Change Your Image
Ryuusei
Reviews
Grossology (2006)
One of my favorite cartoons on TV!
I've already been aware of the bestselling GROSSOLOGY kids' fun-fact books by Sylvia Branzei (which became a CD-ROM game and children's' museum exhibit), and my first experience with it was back in 1997 or 1998, when Mom left a fake plastic vomit on my computer desk one morning (the GROSSOLOGY CD-ROM came with this, since she worked at Computer City at the time), and my grandma thought it was funny! But I never imagined that a decade later, this simple little book would later become Canada's answer to THE INCREDIBLES and KIM POSSIBLE!
In early June of this year, I was having a conversation on the phone with my older brother in Pennsylvania, who informed me of this series. I thought he was talking about the books or game, but he told me it was a Canadian cartoon series similar to THE INCREDIBLES (which I'm a big fan of), and was animated in Flash (it was actually done with Toon Boom Digital Pro, as I soon found out, and was done by the same team as another cool Canadian cartoon show, 6TEEN). He saw it on Discovery Kids (where it's airing here in the US; It airs on YTV in Canada) and he thought I would love it! I just had to check this out, so I sampled the episode "Fartzilla" (about a fart epidemic and a fart-powered robot dinosaur), and I was hooked! Not just by the wild action and the sick & twisted content, but the visual style and animation! I already love the colorful retro-style, and Faruk Cemalovic's character designs are excellent, on par with Stephen Silver's work. Abby Archer, the show's heroine, is my favorite character! (And one of my favorite cartoon girls!) Just plain pretty, and full of charm and appeal. Plus, Abby has flaws, unlike the politically correct cartoon heroines these days. The other characters, including Ty (Abby's brother), Lab Rat and the Director are superb, as are the villains (Lance Boil, the "Mojo Jojo" of this series, is my favorite)!
If you can get past the "gross" theme aimed at kids, adults, even cartoon buffs, will love the dynamic visual style. But for me, GROSSOLOGY is my favorite new cartoon series, right up there with THE POWERPUFF GIRLS and THE VENTURE BROS.! I highly recommend it!
Urutora sebun (1967)
The crowning achievement of the Ultra Series!
If I was asked who my favorite superhero was, along with Spider-Man, the Hulk and the Incredibles, it'd be Ultra Seven.
We know ULTRA Q and ULTRAMAN (both 1966) are tokusatsu sci-fi TV classics in Japan, but the very peak of Tsuburaya Productions' famed Ultra Series was reached with ULTRA SEVEN, which Japanese fans have, to this day, hailed as the all-time best Ultra Series, and for good reason! It is basically the JAPAN of Japan (long before shows like SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO/STAR BLAZERS). Even underneath the wild battles between the red & silver alien from M78 and his alien foes, this is a very serious and thought-provoking sci-fi drama. Especially in the human scenes, with our protagonists, the Ultra Garrison. This is a very different series from its aforementioned two predecessors. Later Ultra Series like ULTRAMAN TIGA and the more grown-up ULTRAMAN NEXUS would duplicate this formula.
Seven himself is different from Ultraman (who is a mysterious godlike being), as he's become the greatest archetype for the high-tech Japanese superhero. His powers/weapons are incredible (who *doesn't* love his flying boomerang-like Eyeslugger weapon?)! But underneath his cool exterior, he has even more heart, personality and depth than his famous predecessor. And the transformation from Dan Moroboshi (Kouji Moritsugu) to Ultra Seven, each time he puts on the "Ultra Eye" glasses, is without a doubt my favorite Japanese superhero transformation ever. I would also say that Ultra Seven is technically more like Japan's answer to Superman than Ultraman (who is more like the Green Lantern), only "Clark Kent" *puts on* his glasses to become Superman!
The Ultra Garrison's not half-bad either. Very different from the Science Patrol from Ultraman. The team uniforms (helmets, jumpsuits and rayguns) are memorable, so much that they have become pretty much the template for the defense forces in all future Ultra Series (and few of the series would copy them closely, like the 1979 anime series THE ULTRAMAN). And the mecha is awesome. I really love the Ultra Hawk, which splits into three different jet vehicles (ULTRAMAN DYNA had something like this, too)! Of course, just like in ULTRAMAN, the team members have similar personalities, but Dan Moroboshi (Seven's human alter-ego) is a different person from ULTRAMAN's Hayata. He's still a tough member, but he's also very considerate. And even in human form, he's well equipped to fight alien invaders, from having X-ray vision/telepathy to being equipped with miniature "Capsule Monsters" (Windom, Miclas and Agira), which are like tiny capsules that, when thrown like a grenade, explode and transform into giant monsters (and Dan can call it back into a capsule any time). I wonder which two anime series did *this* later on . . .
The music score and theme song, composed by the great Tooru Fuyuki (who would compose for many future Ultra Series and other Tsuburaya shows) are absolute classic, and one of the best soundtracks ever. Quite a different case from Kunio Miyauchi's jazzy score for ULTRAMAN, Fuyuki's orchestral score for this series evokes more power, ranging from neo-classical to avant-garde. The "Song of Ultra Seven" theme song is one of the best superhero theme songs ever. In a way, this score recalls Barry Gray's famous music for many of Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's "Supermarionation" shows (like THUNDERBIRDS and CAPTAIN SCARLET).
And, of course, there's the bizarre and imaginative alien & space monster threats! Some of my favorites include Eleking (a fan-favorite), Dankan, the Guts-Seijin and Seven's final foe, Pandon.
Sadly, this was also the final Ultra Series by creator Eiji Tsuburaya, who originally wanted this to be the final Ultra Series. (And the heart-rending farewell finale couldn't have emphasized it more!) Due to this series' unbelievable popularity, a new Ultra Series was planned in late 1969 (ULTRAMAN CONTINUES), but Eiji died (in 1970) before production began. The said project later became RETURN OF ULTRAMAN in 1971, when Eiji's first son Hajime Tsuburaya took over the studio (until his untimely death in 1973). But needless to say, Seven himself (and his alter-ego Dan) continues to make appearances in future Ultra Series, and due to fan response, got some TV specials and direct-to-DVD series.
This series was originally seen in the US in Hawaii in 1975 (the dub of which is now lost, but two episodes still remain), and on TNT in 1994 (from a somewhat comically-dubbed 1985 dub by Cinar in Canada), but ULTRA SEVEN is a series that truly deserves the same revisiting as ULTRAMAN in the US. If fans of Japanese pop-culture know what's good for them, they must watch ULTRA SEVEN! Disregarding it is like sci-fi fans disregarding, say, STAR TREK or DOCTOR WHO.
No more words need to be said, ULTRA SEVEN is a true Japanese sci-fi classic. But to quote LeVar Burton, "You don't have to take my word for it."
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1948)
Rudolph without the excess baggage.
Before people get the wrong idea, I absolutely love the 1964 Rankin-Bass special (I happen to be a Rankin-Bass fan, too; MAD MONSTER PARTY is my other favorite), but if one should be virtually faithful to the the source material by Robert May and Johnny Marks, then look no further than this animated short by Max Fleischer! You can't get any better than the Fleischer brothers (Max or Dave), so this classic short should never be forgotten. The animation is just as good as their famous Superman shorts. The story is much simpler, without any excess supporting characters to steal the show. Rudolph and Santa Claus share the full spotlight, and I couldn't have it any other way. It's a bit unfair to compare the two versions, I know. But if you think about it, this is just about as faithful to the source material as you could get. Plus, Rudolph looks adorable, as he should.
As for the plot, well, sing that famous song and you have it all in a nutshell!
While it won't be officially available as of this writing, your best bet is to look for some cheap Christmas-themed public domain DVDs which should include this short. I recommend it! It should make a great companion to the 1964 special, especially for historical reasons.
Chôhen kaijû eiga: Urutoraman (1967)
Entertaining feature compilation of the classic tokusatsu show!
Most comments here seem to be confusing this movie with the TV series it was based on. This IMDb entry is for the 1967 compilation movie, which I'll review right now . . .
CHOUHEN KAIJUU EIGA: URUTORAMAN (TOP COMPILATION MONSTER MOVIE: ULTRAMAN) is a feature-length compilation of the 1966 Tsuburaya Productions TV series, ULTRAMAN: SPECIAL EFFECTS FANTASY SERIES (URUTORAMAN: KUUSOU TOKUSATSU SHIRIIZU), and is distributed by Toho Company Ltd. (it was paired with their then-latest tokusatsu movie KING KONG ESCAPES). This is one of the few times the Toho logo ever had its own fanfare at the beginning. The movie uses the same exact type of opening credits as its small screen counterpart.
The episodes used for this film are Episode 1 ("Ultra Operation No. 1"), which features Bemular, Episode 8 ("The Lawless Monster Zone") featuring Red King, Chandrah, Maglar and the Sufran plant, and the two-parter Episodes 26 & 27 ("His Monster Majesty") featuring Gomora (and the Sufran plant again). The choice of episodes used for this film is quite good, and makes for a very entertaining film (especially since I really like both Red King and Gomora; I have Bandai's big toys of them!). Fans of Toho's kaijuu eiga (monster movies) will especially love this, as the special effects and action are crazy, colorful and pack lots of punch! Eiji Tsuburaya and his talented crew can truly entertain audiences with ULTRAMAN, no matter what size the screen is.
Unfortunately, the fight scene between Ultraman and Bemular for Episode 1 was notably omitted, probably for time (the Science Patrol destroyed Bemular quite easily, using a new shot of a red explosion over the lake). Also, the ending doesn't have much of a resolution and is somewhat abrupt. These are the weakest parts of an otherwise entertaining and action-packed movie! Highly recommended!
Hanuman pob Jed Yodmanud (1974)
An Ultra-fan's nightmare
Having seen the Thai version of this complex stinker, about the only good thing about THE 6 ULTRA BROTHERS VS. THE MONSTER ARMY (Thai title: HANUMAN AND THE 7 ULTRAMEN) is the FX (directed by veteran Kazuo Sagawa) and monster/superhero action. But overall, as an Ultra-fan, I have to say that this is, by far, the worst, weakest Ultraman film EVER! If people hate GODZILLA VS. MEGALON so much, THE 6 ULTRA BROTHERS VS. THE MONSTER ARMY makes it look like Oscar-winning material.
The Hindu monkey-god Hanuman takes center stage in this film, so I think this film would've made a better solo vehicle for Hanuman. Otherwise the Ultra Brothers themselves (Ultraman, Zoffy, Ultra Seven, New Ultraman/Jack, Ultraman Ace and Ultraman Tarou) are just glorified henchmen for Hanuman, and they don't get as much screen time until the climactic 30 minutes. Also, the Ultra Brothers and monster suits (the monsters were Gomora from ULTRAMAN, Dustpan from MIRRORMAN, and Astromons, Tyranto and Dorobon from ULTRAMAN TAROU) were in pretty funky condition. Also, the story has no coherence and structure whatsoever. Everything is thrown around carelessly, especially music from ULTRAMAN and ULTRA SEVEN, which make up the majority of the film's underscore. (The Japanese version of this film had a new theme song sung by Isao Sasaki and the Columbia Cradle Club; It's one of the other good things about this film.)
Japan's Tsuburaya Productions, the creators of Ultraman, co-produced this film with the now-infamous Chaiyo Productions in Thailand, which not only co-produced another film the same year (JUMBORG ACE & GIANT), but its founder/president Sompote "Sands" Saengduenchai would later try to basically steal the Ultraman copyright from Tsuburaya Productions using a forged document supposedly by Eiji Tsuburaya's late second son Noboru Tsuburaya (who produced this film), resulting in a bitter ongoing court battle since 1996. As of this writing, up to early 2004, Tsuburaya has won all court appeals but one (Chaiyo won merchandising rights outside Japan to the first 6 shows, ULTRA Q through TAROU, and JUMBORG ACE), and contrary to false news reports in the English-language Thai media, Tsuburaya continues to take legal action against Chaiyo.
But if this is how Chaiyo wants to make Ultraman movies and shows, then it will be a nightmare for Ultra-fans. (And if you thought this movie was bad, the promos for their illegal MILLENNIUM ULTRAMAN stage show are even worse!)
Ultra-fans, watch this film at your own risk.
