By the way, as promised the episode guide entries for the first two Gamera episodes in season three are still open if you were waiting for the set to see them and comment.
To get you in the mood, several takes on the Gamera theme song.
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Weekend Discussion Thread: All Things GameraIt’s been a pretty Gamera-centric week in MSTiedom, for obvious reasons, so let’s round out the week with a full on discussion of the new set, your favorite episodes and your favorite moments from the TEN Gamera eps (including KTMA), the original movies (which is your favorite?) and anything else Gamera-related.
93 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: All Things Gamera”Commenting at Satellite News
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REALLY NEAT. FULL OF MEAT.
As someone who has never seen any of the MST3K Gamera movies before, getting this set was exciting for me. I had seen at least one Gamera movie un-misted before (Gamera vs. Gaos), so I wanted to see what Joel and the Bots could do. Of the 4 I’ve watched (all except Gamera vs. Zigra), I have to say that Gamera vs. Gaos is my favourite. I watched Gamera vs. Guiron last night and, maybe it was lack of sleep, but I found it an occasionally funny, incomprehensible mess. Having said that, though, my personal highlight of it was the constant “Richard Burton” dialogue Crow kept inserting into the movie.
I love this box set.
I love my tin box.
I LOVED Gamera and Gamera vs. Guiron. I thought Baragon and Gaos were ok. Zigra was pretty good. Too bad we didn’t have a Godzilla vs. Gamera movie
I absolutely love Gamera Versus Guiron–just one of the goofiest movies ever made. (It’s obviously an updated fairy tale–complete with “massive babeage” wicked witches–which makes it that much more hilarious.) And the episode itself is superb–I mean, it has everything from a tribute to Richard Burton to Michael Feinstein (“kill him”). It’s great to have the Gamera movies in one (cool) tin box!
I ordered mine from Amazon with free shipping, so it hasn’t arrived yet.
I hear that some people got their sets a couple of days before Tuesday. Amazon has delivered mine on Monday a few times, but never Sunday! How did people get it so early? Did they order from MST3K.COM or Shout online or something?
GizmonicTemp: I pre-ordered mine from Shout Factory direct. They shipped it the last Thursday of July, and it showed up on Tuesday afternoon. I might have been able to get it on Monday, but we had a holiday up here. They use FedEx, so while you pay for shipping, it tends to get here quickly.
Same here, Sitting Duck. I’m still waiting for the box set to show up so I can watch all the extras, but in the meantime I’ve been rewatching all the Gamera episodes. Gamera vs Guiron is absolutely one of my top 10 favorites; I find things to like in all the Gamera eps, but GvsG is far and away the most enjoyable, with all the things that make MST fun for me.
Come on, PO! Maybe the box will show up today….?
I know I’m in the minority here but I thought they did too many Gamera movies. I also think the same thing about the Hercules episodes. That being said, I did enjoy the scene with a Mother talking to Cornjob and constantly saying “thank you” after every sentence. My favorite of the bunch is the outer space episode where the women feasted on little boys brains and the monster had a huge Ginsu knife for a head.
I finally said “The heck with it!” and bought the set. My favorite Gamera moment is from “Gamera vs Gaos” when Joel does the “Gaos The Great” segment. Just seeing him tryin to spin the plates is rather hilarious.
FYI, I recently discovered a Gamera movie called “Gamera Super Monster.” It’s bascially just a re-vamped version of Gamera vs Gaos (with some of the same exactly footage!). Here’s the link from imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081675/
Copied and pasted from imbd:
Gamera Super Monster is truly shameless, a color film that somehow makes a sad excuse to insert footage from the black & white original on someone’s TV set, this despite having the tech to create color screens on their living room walls. None of this is the fault of longtime series director Noriaki Yuasa, but the heads of slowly crumbling studio Daei, the higher-ups going in with the belief this would save them from bankruptcy. It didnt.
