Ask DU's Giant Monster Movie Expert -

[BigMcLargehuge]

All giant monster movie questions accepted.

Been a long week, I need some fun!

[Major Hogwash]

1. "Mars Needs Women." - name that movie.

Okay, there were no giants in it, but still it's a funny line.

[BigMcLargehuge]

2. Mars needs Women was the title

of the film where that appeared.

However, I am assuming you are thinking of Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster which had several of the same plot elements.

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. Stupidest idea for a Godzilla enemy?

I would go with Hedora (the smog monster), but Biollante (the giant killer flower) ranks pretty high up there.

[BigMcLargehuge]

5. Biollante is my favorite of the Heisei enemies

stupidest of his enemies for me would have to be Space Godzilla in the Heisei series and Gabara in the Show series.

Space Godzilla = Purple Godzilla with crystal shoulder pads.
Gabara = Upright dog who taunts Minya

[jukes]

7. i'm w/ you on Space Godzilla

& i'll offer the transformer/robot Godzilla operated by the GDF.

[BigMcLargehuge]

8. M.O.G.E.R.A

I like the original Mogera from The Mysterians who looked more like an armor plated Woody Woodpecker.

[jukes]

48. i forgot him!

yes, he had the proper silliness flavor to make a worthy foe!

[BigMcLargehuge]

55. he was done in by the Marklite Cannons

that the military deployed. I sort of liked MOGERA in Space Godzilla, but it was more because of the characters who were piloting him. Gondo's (the guy in Biollante) best friend who had a Godzilla death wish duct taped into his seat so he couldn't kamikaze the big G was funny.

[jukes]

66. biollante was a disappointment to me

not sure why, the CGI and cinematography was fine. maybe it was plot related.

[BigMcLargehuge]

69. maybe

Biollante was a disappointment to Toho too as it didn't make as much money as they had expected. That led to the next film, Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, to try and draw in old fans with familiar monsters. It's a shame though, because on its own, Biollante introduces the one character who appears in all of the other Heisei films, Miki Sagusa.

For me, the best scene in the entire Heisei series is when the screen shows the 5th Godzilla alarm "Psychic or Prophetic Evidence of Godzilla" and we cut to the doctor running in to the Psychic Exploitation Institute and asks if all the kids had the same dream the night before. Miki tells her that they did, and she did too.

The doctor hurries onto the classroom and says "Children? Have you finished the pictures of what you dreamed last night?"
The classroom full of 3 and 4 year olds screams "Yaaaay!"
The doctor says "Show them to me"
and they ALL hold up crayon drawings of Godzilla laying waste to Tokyo.

The scene is so good because it's established a little earlier that it's been over 5 years since he was led to imprisonment in Mt. Mihara and none of the kids in the class were born when that happened.

Always gives me goosebumps when I watch that bit.

[jukes]

72. i remember that now!

yes, it was striking. the matching drawings were cool!

i'd best do some homework to keep up w/ you. passionate recall, there.

[sakabatou]

59. The proposed enemy: Godzilla's ghost

[BigMcLargehuge]

71. they kinda sorta made that one though

with Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 3 and Tokyo SOS. The Mechagodzilla was constructed around the 1954 Godzilla skeleton and the spirit of Godzilla kept making the thing go haywire.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. Exactly how big does a film have to be before it is a 'giant monster?'

16mm? 24mm? 36mm?

[BigMcLargehuge]

6. it depends on how much Bikini Atol radiation it's subjected to

LOL

[JVS]

9. What kind of crack were they smoking when they decided King Kong could....

beat Godzilla for the US version of KKvsGZ?

KK got killed by fucking biplanes while Saber-jets didn't phase Godzilla? What an outrage!

[BigMcLargehuge]

11. Ahhhh! But that's a myth

the film ends in a draw. Even in the US edit.

Toho had a license to make a couple of more Kong pictures but they dragged their feet and Universal/RKO took the license back. The film Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster was originally a Kong picture :)

Kong later did a whoopass on the Robot Kong in King Kong Escapes, which was a US/Japanese coproduction (Rankin Bass and Toho) to coincide with the RB Saturday Morning cartoon.

[JVS]

13. Even a draw is rediculous! If biplanes can kill kong, then nuke breath...

should have fucked his shit up!

[BigMcLargehuge]

15. Toho compensated

by making Kong reactive to electricity. But I agree, Godzilla should have cooked him good.

To quote Mr. Tako "It's like fighting a flame thrower."

[flamingyouth]

10. Which monster would you recommend?

Our neighbor bothers us. He plays his music too loudly, doesn't keep up his yard and is a general nuisance. His house is about 2000 sf. Thanks in advance.

[BigMcLargehuge]

12. Gairas

The green gargantua.

he'll eat your neighbor and spit out his clothes.

[Blue-Jay]

14. Which giant monster movie had the best soundtrack?

and why do you think so?

[BigMcLargehuge]

17. Good question

I would have to say the original 1954 Gojira (Godzilla King of Monsters). Akira Ifukube REALLY captured the look and tone of the film in music. A second runner up would be Ifukube's score for Destroy All Monsters. The Military march in that is amazingly good.

