Let's Look At: NECA GODZILLA V3 (2019)

Ah, retail exclusive figures...
I'm certainly no stranger to them, it can be nerve racking trying to find them either in the respective store or maybe you get lucky and find someone on ebay who isn't a scumbag. 
This was an unexpected surprise from NECA at SDCC and it was an even bigger surprise when NECA announced that it would be exclusively sold at Target. While some were lucky to have gotten their Burning Godzilla figures early, I was not. I looked at many Targets and had no luck. 
I was one of the few who was lucky enough to order theirs from Target's website. I didn't find it in stores until days after I received it on my porch.  

If you're trying to get one, be patient, scour stores in your area when you can, ask the workers. 
Also, HERE'S A LINK to order it online if it becomes available again. 
At this point you'll probably have better luck obtaining this figure than you will the SH MonsterArts Poster Version of Godzilla 2019. 

This is the second repaint of NECA's 2019 Godzilla following the V2 release. Now comes the "Version 3" or Burning Godzilla if you prefer. While it may not be 100% screen accurate to his appearance in 'King of the Monsters' this figure has a very impressive flair to it!

The figure is made entirely out of a translucent plastic and if you shine light through the body, you can see the hinges and joints used for the articulation.

The entire body is covered in a mix of red orange with black patches scattered about to make the skin pop out. I think the paint looks amazing overall. I don't even mind the random orange stripes going down the side, I kinda wish there were a few more just to make Godzilla look even more like a walking volcano. 
Also the eyes are a nice bright orange color and are nicely aligned with each other. Amazing, right?!

As for the dorsal fins, I think they look great as well and I love how the outer row is painted a differently than the center row, that's a nice touch. But I want to highlight an issue. 
When I opened up the flap of the box, I noticed that on the side I was looking at the outer fins had the lighter orange paint on them, very unevenly as well. 

Turn the figure to the other side however...the paint is a lot more consistent. I ordered this figure online so I guess this is on me, but that'll be something to consider before purchasing. 

Regardless of the minor QC issue, this is still a fantastic figure. It might be my favorite Godzilla 2019 figure made by NECA.
Weather for yourself or even anyone who might want it as a Christmas present this year, if you're persistent enough, this figure can be yours. The MSRP is about $25, that's how much you should be paying for it. DO NOT pay more than twice that cost!

Lord only knows what hoops we'll have to jump through to get an SHMA Burning Godzilla.
...
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What do you mean it's a wide release?

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 
Thanks for reading!

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GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA & TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA | Movie Review

GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA
AKA: Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster

AAKA: Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster
March 21, 1974

Up till now, the last few Godzilla movies have been entertaining but they're hardly considered great films. For Jun Fukuda's last Godzilla movie, he managed to bring together a film that was more in tune with the films of the early 60's but still had his own flair. It would also be the introduction of one of the Big G's classic and reoccurring adversaries. 

An ancient prophecy foretells that a monster will come forth to destroy the world. The monster comes in the form of Godzilla, but something doesn't seem right. When the true Godzilla shows up, it is revealed that the impostor is really the weapon of conquering alien invaders, the mechanical titan of terror...Mechagodzilla!

Gone were the more light-hearted stories and kid friendly tones. This movie plays out more like an Indiana Jones or a spy film, but despite the tone it isn't afraid to include more odd and unusual elements. I mean come on, the bad guys are essentially space apes and Godzilla gains the power to turn himself into a magnet. But I feel this movie balances the serious and fantastic elements very well without going too over the top (they leave the over the top stuff to the special effects). There's a strong cast of characters who carry a very intriguing mystery along with the action packed story. 
Godzilla's design was left intact from the previous film, though he was given a slightly meaner expression. Introduced in this film is the fan favorite monster, King Caesar, a monster based on the Shisha from Okinawan mythology. 

Undoubtedly, Mechagodzilla is the one who steals the show. His design is immediately eye catching and his presence imposing. What makes a good villain is the one who provides a real challenge to our hero and once Mechagodzilla shows off his vast variety of weapons it really makes you wonder just how Godzilla can defeat him, even with King Caesar's help.

Aside from some still shots at the beginning, this movie contains no stock footage. Teruyoshi Nakano's team was able to get a better handle of the reduced budget and up the flair of the visual effects, creating a great amount of sets and monster costumes. They most certainly don't skimp out on the Michael Bay style explosions.
The movie also has the distinction of being the most violent Godzilla movie in terms of showing excessive blood. Red, gushing blood.  

