "as charming as he is, intimidating when he wants to be."

In the movie, Louie offers to protect Mowgli from Shere Khan in exchange for the secret of making fire.

To find out if your favorite primate made the list, click on the video at the top of the article and then go check out War for the Planet of the Apes.

Photo Credit: Disney