Mekagojira no gyakushû (1975)
A poignant farewell to the old school Godzilla.
It's great to review a movie that's as old as I am (only 6 months *older* than I am). :) TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA, the sequel to GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA, was released in Japan 30 years ago today. I've had a lot of fond memories about this, the film that closed the original Godzilla film series, when a dark time was looming over Japanese pop culture (the collapse of the Japanese film industry, the Energy Crisis, etc.), and it all went to hell when STAR WARS came along (and don't get me wrong, I still love STAR WARS, at least the first three films).
I have to admit, from a depressing time when Godzilla's popularity declined and the budgets were slipping with each film, the production values were not bad. The return of Ishirou Honda (directing his last Godzilla film) surprisingly brought some serious power back into the genre. Teruyoshi Nakano's FX still put in a very strong performance, especially the scene where Mechagodzilla and new monster Titanosaurus rampage a very nicely built miniature Tokyo set. Plenty of powerful pyrotechnics abound! And the action was really fast & furious, while still superhero styled like other films in that decade. Yukiko Takayama, this film's screenwriter, was one of the few female Godzilla writers (the other being SON OF GODZILLA co-writer Kazue Shiba), and turned up a very strong story! And Akira Ifukube turns up what I thought was his last best Godzilla score, not counting his excellent GODZILLA FANTASIA concerto! His score for the Heisei Series was good, very powerful, but slow and sometimes repetitious (and I worried for him, considering his old age). The cast turns in a serviceable performance, and the monster action is great! And I wish I could say more, but IMDb wouldn't give me any more room on this review for commentary on this film's many aspects! :)
This film, sadly, was a failure at the Japanese box-office, and also the Godzilla film with the lowest attendance figures in history. After this film's release, there have been many rumors and proposed projects that had collapsed, even Toho's attempted US co-productions (including GODZILLA LIVES AGAIN or THE RESURRECTION OF GODZILLA, GODZILLA VS. THE DEVIL, GODZILLA VS. THE GARGANTUA, etc. etc.) before Toho finally brought Godzilla back 9 years later (after very successful film festivals), with mixed results. TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA was destined to be Godzilla's poignant swan song until then.
What's even more poignant is the treatment this film got in America. Toho's international English print is the root here: Initially brought to the US for a very limited theatrical release by Bob Conn in 1978 as THE TERROR OF GODZILLA, it was very badly cut and edited to the point where some scenes don't even make sense! An infinitely superior version, United Pictures of America (UPA)'s 1979 TV version, Terror of Mechagodzilla premiered, and not only was it completely uncut (except for the aforementioned "breast" scene), but as a treat, a cool 6 minute prologue with narration was added! The prologue consisted of footage from MONSTER ZERO and GODZILLA'S REVENGE (the only other Godzilla films UPA had the rights to), and interestingly, this prologue made it seem like this was a sequel to MONSTER ZERO (as though the X-Xians were somehow behind the whole Mechagodzilla scheme), and although it really wasn't, I thought it was a really nice touch! I've often seen it on ABC's 4:30 MOVIE in my youth. Unfortunately, this version is now lost. The last time I saw this version was on Easter Weekend of 1986, on NY's WNEW/WNYW Channel 5 (a year before it became a Fox affiliate). Now, America is stuck with the ultra-sucky TERROR OF GODZILLA version. You ain't seen Nothing' until you see the Japanese version (with subs), the uncut international English version, or the old UPA version, which I still remember nostalgically and sentimentally! Stay far away from Bob Conn's castrated version.
I love the new series of films Toho did (from 1999-2004), but for me, TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA is, deep down, the last Godzilla film. As much as I appreciate the original evil Godzilla, this was the last film with the *heroic* Godzilla (which GODZILLA 2000 and GODZILLA FINAL WARS recaptured for me), the Godzilla I grew up with from my childhood. And in more ways than one, this film (like DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, Eiji Tsuburaya's last Godzilla film) was the tearful end of an era, reflected in the film's poignant final shot of Godzilla swimming away into the sunlit ocean one last time.
Gojira tai Megaro (1973)
My personal favorite Godzilla film!
Even though the original 1954 GODZILLA is an undeniable masterpiece, this film is my personal favorite Godzilla film! :)
I hold GODZILLA VS. MEGALON with aesthetic and sentimental value, not only because it was the first Godzilla movie I ever saw, but the very first movie Mom and the rest of my family took me to see! I had very hazy memories of being taken into the movie theater with lots of people, and I really enjoyed and cheered at seeing Godzilla and his super-robot pal Jet Jaguar fight with Megalon and Gigan on the screen.
But the ironic thing is that many fans considered this to be the worst Godzilla movie ever. They have a right to consider things that way, and I appreciate that this movie is not held in the highest regard in the Godzilla canon, but that doesn't change my opinion on it.
Many fans bitterly disliked the very idea of Godzilla teaming up with a superhero; In this case, the super-robot Jet Jaguar, who can change size. Jet Jaguar resembles both an Ultraman-style superhero (SPECTREMAN, JUMBORG ACE, etc.) and an anime super-robot from the 70s like MAZINGER Z (which was a huge success at the time), GETTER ROBO and other anime robots that got featured in Mattel's Shogun Warriors toy collection from the 70s (which also featured Godzilla and Rodan)! When I was a kid, I actually thought Jet Jaguar was a Shogun Warrior! Like the Shogun Warriors, Jet Jaguar was a major influence in my life - he got me into Japanese superheroes! He did the same "henshin" poses that many Japanese superheroes of the 70s (started by the famous KAMEN [MASKED] RIDER), and I later saw Shaw Brothers' KAMEN RIDER-influenced Hong Kong superhero spectacular, THE SUPER INFRAMAN (or just INFRA-MAN in the US), and I later became aware of Ultraman, Kamen Rider and many other superheroes later on. So for me, GODZILLA VS. MEGALON was the best of both worlds! I really loved the idea of Godzilla teaming up with a super-robot, and the two handshakes they did in the film are heartwarming, IMHO.
Besides Jet Jaguar, this film features a new Godzilla suit (Haruo Nakajima had just retired after GODZILLA VS. GIGAN, even though he tried on the new suit in behind the scenes films), and it has got to be the cutest Godzilla ever! I mean, just look at that puppy-dog face! It's like a demonic charcoal-gray Snoopy as if designed by Gou Nagai! It's one of my personal favorite suit designs. Megalon was a really cool monster! A flying rhino-beetle with drill arms! He shoots napalm grenades out of his mouth and also shoots electric beams from his horn (and when he does, it sometimes cuts to stock footage of King Ghidorah's Gravity Beams)! Gigan is back, though the costume is different from the one previously used in GODZILLA VS. GIGAN. The blue-green color is darker, and he looks somewhat thinner.
The special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano (who I had the pleasure of meeting at Asian Fantasy Film Expo 2002) are still really cool. The dam sequence with Megalon is praiseworthy! The rest is slam-bang action, on the same notch as any giant superhero show from the same period, even though Jet Jaguar doesn't shoot any beams! But if people hate Nakano's FX and slam them for being cheap, the ironic thing is that the effects took 6 months to complete! Riichirou Manabe's music score is much cheerier and more upbeat than his dark GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH score. His Godzilla theme music (the same as the one in Hedorah) is much tougher and less droopy than last time! The Seatopia music is pretty eerie and avant-garde, almost like Karlheinz Stockhausen music! The rest is groovy 70s music (flutes, guitar, banjo, horns, etc.), but another highlight is the theme song, "With Godzilla and Jet Jaguar, Punch Punch Punch!" ("Gojira to Jetto Jagaa de Panchi Panchi Panchi!"), which was sung by my favorite Japanese singer, Masato Shimon, who not only sang tons of tokusatsu and anime theme songs since the 70s, but also sang some Godzilla tie-in albums! If you liked the song, I recommend the full record version (in stereo)! That one is totally more upbeat and just rocks! It's also one of my favorite Shimon songs!
The cast is quite different and unusual from any Godzilla film made before or since. In this one case, there are no females among the lead characters (unless you count the Seatopian dancers), but they are still likable in that bizarre sort of way (and you can tell that this end of the production was rushed)! Katsuhiko Sasaki (who's new to the series, but his father Minoru Chiaki played pilot Kouji Kobayashi in GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN) plays inventor Gorou Ibuki, who invents Jet Jaguar. His kid brother Rokuro (nicknamed "Roku-chan"), for children to identify with, is played by Hiroyuki Kawase (who played Ken Yano in GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH two years earlier) wearing a red Snoopy sweater (yep, there I go with the Snoopy thing again)! Yutaka Hayashi (best known these days as a comical, fast-talking reporter in comedy and variety shows in Japan) plays the Ibuki siblings' hot-rodding friend Hiroshi Jinkawa, who gets into all the car-chases with the bad guys! Then, there's the late veteran Robert Dunham as Antonio, the Emperor of Seatopia, clad in a white toga and a tiara with Megalon's head on the center. Every time I think of Antonio and Seatopia, I keep thinking of Sean Connery's movie ZARDOZ (made the same year)! It must be the neo-Olympic/Greek style that Seatopia has. Rolf Jessup (who has appeared in some Japanese films) appears as his right-hand man radio operator in a white uniform. Koutarou Tomita plays the Seatopian agent dressed in black (and looks a lot like Alan Rickman's Snape character in the Harry Potter movies), backed by Wolf Ootsuki (who played the villain Professor Hassler in the Ishinomori/Toei TV series GIANT IRONMAN 1-7) playing agent dressed in brown. And Kanta Mori (who guest-starred as Professor Nakamura in Episode 10 of ULTRAMAN, which, ironically, guest-starred Godzilla as Jirass!) plays the JSDF General (every Godzilla movie's gotta' have 'em).
As for the plot, here's the breakdown: After underwater nuclear tests in the Pacific shake up many islands (including Monster Island), Emperor Antonio, the ruler of the undersea kingdom of Seatopia retaliates by sending their giant guardian beetle Megalon to destroy the surface world. He also dispatches two agents to steal the new super-robot Jet Jaguar from Professor Gorou Ibuki and his kid brother Rokurou (whom they also capture). They're being rescued by their friend Hiroshi Jinkawa, who goes through action-packed car-chases to rescue them, which he does. Once rescued, Gorou manages to regain control of Jet Jaguar, and sends him to Monster Island to call Godzilla for help. In response to this, Antonio calls for Star Hunter Nebula M to send Gigan to Earth to assist Megalon. Jet Jaguar grows to Godzilla-size and fights with Megalon, but Gigan finally comes and makes things hard for our robot hero. But Godzilla arrives in time to help Jet Jaguar beat Megalon and Gigan in a slam-bang tag-team monster match to save humankind . . .
I don't know about everyone else, but GODZILLA VS. MEGALON deserves more respect than it's getting in the US (In Japan, it's always been released with a beautifully restored widescreen print, regardless of what fans and others think). t has a very special place in my heart! I don't recommend it to the most serious Godzilla fans, but even some Godzilla fans still like it, if not love it. But if you like monsters, superheroes and robots, then I highly recommend GODZILLA VS. MEGALON! Still my favorite Godzilla film!
Gojira (1954)
The first and best of the films.
So this is where it all started!
Of course, as Godzilla is my all-time favorite character, I admit to being raised on the heavily edited US version starring Raymond Burr. But when viewing this film in its original form, it not only looks more like a Golden Age Toho fantasy as we all know it, but it's a very powerful masterpiece, as it stands in the history of world cinema. Here in 2004, 50 years ago today after its release, American audiences finally get to see the film in its entirety, thanks to its long-awaited subtitled theatrical release by Rialto Pictures.
Technically, Japanese monster movies began with the now-lost 1934 period fantasy, KING KONG HAS ARRIVED IN EDO (EDO NI ARAWARETA KINGU KONGU), which was obviously produced upon the success of the 1933 American classic, KING KONG. But it was GODZILLA (or GOJIRA as the Japanese call him) that truly made it over. Clearly inspired by the success of the 1953 hit, THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (released to Japan by Daiei early the same year), with a bit of KONG thrown in, Toho set out to make their own monster movie, not knowing that they would create a phenomenon that would last to this day!
What more can I say? This movie pretty much set the standard for Japanese monster movies as we all know! Watching the Japanese version is an amazing experience, and a hauntingly epic one!
