G2KMaster
January 21st, 2009, 09:38 PM
http://www.historyvortex.org/GodzillaThingAmerica.jpg
Chapter One: Daikaiju Royale
Fallowing off of the success of the dismal King Kong vs. Godzilla, anothe kaiju team up was in order, only all Japanese and no humor. And with Mothra still popular since her debut film in 1961 based on a book, Mothra was brought back to do battle with what many call the best film in the Showa series besides Gojira.
http://www.historyvortex.org/GodzillaThingProp2.jpg
Godzilla was was desighnd by Teizo Toshimitzy and was played for a 4th time by Haruo Nakajima, but except for the Kiryu (Machine Dragon) Goji siut, this one had the most on screen damage. Godzilla's head had the fallowing damages: missing teeth (all of them) loss during filming of the destruction of the Nagoya Castle and Godzilla was actualy cremated during the army attack with the high voltage electric towers. All thiese events were by accident, as said by Nakajima in an interview. But for some reason, Eiji Tsuburaya liked the toothless maw of Godzilla. This was also the first time that the claws on the siut were made of Fibre-reinforced plastic.
http://www.godzilla.stopklatka.pl/godz-zdj/behin64a.jpg
Mothra is in comparison to her 1961 version, a midget. In 1961, she was this:
Length: 80 meters
Wingspan: 250 meters
Mass: 15,000 tons
now, this:
Length: 65 meters
Wingspan: 135 meters
Mass: 15,000 tons
But the marionette was still big, bigger than her 1961 counterpart. This change in size had let the new mothra twist her head, move her legs, and flap her wings more often. Making her the most realistic mothra till GMK... The mothra larva are more, deformed looking this time around, but were still nice props that kick Godzilla's butt.
http://ishirohonda.com/works/196404-mosugoji/images/196404-048s.jpg
Chapter Two: Production
http://ishirohonda.com/works/196404-mosugoji/images/196404-011s.jpg
The original script for Mothra vs. Godzilla was done by Shinichi Sekizawa and turned in Dec. 31 in 1963. From a basic viewpoint, the first draft of the screenplay is like the end product. But on closer inspection, there was alot of crap that was cut out. First was the fictional city of Rosilica from Mothra(1961) was going to be mentioned, giving continuity to the original Mothra film. Saddly, no continuity from that film to this film survived. The Roslicans were also scripted to use the frontier missles. Another alteration was the abstience of Mothra Lara. Instead, it was a Final War between Mothra and Godzilla, with Godzilla having loads more screen time and Mothra comming only at the nick of time.
http://ishirohonda.com/works/196404-mosugoji/images/196404-049s.jpg
Chapter Three: Released
The finished film was released on April 29, 1964. The film was criticaly and publicaly a success. Meanwhile, Toho were still working on the film with the one man that decided the fate of the Showa Godzilla even before Jun Fukuda: Henry Saperstein. Saperstein, being a fan of the original Godzilla and being lucky to see the original version before the sixties even began, would lead to the golden age of Toho's film with the main film in this era was Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster, Monster Zero, Frankenstein Conquers the World, and War of the Gargantuas. Back on topic, before Saperstein actualy ot involved with the making of Godzilla films, he was the distributor who worked at American International Pictures. Reported by Variety on May 6, 1964, Saperstein bought the theatrical and television rights to Motha vs. Godzilla. Early American titles for Godzilla vs. The Thing were such as "Godzilla vs. The Giant Moth". Salvaged from the first draft of the screenplay, the Frontier Missles (now being used by the Americans) were filmed in Toho and the negatives given to America International Pictures for editing into the film and international distribution outside Japan. To increase sales, signs like thiese showed up everywhere:
http://www.historyvortex.org/NewspaperGodzilla3.jpg
http://www.historyvortex.org/NewspaperGodzilla2.jpg
The film was released in America in Sep. 17, 1964. The box office success in America was saddly never recorded (subject to change) but it was a success. In Japan, the attendance total was 3,510,000... But that was not the end of the terror...
"New York Times film critic Eugene Archer reacted to the film and its title: "Well, there are three things, not counting the movie. One has wings and looks like a big bee. The other two are hatched from the first Thing's egg, after quite a bit of worshipful kootch dancing from a pair of foot-tall native goddesses..."."