Super Monster landed nine years after what appeared to be the final in a growing line of Daei kaiju epics, Gamera vs. Zigra. While not quite on the same shoestring budget, Zigra remains a sorely lacking affair, concerned more with being a giant promotion for Sea World than anything else.
The true Gamera fans are groaning though, knowing that nearly every single clip from the film is stock footage from of the previous Gamera outings, and the new footage is so cheaply done, its to the point of unwatchable. Fast forwarding past the sheer nonsense that is presented here as narrative, (filled with so many glaring plot holes, logic gaps, and absurdities to the point of ridiculousness), you can catch up on an entire franchise in a mere hour or so.
I also wanted to mention that I recently purchased the original version of Gamera vs Zigra in hopes it would be a bit less painful that the dubbed one. It’s not. The only real difference is that the original is less yellow. I don’t know if it’s DAP, but my copy has a lot of yellow in it. The Gamera song is in the beginning of the movie and I find myself singing the MST3K version of it.
I know, I’m strange.
Tickles me so when Gamera fights belly up, feet sticking out aimed at his opponent, carried along by sliding on his tail. What law of physics allows that?
My set hasn’t arrived yet, but I’ve seen all of them plenty, and absolutely love these movies, so a few highlights from memory. I love the terribly dubbed scientist’s speech at the beginning of Gamera vs Guiron. Just a wonderful derangement of language. In general the worse the dubbing the more I like it. I love the line from Gamera vs Zigra where the two preschool age kids are trapped in the space babe’s ship and when trying to figure out how to get out one of them cleverly suggests “why don’t we try the opposite way we came in.” Stupid dialogue at its dumbest. Cornjob is a treat of course. Actually any of the general weirdness is a treat. And the Fish Argument from Zigra!! Also from Zigra I loved Joel’s exasperated reaction when it was revealed one of the kids was (yet again) named Kenny. The Gamera theme song was much fun, both when sung by the Japanese kids in one of the movies, and when done on the SOL. Also loved Mike’s piano based version of it. I’m not sure who he was impersonating, but he was hilarious as usual. His appearance in the Hexfield as Gamera was great as well. Mike’s guest roles back then were always good. Lastly I was entranced by the woman who played Karen from Barugon. My favorite actress in any MSTed movie. Just absolutely gorgeous, with great screen presence. Need to find out what else she was in.
Thanks, Sampo, for including several takes on the Gamera theme song! (Wait a minute–now I’m NEVER going to get the Gamera theme song out of my head. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!)
Michael Feinstein: “Oh my God, I’m in so much pain, somebody please help me, somebody come and save me!”
Love the first one “Gamera” with the Japanese Col. Sanders!!!
And another thought, can any body tell me why Gamera has a “thing” for young boys?
Of the five episodes in the new box set, “Gamera vs. Guiron”, ranks as one of my favorites. The voice actors used to dub the movie from Japanese to English did an embarrassingly bad job, leaving painfully long and awkward gaps in the dialogue. Joel and the ‘bots point this out early on. Try to follow what Dr. Shiga is saying at the press conference at the beginning of the film.
Favorie riff –
Florbella: Bad boy.
Joel (as Tom and Akio): You can spank us now!
Of the Gamera movies I watched, Gamera vs. Guiron was definitely the most surreal of them all. And this is a series about a giant rocket-powered turtle, so that’s saying something… :-)
When watching it, I definitely got a sense of fun from Joel and the Bots that isn’t usally there. They were cheerfully lobbing quips at it…
The Gamera boxset is amazing. I especially love the animated menus with Gamera walking through the S1-half of 5 doors at the beginnings. I know alot of people wanted a “Gamera toy” with it, but you can always find those at a Japanese toy store. ;)
For Gamera moments, I liked when in K08, Gypsy knocked Crow out cold and he dreams he keeps sending the mads in space “A planet of the Apes Christmas”. I’d love it if that was an actual movie. XD I also loved the “Gamera theme song” in 312, of course. One more thing I especially loved was when “Gamera” (Mike Nelson) visited the SOL in 302.