The special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, as low-tech as they were, had minor flaws (notably visible wires and missiles shooting against a background), but even for a first try in the monster genre, they still looked spectacular, as is the photography! Even though the effects work improved in future films, this is still the landmark of things to come.
The music by Akira Ifukube is memorable. From his stirring main title music, to Godzilla's destructive, ponderous theme music, to the poignant ending. Again, Ifukube's work for this film sets the standard for his work in the fantasy film genre.
The main cast is top-notch, as you'd expect. Akira Takarada (20 at the time) stars as salvage officer Hideto Ogata, the main character. Veteran actor Takashi Shimura plays Dr. Kyouhei Yamane, the eccentric paleontologist, who serves as the Godzilla-expert. Momoko Kouchi plays Yamane's daughter Emiko, who's in love with Ogata. But the best character by far (and my all-time favorite human character in a Godzilla film) is the tormented, eyepatch-clad scientist Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, played by Akihiko Hirata. When watching the Japanese version, other supporting characters share the spotlight, especially the newspaper reporter Hagiwara (Sachio Sakai), radiologist Tanabe (Fuyuki Murakami), the Ooto Island fisherman Masaji (Ren Yamamoto) and his younger brother Shinkichi (Toyoaki Suzuki). They just come off as mere background characters in the US version, but if you watch the Japanese original, you'll be totally surprised. Their performances were really dazzling, just like you'd expect from actors in a Toho fantasy film. Some of these actors would appear in future Godzilla films, as well as other SPFX fantasies from Toho.
Compared to other incarnations, this film (as well as GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN) had the creepiest Godzilla ever, and that was just the way he was supposed to be! Almost like a black silhouette with bright, white staring eyes. Godzilla was not just a mere animal, he was basically a modern god! A raging, destructive demon with the power of the hydrogen bomb that affected him. Although Godzilla is inspired by the Rhedosaurus from BEAST, he was a completely different entity. He was virtually indestructible, and had an awesome power - a white-hot atomic breath! Godzilla became the archetype for many Japanese giant monsters to follow.
But exactly what is Godzilla? As explained in this film (it's explained better in the Japanese version), he's a huge amphibious bipedal dinosaur that lives in caverns under the sea, feeding off of smaller sea animals. He was feared as a "god" on Ooto Island, and many young virgin women were sacrificed to him to appease his hunger. Hydrogen bomb tests affected his habitat, giving him unbelievable radioactive power & strength (and a towering size of 50 meters, 164 feet). And a sleeping giant was awakened . . .
Makes you think more about those nuclear tests, doesn't it?
Lastly, while the Japanese original played out more smoothly, the American version starring Raymond Burr (of PERRY MASON fame) as the visiting American reporter Steve Martin (not to be confused with the famous comedian!) is still very effective. The epic scale of the original still manages to shine through what the US producers could allow, and Burr (who was hired for a whole day for filming the added scenes) still did a serviceable job. American fans of the original version can at least be thankful for this US version, without which America could not accept Godzilla.
As for the movie's story, I'd rather not go into it in detail. If you haven't seen it, please do so! Be it the original Japanese version (which I recommend the most, especially subtitled), or the edited US version!
Here's to 50 years of a classic movie, and a classic character I will love forever!
The Fairly OddParents: Channel Chasers (2003)
Surprisingly the darkest FAIRLY ODDPARENTS episode/movie ever!
Since I had to go to Borders on the night this special premiered, I first only saw the first 3-5 minutes of THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS: CHANNEL CHASERS (the second 90-minute TV movie, the first being ABRA-CATASTROPHE), and was forced to leave my VCR taping the rest. Upon my return home, I watched the rest of the film.
My review?
[long, amazed pause]
WOW! This is quite possibly the darkest FOP movie/episode ever! It's also incredibly poignant, especially in the conclusion (which, of course, I won't give away, save that it ambiguously had the feel of a "final episode")! But that doesn't stop the usual FOP wackiness, and there's TONS of references to TV shows, especially tokusatsu and anime (look carefully for an SD version of Masked [Kamen] Rider V3 while Timmy flips channels to scroll through the characters on his favorite program)! Look for hilarious parodies of A CHARLIE BROWN CHIRSTMAS, SESAME STREET, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER and SPEED RACER, to name just a few! But this is somewhat different from the average, even the best FOP episode/special!
The plot: 20 years into future, Chester and AJ (now macho grown-ups) are chased through Dimmsdale (now a dystopia) by a ruthless masked ninja spy (volced by Alec Baldwin, who did a good job!), who works for the evil dictator Vicky (yep, Timmy Turner's evil babysitter!). With the two men captured, Vicky sends the spy to the present, using a time-traveling device, to destroy Timmy Turner. But things take a turn for the worst when a popular new anime program called MAHOMUSHI (Japanese for "magic bugs"; Should be "Mahoumushi") influences kids to behave violently (a parody of the infamous POKEMON "epileptic seizure" incident in Japan), especially Timmy, whose reenacting the program with his fairy godparents Cosmo and Wanda destroy his parents' jobs! They ground him, and leave him with Vicky (as usual), but this is where things really start to go bottom-of-the-barrel for poor Timmy! When he wishes for a TV set in his room, Vicky finds out about this and frames Timmy by destroying much of the house. To get away from his troubles, Timmy wishes for a magic remote control, and he, Cosmo and Wanda have fun actually traveling through the TV universe, living his favorite TV shows! Meanwhile, the spy from the future spies on Timmy as the return of his enraged parents (thanks to Vicky) forces him to return to the real world for a while, and inadvertently takes with him a super-weapon (from a JONNY QUEST-type show), which Timmy accidentally destroys his roof with! With Timmy in serious trouble, his parents snatch his magic remote control from him, and give it to Vicky, who leaves the room. His parents leave also, not believing Timmy that "Vicky is evil!" Timmy becomes bitterly cynical of his parents and all adults (and possibly even of himself, as he, Cosmo and Wanda reflect on the tragic truth about kids forsaking their fairy godparents when they get older), and when wishing for a new magic remote control, the misanthropic Timmy runs away into the TV universe with his fairy godparents, and the mysterious spy follows suit. But while Timmy, Cosmo and Wanda are surfing through their favorite shows trying to evade the spy (who eventually reveals a shocking secret), Vicky begins to discover the power of the other magic remote control in her custody, and all hell breaks loose! Will Timmy avert this ominous crisis, which could affect even the real world?
Overall, this special is just as good as, perhaps even better than the wonderful ABRA-CATASTROPHE. The subplot with the other regular characters is very intriguing, and the chase through the TV universe is a real laugh-riot, as it should be! But you won't come out feeling the same way you do with FOP when this movie is finished. The surprisingly dark & depressing undertones make this special a real standout! Sort of like the mega-depressing A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN (the ultimate of the four Peanuts movies), except with a happy yet poignant ending. This special is still highly recommendable!
The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour (2004)
2D and 3D switch places in this hilarious pairing of FAIRLY ODDPARENTS and JIMMY NEUTRON!
Since I'm a big fan of both Nickelodeon shows FAIRLY ODDPARENTS and JIMMY NEUTRON, I was anxious to hear that a special was in the works pairing the two show's universes together! Having talked with JN creator John A. Davis (who, like me, is a big Godzilla fan), he told me that I would really love the special, and that it was "really freaky!"
I watched it on the night of its premiere (May 7th), and I thought it really rocked! I consider this to be just as great as the FOP movie, ABRA CATASTROPHE! This was a really wild and entertaining special. FOP and JN were two shows worthy of being connected (and had Cartoon Network allowed it, I would love to see FOP crossed over with another favorite show, THE POWERPUFF GIRLS!).
In this special, the two shows' main characters, Timmy Turner and Jimmy Neutron, switch places and end up in each others' universe, with Timmy rendered in 3D, and Jimmy in 2D! In many other reviews, I hear people complaining about how creepy Timmy looked in 3D, but to be perfectly honest, I thought he looked absolutely adorable! And O/DNA Productions did an excellent job realizing the 2D Timmy into 3D! (Kinda' makes you wonder what would happen if FOP were completely converted into 3D) Jimmy, meanwhile, is rendered into FOP creator Butch Hartman's wild & wacky 2D style! And the result is as funny as you'd expect FOP to be. When Jimmy becomes aware of his proportions in the FOP universe, the staff really pokes fun at 2D in a hilarious way that doesn't take itself too seriously (unless maybe you're a die-hard 2D fan)! But this proves that even with the advent of 3D, 2D certainly isn't going away forever.
Other things I liked were Timmy's romance with Jimmy's friend/rival Cindy Vortex (much to the disgust of Jimmy's best friends Sheen Estabez and Carl Wheezer, and Cindy's friend Libby Fallfax). Those two were meant for each other (although I still like Timmy's other love interests, like Tootie, Veronica and Trixie Tang). And Timmy's friends/enemies actually mistake Jimmy for Timmy (which I'll go more into in the plot summary)! Jimmy's pet robot dog Goddard turns into a giant killer robot that looks like the 1993 version of Mechagodzilla! The story is definitely loaded with references to both shows! Oh, did I mention that Cosmo and Wanda are still as silly as ever?
And now, the plot: Timmy Turner has to compete in the Dimmsdale Science Fair at school, but he never did his own project, and the most likely winner is his pal AJ Ibrahim (who, oddly, is really cruel to Timmy in this special)! Timmy is tired of being a slacker playing video games, so with the help of his wacky Fairy Godparents Cosmo and Wanda, he wishes himself into "the greatest lab in the universe," (while both fairies go to Hawaii) and guess where he ends up! In Retroville! And in 3D, no less! He plays around in the secret lab of Jimmy Neutron, who is at work upgrading his robot dog Goddard with a CD-ROM program he did. He finds Timmy, and the two have an argument, in which Timmy gets distracted, and Jimmy finds his "Poofer Pen," which Cosmo and Wanda gave to Timmy to "poof" him back into his room, which is exactly what Jimmy does, and in *2D* no less! Looking around, Timmy mistakes the upgrading Goddard for a game system, and replaces the upgrade CD with a disc of his favorite game, "Decimator." He then meets Carl and Sheen, who mistake him for a "Small Headed Jimmy," and have fun with Jimmy's inventions (and even hypnotize Jimmy's mother Judy into thinking she's Timmy's Mom's alter-ego, Mighty Mom!). And he runs into Libby and Cindy, the latter falls madly in love with Timmy and vice versa! But at the same time, Goddard turns into a rampaging robot (the Decimator from Timmy's game disc) that increases in size each time it defeats the nearest "player" it finds (including Jimmy's dad Hugh)! Can Timmy, Cindy and the others defeat the Decimator before it destroys Retroville?
And meanwhile, over over at Dimmsdale, the now-2D Jimmy is freaked out over his new surroundings, and Cosmo & Wanda, back from Hawaii, greet him with panic! To their relief, Jimmy mistakes the fairies for "computer programs," and goes through the same everyday pain that poor Timmy experiences (while Timmy is blissfully having the time of his life over at Retroville). All of Timmy's friends & foes (even AJ) mistake Jimmy for Timmy (because of one of Timmy's rare tendencies to evade school by playing other characters), even his crazed, evil teacher Mr. Denzel Crocker (who wants to discover fairies so that he can take over the world, as usual)! But when Jimmy unwittingly shows off Timmy's Poofer Pen in class, the insane Mr. Crocker suspects him, and even plots to invade Fairy World via Timmy's Poofer! Will Mr. Crocker carry out his evil scheme?
And will Timmy and Jimmy make it back to each other's worlds?
I won't spoil it for you! You've got to WATCH the special for the answer (It's readily available on DVD, 3 days after its TV premiere)! And the ending is really cool!
In summary, this special rocks! An hour's worth of fast-paced fun and excitement!
Gojira Mosura Kingu Gidora Daikaijû sôkôgeki (2001)
As tough as Godzilla movies come!
As you can tell, I have a LOT to say about this movie! But I got such a headache from writing such a lengthy review that I was also afraid that it would be too much even for IMDB to handle! But let me start by saying that GODZILLA, MOTHRA AND KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK (or GMK for short) is perhaps the BEST Godzilla movie yet, a return to the glory days of the 50s and 60s, and my personal favorite besides GODZILLA VS. GIGAN and GODZILLA VS. MEGALON!