[LostInAnomie]

16. How does King Ghidora breathe in space?

And what exactly is he king of?

[BigMcLargehuge]

19. he is king of everything

and he doesn't need to breath.

I liked his appearance in Godzilla vs. Monster Zero best.

[Blue-Jay]

38. I thought he was "King of Space" or something like that.

I seem to remember one of the movies saying something like that.

[BigMcLargehuge]

it depends on which movie -

keep in mind I haven't seen the japanese prints of the original Ghidrah, Monster Zero, or Destroy All Monsters so I only have the American script to go from. But in each film except the first he's referred to as King Ghidorah, but it's never as king of anything. In Ghidrah the martian princess refers to him as The Space Demon. In Monster Zero he is refered to as Monster 0, the Kilaaks call him King Ghidorah, but don't mention his dominion, nor do the cockroach aliens from Nebula Spacehunter M in Godzilla vs. Gigan.

[begin_within]

18. What is the black-and-white one with the man fighting the giant tarantula?

[BigMcLargehuge]

20. the incredible shrinking man

the tarantula is normal sized, the man is not.

[Random_Australian]

21. Complete this sentence: "Sauron was potrayed in frontal images

in the same style and similar image to earlier versions of The _____"

Hint: "The _____" is not from the movies. (Appears in a few movies IIRC though)

[BigMcLargehuge]

22. no idea

Lord of the Rings trilogy isn't a giant monster series (though there are some giant monsters in it) and I slept through all three of them.

[Random_Australian]

26. The Devil, just so's you know. Here's another:

Where is the planet that appeared in Gamera in which aliens want to eat abducted kids brain cells raw?

[BigMcLargehuge]

29. it's on the opposite side of the sun from the Earth

in the same orbital plane.

Flobella and Barbella, the seconds runners up for women of my pre-teen dreams.

[Random_Australian]

32. And what is the dance that Gamera was said (in error) to be doing

when it had ninja stars in his arms and legs?

[BigMcLargehuge]

34. Go go

I guess I have to pull the tape for that one out now....

Who are you who is so wise in the way of Gamera?

[Random_Australian]

35. I only saw it once long ago. I have a photographic memory though.*

What forums do you mod?

* conditions apply

[BigMcLargehuge]

36. Lounge

and the Writer's forum.

:hi:

[Random_Australian]

37. Cool. In the Godzilla that also featured micro-oxygen,

what was the order that the radio-counter maxed out when approaching Godzilla when it was melting down? Express your answer in terms of Gamma, Alpha & Beta.

[BigMcLargehuge]

39. uh...

that was Godzilla vs. Destroyah, but I don't remember how the radio-counter decremented. I remember they froze him to bring his core temperature down.

[Random_Australian]

40. Alpha, Beta, Gamma. It also happens to be the exact opposite of what

you would read in real life.

What was bieng built that unearthed the destroyahs?

[BigMcLargehuge]

41. a tunnel in Tokyo harbor

[Random_Australian]

42. What extinction were they responsible for?

I can't remember. I didn't know what the words meant at the time. :cry:

Something now rectified.

[BigMcLargehuge]

43. I don't understand the question

can you rephrase it?

[Random_Australian]

45. The buried ancient destroyah's annihilated most of life on earth once

long ago didn't they? Or perhaps I got confused with what some other stupid movie.

meh.

I said I remembered, I never said I remembered stuff in the right place!

Edit: yeah it was a different movie. Shit.

[BigMcLargehuge]

47. that was Desghidorah

from Rebirth of Mothra 3

:)

[Random_Australian]

49. Nope, because I've never seen that. I've seen two godzilas and

two Gameras and that is it.

What about "Reign of Fire"?

[BigMcLargehuge]

50. never made it through that one

but the plot point is they did reduce humanity to pretty much ash and refugees.

[Random_Australian]

52. The only bit I really liked was the guy jumping off a building with an

axe at the main dragon. I have not laughed so hard in years.

What about the Evas?

[BigMcLargehuge]

54. what is Evas?

[Random_Australian]

56. Eva = Evangelion. It the weirdest Japanese show EVER.

It starts off the usual (ok, exceptionally well done but fairly normalish) how with some persons in giant robots fighting stuff, with character drama as well, and all sorts of things. Eventually, shit goes everywhere, and it became known as the one of the best anime series of all time. Lots of religious subconscious stuff going on. Lots of people going insane in a very realistic way. Dead mothers make a LOT of appearances.

For example, the large robots (though they were lying about that, they are alive and human too:crazy:) known as 'Evas' had been using various sort of fields around them. It turns out that the field protecting them is the soul of the dead mother. Bizzare. Everyone has issues.

But the best was yet to come, when the series ended in a way the fans did not like, the producer received death threats, and had a mental breakdown. When he came out of it, he made an alternate ending, and let me tell you, when you have seen one of the pilots float up to an enourmous crucified bieng, merge, mask of the seven eyes of God falls off (stuff like that) rising up as the world ends to the rather well done soundtrack, you've seen everything. It is cool, especially if you are very interested in psychology.

