Release date for Godzilla is....
- Thread starter Gojira
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Well, yeah, but it's ambiguous; there are several different ways you could read it. One is that the Otoshima inhabitants' god Gojira is just a myth that they identified this displaced dinosaur with when it trashed their island. Another is that the dinosaur actually is the creature they were interpreting as a god and making virgin sacrifices to (yikes!) -- that the "natural feeding grounds" it was displaced from by the bomb tests included the waters near Otoshima. Or, I suppose, another is that Godzilla really was divine in some way -- at least in the animist sense wherein something can be natural and divine at the same time.
Oh, I'm doing reviews of them on my blog (by era), so you can see it there when I get to it. Here are the ones I've done so far:
http://christopherlbennett.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/thoughts-on-godzilla-the-showa-era/
http://christopherlbennett.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/thoughts-on-godzilla-the-heisei-era/
It's easily the best Godzilla movie that isn't directed by Ishiro Honda, and one of the best period. But it isn't as good as the director (Shusuke Kaneko)'s Gamera trilogy, especially Gamera 3. Which, all assessment of objective qualities aside, is hands down my favorite kaiju film.
Thanks for the link! I am also reviewing them by era in my blog every Friday, until I am done. I just finished the Showa era.
The link to my blog is in my signature line.
Thanks.
A response to your comments in the blog about the name King Ghidorah vs. the Americanized "Ghidra" -- as with so many of these variant spellings, it's just a matter of transliterating things differently. The English dubs of the later King Ghidorah movies tend to pronounce it "gih-door-ah," but that's wrong; it'd really be more like "ghee-do-rah," with the middle syllable having the least emphasis, not the most. The name is actually a Japanese approximation of "Hydra," the multi-headed monster from Greek mythology. So the "Ghidra" transliteration was actually closer to the original pronunciation and intent.
And I agree, the choice of "Destoroyah" or "Destroyah" for the transliteration of the name of the final Heisei-era villain was strange (as you mentioned in your "Top 15 Monsters" post); it's clearly meant to be "Destroyer," since it's spawned from the Oxygen Destroyer. And that's actually how it is pronounced in the English dub of the film. The Japanese approximation of the word "destroyer," in both contexts, is de-su-to-ro-ya, which would be pronounced basically "destoroyah," with the first O downplayed much as it is in "Ghidorah."
My Showa-series viewing only got as far as Invasion of the Astro-Monster; most of the ones after that sounded pretty silly. I've heard good things about Destroy All Monsters, so I'd be curious to take a look at it, but Netflix doesn't have it. Other than that, I might want to check out the two Showa Mechagodzilla films at some point. And I have a bit of nostalgic curiosity about Hedorah, since I still vividly remember seeing Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster on TV back when I was a kid. I even remember that silly song. "There's one solution, stamp out pollution/Save the Earrrrth!"
Oh, yes, I remember the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla too. I think you can watch it on Hulu -- if you wanted to.
The animated series that spun off from the '98 American movie is much better, and generally better-regarded by Godzilla fans than the movie itself.
The animated series that spun off from the '98 American movie is much better, and generally better-regarded by Godzilla fans than the movie itself.
I've never known Hulu to work in this country.
I didn't know there was an animated series from the '98 film, it wouldn't have taken a lot to really improve that film.
Yeah... unlike most TV-series "continuations" of movies, it pretty much fits exactly into the same continuity as the film, aside from a teensy change in timing or interpretation of some of the final moments of the film. It even features a couple of the cast members of the film reprising their roles. But it was much truer to the tradition of Godzilla movies, featuring battles between Godzilla and various other giant monsters, though original ones rather than familiar Toho daikaiju.
Unfortunately, I don't think the whole series is on DVD, although there are a few three-episode releases.
Yes, because they have a common owner; Godzilla (1998) was from TriStar, which is a division of Columbia, which is owned by Sony. The same animation studio, Adelaide Productions, also did animated series based on other Columbia properties, including Jumanji, Extreme Ghostbusters, and The Spectacular Spider-Man, as well as Jackie Chan Adventures and The Boondocks.
In fact, the reason Men in Black: The Series underwent a precipitous drop in writing quality after its first season is because its writing staff moved to Godzilla: The Series. So G:TS got the smart, character-driven writing and MiB ended up getting dumbed down and kiddified.
Well reptile females are larger...
I hear that was because the studio wanted the kaiju film equivalent of bigger names in the movie, so Mortha and King Ghidorah were used instead of the lesser known ones the were originally planned to show up in the film.
Plus its not too weird seeing as Ghidorah's cybernetically enhanced and piloted corpse was the hero at the final battle in Godzilla v.s. King Ghidorah.
^Yeah, but I don't see that as King Ghidorah being the hero, I see it as the pilots of Mecha-King Ghidorah being the heroes.
While I agree Emmy and the M11 were the heroes, the dorats themselves weren't evil either just under the control of the computer of people from the future. Godzilla was also seen as something of a savior in that movie and Shinto thought he could use Godzilla to get back at the futurians for the destruction of Kyoto.
Wasn't it from the same animation studio that did the "Men in Black" cartoon?
Andnow for something completely, uh, tangent...
Sincerely,
Bill
Yes. It is inspired. 
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