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla remains the best of the 70's films and one of the most popular Godzilla films in general. I know when I first got this movie in a box set with other films, I loved it a lot. It was the second most watched movie by me from that set, the first being 'Godzilla 1985'. In fact, this movie was so popular it even spawned a follow-up. If your thinking of getting into the Godzilla films, this one is a must watch.

TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA

(Original Title: "Mekagojira no Gyakushu" -Mechagodzilla's Counterattack-)

AKA: The Terror of Godzilla

March 15, 1975

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla ended up being a critical and financial success, it got Tomoyuki Tanaka and Toho hopeful that the series could continue. In an attempt to get the series back on track properly, the one and only Ishiro Honda was brought back to direct what would ultimately be the final entry in the Showa Era of Godzilla. 

Following the events of the first film, a second wave of aliens return to continue their conquest of earth. They enlist the help of a scientist seeking revenge for being scorned by his colleagues, who has a device capable of controlling a large aquatic dinosaur called Titanosaurus. Along with a rebuilt and upgraded Mechagodzilla, the odds seem stacked against Godzilla's favor as he has to face both monsters on his own.

With the return of Honda, the story is given a flair of drama and poignancy. Aside from our villains who act in their typical bad guy fashion, most of the characters take the situations they're placed in seriously. In many ways the human element is very similar to Destroy All Monsters, while our characters may not be as memorable as the casts of the other films they still carry the movie very well. Which is good seeing as how Godzilla doesn't show up until about 48 minutes into the movie.
That's right. And y'all still wanna complain about 2014's lack of screen time?

Without a doubt, the standout character is Katsura (Tomoko Ai), the daughter of our villainous Dr. Mafune (Akihiko Hirata), as she is torn between not wanting to harm humanity and loyalty to her father. This is further complicated by the fact that Katsura is actually a cyborg rebuilt by the aliens after an accident, and is therefore susceptible to mind alteration.

The monster scenes are top notch as usual and quite explosive. And I do mean EXPLOSIVE! There is even a moment where the Godzilla suit catches on fire. It's moments like that as well as the city destruction scenes where you have to give the suit actors and special effects guys major props for their tenacity. 

Our new monster Titanosaurus is a monster with a design more simple than the ones we've gotten in the past but is still very cool in is own way, even if sometimes his movements can seem a bit unnatural. This is partly due to the fact that the suit actor, Tatsumi Nikamoto, actually wore the suit backwards for some scenes.
On a side note, am I the only one who hates fighting Titanosaurus in 'Godzilla Unleashed'? (specifically the Wii version) The bastard always seems to have considerably more health than my monster and is in general annoying to fight.

This movie also has the distinction of being one of the few Godzilla movies to feature nudity. During a scene where Katsura is being operated on, her breasts are shown. Now obviously the bust is shown to be synthetic and not real, but the implication is still there.
For it's American release, Terror of Mechagodzilla was heavily edited to ensure a G rating (obviously the boobs were cut out) and was renamed 'The Terror of Godzilla' (because that makes sense...) But the edits caused severe damage to the films third act. The entire final action scene had moments cut out that undermined the drama and eventual tragedy of the original. But you wanna hear the crazy part? The television cut was left intact! I mean, it still didn't have the boobs, but how crazy is that? Usually it's the other way around. When Terror of Mechagodzilla was released on home media in the US, it was tragically the theatrical edited version. That finally changed when in 2007, Classic Media got a hold of the uncut version, as well as the original Japanese cut and released it to DVD. Since then, it has thankfully become the standard release for the movie.

Despite how good Terror of Mechagodzilla was, it unfortunately bombed at the box office. To this day, it remains the lowest attended Godzilla movie ever (at least, in terms of live action films.)
The writing was on the wall and Godzilla was finally put into hibernation. For a while it seemed like the series would never return. But as the old saying goes: Good things come to those who wait...

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair for my 
100th BLOG POST!

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 
Thanks for reading!