I met the film's director, Shuusuke Kaneko, at Asian Fantasy Film Expo 2002 in New Jersey, so you know part of why this film means so much to me. Kaneko, a lifelong Godzilla fan, is a true genius when it comes to giant monster films, as shown in his wonderful Heisei Gamera film trilogy (GAMERA: GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE, GAMERA 2: THE ADVENT OF LEGION and GAMERA 3: THE AWAKENING OF IRYS, the latter, which I saw at AFFE 2002, is without a doubt the best Japanese monster film ever)! He also knows what truly made Godzilla so famous, even if some fans (both Japanese and American) take it for granted, that Godzilla is best known as an invincible, unstoppable villain (just like in the first four films), which caused a huge controversy amongst many fans when this film was made (they're still too used to the "sympathetic" Godzilla established in 1984, which was a lame cop-out on his supposedly "evil" character). Although I still love and grew up with the "good guy" Godzilla from the later classic films, I have come to appreciate the original evil Godzilla, as long as it was done right! And Kaneko really pulled it off, creating the best, coolest evil Godzilla since the films up to 1964 (even KISS' Gene Simmons, a Godzilla fan, should be really proud of this one)! He truly put Godzilla back to being the FOLLY OF MAN! Not the other way around (which the 1984 version officially mandated for all Godzilla films up until this one)!
Kaneko showed executive producer Shougo Tomiyama a story he did some time before scripting began, and it was called VARAN, BARAGON, ANGILAS: GIANT MONSTERS' ALL OUT ATTACK - GODZILLA 2002. The script was accepted, but not without some changes. The Toho suits told Tomiyama to tell Kaneko to lose the classic Toho monsters Angilas and Varan, as they were not bankable characters, so the suits wanted him to add the more popular King Ghidorah and Mothra along with Baragon. For 15 minutes, Kaneko sat in the studio in stunned silence, saying to himself, "How am I going to do this!?" Sure enough, he cleverly worked the two monsters into the picture, but he knew that it was going to cause a clamor amongst the fans. Nevertheless, not only did this have the biggest budget of the films, but also a more excruciating shooting schedule, (Toho's mandatory shooting schedule for a Godzilla film is one year; In fact 4-5 months, tops), which Kaneko and his talented crew made the best of. They worked around the clock to get this film done!
And the end result is a Godzilla movie like you've never seen before! As I mentioned before, GAMERA 3 is still the best Japanese monster movie ever, but when it comes to Godzilla films, GMK is as tough as they come! This film is definitely Kaneko's labor of love.
The story has very edgy parallels to the original 1954 GODZILLA, such as his destroying a ship, his attacking a hospital (in a scene comparable to the fate of Ren Yamamoto's "Masaji" character from the 1954 film), his appearance over a mountain (a tribute to his entrance in the first film), his destroying Yokohama, and the twist & turn climax, which was the most inspired since the first film. But in light of all this, Kaneko excellently emulated the original Godzilla, moreso than anyone in the past 17 years! And it also made more sense to add mysterious fantasy elements into the story, because Kaneko thought that there was no way you could "realistically" explain a radioactive dinosaur monster ("It would've made more sense if the monster were 15 or 20 feet tall," he said in an interview). The resulting statements in GMK are spiritual as well as socio-political. Although King Ghidorah and Mothra are clearly not fit for the story, Baragon was excellently portrayed, and manages to evoke sympathy from the audience! Despite Baragon's fighting spirit, Godzilla was pretty brutal on him! In fact, he was brutal to even Mothra and King Ghidorah, who have their own shining moments in the film also! The rest of the story is very intriguing and the pacing is fast. But much like the last two films, some things are not spelled out to the viewer in an obvious way, so to actually grasp the film, one has to see it more than once.
There's also a hilarious jab at GINO (Godzilla In Name Only; What we fans call the American Godzilla fiasco from 1998) at the beginning, when Admiral Tachibana (Ryuudou Uzaki) lectures his soldiers at a meeting. And there's tons of dark humor abound, especially a "real world" reaction to Godzilla, which really works! They sort of remind me of situations in Matt Groening's THE SIMPSONS and FUTURAMA! One of the coolest and funniest is when a man tells people to evacuate from a shopping plaza because Godzilla was approaching. One middle-aged woman was annoyed, barking "Why . . . What's the big deal with Godzilla anyway!?" It took one earth-shaking footstep to convince her! In another scene, Baragon runs amok on a mountain resort, and among the tourists seeing Baragon from afar, a woman thinks the monster looks "frightening but cute," and her husband takes a picture of her next to the scenery just before she reacts to something behind him . . . It must be seen to be believed!
The music by Kou Ootani (composer of the Heisei Gamera trilogy) is totally unlike any previous Godzilla score. It's more new-age/electronic than your traditional orchestral stuff (definitely a first). In fact, it's a MIXTURE between electronic and orchestral music! Some were reminded of either John Carpenter's stuff, or Michael Boddicker's score for THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI. But definitely a great score! Then, you have Toho providing the usual stock Akira Ifukube music track to let us know that this is a Godzilla film, but this film probably has the best use of it! The stock tracks were used in the right place.
The special effects are probably the best in a Godzilla film since Teruyoshi Nakano's breathtaking work in the 1984 GODZILLA. Special effects director Makoto Kamiya, who was Shinji Higuchi's assistant in GAMERA 3, makes his SPFX directorial debut here, and his work is mind-blowing! Director Kaneko is another one to thank, as he was there to consult with Kamiya on how the FX would look, so that they mix perfectly with the human scenes! Truly a first, as traditionally, all previous Godzilla films had the principal & SPFX directors work separately, which made the human and SPFX scenes too distant. The suitmation work here is great, and the CGI work is excellent (look for the scenes where Mothra hatches from her cocoon, where King Ghidorah rises over the city and spreads his wings, and where Godzilla swims underwater!).
Godzilla has never looked so alive, and tall! In fact, he's the biggest monster in the whole movie (60 meters)! Played by Mizuho Yoshida (who also played the title creature in Keita Amemiya's ZEIRAM films), this is the biggest Godzilla suit, measuring at around 7 feet! And amazingly, Yoshida put Godzilla in amazing poses people thought impossible to do in a Godzilla suit! He looks much more flexible than in the later films of the 2nd movie series (particularly from GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA '93 to GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH, where Godzilla not only looked way too fat, but also way too stiff)! The suit's head can also turn over the shoulder! Godzilla also has the most facial expressions in this film, and you don't know whether they're animatronic or computer-enhanced! Here, Godzilla has a muscular dinosaur-like physique, has white eyes that give him an evil look, and not only is his skin clearly charcoal-gray, but he also has his original white fins (though slightly smaller)! Godzilla's Radioactive Heat Beam is back to blue, and when he uses it, watch out!!!
Baragon is another highlight! Though he only appeared in two movies; FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD and briefly in DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, the subterranean monster Baragon is amongst the popular Toho Monsters, and his return in GMK is worth the long wait! The suit was brilliantly crafted, and every bit as alive-looking and flexible as Godzilla! Every time it stopped to do a thunderous roar, it just looked cute (Then again, all of the monsters had a certain cuteness in GMK, even Godzilla, in a kind of Jim Henson-esque sort of way)! This is the first time a Toho Monster is played by a woman. Rie Oota, making her debut in this film, has done suit work before in shows and stuff. She played Baragon remarkably! Also, since four-legged monsters usually had to crawl on their knees, that was a no-no for GMK. Yes, Baragon had to walk on ALL FOURS! And he did.
And yes, King Ghidorah and Mothra were not originally intended to be in the story (blame Toho, not Kaneko!), but this film has the best incarnations of the two monsters ever put on film! Ghidorah actually LOOKS more like a dragon (get a load of those legs!) and can actually fold his wings back! Incidentally, Fuyuki Shinada, who designed all of the monsters, was disappointed that Varan wasn't going to be in the story (Varan was one of his favorite monsters), but cleverly compromised by giving Varan's facial features to King Ghidorah's three heads! Best of all, unlike the previous new films since 1991, Ghidorah got his electric organ-like cries back! And Mothra looks her best here, too! She appears briefly in her larva phase, but prominently appears in her moth form. Very beautiful and wasp-like, and much better than the toy-like kid-friendly versions from the previous Heisei-era films. Thanks to both a great prop and CGI, Mothra looks very flexible. She also has a neat new power of shooting stingers from her abdomen!
Last, but not least, the human characters are among the best in any Godzilla film to date. The film's hero, Admiral Tachibana (played by popular musician/actor Ryuudou Uzaki), is memorable. He looks reminiscent of Kenji Sahara, with the same intensity (even though Uzaki is actually very hip in real life). The beautiful Chiharu Niiyama plays Tachibana's daughter Yuri, a young TV reporter and the film's main character. Sure, she starts out as just another reporter out to make a buck, but she changes in the course of the film, searching for knowledge, and making awareness to the public. The father and daughter relationship is very touching, especially before Tachibana goes into battle against Godzilla. Shirou Sano (Miyasaka in GODZILLA 2000) makes his second appearance in a Godzilla film, playing Yuri's comical long-haired boss Haruki Kadokura, inspired by Ichirou Arishima's role as TV editor Tako in KING KONG VS. GODZILLA. In fact, Sano took his copy of that film to the studio and showed it to the cast & crew for inspiration! Masahiro Kobayashi plays Teruaki Takeda, one of Yuri's co-workers and a possible love interest. He sort of reminds me of Jeff Goldblum, and has an appealing everyman quality. The versatile Hideyo "Eisei" Amamoto (who sadly passed away earlier this year) plays his final role as the mysterious old man Isayama, and even in his old age, had the same charisma he did as Doctor Who in KING KONG ESCAPES and Dr. Shinigami in the original MASKED RIDER series! Very worthy for a final performance. Some of the members of Tachibana's military forces are familiar faces from Heisei Ultraman and Masked Rider shows such as Hiroyuki Watanabe (Commander Akio Ishimuro in ULTRAMAN GAIA), Toshikazu Fukawa (Super GUTS Member Koda in ULTRAMAN DYNA), and Shingo Katsurayama (Detective Ichijou in MASKED RIDER KUUGA). And the cameos! Boy, where do I start! Kouichi Ueda, who's appeared in every single Godzilla film since GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE, cameos as the headman of the village in Niigata. Tomoe Shinohara plays a doomed teenage girl with just the right feeling! Masaya Takahashi (who appeared in GOKE: BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL) plays an old bicycle shop owner, from whom Yuri buys a bicycle. Yukijirou Hotaru (from the ZEIRAM and Heisei Gamera trilogy) plays a pathetic businessman who tries to commit suicide, but instead inadvertently discovers King Ghidorah! Kazuko Katou (who played Jun's mother in GODZILLA X MEGAGUIRUS) is the schoolteacher who witnesses the awesome power of Godzilla's Radioactive Heat Beam in another must-see part! Aki and Ai Maeda (who played Ayana in GAMERA 3) play two teenage twin girls who witness Mothra flying over Yokohama (Fun Fact: Ai couldn't stand her cameo, because she thought she looked fat in that scene!). Also, look for Masaaki Tezuka (director of GODZILLA X MEGAGUIRUS and GODZILLA X MECHAGODZILLA) and Kouichi Kawakita (who directed FX for all of the Godzilla films from GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE to GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH and the first two films in the Mothra trilogy) as JSDF officers, and Takehiro Murata (Andou in GODZILLA VS. MOTRHA and Shinoda in GODZILLA 2000) as a fighter pilot who gets blasted by the Big G! And aside from countless others I just couldn't be able to list, I'll close the cast with cameos from the monster suit actors in the flesh! Mizuho Yoshida (Godzilla) is the pink-shirted man standing by Aki and Ai Maeda to the right just after Mothra flies over the city. And Rie Oota (Baragon) and Akira Oohashi (King Ghidorah) are two of the three people in the Yaizu Harbor office who witness Godzilla rising from the ocean (and run out of the office after Godzilla's roar shatters the glass windows).
The film did VERY good at the box office (it was at #2, right behind HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE), extra thanks to Toho's double-featuring it with the first Hamtaro movie (Toho distributes the Hamtaro movies)! Toho hadn't been focusing on their kid audience that well (a lot of kids in Japan didn't even know who Godzilla was!), so GMK was a great start!