-Wikipedia
Chapter Four: Return of Godzila vs. the Thing
Godzilla vs. The Thing was released in Korea July 1964, making for big distribution. But for West Germany, they waited till Apirl 5, 1974 (10 years since)to see the film, and France waited 31 years to see theatrical distribution in Jan. 25, 1995.
http://mechagodzilla.de/bilder/god-poster4.jpg
a late release with a megaro-goji siut...
Back in Japan, Godzilla vs. Mothra was edited again to the length of 62 minutes (26 minutes was taken out of the film) and was re-released in Japan on Dec. 19, 1970 during the second Godzilla 2+year absence. The attendance to this re-release was 730,000 tickets. The eighties were also an almost Godzilla-less year and so re-released on March 15 1980 using the same 62 minute cut as the previous re-release, Mothra vs. Godzilla was released again. Double billed with Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur, this re-re-release begot a friutfull atendance of 2,980,000 tickets and with new information, $10,000,000 (that is including distribution earning) total in box office. So, in Japan alone the film got a total atendace of 7,220,000 from 1964 to 1980.
The film has since gained respect and has been criticaly acaime everywhere. Through numrous releases and the most current release giving the americans american and Japanese versions, this film is going to be loved by kaiju fans young, old, and older... May I note that the Japanese DVD release does have the 62 minute version of Mothra vs. Godzilla. Check it out!
http://ishirohonda.com/works/196404-mosugoji/images/196404s-059.jpg
http://ishirohonda.com/works/196404-mosugoji/images/196404-005s.jpg
http://ishirohonda.com/works/196404-mosugoji/images/196404s-060.jpg
DISCLAIMER: Image's copyrights in this article belong to the proper copyright owners. Image sources: ishirohonda.com; history vortex. Saddly, some images died due to some websites going down, so this is not the complete document I wrote a year ago. All information in this article was researched by me, with the three major sources being the Kalat Text, monsterzero.us, and history vortex. For more images, here is some links:
http://www.japanesegiants.com/honda/works/196404-mosugoji/196404-mosugoji.shtml
http://augustragone.blogspot.com/2009/01/happy-birthday-haruo-nakajima-they.html
MAY BE UPDATED!
Chapter One: Daikaiju Royale
Fallowing off of the success of the dismal King Kong vs. Godzilla, anothe kaiju team up was in order, only all Japanese and no humor. And with Mothra still popular since her debut film in 1961 based on a book, Mothra was brought back to do battle with what many call the best film in the Showa series besides Gojira.
http://www.historyvortex.org/GodzillaThingProp2.jpg
Godzilla was was desighnd by Teizo Toshimitzy and was played for a 4th time by Haruo Nakajima, but except for the Kiryu (Machine Dragon) Goji siut, this one had the most on screen damage. Godzilla's head had the fallowing damages: missing teeth (all of them) loss during filming of the destruction of the Nagoya Castle and Godzilla was actualy cremated during the army attack with the high voltage electric towers. All thiese events were by accident, as said by Nakajima in an interview. But for some reason, Eiji Tsuburaya liked the toothless maw of Godzilla. This was also the first time that the claws on the siut were made of Fibre-reinforced plastic.
http://www.godzilla.stopklatka.pl/godz-zdj/behin64a.jpg
Mothra is in comparison to her 1961 version, a midget. In 1961, she was this:
Length: 80 meters
Wingspan: 250 meters
Mass: 15,000 tons
now, this:
Length: 65 meters
Wingspan: 135 meters
Mass: 15,000 tons
But the marionette was still big, bigger than her 1961 counterpart. This change in size had let the new mothra twist her head, move her legs, and flap her wings more often. Making her the most realistic mothra till GMK... The mothra larva are more, deformed looking this time around, but were still nice props that kick Godzilla's butt.
http://ishirohonda.com/works/196404-mosugoji/images/196404-048s.jpg
Chapter Two: Production
http://ishirohonda.com/works/196404-mosugoji/images/196404-011s.jpg
The original script for Mothra vs. Godzilla was done by Shinichi Sekizawa and turned in Dec. 31 in 1963. From a basic viewpoint, the first draft of the screenplay is like the end product. But on closer inspection, there was alot of crap that was cut out. First was the fictional city of Rosilica from Mothra(1961) was going to be mentioned, giving continuity to the original Mothra film. Saddly, no continuity from that film to this film survived. The Roslicans were also scripted to use the frontier missles. Another alteration was the abstience of Mothra Lara. Instead, it was a Final War between Mothra and Godzilla, with Godzilla having loads more screen time and Mothra comming only at the nick of time.