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GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH, GODZILLA VS. GIGAN & GODZILLA VS. MEGALON | Movie Review

GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH
AKA: Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster

July 24, 1971

A year passed since 'All Monsters Attack', Ishiro Honda had stepped away from the series and Toho needed new ideas to try and keep the series afloat. Yoshimitsu Banno would step in to write and direct what would ultimately become one of the strangest Godzilla movies by far.

Instead of nuclear annihilation, this movie serves as a metaphor for pollution. A strange tadpole monster from outer space begins to feed on Japan's numerous sources of pollution and mutate into a more dangerous beast. Now it's up to a scientist and his son to figure out a way to stop this Smog Monster before even Godzilla becomes outmatched.


The 1970's was definitely the time when the monster designs started to get the most outlandish and Hedorah is pretty out there. He's basically a walking glob of sludge and acid that goes through several different forms. Hedorah was played by Kengo Nakayama, he would later change his name to Kenpachiro Satsuma. All of the Hedorah suits were heavy and bulky, making natural movement very difficult. Thanks to some mentoring by Haruo Nakajima and his own perseverance, Satsuma powered through it and gave us one of the most unique monsters in the Showa rouges gallery. 
That was especially during an incident where he had to have an emergency appendix removal while he was STILL in the Hedorah suit!

This movie was made to address the serious air pollution problems in Japan at the time, particularly in the city of Yokkaichi. Whether or not it succeeded is debatable. 

Even if you're not a Godzilla fan, after watching this movie for the first time, anyone will react to it in a manner similar to: "What the **** was that?!" From the funkeriffic score from Riichiro Manabe, the weird animated segments to the many disturbing moments scattered throughout the film (this was meant for kids right?) Around the time you get to the nightclub scene and the dancers start wearing fish masks, you might wanna make sure you didn't ingest anything hallucinogenic.
This movie also contains one of the more infamous moments of the whole series, where Godzilla does...something you don't see everyday. Fans will know what I'm talking about and there's really no other way I can describe it.

Godzilla vs. Hedorah is a movie that screams "experimentation", its success or failure is really for the viewer to decide. As a whole, the movie itself isn't bad. If you can get past some of the more bizarre elements you may find yourself enjoying this one, even in an ironic way.
After the film's release, many of Toho's higher ups hated the movie and even Tomoyuki Tanaka, the one who enlisted Yoshimitsu Banno, felt that it ruined Godzilla's reputation. So Banno was fired from Toho and the rest is history. 
But Banno wouldn't be out of the Godzilla movie game so easily. He lobbied for years to make a sequel to Godzilla vs. Hedorah and he came damn close in 2005 with a project called "Godzilla 3D to the MAX," in which Godzilla fights a monster similar to Hedorah called Deathla (ooh, so edgy!) After countless delays, the project would be canceled and Banno would instead be brought on as an executive producer for Legendary Pictures' 2014 Godzilla film.

On May 17, 2017 Yoshimitsu Banno passed away at the age of 86. He would receive posthumous credit for work on 'Godzilla: King of the Monsters' and the upcoming 'Godzilla vs. Kong', the former of which contained a dedication to him.

GODZILLA VS. GIGAN

(Original Title: "Chikyu Kogeki Meirei Gojira tai Gaigan" -Earth Attack Command: Godzilla Against Gigan-)

AKA: Godzilla on Monster Island

March 12, 1972

Godzilla vs. Hedorah was not the breakout hit Toho was expecting to bring the Godzilla series out of its current rut. It was decided to bring the series back to a more traditional sense. The results were mixed.

A manga artist gets a job at a new park called World Children's Land, a place dedicated to monsters from around the world, complete with a life size Godzilla tower. However, not all is as it seems. It turns out the people behind this park are really aliens bent on bringing perfect peace to this planet, by destroying it with the mind controlled Ghidorah and Gigan and ruling it. The earths only hope lies in the hands of Godzilla and his trusted ally Anguirus.

The biggest fault of this movie comes from the fact that Godzilla vs. Gigan feels very much like a copy and paste movie. Most of the score is comprised of Ifukube tracks featured in previous Toho monster movies. There's a much more egregious use of stock footage in this film than any other film in the series. Even the plot point about alien invaders mind controlling the monsters was getting a bit tiring at this point.

The fact of the matter was, Japan's film industry as well as their economy in general was in a bad state at this time, which forced the film makers to cut corners wherever necessary. It definitely shows with the monsters used in this movie. The Godzilla suit, after being used in now 4 films in a row looked tattered and ready to be trashed. The only new monster constructed for this movie was Gigan.