*sigh* I've exhausted myself from writing this review. I'm so exhausted that I skipped the plot, and leave it to you to watch the film to get it. But all I have to say is to do yourself a favor and recommend this movie to your family and friends. And I prefer the Japanese version in subtitles (avoid the awful International dub seen on Sci-Fi Channel). Side by side with the original 1954 film (preferably the more moving Japanese version), GMK is a masterpiece, the ultimate Godzilla statement. Shuusuke Kaneko is truly the next Ishirou Honda!
PS: As I type this, the latest film, GODZILLA, MOTHRA, MECHAGODZILLA: TOKYO S.O.S., directed by Tezuka, just got released in Japan this weekend. I hear it was really good! And best of all, news is in of Toho's next Godzilla film, to celebrate the Big Guy's 50th Anniversary (tentatively titled THE GODZILLA)! Here's to you, Big G!
Supaidâman (1978)
Despite its shortcomings, a visually faithful version of the famous web-slinger!
Well, true-believers, here's a brief history on Spidey in Japan:
In 1970, a SPIDER-MAN manga appeared in Shounen Magazine, illustrated by famed manga artist Ryouichi Ikegami. It was pretty good, and very faithful to the original story by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, but that ends with the Mysterio story arc (previously, Electro, the Lizard and a wrestling villain called "Kangaroo" appeared). After that, it becomes an artsy-fartsy mess that focuses less on Spidey and more on crime, violence, romance, rape, lust and stuff like that. One gets the feeling that Ikegami lost interest in the comic, and used it as his own personal scribble-pad. The manga was a failure in Japan, even with Spidey-fans there. Marvel brought an edited, translated version to the US in 1999 or so (Marvel Imports, or something like that), but few people actually cared. Neither did I.
And in 1978, Marvel struck a deal with Toei: For four years, they could use their characters in any way they saw fit. Toei producer Tooru Hirayama, who was responsible for bringing many great superhero shows to TV throughout the 70s, decided to do a Spider-Man series, and wanted the story to remain as faithful to the Marvel comic as possible, but Toei's sponsor Bandai wanted to sell more toys, so there was a major story rewrite, and they had to push a giant robot into the story! Toei's producers thought Bandai was crazy! Nonetheless, this was to be the first time in a Japanese superhero series in which a costumed superhero (as opposed to a regular pilot, such as in MAZINGER Z) rode a giant robot.
The next Toei/Marvel project was BATTLE FEVER J (the 3rd Sentai Series and 1st "Super Sentai"), a Japanization of Captain America (the project was going to be called CAPTAIN JAPAN), but Bandai got more control than Hirayama, for whom this show was the last straw. When he left superhero shows (and worked on kiddie/family shows at Toei), it was completely Toei and Bandai's show from there on (except for Ishinomori's Masked Rider shows). The next Sentai Series, DENJIMAN (1980) and SUNVULCAN (1981) had Marvel Comics Group in the opening credits, but no Marvel characters were ever used in either series! Go figure.
Here we have Toei's SPIDERMAN, which, despite its shortcomings, should definitely be a treat for Spidey/Marvel fans! I will say that it was better than the short-lived American series starring Nicholas Hammond (which wasn't TOO bad). Before the excellent new SPIDER-MAN film starring Tobey Maguire, this is definitely the most visually faithful Spider-Man ever portrayed on film! The costume was right, the poses and stunts were incredible, he can even do whatever a spider can; Spin webs from his wristband (but he only has one wristband; More on that later), scale buildings and even has his trusty Spider-Sense! But the faithfulness ends with Spidey himself.
The STORY is what bugs me! The Japanization is much more extreme than the aformementioned manga from 1970, and here, Spidey's foes are nowhere to be seen. Also, his origins have been changed completely! He's from outer space, he has a racing car (Spider-Machine GP-7) and rides a giant ship called the Marveller (hmmmm . . . Where DID they get that name . . . ), which transforms into the giant robot Leopardon! OK, now this is TOTALLY out of place for ol' Spidey, even more absurd than any of Ralph Bakshi's "drug-trip" Spidey adventures (from the last two seasons of the classic animated series)! But that's not all! Toei ran out of money to do the FX by Episode 5, and after Episode 10, no more footage of Leopardon could be done, as it was rumored that some nasty fanatic stole the robot costume! So its appearance was limited to stock footage of the robot, with new footage of the monster-of-the-week (reacting to and being destroyed by Leopardon's "Swordvicker" attack) spliced in!
But let's look on the show's plusses: At least we get to see more Spidey action! In fact, the show is VERY violent! Spider-Man rarely kills his enemies, so he doesn't have any Masked Rider-like attacks (unless he yanks his enemy by the neck with his webbing, like he did to one in the final episode; He usually resorts to using Spider-Machine GP-7 and Marveller/Leopardon, as his enemy is the monster of the week that grows to giant size), but he DOES get to use cool martial arts to waste a bunch of cannon-fodder henchmen (yep, every Japanese superhero show must have 'em) in each episode! Hirosuke Kayama, who plays Spidey's alter-ego Takuya Yamashiro, is very good and makes a nice dead-ringer for Peter Parker's later incarnations in the 70s! It's too bad that Kayama usually played villain roles (he later played General Hedrer in DENJIMAN), but this is one of his best non-villain roles! Veteran Hiroshi Miyauchi (MASKED RIDER V3, GORANGER, ZUBAT, etc.) is on hand as a semi-regular character, Interpol Agent Tachibana, who dresses like a cowboy, plays guitar and sings (exactly like his Ken Hayakawa/Zubat character!), as well as occasionally helping Spidey fight the baddies! It's still very refreshing to see our web-slinging hero fighting Henshin-style monsters (as opposed to his regular foes like Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus), and the ones in this show are pretty good! And also of note is the main villain, Professor Monster, played by the late Mitsuo Andou (Professor Gill in KIKAIDER, Fuehrer Geisel in INAZUMAN FLASH and Black Cross Fuehrer in the first Sentai Series, GORANGER)! Prof. Monster is obviously designed after Marvel's Doctor Doom (except that only half his face is covered)!
I'll be as brief on the plot as I can: In space, Professor Monster, leader of the Iron Cross Army (his cronies include right hand woman Amazones, a similar two Caucasian women, and crow-like henchmen) are in pursuit of the space craft Marveller, which comes to Earth and crashes on a mountain in Japan, freeing an old hermit named Galia, who was from the planet Spider (which the big Prof. plundered and destroyed long ago). After a race show, motorcycle stuntman Takuya Yamashiro (who lives with his sister and little brother, and has a photographer girlfriend, who's unaware that her boss is acutally Amazones in disguise! Wow, and you thought J. Jonah Jameson was evil!) is fatally wounded by Amazones and the crow-henchmen, but is saved by Galia, who injects "Spider Extract" into Takuya before turning back into a spider! He also recieves a metallic bracelet, which stores his Spidey suit (PLUS!!!), shoots webs, and is also a communicator for the Spider-Machine GP-7 and Marveller, which he can ride and transform into Leopardon, which kills Professor Monster's monsters with its "Swordvicker" attack (it hurls its huge sword at the monster, as opposed to slashing it)! That's pretty much the formula with the whole series.
**SPOILERS**
I will say that the final episode (Episode 41), though incredibly rushed (especially after its slow first half), has its own cheesy, campy charm, mostly in the climax! After Spidey kills all of the other villains (right after Amazones meets her fate), he finally comes face to face with Professor Monster, who, after a little scuffle with our web-slinger, grows to giant size (Yes, just like all the other monsters!), pounds his chest like King Kong, and shouts "The Iron Cross Army is immortal!!!" Spidey does the usual Marveller/Leopardon thing and kills the evil Professor the same way he usually kills the other monsters, but this time, with a bit of ray-firing thrown in between for dramatic effect (remember, there was no Leopardon costume after Episode 10).
My final take: Toei's SPIDERMAN is a fun series, and a must-see for Marvel fans, just to see ol' Web-Head himself in breathtaking action! I say, don't let the minuses get to you, and just sit back and enjoy the plusses!
Gojira ni-sen mireniamu (1999)
"Godzilla Meets Quatermass" or "Toho's Seriously Flawed Step Back in the Right Direction."
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** The first Godzilla movie in the third movie series, whereas GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH, the previous entry, aptly ended the second series. What else can I say? Well, let's break it down.
I once liked the 2nd series of Godzilla movies (1984-1995), even though I found something annoying about those movies (as either the bad or good guy, Godzilla was so sympathetic that the human characters came off as obnoxious). Then, in 1995, along came a movie called GAMERA: GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE and its two successful sequels, all directed by master filmmaker Shuusuke Kaneko, who singlehandedly changed the face of Japanese monster movies forever. I was spoiled!!! The Series 2 Godzilla movies were suddenly looked down as half-hearted, heavy-handed, auto-piloted and lazy attempts at recreating the "original" Godzilla, and end up being an insult to the memory of genre masters Ishirou Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya. GAMERA 3: THE AWAKENING OF IRIS, released the same year as this film, was simply incredible. Once Hollywood moviegoers saw that movie, they would never look at Japanese monster movies the same way again.
Then, along came Tri-Star's 1998 GINO (Godzilla In Name Only), which was understandably met with bitter hatred by true Godzilla fans the world over. The worst portrayal of Godzilla seen by the human eye, making Marvel's 70s comics and Hanna-Barbera's cartoon look better. Then, MOTHRA 3, released later that year, bombed at the box office. Toho was in deep crap. They felt as though Godzilla was about to lose his fans, because of this red-blooded American box-office disaster, so to make up for it, they made this movie, GOJIRA NI-SEN MIRENIAMU (Godzilla 2000: Millennium), which was a "take that" to GINO. This movie is definitely better than GINO, which isn't saying much.
Is it the BEST Godzilla movie? Nope, not by a long shot. In fact, it quickly bombed at the box office in Japan (starting out at 4th place, and sinking to 8th in the second week!). A lot of Godzilla fans in Japan didn't like the movie. Is it entertaining? Not if you're spoiled by the Heisei Gamera trilogy, but if you don't take the movie too seriously, yes, it is very entertaining. In fact, I hadn't been entertained like this since TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA (Toho; 1975), and despite the movie's MAJOR flaws, GODZILLA 2000: MILLENNIUM is still very entertaining.
First of all, Godzilla has never looked better! His design has been in a rut since 1989, where his design was great, but once they stuck to it, he began to look slapped-together in each new film, but finally, a NEW Godzilla design! As Riverdancer Michael Flatley once said, "It's important to change, because if you stagnate, you die." I think this is a very good change, and one that stays true to Godzilla's spirit. Godzilla's design is a streamlined version of the Kin-Goji design from KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, with jagged DARK CRYSTAL-style dorsal fins that give him an evil look. I was neither bothered by the orange-colored Radioactive Heat Beam (most fans are used to blue), nor Godzilla's green tone (this is the first time Toho made Godzilla officially green, whereas he had an ambiguous green-gray tone). I was very happy with this Godzilla. For the first time, Godzilla was played by former JAC stuntman Tsutomu Kitagawa (a veteran of Toei's Sentai Series), who just started out in the Toho Monster genre (he played King Ghidorah in MOTHRA 3).
The UFO and the Millennian Alien/Orga were excellent and unique ideas (which the previous movie series wouldn't have allowed, for fear of being "over the top," but this was the cleverest portrayal of aliens in a Godzilla film), but half the time, they are poorly handled on film. That brings us to the story part. The Millennian, Toho's first CGI monster, is a really bizarre creation, and Orga reminds me of GINO (the intention) as if over-mutated by comic-book artist Todd McFarlane! Definitely not your average Japanese monster!
The story has great ideas, and a more "realistic" feel than the previous Godzilla movies since the 90s. However, the main problem is that things were not spelled out for the viewer (mostly because production was rushed in the second half). As a result, lot of people did not know what was going on. After reading about the plot/story and having purchased both the Official Movie Compendium (which has TONS of useful info that Americans don't know about the film) and the manga adaptation by Mondo Takimura (which is a MUCH better version of the film than the film itself!), I've seen critics/reviewers make up their own conclusion. Read the plot below so I'll help out.
