More Godzilla thoughts
Jun. 22nd, 2004 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmcirvin1. The name "Godzilla" is an anglicization of "Gojira". I think that, among all the stupid things that were done to the original movie for American release, this one decision was absolutely brilliant: not only is "Godzilla" a plausible variant of the Japanese, it's a name with perfect associations in English. It's got "god" in it, and also "gorilla", as in King Kong; and what's left is the letter Z, a letter beloved of all monsters and aliens. This was an act of translation easily as good as the transformation of Astérix's little dog Idéfix into "Dogmatix."
2. I was wondering precisely when the Godzilla series truly passed from sober meditations on destruction and tragedy to goofy multi-monster-stomps designed for kid appeal. The answer seems to be 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla, which was Godzilla's third appearance (after the unsuccessful Godzilla Raids Again aka Gigantis the Fire Monster, and some movies about other monsters), the first one in color, and one of the first movies that introduced me to the joys of watching cheesy movies. Mind you, King Kong vs. Godzilla was actually directed by Ishiro Honda, and the US release was once again mashed up with new footage, so it may not have been quite as silly originally. But some of the original footage is still pretty goofadelic, particularly the part in which they tranquilize King Kong and airlift him with giant balloons to the designated Godzilla-fighting spot.
King Kong vs. Godzilla, then, was the movie that truly inaugurated the 1960s series of sublime Toho monster smackdowns, most of them involving sinister aliens in shiny jumpsuits, of which the biggest with the mostest was 1968's Destroy All Monsters, the movie with the greatest title in movie history. Update: IMDB reports that the original title of Destroy All Monsters was the far less memorable Monster Invasion. For once, the American distributors improved something.
2. I was wondering precisely when the Godzilla series truly passed from sober meditations on destruction and tragedy to goofy multi-monster-stomps designed for kid appeal. The answer seems to be 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla, which was Godzilla's third appearance (after the unsuccessful Godzilla Raids Again aka Gigantis the Fire Monster, and some movies about other monsters), the first one in color, and one of the first movies that introduced me to the joys of watching cheesy movies. Mind you, King Kong vs. Godzilla was actually directed by Ishiro Honda, and the US release was once again mashed up with new footage, so it may not have been quite as silly originally. But some of the original footage is still pretty goofadelic, particularly the part in which they tranquilize King Kong and airlift him with giant balloons to the designated Godzilla-fighting spot.
King Kong vs. Godzilla, then, was the movie that truly inaugurated the 1960s series of sublime Toho monster smackdowns, most of them involving sinister aliens in shiny jumpsuits, of which the biggest with the mostest was 1968's Destroy All Monsters, the movie with the greatest title in movie history. Update: IMDB reports that the original title of Destroy All Monsters was the far less memorable Monster Invasion. For once, the American distributors improved something.
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Date: 2004-06-22 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-23 08:00 pm (UTC)I don't know why. It makes me happy.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-23 08:00 pm (UTC)I don't know why. It makes me happy.