I need to stop for a minute and talk about how much I FREAKIN' love Gigan. I will always love Godzilla but if I had to pick a favorite monster besides him, it would absolutely be Gigan. He is by far the most outlandish monster ever conceived by Toho. He looks like a weird chicken, dinosaur hybrid with giant hooks for hands and a buzz saw in his torso. And did I mention he's an alien cyborg? Gigan is so ridiculously badass and awesome and I love him!
Gigan was played by Kenpachiro Satsuma, fresh off his role as Hedorah. Gigan is also significant for the fact that he is the first monster to ever make Godzilla bleed. Oh yeah, Godzilla gushes blood in this movie. This movie was meant for kids!

The scenes between the monsters are fine for the most part, but again the problem is most of the scenes where the monsters fight and attack the city. They contain way too much stock footage, featuring obvious footage from 'Destroy All Monsters', 'Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster' as well as various other Toho films. Because of this, Godzilla awkwardly changes appearance, shots filmed during the day are darkened to try and match the original footage and if you look carefully some monsters make unintentional cameos (*cough*Mothra*cough*)

One thing that weirds me out about the original monster footage is that there are a few moments where the monsters just stand around and do nothing. The fights themselves are ok, but they seem to be shot slower than usual.

This movie would be the last time that the late Haruo Nakajima would ever wear the Godzilla suit. After the death of Eiji Tsuburaya, he started to lose the enthusiasm and energy he once had for suit acting.

While the monster action is kind of mixed, the human story is actually quite interesting. This has by far one of the most unique gathering of characters, a manga artist, his black belt girlfriend, a woman looking to save her brother imprisoned in Children's Land and a hippie. I found the characters and the story to be very engaging and they can be very funny sometimes. I will say that when you do actually find out what the aliens are, it is a bit silly. 

While Godzilla vs. Gigan is one of the lesser films in the series, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. Even with the overuse of stock footage and the slower paced monster action, I still find the movie very entertaining. I just wouldn't put this above some of the other films. 

One last thing to mention, when this movie was released in the United States in theaters and on television it was retitled: "Godzilla on Monster Island." However, not including stock footage, only 54.14 seconds (I timed it) actually takes place on Monster Island. Later releases would be titled 'Godzilla vs Gigan', but that got me thinking that the title "Godzilla on Monster Island" would make far more sense for 'All Monsters Attack'. It works better than "Godzilla's Revenge." 

Plus isn't it nice to know that a movie with swearing and monsters gushing blood will still get a G rating in the US?

I will never take complaints against the PG-13 rating seriously as long as that is a fact. I get that it was a different time, but come on...

GODZILLA VS. MEGALON

March 17, 1973

In 1972, a contest was held at an event sponsored by Toho and Tsuburaya Productions where kids could submit monster designs to be featured in a movie. The winning design was a robot that would be the inspiration for the main character in this movie, at least until they decided that the character couldn't hold a movie on his own, so they added Godzilla to the mix.

Fed up with nuclear weapon testing destroying their home, the citizens of the undersea nation of Seatopia steal a robot to guide their monster god, Megalon to the surface to wreak havoc. After the robots inventor regains control of the robot, they instruct it to call for Godzilla to turn the tide of the upcoming battle.

Megalon himself interests me as I can't decide weather he is one of the most silliest looking monsters or one of the most unique. I guess you'll have to make your own judgement about a bipedal beetle monster with giant drills for hands. His personality ranges from your typical monster looking to smash everything in its way to a child throwing a tantrum. This would be Megalon's only film appearance but he would make prominent appearance in several Godzilla video games.

Godzilla himself was given a brand new design after the last suit had pretty much fallen apart. Now fully embracing his new role as a superhero character, his look was designed to give a more friendly demeanor than the previous suits. I really like the look of this suit and I'm glad they kept it for the remaining films of the Showa series.


Aside from his brief appearance at the beginning of the movie, Godzilla doesn't show back up again until the 45 minute mark. And even then it takes him a while to get to the final fight. Like Invasion of Astro-Monster, Godzilla feels like a side character in his own movie. 
The real main character of this movie is Jet Jaguar, whose totally not an Ultraman ripoff. Though Ultraman comparisons aren't inappropriate being that Toho tried to use what worked for the Tsuburaya Productions series to try and get children off the couch and into the theater. Jet Jaguar is a pretty unique design and he has indeed earned his popularity among the fans. He even has his own theme song at the end of the movie.