I like all the Gamera films on their own, but my favorite one is Gamera vs Barugon. Barugon is my favorite Japanese rubber monster and best of all in that movie….. no annoying kids. :D real shame the movie didn’t have much monster action, though.
Gamera kind of sneaks up on you. Boo it says.
Gamera vs. Guiron is probably my favorite episode. It has it all, including several great musical numbers and Mike’s great take on Michael Feinstein. Also, don’t forget the Japanese babes from Indiana.
The Gamera vs. MST3K feature: So Happy Together: A Look Back at MST3K and Gamera is a fun trip down memory lane.
Great set! Would be cool to have an option to watch the episodes with the “MST Hour” wraps.
And a Gamera statue would have been cool too.
My favorite of the Gamera series is Gamera Vs. Gaos, probably due to the fact that it has some of the best host segments (The Gameramadung! Joel’s Arts And Crafts Corner!) and the Japanese Laurel and Hardy guys. My second favorite is Gamera Vs. Guiron. (Is that the one with Ginsu Knife-zilla, the brain eating babes and Officer Cornjob?) I think that Mike’s 50 lounge singer should have become a reoccuring character, like Jack Perkins.
The only problem with the Gamera series is that they tend to blend together in my mind.
Still waiting for my set.
GAMERA vs BARAGON was my very first episode. I was visiting my brother who had Comedy Central. (and was Three. . .THREE! blocks away)I did not have Comedy Central. He asked me if I had heard of this show and we watched a tape he made of GvB. And I was doomed!
GAMERA vs BARAGON was also my first WTF moment on MST3K.
The hero was shot and the girl-I think she sucked the bullet out or something. But Servo said “Thank you” and Joel said “You’re one spooky chick.”
That is one tape lost to the ages and my quotes could be wrong.
But deep down, you never forget your first.
“CHAR-BROILED CITY, CHAR-BROILED CITY!”
The Gamera episodes are amongst my all time favorites! I wish they had done the other two classic Gamera movies “Viras” and “Jiger”, so they’d have the complete set (I don’t count “Super Monster” for the reasons Laura posted in #11). Heck, I’d like to see Rifftrax tackle the modern rebooted Gamera movies: “Guardian of the Universe”, “Attack of Legion”, “Awakening of Irys”, and the failed re-reboot “Gamera the Brave”.
#17-And another thought, can any body tell me why Gamera has a “thing” for young boys?
The writers used a boy in the story to hook in the target audience: boys.
And I think it’s the same thing why boys want to be The Hulk or The Rock or Terry “The Hulk” Holgan.
The Gamera Obscura feature is probably the most enlightening of the entire set for me, since explains some of the weirdness of the Gamera films, like why all the white kids in the later films (AIP pre-bought the films) and the ridiculous Blind Idiot Translation of Gamera vs. Guiron (Sandy Frank did a license rescue when AIP’s expired; Guiron’s dub was likely one that Daiei itself did, which explains why they keep calling planets “stars”.)
On the other hand, I love the Gamera vs. Zigra DVD menu, probably because they strung together all the Monty Python references.
I’m looking forward to watching Barugon, since that’s the only one I haven’t seen yet of the set.
I love the Gamera movies. So thrilled with this release.
My 2 favorites have always been Gamera vs. Guiron and Gamera vs. Zigra. They’re the 2 goofiest by a mile.
Favorite moments? Tough to narrow it down.
I love Mike and Bridget playing Japanese children and visiting the SOL.
Every permutation both in film and host segments of the Gamera theme song. Up there with my all-time favorite MST3K moments.
Cornjob.
The stinger in the original Gamera (and any time Joel references it).
Whenever Crow uses a Brooklyn accent when doing Gamera’s voice. “Alright, alright…”
@boot blacking, There are a number of Gamera toys out there of varying price ranges. I know Revoltech does a good job in terms of articulation and screen accuracy, but they’re fairly expensive.