The title of the series is "Neon Genesis Evangelion", because that is literally what it is, a new genesis. Truly bizzare.

[BigMcLargehuge]

57. in all the anime I've watched (I used to review it)

I never managed to watch even a single ep of Neon Genesis Evangelion. So I can't comment. I know it's meant to be soap-opera-ish, which may have been one of the reasons I never had an interest in it.

[Random_Australian]

58. Sort of. The soundtrack alone is good enough for me. The movies

were not melodramatic though. They were all about (well, firstit was philosophical, then a massive action scene, then 1/2 and 1/2, then pure cool thinking and beautiful scenery until the end) the miind.

As for the show? Yep, fairly, but not the usual soap-opera though, both in how unusual (sometimes) the drama was, and as one of the commentators said "oh yes, hats off to Anno (the creator) for finding really awful things to do to his characters" - but that is still somewhat soap-operaish.

(btw, the movies is just the alternate ending. It has something for everyone)

[sakabatou]

65. The last two eps in the TV series are dissapointing...

[JVS]

23. Are there any movies involving the Mothra twins and full frontal nudity?

[BigMcLargehuge]

25. sadly no

but I had plenty of mental pictures of them as such from my formative years.

[begin_within]

24. Are the Bronson caves still there and can you still go into them?

[BigMcLargehuge]

27. yes and yes

[LostInAnomie]

28. Why does Godzilla's son suck so much?

I mean, look at him. He sucks!


And who the hell is Godzilla banging to have a kid in the first place?

edit* I can't spell "son"

[BigMcLargehuge]

31. Minya is the worst of all Toho's costumes

it still sucks even in Godzilla Final Wars.

If you want to be overly fanciful about the whole thing. You could say, The original Godzilla, the one killed by Dr. Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer Bomb, was a male. All of the other Godzillas that followed were really a different Godzilla known to the US as Gigantis The Fire Monster, and female. So in the pre 1954 they may have had a tryst on the Island where Minya's egg was unearthed during the atomic storm.

[sakabatou]

60. However, Godzilla's child in Destroya was kick-ass

[BigMcLargehuge]

70. Godzilla jr. didn't really do anything until the end though

I was sort of "meh" with him in that film. I liked Baby better in Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2.

[begin_within]

30. In "X The Unknown," what was that thing made of?

[BigMcLargehuge]

33. All I remember of that one was it was an energy eater

but I'll be damned if I remember what it was made of.

[barb162]

44. Do you like Mothra or Godzilla more as to depth of character

and acting ability. Do you think the Smog Monster beats them on both counts

[BigMcLargehuge]

46. Mothra is my favorite Toho monster

because it projects the most duality, it is both beautiful and destructive, protective of the natives of Infant Island (and humanity by proxy) yet humanity was responsible for the terrible conditions on Infant Island, finally, Mothra has to die in every film and be reborn to fullfill her destiny (though this is less the case with the Heisei Mothra series).

Godzilla has two personalities based on which era of film you mean, analogy to nuclear holocaust, or friend to humanity.

Hedorah is a big blob.

[jukes]

51. gamara

hokey, or too-cool-for-school?

the turtle is 1 of my faves!

[BigMcLargehuge]

53. depends on the film -

Giant Monster Gammera - lots of fun.
Gamera vs. Barugon - Lots of fun
Gamera vs. Gaos - Lots of fun
Gamera vs. Monster X - not so fun
Gamera vs. Viras - utter unmittigated crap (boring and half of it is stock footage from the preceding fims)
Gamera vs. Guiron - Lots and lots of fun!
Gamera vs. Zigra - utter unmittigated crap (boring and half of it is stock footage from the preceding fims)
The one made in 1980 out of stock footage (can't remember the name) - Caca

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe - Fantastic
Gamera vs. Legion - Fantastic
Gamera vs. Iris - Fantastic

[jukes]

64. i know about 1/2 of those

concur on "monsterX", waste of film. i haven't seen the newest 1 that's on cable yet.


damn, you sure know the Giant Monster genre!! i'm seriously impressed. my rank dropt to 1st degree brownbelt in this thread.

[BigMcLargehuge]

67. you should rent the three Heisei Gamera titles

all directed by Shosuke Kaneko who went on to direct the best of the Godzilla Millennium series, Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah All out Attack.

All of them are VERY well written, beautifully paced, and gorgeous to look at.

[jukes]

68. i'll do that!

tx for the tip! i'm ready for a Giant Monster Marathon!

[sakabatou]

61. In the 1954 film, what animal could Godzilla not eat and why

I already know the answer to this.

[BigMcLargehuge]

62. I've never seen the 1954 original

only the 56 Americanized one with Burr, and that isn't in it.

Thankfully, in September, R1 will get an authorized release of the original 1954 film.

Mind telling me what it was?

[sakabatou]

63. I saw the original last year in SF

the answer: A cow, because the model was improportional to the costume. The cow looked to large in G's mouth.