Fortunately, while Jet Jaguar goes to get Godzilla, the Seatopions somehow have the aliens from the last movie on speed dial and ask them to borrow Gigan for their conquest. I mean, it's bad in the context of the film but come on, I'll take any opportunity to see my boy again.

Godzilla vs. Megalon once again suffers from the cut and paste method seen in the previous movie Godzilla vs. Gigan.  There is one original set piece that takes place at a dam that looks pretty good, but every other piece of city destruction is taken from previous movies. The worst offenders of reused footage occurs when Megalon swats at attacking planes, when it cuts to the impact shots you can clearly see Gigan's hooks hitting the planes and a whole sequence taken from Godzilla vs. Gigan. 

This movie is often considered to be one of the worst offerings of the series. From a technical and objective stand point, the movie isn't that great. The plot has very little meat on the bones. Our main characters are pretty stock and the sequences of events play out in a very simplistic matter. But at the same time, the movie does move at a pretty fast pace and keeps the interest of the viewer. But if you try and figure out stuff like how does Jet Jaguar program himself to grow kaiju size or why the Seatopions don't just go up and talk to the surface world to get their point across, I think you're just missing the point. This movie was aimed at children and it does do its job well. I can recall this being one of the very first Godzilla movies I ever owned on VHS and I loved watching it every single time.

As a matter of fact, this movie has a very interesting history here in the US. A company named CinemaShares went all out on the publicity for Godzilla vs. Megalon's theatrical release, including an infamous poster with Godzilla and Megalon fighting atop the World Trade Center in an attempt to lampoon the upcoming King Kong remake. In addition, the company also gave out buttons with the monsters faces as well as a short comic book adaptation. When the movie premiered on NBC prime time in 1977, it was hosted by John Belushi wearing his own Godzilla suit.
For a time, this movie somehow found its way into several public domain VHS releases and was one of 2 Godzilla movies to be featured on the popular TV series 'Mystery Science Theater 3000', but Toho stepped in and put a stop to that soon enough. 

In many ways, this movie ended up being more popular overseas then it was in Japan. The film did not do financially well and it seemed that the franchise would only continue to sink lower before finally dying out. Something dramatic had to be done... 

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 
Thanks for reading!

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DESTROY ALL MONSTERS & ALL MONSTERS ATTACK | Movie Review

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS

(Original Title: "Kaiju Soshingeki" -Monster Total Advancement-)

August 1, 1968

As great as the past few entries may have been, the sad truth was that the Godzilla series was beginning to lose steam. As it went on the budgets kept getting reduced and the tickets sales were dropping due to the rise of popular TV shows like Ultra Q and the ongoing Ultraman series. Ironically, these shows were produced by Toho.
This next movie would be the last collaboration between Director Ishiro Honda, Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, Composer Akira Ifukube and Special Effects director Eiji Tsuburaya. As far as they were concerned, this would be the last film in the series and they decided to give it their all.

In the not to distant future (1999), all of the earth's monsters have been gathered up and are kept on an island called "Monsterland" by the United Nations Science Committee. Chaos ensues when a race of alien invaders known as the Kilaaks sabotage Monsterland, take control of all the monsters and make them attack the worlds major cities. 

This was the largest gathering of monsters in the series thus far. You have Godzilla, Minilla, Rodan, a Mothra larva (how did the Infant Islanders allow that?), and Anguirus and Kumonga returned from the dead. We even get appearances from other Toho movie monsters like Gorosaurus from 'King Kong Escapes', Manda from 'Atragon', Baragon from 'Frankenstein Conquers the World' and Varan from 'Varan the Unbelievable'. Because the poster gives it away, the movie climaxes with a final battle with King Ghidorah.
This sounds like it should be an all-out nonstop monster mash, but you may be surprised to learn that most of the monsters don't actually appear on screen for long if ever. Kumonga doesn't show up until the end, while Baragon and Varan only make very brief cameos. 
In fact, one scene was supposed to have Baragon in it but for whatever reason the suit was unavailable so Gorosaurus was used in his place and news reporter still refers to the monster as Baragon! (This would not be the last time both Baragon and Varan get screwed over.)