Throughout the film, there are parodies of both GINO and INDEPENDENCE DAY (one scene had a taxi driver in Shinjuku getting out of his taxi, staring dumbfounded at the UFO while his car gets smashed by another! Part of this was cut out in the US version; It shouldn't have been)!
As of 1999, the special effects are probably the best in any Toho Godzilla film since Teruyoshi Nakano's breathtaking work in the 1984 GODZILLA. Kenji Suzuki's FX are a vast improvement over Kouichi Kawakita's work in the films from 1989-1995. This is his second FX direction job (his first was MOTHRA 3). Definitely not up to Shinji Higuchi's work in the Heisei Gamera trilogy (which Toho had been trying to keep up with), but definitely not too shabby for a Toho Godzilla film! The downside is that some of the FX looked rushed (especially in the climactic fight scene between Godzilla and Orga; Toho was definitely behind schedule).
As for the human characters, after 1975 (and probably 1984), we FINALLY get characters from all walks of life! Thus, they may not be the BEST characters, but very amusing ones (and thankfully, not too many of them, whereas previous Godzilla movies had byzantine amounts of important characters you didn't care for). Takehiro Murata, no stranger to Godzilla films (he appeared in 1992's GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA and 1995's GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH), takes his first lead Godzilla film role as Yuuji Shinoda, who runs GPN (Godzilla Prediction Network) with his little daughter Io (Mayu Suzuki), and wants to study Godzilla to discover the secrets to life. Actress Naomi Nishida very well plays the part of O-Parts magazine photographer Yuuki Ichinose, who joins GPN to get pictures of Godzilla for the magazine. TV & movie heartthrob Hiroshi Abe totally steals the show as the ruthless Mitsuo Katagiri, who runs CCI (Crisis Control Intelligence Agency), the faction that wants Godzilla destroyed, period. Godzilla's rooftop confrontation with Abe at the film's end is a shining moment! And there's actor and longtime Godzilla fan Shirou Sano as Shirou Miyasaka, Shinoda's old college buddy/CCI executive, who provides a conflict between the two factions.
The music by Takayuki Hattori is an improvement over his own score for GODZILLA VS. SPACE GODZILLA, but in the film, it was done absolutely no justice. When one listens to the CD soundtrack, one finds that some of the best tracks aren't even used in the film, thus Toho's music editors do the same slapdash job of cutting & pasting tracks all over the place, but some of the important tracks are left in the right place. And as much as it livens the film, Toho's throwing in a token stock track of Akira Ifukube's "Godzilla Theme" (just to tell us that this is a Godzilla film) does detract from the film. It seems the fogeys over at Toho have a problem with simply doing new arrangements of Ifukube's music (cost-effective, maybe?).
Then, there's Takao Ookawara directing his last Godzilla film before quitting the series. Ookawara doesn't care much for Godzilla, though his work is actually okay. He's better than Kazuki Oomori (not only the worst Godzilla director, in my opinion, but he is completely embarrassed with monsters and stuff), though.
And last, but not least, Tri-Star's US English-language version. Well, I've seen the Japanese version on tape, and when comparing it with the US version, the Japanese version actually makes more sense. Some of the US editing patronizes the original material by cutting out some important scenes and changing parts of the dialogue for PC reasons (like changing "Organizer G1" to "Regenerator G1," and editing out all references to "Millennium"). However, the US version makes up for it with tighter pacing and some really fun dialogue, not to mention one bit of profanity ("Nice try, a**hole!")! About time Godzilla movies started growing up! The US music by J. Peter Robinson is okay, but really cheesy most of the time (noticably, much of the score was recycled from the 1998 TV movie, GARGANTUA, which was made by Fox to one-up GINO). Hattori's original score is about 50-75% intact, though. Robinson actually rearranges Ifukube music with two tracks, the best in the scene where Orga makes his appearance, the worst being the scene in the end (after which, said token stock Ifukube track is repeated before cuing the complete original ending credits track). Speaking of which, the worst part of the Americanization was the tacky "THE ? END" title card at the end of the theatrical version of the film (blessedly removed for TV/Video/DVD versions). I was really embarrassed.
Speaking of embarrassing, a lot of people in the US seem to have lost sleep over the closing dialogue, the last part of which is a direct translation in the US version: "Godzilla is . . . inside all of us!" And yes, Japanese fans were pretty embarrassed with that scene! I didn't mind it, though. The US version is still fun to sit through, and still manages to have respect for the original film. I did hear, though, that the US version was put together at the last minute (to meet a tight deadline), which explains a lot.
Before I close this review, well, everyone pretty much knows the plot, but here's my version anyway: It's basically Godzilla crossed with QUATERMASS AND THE PIT. This movie is a direct follow-up to the original 1954 GODZILLA, but HOW Godzilla came back is unexplained (a MAJOR weakness for the film). For what it's worth, GPN (Godzilla Prediction Network) led by Yuuji Shinoda and his daughter Io, try to predict Godzilla's city attacks so that he can evacuate precious lives in advance. In foggy Nemuro, Godzilla crunches a fishing ship with his powerful jaws in front of a lighthouse, smashes a bar, attacks a city and for some reason, destroys a power station (all this being among the best highlights of the film). According to Shinoda (in the Japanese version), "Does Godzilla hate the energy that mankind produces?" Meanwhile, CCI (Crisis Control Intelligence Agency), led by Mitsuo Katagiri, discovers a HUGE rock fragment beneath the Japan Trench, and try to transport it, but the rock transports ITSELF by floating to the surface of the ocean! CCI member Shirou Miyasaka suggests that the rock might contain an alien life form, and to their surprise, it does some weird things like stand right side up over the ocean. At the same time, despite Shinoda's warnings, Katagiri, CCI and the Japan Self Defense Forces prepare to attack Godzilla in Tokaimura (where, at the same time of filming, a nuclear accident happened in real life) with a new set of super-missiles called Full Metal Missiles (Yes, they're called that in the Japanese version! No doubt a tribute to Stanley Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET). The weird thing is that when Godzilla appears, he does absolutely nothing! He just lets the JSDF hit him with everything but the kitchen sink, to no good effect, although the Full Metal Missiles did kinda' do a number on him. Just then, Miyasaka finds that the giant rock follows the sun, so it starts to fly away and heads toward Godzilla, the two titans shoot rays at each other, and in the process, Godzilla is defeated, and the rock is revealed to be a huge, solar-powered metallic UFO! It flies to Shinjuku, where it lands on a network building (same building as O-Parts Magazine!), and starts draining info from the Internet so that it can find out more about Godzilla (it discovered that Godzilla has quick-regeneration process; Upon further study with Miyasaka, Shinoda calls it Organizer G1). It also starts transmitting message words such as "Millennium," "Kingdom," etc. Come evening, Katagiri even suggested blowing up the building with the UFO still on it (where a crazy mix-up gets Shinoda into DIE HARD-style hijinks), but guess what? The UFO stands triumphant and destroys the rest of the building! Shinoda emerges a survivor, and shows everyone why the UFO wants Godzilla: The Millennium Aliens (Millennians) want to start an empire on Earth by converting our planet's air to make it more suitable for them. When they crashed on Earth in prehistoric times, they lost their solid composure and were reduced to anti-matter in the process. They need Godzilla's cells to regenerate their bodies. Then, Godzilla shows up from Tokyo Bay, and has a fight with the UFO, which overpowers him (telepathically using underground cables to lasso him) and clones Organizer G1 from his body, thus, the Millennians emerge from the UFO, regenerating into their original form, a single giant squidlike alien! But unfortunately, Godzilla's DNA overtook the alien's shape and causes a painful Hulk-like transformation, thus Orga (named from "Organizer G1" - Get it?) was the tragic result. After Godzilla trashes the UFO, Orga proceeds to beat him silly (also telepathically controlling what's left of the UFO to bash him around with it!). Can Godzilla destroy a giant alien mutant with many times his own healing speed?
Whew! That was a lengthy review! Well, I still think that the next Godzilla movie, GODZILLA X MEGAGUIRUS: THE G ANNIHILATION STRATEGY, is even better, and that it was the type of movie Toho should've made (and the movie that should've been shown in US theaters)! Nevertheless, enjoy GODZILLA 2000: MILLENNIUM, either in its more straightforward Japanese version and/or the campy-but-fun US version! A VERY flawed, yet entertaining step back in the right direction.
"GOJIRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!"
Majingâ Zetto tai Debiruman (1973)
Gou Nagai's answer to GODZILLA VS. MEGALON!
For the first time, both Mazinger Z and Devilman, two of Gou Nagai's most famous comic-book creations, explode into the big screen, and the result is a fun, fast-paced, action-packed anime masterpiece! Similar to GODZILLA VS. MEGALON (my personal favorite Godzilla film, released the same year), it's got a monster and robot teaming up to beat up other monsters and robots (evil ones, of course)!
With both characters' shows released the previous year, MAZINGER Z is a classic, while DEVILMAN remains unliked by most of the die-hard fans of the original comic-book, although still mostly appreciated by superhero fans. (In the TV show and this movie, Devilman, like Godzilla, was more slimmed-down and playful than his original scarier comic-book counterpart, but even then, both the 70s Godzilla and animated 70s Devilman were still down n' dirty fighters!) Nevertheless, this film is a dream-team come true! The animation is colorful and energetic, the voice acting (by the voice casts of both shows) is just as good as fans remember, and the show uses music and songs from both shows (by Michiaki Watanabe and Gou Misawa), with the official introduction of the rocking "Sky-Flying Mazinger Z" song (at the closing credits), sung by Japanese pop king Ichirou Mizuki! Fans who don't like repetition should beware that whether it was already done in the MAZINGER Z show or not, this movie again introduces the Jet Scrander (Mazinger Z's winged jet-pack attachment), as though we've never seen it before, so expect fans to say "Aw, man, they're introducing it for the first time AGAIN?" Actually, the movies are connected loosely from the shows, but then, the movies are sometimes more fun to watch than the shows (later episodes of MAZINGER Z have recycling "cheat" episodes, much like the later Ralph Bakshi SPIDER-MAN cartoons, which I still like)! Hell, MAZINGER Z VS. DEVILMAN and the 1974 follow-up MAZINGER Z VS. THE GREAT DARK GENERAL (which introduced Great Mazinger) make great introductions to the genre!
The plot: At the movie's opening, our heroic braggart Kouji Kabuto and his girlfriend Sayaka Yumi pilot Mazinger Z and Aphrodite A to beat up two of Doctor Hell's stock Machine-Beasts, which were about to attack Professor Yumi's (Sayaka's father and former assistant to Kouji's late grandfather, who invented Mazinger Z) lab/headquarters, but suddenly, a giant winged woman creature arrives in a gust of wind and trashes Aphrodite A in no time flat (And remember, that ALWAYS happens in the show! Poor Aphrodite always kept getting trashed by the Machine-Beast of the week, but after all, I guess that's because it's a GIRLY machine!!!). You guessed it, it's Devilman's popular arch-nemesis Silene (only she's colored blue/purple and her privates are covered with feathers)! Doctor Hell and his androgynous cohort Baron Ashura take notice, and so does Akira Fudou, who transforms into Devilman (You have to admit, his transformation is really cool: He literally rips out of his entire Akira Fudou guise before growing to giant size!), and eavesdrops on Doctor Hell's paying a visit to the leader of Devilman's monster foes, the Demon Clan's King Zannin (Doctor Hell takes control of the entire clan!). Akira warns Kouji and his friends about this, but first, by making fun of him and Mazinger Z, leading to a motorcycle race in which Akira insists to Kouji that Mazinger Z MUST have the ability to fly, or he'll be easily destroyed by his enemies. Later, Kouji discovers that Professor Yumi and his scientists are constructing a pair of wing attachments for Mazinger Z called the Jet Scrander (yes, again!), but once our fun-loving Doctor Hell gets wind of this, he sends Silene to wreck the Jet Scrander and kidnap Sayaka and Kouji's kid brother Shirou, who are then rescued by Devilman, who, along with Mazinger Z, have a first encounter with both the Demon-Beasts AND Machine Beasts, courtesy of their respective adversaries! Our two heroes have decided to join forces to defeat their allied enemies, but can the Jet Scrander be repaired in time while they prepare for the big showdown?