I’m not a huge fan of the Gamera episodes, but the box set is very nice. I love that Shout put together a themed set this time out. Hope they’ll consider it again in the future.
Has anybody found any Easter Eggs on the new Gamera set yet?
I just realized that Mike is on the silouette not Joel. Strange.
I just got mine yesterday afternoon, but I’ve opened it and all seems to be in order. Acceptable. Now, if I can find time to actually watch them…
In Afghanistan, anxiously awating my copy! Should be here any day now!!
A question about my favorite sketch of the Gamera series… where Joel shows the kids at home how to make a Gaos art project and Crow & Tom give not so helpful suggestions.
When Joel tells everyone what supplies they’ll need, Tom offers that they’ll also need some powdered rhino horn. Crow then says something about blood, which I can’t for the life of me understand. Anyone know what the heck he’s sayin’???
My favorite part is also the various treatments of the Gamera theme song, with the crowning achievement being the greatness that is Mike’s Michael Feinstein impression.
Gamera’s the latest thing
He fills our hearts with spring, spring, spring
Anytime you want some moonbeams
(sotto voce) Gamera is the thing
Received the new issue of Entertainment Weekly just now and at number 6 on THE MUST LIST is MST3K’s Gamera episodes on dvd.They say: The MST3K crew lovingly mocks the wonderfully cheesy Japanese monster film series in five episodes from 1991.It will definitely be the most fun you’ll have with two robots and a giant turtle all year…Pretty cool,huh? And,as far as the Gamera box set: I LIKE IT VERY MUCH!! :-) :-)) :-)) :-)) :-)) :-)) :-))
I’m currently in flux in an Extended Stay hotel while my condo sits empty in escrow after months of trying to sell. I’m having the set sent to my family 3,000 miles away where I’ll be visiting in a couple weeks. Can’t wait to get my hands on it!
Since my set is apparently being sent on the back of a donkey across the country from Amazon since I opted for the free shipping, I don’t have it yet (although according to the tracking it was in Sacramento as of 4:30 this morning so MAYBE it will be in the Bay Area today?). But from my memories of the episodes, I thought it was really interesting how the Gamera character evolved from fearsome monster into the goofball friend of the children he was in the later movies. I dont remember which movie it was specifically but in one of them he does a little celebration dance when he beats the other monster and I just think that is pretty amazingly corny but Im sure kids back then just ate that up.
My absolute favorite thing about all of the Gamera episodes however is Mike’s performance of the Gamera song. This is actually one of my top 5 favorite moments of the whole series.
My favorite by far is Gamera vs Guiron. I had a tape with that, Being from Another Planet, and Giant Gila Monster (or maybe TFOS) (yeah, SLP) that I watched a million times. :-D
Thanks to a lean period and expensive (ahemfigurine) sets, I still haven’t picked up XVIII yet :( , although I might pick up XX if the used prices drop on Amazon.
And yes, @5, there’s just something about vsGuiron’s plot (space babes, alien planets with no traffic accidents) that makes it….ESSENTIAL Goofy Japanese Kaiju in Search of a Gimmick-Plot, that Gaos and Zigra didn’t have.
It’s hard to remember that Gamera wasn’t Toho and never met Godzilla, since Toho always did the gimmick-subplots with more imaginative goofiness.
And if they only had to do one Gamera host-seg, the Michael Feinstein would’ve been it.
(And they never did get around to doing Viras’s Boy Scout/Fantastic Voyage plot, but asking J&tB to do the entire Sandy Frank series twice when it was already a chore with no script in KTMA, was above and beyond the call of duty. Like Servo wearily says in Barugon, “Well, kids, you said you WANTED to see giant monsters…”)
They included the “Please Turn Down Your Lights (Where Applicable)” opening on Gamera!
Great! For once, I will be saved the hassle of splicing that back on to the episode on a DVD-R.
I hope they keep it up – and restore the “Show XXX, Reel 1” openings to future S4-S6 releases, as well.