Most of the movie centers around our one dimensional cast of UN guys, astronauts, Monsterland personnel and an all-female alien race.
Here's the thing though, I really don't hate them because of that. To me, one dimensional characters do not make a bad movie. Before this, I'd only seen this movie a handful of times and I admit, on my first few times watching this I found the characters boring, I was young, dumb and impatient. All I wanted to see were the monsters. It's a trap that most people fall into when they dive into this series. But during my numerous re-watchings for this review, I wasn't bored. I watched and I was still interested. Yes the characters aren't too deep and the motivations are simple, so what? If you can watch the movie, understand the plot and not be bored, what is there to complain about? I find this to be the case with most of Ishiro Honda's Godilla movies, the human characters are just as interesting to watch as the monsters. You could make the argument that the aliens in this movie feel like a less interesting copy of the Xilians from 'Invasion of Astro-Monster' and I would not disagree with that.
The only time I couldn't stand the human characters was when they were horrendously dubbed with some of the most dumbfoundingly bad lines. (If you want to watch this movie in English, look for the AIP dub)

Despite Eiji Tsuburaya's health taking a turn for the worse, the special effects team pulled out all the stops for this movie, the attack on Tokyo and the final battle at Mount Fuji are spectacular and are what make Destroy All Monsters worth a watch. I do wish we could have seen more than just a few shots of the monsters attacking the cities. I mean, where else are you going to see Godzilla attacking New York City?
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...
what?

left to right: Akira Ifukube, Ishiro Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya & Tomoyuki Tanaka

Destroy All Monsters is often looked at as one of if not the best movies of the entire series, I can absolutely see why. I admit it's a bit overrated and I love some of the later movies more than this one, but that got me thinking: Destroy All Monsters was meant to be the last Godzilla movie. What if that was the case? What if the series did stop there? Would Tanaka still push to revive the series in 1984? Would TriStar Pictures have moved forward with their version? Would the MonsterVerse have even been a thought? 
The nine movies so far are a great series on their own and most of them hold up incredibly well. Looking at it as a whole, maybe the geniuses at Toho thought it was best to stop while they were on a high note. They put their heart and soul into this entry and it shows, the movie ends with the monsters making their final curtain calls. As far as they were concerned, the series was over. 

However, the series did not end there...

ALL MONSTERS ATTACK

(Original Title: "Gojira, Minira, Gabara: Oru Kaiju Daishingeki" -Godzilla, Minilla, Gabara: All Monsters Attack-)
AKA: Godzilla's Revenge

December 20, 1969

Despite it's continued failing at the box office, Toho would reluctantly return to the Godzilla series. 

Imagine if you will, the Showa series is a happy little flock and All Monsters Attack is the black sheep. 

In this film, a young boy named Ichiro (Tomonori Yazaki) wanting to escape his life of absent parents and relentless bullies, imagines himself on Monster Island and befriends Minilla who is dealing with a bully monster of his own.

Why is this movie so reviled? Well, with a name like 'All Monsters Attack' you'd expect an amount of monster action akin to 'Destroy All Monsters'. Problem is, most of the monster scenes in this movie are comprised of stock footage from past Toho films, mostly from Ebirah Horror of the Deep and Son of Godzilla. It's not like they took a few shots here and there, they literally ripped entire fight scenes from them. I guess it would make sense seeing that it is all in the kids mind and he's basically pretending he's there in the moment. It's still extremely jarring to see Godzilla's appearance shift between three different suits.

As Eiji Tsuburaya's health got worse and worse, he was forced to step down from working on All Monsters Attack.

On January 25th, 1970, Tsuburaya died of a heart attack.

The Special effects crew fell under the leadership of Teruyoshi Nakano for the rest of the Showa series.

Minilla plays a bigger role in this movie as Ichiro's friend on Monster Island. He talks and can shrink down to human size. As weird as that sounds his voice sounds nowhere near as bad as it does in the English dub. He also has to fight off a bully of his own, a monster named Gabara. Godzilla tries to teach Minilla to fend for himself and fight his own battles. At first it's comically unfair watching Gabara beat up Minilla but eventually he comes around and with Ichiro's help is able to overpower Gabara, in a pretty humorous way that begs for an edit incorporating the Goofy holler.
The best part of this movie by far is when Gabara gets the idea to attack Godzilla and Godzilla ain't having any of that and pretty much beats the hell out of him.