http://ishirohonda.com/works/196404-mosugoji/images/196404-049s.jpg
Chapter Three: Released
The finished film was released on April 29, 1964. The film was criticaly and publicaly a success. Meanwhile, Toho were still working on the film with the one man that decided the fate of the Showa Godzilla even before Jun Fukuda: Henry Saperstein. Saperstein, being a fan of the original Godzilla and being lucky to see the original version before the sixties even began, would lead to the golden age of Toho's film with the main film in this era was Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster, Monster Zero, Frankenstein Conquers the World, and War of the Gargantuas. Back on topic, before Saperstein actualy ot involved with the making of Godzilla films, he was the distributor who worked at American International Pictures. Reported by Variety on May 6, 1964, Saperstein bought the theatrical and television rights to Motha vs. Godzilla. Early American titles for Godzilla vs. The Thing were such as "Godzilla vs. The Giant Moth". Salvaged from the first draft of the screenplay, the Frontier Missles (now being used by the Americans) were filmed in Toho and the negatives given to America International Pictures for editing into the film and international distribution outside Japan. To increase sales, signs like thiese showed up everywhere:
http://www.historyvortex.org/NewspaperGodzilla3.jpg
http://www.historyvortex.org/NewspaperGodzilla2.jpg
The film was released in America in Sep. 17, 1964. The box office success in America was saddly never recorded (subject to change) but it was a success. In Japan, the attendance total was 3,510,000... But that was not the end of the terror...
"New York Times film critic Eugene Archer reacted to the film and its title: "Well, there are three things, not counting the movie. One has wings and looks like a big bee. The other two are hatched from the first Thing's egg, after quite a bit of worshipful kootch dancing from a pair of foot-tall native goddesses..."."
-Wikipedia
Chapter Four: Return of Godzila vs. the Thing
Godzilla vs. The Thing was released in Korea July 1964, making for big distribution. But for West Germany, they waited till Apirl 5, 1974 (10 years since)to see the film, and France waited 31 years to see theatrical distribution in Jan. 25, 1995.
http://mechagodzilla.de/bilder/god-poster4.jpg
a late release with a megaro-goji siut...
Back in Japan, Godzilla vs. Mothra was edited again to the length of 62 minutes (26 minutes was taken out of the film) and was re-released in Japan on Dec. 19, 1970 during the second Godzilla 2+year absence. The attendance to this re-release was 730,000 tickets. The eighties were also an almost Godzilla-less year and so re-released on March 15 1980 using the same 62 minute cut as the previous re-release, Mothra vs. Godzilla was released again. Double billed with Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur, this re-re-release begot a friutfull atendance of 2,980,000 tickets and with new information, $10,000,000 (that is including distribution earning) total in box office. So, in Japan alone the film got a total atendace of 7,220,000 from 1964 to 1980.
The film has since gained respect and has been criticaly acaime everywhere. Through numrous releases and the most current release giving the americans american and Japanese versions, this film is going to be loved by kaiju fans young, old, and older... May I note that the Japanese DVD release does have the 62 minute version of Mothra vs. Godzilla. Check it out!
http://ishirohonda.com/works/196404-mosugoji/images/196404s-059.jpg
http://ishirohonda.com/works/196404-mosugoji/images/196404-005s.jpg
http://ishirohonda.com/works/196404-mosugoji/images/196404s-060.jpg
DISCLAIMER: Image's copyrights in this article belong to the proper copyright owners. Image sources: ishirohonda.com; history vortex. Saddly, some images died due to some websites going down, so this is not the complete document I wrote a year ago. All information in this article was researched by me, with the three major sources being the Kalat Text, monsterzero.us, and history vortex. For more images, here is some links:
http://www.japanesegiants.com/honda/works/196404-mosugoji/196404-mosugoji.shtml
http://augustragone.blogspot.com/2009/01/happy-birthday-haruo-nakajima-they.html
MAY BE UPDATED!