Interesting to note that this film (as well as the other Gou Nagai Super Robot movies) was divided into TV episodes, but blown up into fullscreen from their original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This movie should be seen in widescreen to be fully appreciated!
In short, MAZINGER Z VS. DEVILMAN is one of my favorite anime films! Definitely a must-see!
Gojira tai Megagirasu: Jî shômetsu sakusen (2000)
Toho cleans up their act after GODZILLA 2000: MILLENNIUM!
Although I enjoyed GODZILLA 2000: MILLENNIUM (released in the US as, simply, GODZILLA 2000), I thought that this in-Godzilla-only follow-up, GODZILLA X MEGAGUIRUS: THE G ANNIHILATION STRATEGY, was a vast improvement over its predecessor, and I can see why!
Although G2000 was an initial box office success in Japan, it was a critical failure, especially with the fans. Although it had FX that improved over the films from 1989-1995 (but didn't match up to the more successful Heisei Gamera Trilogy), the story wasn't very well put together, and audiences (in both Japan and the US) had a hard time figuring out what was going on (unless you read the manga adaptation or the movie compendiums they had for every new Godzilla film). Godzilla's reappearance (remember, the film was supposed to follow the first film from 1954) was not explained. And keep in mind that G2000's director Takao Ookawara was not into Godzilla at all, and just "did his job."
But at long last, Toho hired Masaaki Tezuka (who was assistant director for 1999's MOTHRA 3), who not only made his directorial debut with this film, but is a big Godzilla fan! He, IMHO, is the best director of a Godzilla film after Ishiro Honda (along with Heisei Gamera Trilogy director Shusuke Kaneko, who next directed the more successful GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: THE GIANT MONSTERS' GENERAL OFFENSIVE). The story does not follow G2000 (but Godzilla is exactly the same from that film) because executive producer Shogo Tomiyama had planned to do a trilogy of stand-alone Godzilla films. But in this entry, Godzilla was not only much better explained, but more delightfully protrayed, as both the villain and antihero! A good compromise of the Godzillas from the decades! Godzilla's titular adversary Megaguirus, the three-phase hyper-dragonfly monster (the first stage is a remake of Meganuron, the giant insect from the original 1956 RODAN) looks like a cross between the final stage Battra (from 1992's GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA) and Scyther (from POKEMON), but made a very interesting foe, giving Godzilla the trial of speed! Kenji Suzuki's FX work is a vast improvement over his work in G2000, producing some of his best, most breathtaking visuals (such as the flood in Shibuya, and the Meganeura dragonflies that flock through said city to buzz around on Godzilla like mosquitoes), and the climactic battle between the two title monsters is one of the most vigorous monster fights I've seen! There are nods to spaghetti westerns, samurai flicks and Toei's Sentai Series, as Godzilla suitmation actor Tsutomu Kitagawa does a tribute to his Sentai work by having Godzilla jump into the air on Megaguirus (though it also recalls the 70s Godzilla, but with the friends I saw it with, this scene got as many laughs as it did cheers)! Screenwriters Hiroshi Kashiwabara and Wataru Mimura have outdone themselves this time, more than making up for their mixed work in G2000. Their story does a better job in conveying emotion, action and suspense, and manages to stay away from the many plotholes that plagued the previous film (with only one hilarious major plothole: In one scene, after the first Dimension Tide test, the little boy Jun sneaks past the heavily secured site with the greatest of ease! Tom Cruise has nothing on this tyke)! The music score by Michiru Ooshima (the first female Godzilla composer) is excellent, and the best non-Akira Ifukube composer for a Godzilla film to date! Very dark, cataclysmic and suspenseful, and her brooding theme for Godzilla fits him perfectly! I also noticed that the theme music for the Gryphon (the G-Graspers' super-jet vehicle) recalls Barry Gray's famous THUNDERBIRDS theme! But of course, Toho tacks on two stock Ifukube tracks in the score to tell us that this is a Godzilla film. And last but not least, the human characters were much better done, have more direction and better motivation! I actually felt for and liked the human characters here, and that hasn't been done after 1975's TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA! Misato Tanaka as the brooding heroine, Kiriko Tsujimori, is tough, intense and sympathetic, sort of reminding me of Carrie Anne Moss' "Trinity" character from THE MATRIX; Shousuke Tanihara (who was just in Shusuke Kaneko's CROSSFIRE) portrays the hip inventor Hajime Kudo so perfectly and carefree as any hip Gen-X type should be; Veteran actress Yuriko Hoshi (from MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA and GHIDRAH THE THREE HEADED MONSTER) is very wise and intelligent as Yoshino Yoshizawa; For a kid actor, Hiroyuki Suzuki did a very good job at playing the little boy Jun Hayakawa; Desipte his limited screen time, Toshiyuki Nagashima plays the key role of Tsujimori's late commander Takuji Miyagawa very flawlessly; And actor/anime voice performer Masato Ibu is likeable as the shady Motohiko Sugiura, who organizes G-Graspers. Oh, I noticed that this film emphasizes less on copying the latest Hollywood hit, as the films since 1984 have done so blatantly!
The plot in a nutshell: Through the decades since 1954, Godzilla attacked Japan for its nuclear energy. Even though government scientists Motohiko Sugiura (Ibu) and Yoshino Yoshizawa (Hoshi) develop a "safe" plasma power plant free of nuclear energy, Godzilla attacks it anyway! Army rangers led by Takuji Miyagawa tried to stop him, but Godzilla killed them in his destructive wake, and the only survivor of the team was Kiriko Tsujimori (Tanaka), whose hatred for the big green terror grew more bitter. Five years later, now as the commander of G-Graspers (and anti-Godzilla task force), Tsujimori enlists both Yoshino Yoshizawa and young inventor Hajime Kudo (Shosuke Tanihara), who come up with a Dimension Tide satellite, which shoots an "Artificial Black Hole" on the sky of Earth to suck anything in its radius to oblivion. This would make a perfect weapon against Godzilla, and its test was successful, but some residue from the Artificial Black Hole leaves a bunch of prehistoric insect eggs, one of which is picked up by a little schoolboy named Jun Hayakawa (Hiroyuki Suzuki). When he is forced to dump it into a sewer, a new terror begins, as the egg hatches into a giant Meganuron insect that slaughters a teenage couple, and then sheds its skin to reveal a dragonfly-like insect stage called Meganeura. While Tsujimori and the G-Graspers are in pursuit of Godzilla (she even manages to ride on Godzilla's back), the Meganeuras reproduce heavily and swarm out of the Shibuya district to suck energy out of Godzilla, so that they can inject it into their queen cocoon, which hatches into a huge dragonfly monster called Megaguirus! Now, Megaguirus goes after Godzilla while the G-Graspers prepare the Dimension Tide for him. Which monster will win? Will the Dimension Tide finally get rid of Godzilla? And what IS Godzilla looking for in Shibuya . . .
Even though GODZILLA X MEGAGUIRUS was a commercial failure in Japan (the film had a weaker advertising campaign because of G2000's failure), it was a critical success, and the fans agreed! IMHO, this is the Godzilla film that should've been released to US theaters! A fun, fast-paced, action-packed and exciting film!
Now I've GOT to see the next Godzilla film (GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: THE GIANT MONSTERS' GENERAL OFFENSIVE)! From what I've seen and read about, this looks to be the best Godzilla film yet!
Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown (1986)
The ultimate Peanuts parody ever!
(Revised on 4/9/2005 - I originally wrote it in 2001 out of memory!)
I'm sure many people have watched twisted parodies of Charles Schulz beloved PEANUTS comic strip like MAD TV's "South Parknuts" and Saturday NIGHT LIVE's Peanuts tribute sketch in 2000, but none of them have the fast-paced thrills of this obscure animated student short done at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 1986 by renowned animator Jim Reardon (who later worked on cartoons like MIGHTY MOUSE: THE NEW ADVENTURES and THE SIMPSONS)! The short has been screened at Lunacon (a sci-fi con I regularly attend) since about 1997 or 1998, and I was immediately hooked! This was the best of the old CalArts student shorts among what Lunacon showed (before I saw Craig McCracken's WHOOPASS STEW, which later became THE POWERPUFF GIRLS)!
Most of the other Peanuts parodies always had Charlie Brown die or commit suicide, to all of which I say, "been there, done that," but this was about the first time I've ever seen Charlie Brown unleash the beast within (something I, and possibly some other people, always wanted to see him do after some of the Peanuts Gang were so cruel to him)! In this short, the Great Pumpkin puts a bounty on Charlie Brown's head, and the rest of the Peanuts Gang race against each other to kill Charlie Brown in all sorts of ways, until Charlie himself, when getting chased by the gang at one point, becomes Rambo/Schwarzenegger-like and goes around blowing away all of the Peanuts Gang with his uzi! Then, for some reason, we see other cartoon characters slaughtering each other (Mickey Mouse, Popeye, the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla with a sound byte from GODZILLA '84 etc.), and amongst all the carnage and destruction, Charlie Brown stood victorious! The climax was just hilariously chaotic! There was even a funny (and long) disclaimer in the closing credits ("This film is not intended to ruin the good name of Charles M. Schulz's PEANUTS characters," etc. etc.)!
This short may not be for the more sensitive fans of PEANUTS, but if you're lucky, give BRING ME THE HEAD OF CHARLIE BROWN a try! It is, by far, the best of the twisted PEANUTS parodies!
Denjin Zabôgâ (1974)
The late, great Akira Yamaguchi shines again!
It's really sad that Akira Yamaguchi, probably one of my favorite Japanese hero actors, died so young (he was around 39 when he died in 1986), and left behind a few TV performances to choose from. More tragically, one realizes that he lost a few roles to Hiroshi Miyauchi (he was considered for Miyauchi's role in KEY HUNTER and the part of Shirou Kazami/Masked Rider V3, which Miyauchi eventually got), and despite his minimal martial arts experience, he was a real natural in the roles he played. From his debut in NINJA CORPS MOONLIGHT to a villainous role in GIANT IRONMAN 1-7. Perhaps his best roles are Jouji Yuuki/Riderman in MASKED RIDER V3 and his starring role as bionic streetfighter detective Yutaka Daimon in this series, which really showcases Yamaguchi at his wildest!
The show's plot is a human-sized MAZINGER Z of sorts: Yutaka Daimon (Yamaguchi) avenges the death of his father at the hands of the evil wheelchair-bound cyborg Dr. Akunomiya (Ken Okabe, who later played the main villain in Toho's GUYFERD), who leads the evil Sigma Organization. Decked out in all-terrain street gear and a motorcycle helmet, Daimon uses his late father's invention, the cool super robot Zaborger, which is not only fitted with death dealing weapons, but can transform into a motorcycle! Zaborger is both powered by the bionic implant in Daimon's heart whenever he gets really angry (he was killed in an auto accident when he was 6) and controlled by the commands he gives in the microphone attachment on his helmet! Each week, Daimon and Zaborger fight not only Sigma's murderous robot monsters (later ones included these crazy-looking car/truck monsters; One looked like that silly dog car from DUMB & DUMBER, and some of the others were trucks with robot monster bodies sticking out from on top), but also Sigma's diverse bionic streetfighters with really wacky powers (for example, two motorcycle riding brothers whose arms combine to form a gun, and a leather-clad kickboxer with extendable legs)! There was even a transsexual robot called Miss Borg (which transforms from a woman in silver tights and antennas to a silver man robot with antennas), and later, an evil counter-Daimon named Ken Akizuki (who also has a cool eagle-like motorcycle, though it doesn't transform)!
The show went downhill by Episode 39 (the end of Sigma), with the introduction of the lame, infantile villain faction, the Dinosaur Army. The last 13 episodes (40-52) were said to be so bad that they were never shown in Hawaii, where the series was shown subtitled (I think)!
Aside from Yamaguchi, another treat is child actor Masahiro Kamiya (KIKAIDER, GIANT IRONMAN 1-7) as a regular character! The creator of ELECTROID ZABORGER was none other than Kazuo Koike, who also created CRYING FREEMAN, LONE WOLF AND CUB, and wrote the theme songs for GREAT MAZINGER and DYNAMAN! The composer of the show is Shunsuke Kikuchi (one of my favorite composers), whose score is great! Masato Shimon (my favorite Japanese singer) sang the OP and ED theme songs!