Now admittedly, it's hard to see this as a true Godzilla movie because technically Godzilla is not really in it. He exists as he does now, a fictional character. So we can assume that the previous films exist in this universe and Ichiro has seen them and is a fan. Actually, this movie seems to take inspiration from another Japanese monster movie series, Gamera. Those movies were made almost exclusively for children and had child actors in the lead role and even the monsters behaved less seriously. The only difference is that Ichiro is nowhere near as annoying as any of the Gamera kids. It's still guilty of overusing stock footage and making adult characters look like idiots.

You wanna know more about Gamera? Don't worry...I'll get to him later...

There's also another plot line in the movie regarding these two bank robbers hiding out in an abandoned warehouse. In the second act, Ichiro enters the warehouse, finds one of the robbers drivers license and takes it. The robbers then kidnap Ichiro and hold him hostage. Eventually after being inspired by his "experience" on Monster Island, he is able to outsmart and escape the robbers. It's then that this starts to feel more like Home Alone.
Later on he's able to stand up to the leader of the bullies, also named Gabara (go figure), actually fights him and wins. At least I assume that's what happens, the scene is shot and edited with constant freeze frames and it's very jarring.
Ichiro then completes his story by causing a sign painter to fall off his ladder and get paint all over him.
Kinda sending mixed messages there.

Looking at this movie through adult eyes, I'm willing to accept that this movie may not be the dumpster fire the fanbase makes it out to be, though the English version might be a different story. It's not a fantastic movie by any stretch, but it's not exactly Batman & Robin or Fant4stic bad. 
That being said, as a Godzilla movie it does disappoint and there are far better entries to spend your time on. This might actually be a good movie to show children to get them started on the series before moving them on to the more serious stuff.
The fact that this movie is now in the Criterion Collection alongside other treasured classics like Seven Samurai, Brazil, Eraserhead, Bicycle Thieves and Armageddon is hilarious to me. 
(I love Armageddon for the record and you will NEVER convince me that it is a bad movie)

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

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EBIRAH, HORROR OF THE DEEP & SON OF GODZILLA | Movie Review

EBIRAH, HORROR OF THE DEEP

(Original Title: "Gojira, Ebira, Mosura Nankai no Daiketto"
-Godzilla, Ebirah, Mothra: Big Duel in the South Seas-)
AKA: Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster

December 17, 1966

I cannot talk about this movie without telling the odd tale of how it came into existence. 

Before 1967's 'King Kong Escapes' came to be, Toho had a much different idea about how to use Kong for another movie.

A young man desperate to find his brother lost at sea steals a yacht with 2 other tag a longs and a bank robber. The yacht is wrecked on an island by a large crustacean named Ebirah. The island is later revealed to be under the control of a terrorist group using inhabitants of Infant Island as slaves. Our heroes meet up with an escaped native girl and discover King Kong sleeping in a cave, they plan to awaken Kong to help fight the terrorists and Ebirah, while the Infant Islanders pray to Mothra to come and save them as well. 

The film was to be titled: Operation Robinson Crusoe: King Kong vs. Ebirah. (I could add a snarky remark, but I think that speaks for itself)

It could've been great, but unfortunately Rankin/Bass passed on the idea on the basis that it didn't match up with the cartoon show. Rather than scrap the idea entirely, Toho reworked the story a bit and eventually replace King Kong with Godzilla. 

Aside from changing the title, literally the only change made was replacing Kong with Godzilla. This is evident in a later scene in which he takes a peculiar interest in the native girl Dayo (Kumi Mizuno). 

There's nothing really special about Ebirah, he's just a big lobster. He can barely stand up to Godzilla's atomic breath. There are some moments where we get to see both of them tussle underwater which is kinda unique. For a creature that spends most of his time underwater, we don't get to see much of that. We would see more of it in later films though. Now of course having the actors actually fight inside the suits underwater would have been a huge risk, thanks to a set with a blue filter and clever lighting, it did the trick in creating the illusion of being underwater.

Mothra spends most of the movie asleep (or as a matte painting) as the Infant Islanders constantly pray to her to come to their aide.
This would be the last time the Shobijin would appear in the Godzilla Showa series, this time played by the singing duo known as "Pair Bambi".