I know I’m piling on, but ‘Gamera Vs. Guiron’ is so VERY insane… Am I imagining things or does the American kid, Tommy, wear pretty much the same expression of dull wonderment throughout the entire film? I love the moment where the kids have crashed the ship on the spacewomen’s homeworld and are lying on the floor. Remember, they’ve supposedly been flung about by the force of the landing and were knocked unconscious. Akiro is sprawled reasonably well (over Tommy), but Tommy is lying flat on his back, arms at his sides, legs straight, like a tin soldier. A brilliant acting choice.
Haven’t been able to remember where, but I do remember reading or hearing one of the ‘Groovy Space Women’s’ voices was done by a very young Sandra Bernhard. She was just starting out and she did the ridiculous Southern accent as a joke, convincing the other actress to do it too. It’s an insight into the level of care taken in a Sandy Frank production it never occurred to anyone to fix it…
Was ‘Gamera, Super Monster’ the one with the spacewomen who change clothes by voguing like The Power Rangers, the bad spacewoman who didn’t even look happy when Gamera won each time, and the demented little boy who plays the Gamera Theme on the Hammond Organ? I have to admit, I love that one. Even if there is no new Gamera footage, the other stuff more than makes up for it.
Wishing everyone an advanced world with no wars or traffic accidents. Can I have a Coke?
I appreciate getting this set because it really fills in a lot of holes for season 3 in my collection. I like all of them, but Gamera Vs. Guiron gets the edge for Cornjob, the “Bike song” and the Michael Feinstein host segment.
I really liked the cast comments and memories in “So Happy Together”. The Chiodo brothers talking about the difficulties and dangers of being the man in the rubber suit gave me a greater appreciation for what those people go through to bring us these movies. The Ragone review of the history of giant monster movies from Japan was initially interesting, but turned out to be not so “brief”, and I found myself bored with it after the first 10-15 minutes.
A most worthy effort, to which I say “Hai!”
For me, because I was having a hard time feeling like I was “getting” the show when I tried to get into it a few months back (yes, I’m a fairly newly minted MSTie)I went back and started with the KTMA’s and, despite the fact that I actually have fond memories of the Gamera movies from when I was a kid (watching them on KPLR, channel 11 — St. Louis’s more successful version of KTMA), and despite the fact that I can actually find a kind of rough charm in the KTMA episodes….
I’m surprised the “gosh-darned turtle movies” didn’t sink the show before it ever got off the ground!
There is a kind of monotony that can set in when the Gamera films are watched in bulk.
I’m waiting to get my set in the mail too but even when it comes I kind of doubt I’ll watch them all in a rush.
And when I was a kid, my favorite of the Gamera movies was “Gamera vs. Jiger” — which is one the MST3K team never riffed. Even as an unsophisticated seven year old, though, I couldn’t take “Gamera vs. Guiron”. All that bad dubbing! Ick. There is nothing Joel and the bots could do to that film that it didn’t deserve.
Hey Laura (#11) – “Gamera, the Super Monster” is available on DVD as an episode of “Movie Macabre,” hosted by Elvira. It’s a shame MST never got to riff it, but the Elvira version is pretty fun!
I scheduled my VCR to tape Gamera vs. Zigra back during the CC days; and because episode length differed between earlier vs. later episodes due to the increase of commercials time, I missed out on getting the closing host segment with all the different music stylings of the Gamera song. So, I’m just now witnessing Trace’s mullet in all its glory. I can see where David Spade got his inspiration for Joe Dirt.
I got my set and I am waiting for a full day to do all five episodes back to back….It’s BOLD!
I’m finding myself really loving the Guiron episode, now with the new box set’s stunning clarity, when compared to my old mpeg version! These Gamera films are very colorful, and need to be seen clean like this. While as before, it was hard for me to watch these, due to bad copies. Now, I’ve been watching these all week!
I was really glad to see the “Turn down your lights where applicable” thing before the episodes started. I think these are the first DVD releases to include that.