In short, this show is highly recommended! An awesome tokusatsu hero action series, bar none!!!
A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969)
The ultimate and epic Charlie Brown statement!
A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN has got to be the ultimate Peanuts animation ever made! It's so epic, and it does a great job of showcasing the original Peanuts characters, especially the central character, Charlie Brown! It told a tragic story of Charlie Brown, the milquetoast little boy who works hard to be the best (trying everything from kite-flying to baseball to even competing at a spelling bee), so that he can be loved and respected by his friends, when, of course, he usually loses and his friends berate him. And only his best friend Linus tries to help Charlie Brown succeed in life. There's also Snoopy, Charlie Brown's wonderful pet beagle, who does his usual crazy thing, from playing a WWI Flying Ace to skating on ice. Aside from creator Charles Schulz's screenplay, the great music score and songs by legendary jazz musician Vince Guaraldi, conductor John Scott Trotter, and gifted musician/poet/singer Rod McKuen really shines, and is the best score of any animated Peanuts project since the scores from all of the previous animated TV specials (only with more dimension)! It really needs a CD soundtrack! There's also some "artsy-fartsy" moments throughout the movie, including the Peanuts Gang saluting the National Anthem, Charlie Brown and Linus practicing "I before E, except after C," Schroeder playing Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata (2nd movt.) on his piano, and Snoopy skating at the Rockerfeller Center in NY, where Charlie Brown goes for the national spelling bee, but these are great images that make this movie all the more unusual! This movie made its premiere at the Radio City Music Hall in December of '69 (incidentally Rod McKuen performed one of the movie's songs months earlier at his birthday concert at Carnegie Hall, which can be purchased on a CD called "Rod McKuen: At Carnegie Hall"). There was also a documentary of the same name (the soundtrack of which is available on CD), which was transformed into CHARLIE BROWN AND CHARLES SCHULZ the same year this movie was released.
In summary, A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN is the best of the Peanuts movies, and the best Peanuts animated project since A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS (the first Peanuts TV special)! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
Whoopass Stew! (1992)
So this is how it all started for the Powerpuff Girls!
Yes, this cartoon short, WHOOPASS STEW!, was the genesis for the Powerpuff Girls as we know it! Back when creator Craig McCracken worked at Cal-Arts in the early 90s, he did some cartoon shorts for Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Animation Festival, including NO NECK JOE and, of course, WHOOPASS STEW! In this short, the Powerpuff Girls, originally named the "Whoopass Girls" looked the very same, had the same names Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup (who was colored aquamarine rather than bright green), had the then-unnamed Gangrene Gang, and the Amoeba Boys, who were intelligent in this cartoon (as opposed to the benign, dopey versions on the show). The differences were Professor Utonium (who looked like an aging Dexter) and Chemical X (which was originally a can of "whoopass").
The animation was somewhat limited, but it cleverly ended up looking like 60s-style animation! The opening title sequence was exactly like the title sequence for the subsequent series (with more 70s-style music), only more violent! And an interesting treat is that McCracken was the narrator (speaking in a big towering voice)! McCracken didn't think this cartoon short was going to make it, having screened it for Cartoon Network, who showed a great amount of interest in the short (some of the test audience booed it). However, it was made into two WHAT A CARTOON shorts (the first short, "Meat Fuzzy Lumkins," was the first WHAT A CARTOON ever to be aired, making its premiere on SPACE GHOST: COAST TO COAST's World Premiere Toon Special), and became a surprise hit amongst the WHAT A CARTOONs that it eventually led to the popular TV series in 1998! Having seen the two WAC shorts and the series, I didn't know of WHOOPASS STEW! until early November of 1999 (sometime before the series' first anniversary), and saw it on the Internet! I enjoyed the short immensely, and showed it to fellow PPG fans, who, at first, thought it was a parody!
In summary, it's a fun, action-packed short! Fans of POWERPUFF GIRLS should check out this obscure short! You won't be disappointed!
Kamen Raidâ bui surî (1973)
Surpasses the first series in every way!
I've always wondered why MASKED RIDER V3 was hailed as one of the best Masked Rider shows by fans! In my honest opinion, the series had far more dimension, and was less convoluted than the first show!
With all due respect, although the first MASKED RIDER (Toei; 1971) had a great concept, great action and good premise, it not only focused on more atmosphere than story content, but most crucially had a major lack of CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!! As a result, you could not feel much for the characters, which end up looking like one-dimensional plot robots (Takeshi Hongou/Masked Rider didn't develop as much as he should). Yeah, you'll have fans saying "It's a great show because it's dark" and other stuff, but being "dark" is far from the point.
MASKED RIDER V3 took great advantage of action, story and character development! This time, not only was everything cool-looking, colorful and action packed, but you could relate with the characters! Sure, Takeshi Hongou brooded over the loss of his humanity after being transformed into a cyborg grasshopper by Shocker (the first show's villains), but there was never really any depth in his character. On the other hand, Shirou Kazami (the show's hero) was hell bent on wiping out Destron (the show's villains) because they killed his whole family!!! In my opinion, Kazami has more depth and dimension than the first two Riders ever did! The same is said for the show's later antihero Riderman, who's basically the Masked Rider equivalent to "Phantom of the Opera," only instead of losing his face and music, he loses his right arm and his old job at Destron! The conflict between him and V3 is quite intense, and even so, you'll still be attached to both characters!
Also, not only that, but the show was allowed to develop itself without any inside problems (which plagued the first show), which makes MASKED RIDER V3 one of the more consistent shows! I'd also suggest skipping over from episode 4 to 41 (the introduction of Destron commander Marshall Armor) for an even more straightforward storyline (and avoid the pointless resurrection of the first two Riders later in the series, which was obviously done for ratings and to keep a franchise going)!
In summary, MASKED RIDER V3 is indeed one of the best Japanese superhero shows! Seek it at all costs!
Kamen Raidâ (1971)
An innovation to the Japanese superhero genre!
Rarely was there ever such a hero as Shoutarou Ishinomori's MASKED RIDER in the tokusatsu field before that time. Manga/anime characters such as Kazumasa Hirai/Jirou Kuwata's EIGHT-MAN (the granddaddy of the genre) and Ishinomori's own CYBORG 009 were similar to MASKED RIDER, but the more popular superheroes in tokusatsu was ULTRAMAN, its sequels (notably ULTRA SEVEN) and imitations. Toei producer Tooru Hirayama, attempted to bring back the Masked Superhero genre, but their drafts were unsuccessful, until Ishinomori published a 100-page one-shot comic-book story called SKULLMAN in early 1971. Though the character of Skullman was more of an antihero than his resulting TV counterpart, the comic was successful enough for Hirayama to request changes from Ishinomori, turning Skullman into a grasshopper variant (a design chosen by his then five-year old son Jou) called "Masked Rider Hopper King," which was shortened to just "Masked Rider," and the rest was history!
The show concerns a runaway cyborg grashopper-man who sets out to avenge the death of his teacher and the loss of his humanity (he is, in reality, scientist/motorcycle racer Takeshi Hongou) by fighting the evil forces of Shocker, the Nazi-like organization that transformed him in the first place (he was meant to be the perfect weapon against society). As the "Masked Rider," Takeshi Hongou rides the super motorcycle Cyclone, and with super-speed and super-strength, performs high-flying rechniques such as the Rider-Jump to reach the top of buildings, or his killing technique, the Rider-Kick!
The show began as dark, serious and violent, but many complications (including star Hiroshi Fujioka temporarily leaving the series due to a stunt-related accident) forced the series to change into the more kid-friendly and somewhat comical series that everyone's more accustomed to. However, it's still a fun, action-packed series with plenty of monsters and henchmen that Masked Rider and Masked Rider 2 (a similar Masked Rider, Hayato Ichimonji, played by Takeshi Sasaki, took over from the fallen Fujioka as star for a time) fight each week!
The series ran for 98 episodes, and would be impossible to do a detailed review here, suffice to say that I thought the less-complicated sequel series MASKED RIDER V3 (1973) was even better than the original! Still, MASKED RIDER was the one that started it all for morphing superheroes (or "henshin" heroes) as we all know, and is the most important show in this genre! I highly reccommend the early episodes, from 1-13, but the rest is still fun and action-packed to watch! HIGHLY RECCOMMENDED!!!
Ryusei Ningen Zon (1973)
A great, fun series, plus Godzilla's appearance is a real treat!
Toho, in my opinion, has created the more unique superhero shows, including RAINBOWMAN (which they did the previous year), but this particular tokusatsu series not only looks like a cross between an Ultra Series and a pre-Sentai Series (the first Sentai Series, GORANGER, came out in 1975), but what makes this series a treat among fans of giant monsters is that Godzilla appears in five episodes of this show, as does King Ghidorah (in another two episodes) and Gigan! Aside from that, this show's got the usual hard-hitting superhero action punctuated by innovative shows from that period like MASKED RIDER (1971) and KIKAIDER (1972)! Aside from Godzilla's pairing with Jet Jaguar in GODZILLA VS. MEGALON, it's rare to see Godzilla team up with a superhero kicking evil monster hiney! In this case, Godzilla teams up with Zone Fighter (the leader of a trio of superpowered Zone Siblings from the planet Peaceland, which was destroyed by the show's villains, the Garoga Army, who send out monsters every week), and the results are really fun and cute, but it's really a shame that more sophisticated fans take it too seriously. Don't let that bother you and give this series a chance! Not just the Godzilla episodes, but reccommendably every episode, which have some amusing treats and interesting guest appearances that people who only watch it for Godzilla would miss (ie. the late Baku Hatakeyama, who played Ooiwa Daita/Ki-Ranger in GORANGER a couple years later, made a guest appearance in one episode)!
Check out METEOR MAN ZONE! I highly reccomend it, to fans of both monsters and superheroes!
The Powerpuff Girls (1998)
Best cartoon in a long time!!!
When the Powerpuff Girls made their debut on Cartoon Network in February 1995, it easily became my favorite original cartoon on that channel, and until last year, I had no idea that the whole thing started out as a Cal-Arts cartoon short by creator Craig McCracken called WHOOPASS STEW (1991)! I saw that short in its entirety and for those who haven't, it has the same exact feel of the resulting TV series! Originally known as the Whoopass Girls, they fought the then-unnamed Gangrene Gang in the OP credits (ala the 60s BATMAN's opener mixed with 60s anime) and in the actual episode (entitled "A Sticky Situation"), fought the Amoeba Boys, which were originally smart, as opposed to benign in the show.
Suitably renamed the "Powerpuff Girls" for Cartoon Network (think of what it would've been like if it aired on Comedy Central!), they made their premiere as two "World Premiere Toon" shorts before ultimately becoming the popular TV series as we know it! McCracken, obviously a big fan of Japanese animation, SF and superheroes (you have to look for some of those references; Mojo Jojo, for example, does hand signs like SPECTREMAN's Dr. Gori, and his braincap looks like the helmet of the title superhero from THE SHADOWSTAR [Toei; 1976]), he mixes it with 60's style cartoons and also emulates the 60s BATMAN series (which McCracken loved as a kid), poking fun at it without taking slams at it like Tim Burton did in his overblown movies. Most of all, the three little heroines, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup (my favorite!) have tons of charm and personality, as well as inner conflict, which make them all the more likeable (for instance, Buttercup claims that she should be the leader instead of Blossom, and Bubbles, the nicey-nice one, wants to take on the tough stuff)! Even the villains have charisma, particularly the paranoid super-intelligent monkey Mojo Jojo! Also, the action (parodying routine anime action), though mild, is fairly graphic for a cartoon series geared for kids! But that and the stories, which call for tons of humor and character development, have enough charisma to appeal to grown-ups as well!
All in all, a great series! One of my favorite shows on the air! Watch it at all costs!!!
The Colossus of New York (1958)
Underappreciated but Memorable Cult Classic!
Contrary to what some critics and viewers may say, THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK was actually quite dark and atmospheric! This was an exemplary modern-day take on the "Frankenstein's Monster" theme! The performances were well-done, the solo-piano music by Van Cleave was brilliant, and the Colossus itself was actually well created for its time. Even the climax, no matter how "cliched" by today's standard, is still poignant.
I definitely reccommend this movie! I think it deserves to be on DVD as well!
-John Cassidy