Unlike the past entries which had an interesting human cast, no one in this movie stands out. The characters are pretty much blank slates and you wont remember anything about them. You may remember that one of the terrorist leaders looks like Dr. Serizawa from the original, but that's only because it's the same actor, Akihiko Hirata, in a different eye patch (in fact, if you've been paying attention you'll notice a lot of actors from previous movies coming back to play different roles.) Even if you flip over to the american version, the only thing you'll remember about the characters is that one of them has a voice so annoying you want to chainsaw your ears off. 

Filling in for Akira Ifukube, Masaru Sato's score sounds like it came right out of the 60's Batman show or a James Bond movie. There's one particular moment in which a bunch of planes come to attack Godzilla and this silly swing music starts playing. All that's missing are a bunch of onomatopoeia's popping up randomly. 

To me this is one of the lesser Godzilla movies. By this time, the series was being geared more towards children. The human story isn't too deep but it does move at a fast pace so as not to get too boring. The best way I can describe Ebirah, Horror of the Deep is to liken it to your average anime filler episode. Under the new direction of Jun Fukuda, who would direct 5 of the original Godzilla movies, we don't have a movie with the depth of the ones directed by Ishiro Honda, but Fukuda definitely doesn't know how to make a boring movie.

SON OF GODZILLA

(Original Title: "Kaiju-to no Kessen: Gojira no Musuko" 

-Monster Island's Decisive Battle: Son of Godzilla-)

December 16, 1967

Jun Fukuda would return to direct the 8th movie, if you didn't already know that these movies were being aimed at children, well strap yourself in because this movies is gonna make you learn that really fast!

On a remote island, a team of scientists are working on a weather control device that will help benefit humanity. After the first experiment goes wrong, it mutates the giant praying mantises that live on the island and causes them to grow bigger and they unearth a giant egg which hatches a baby Godzilla. Yeah, this island has giant mantises on it and we haven't even gotten to the giant spider. Meanwhile, Godzilla himself arrives on the island having been called by his son. 

We've already had 'Son of Kong', 'Son of Frankenstein', 'Son of Dracula' and the 1959 Bob McFadden hit 'Son of the Mummy' (Google it). So why not give Godzilla a bouncing baby boy of his own?

The titular son goes by the name of Minilla (or Minya) and his inclusion has caused something of a divide in the fandom. People either love to hate him or simply tolerate his presence. I can see why, his design has been likened to either the Pillsbury Dough Boy or Gary Coleman and his cries can be a little ear grating. But to me I don't hate the little guy, I think Minilla is kind of adorable and many of the scenes with him interacting with Godzilla are just so enduring.
By now, you're probably sitting there wondering just how Godzilla birthed a child...have fun with that. 

Minya was portrayed by Masao Fukazawa (Also known as 'Little Man' Machan) who used to be a professional midget wrestler. The Godzilla suit was made to be taller than normal and did not fit Haruo Nakajima, so the duty of acting in the suit went to Hiroshi Sekita, who previously wore monster costumes for Ebirah, Gorosaurus, Mechani-Kong from 'King Kong Escapes' and Sanda from 'War of the Gargantuas'. Nakajima did wear the Godzilla suit during Godzilla's first appearance when he emerges from the water. As for the suit itself, it looks weird, definitely not the best look for our boy. The face appears like it was placed in a vice and left there for a few days.  

As for our giant praying mantises called 'Kamacurus' and the giant spider 'Kumongua', those are all large puppets on moved by piano wires and they actually look really good. The way both monsters move is pretty believable and that is a great achievement considering that one of these puppets is a freaking spider! An eight legged creature who's legs need to be meticulously moved a certain way to be convincing which must have been a serious challenge. 

You'd probably be hard pressed to remember the characters names (with maybe the exceptions of Goro and Saeko), but at the same time the human story doesn't bore and is actually rather interesting. The plot about the weather control machine being used to benefit mankind reminds me of Captian Nemo's motivations from the 1961 film version of 'Mysterious Island.' 

I don't think Son of Godzilla is top 10 material for the series but it's still a cute and enjoyable film. This is probably the best way to start younger audiences on the series and If your heart isn't warmed by the final moments, I think there may be something wrong with you. 

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 
Thanks for reading!

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