Movie: (1966): Searching for his brother who was lost at sea, a guy and his pals wash up on an island, guarded by crab-shrimp monster Ebirah, where some sort of evil paramilitary group has built an installation, unaware that Godzilla is asleep in a cave nearby. The brother turns out to be on an island nearby worshiping Mothra. Got all that?
First shown: 2/2/91
Opening: Joel reads “The Velveteen Rabbit” and does all the voices
Invention exchange: Joel shows off his mind-controlled guitar, while the mads have doggie chew toy guitars.
Host segment 1: J&tB sing “The Godzilla Genealogy Bop”
Host segment 2: Joel succumbs to space madness and begins building very bad models
Host segment 3: Despite Joel’s warning, Crow and Tom spoof the Mothra twins, only to meet Mothra on the Hexfield!
End: J&tB discuss famous sayings actors didn’t actually say and look through some “Cool Thing contest ” entries; the Mads consider a corporate re-think
Stinger: Everyone bows down before Mothra
(144 votes, average: 4.36 out of 5)
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• There’s no avoiding comparing this week’s episode to last week’s, since they’re both Godzilla movies. This one isn’t quite the classic last week’s outing was, but it’s still lots of fun. The plot is a little more confusing, but I chalk that up to the editing by Film Ventures International. All the host segments are worth at least a few laughs, and the riffing is solid throughout.
• This episode is not yet commercially available (and seems unlikely to ever be).
• What’s the name if this movie? It was “Gojira — Ebira — Mosura: Nankai No Dai Ketto,” in the original Japanese (translation: “Godzilla — Ebirah — Mothra: The Great South Seas Duel”). But it had other names in various incarnations, including “Ebirah, Horror Of The Deep” (also “Ebirah, Terror Of The Deep” ) when it was released in England, “Big Duel In The North” (also “Big Duel In The North Sea”), “Ritorno Di Godzilla” (“The Return Of Godzilla”) when it was released in Italy and, for some reason, “Frankenstein Und Dis Ungehauer Aus Dem Meer” (“Frankenstein and the Monsters from the Sea”) when it was released in Germany. Frankenstein?
• For the first time since Joel admonished Crow a few episodes back, he again goes for the Lloyd Bridges “By this time my lungs were aching for air” riff.
• For some reason J&tB wait for the FVI credits to be over before entering the theater. Was this something contractual, I wonder?
• This is our first FVI title. For those who don’t know, Film Ventures International was a company that obtained the rights to films after the copyright expired, and then re-edited and re-marketed the film (sometimes under a different name, sometimes not). We’ll get more FVI titles next season. By the way, the clips used during the opening credits are from “Son of Godzilla.”
• Callbacks: “Rock climbing!” (Lost Continent) “You and your friends the only creeps in this joint.” (Wild Rebels) “Linda!” (Women of the Prehistoric Planet?)
• Just for the record, what Joel is reading in the opening segment is nothing even remotely like the real “Velveteen Rabbit.”
• As the characters sneak into the installation, it’s another classic case of a bad guy’s building with hallways that have structures that stick out from the walls, making sneaking around easier. Only in the movies.
• Local reference: Somebody mentions Trip Shakespeare, a Minnesota-based band some BBI staffers knew.
• Joel actually sort of acts during segment two. Not that Joel isn’t performing all the time on the show, but let’s face it, Joel Robinson the character is not that far removed from Joel Hodgson the guy. But in this scene he has to actually act like he’s kind of crazy. He does a good job, I think!
• Then-current reference: Bhopal. Kind of a dark riff.
• I thought the “Karl Malden’s nose!” line of the “Godzilla Genealogy Bop” was just a non sequitur, but this time I noticed a little random throw-away riff where they observe that Godzilla has a nose a lot like Karl’s, which I guess is where that line came from.
• Incidentally, the “Godzilla Genealogy Bop” is one of those songs some fans forget, but it’s quite a lot of fun.
• That’s Mike as the voice of Mothra, of course, in segment 3.
• It seems like they wanted to have the Mothra prop blink, but couldn’t come up with a mechanism, so they sort of shaded the light that was shining on his eyes. Didn’t really work.
• Another then-current reference: “Cocooning,” was one of those short-lived buzzwords that arose when the 200-channel cable universe arrived and just about every movie you could think of was on VHS, so people supposedly stopped going out and just stayed home taking in entertainment in their “cocoon.” Wikipedia says it was coined by none other than Faith Popcorn, who was later parodied by the Brains.
• NOT-current reference, as Crow points out: “Thicke of the Night,” a talk show hosted by actor Alan Thicke (father of recent pop star Robin Thicke).
• Trivia: The script for this movie was actually written for King Kong, but Godzilla was substituted when rights to Kong weren’t available. What about Frankenstein?
• Cast and crew roundup: As noted in the previous episode, several of the cast of “Godzilla vs. Megalon” also worked on this. I won’t repeat all those. Special effects guys Eiji Tsuburaya and Teisho Arikawa also worked on “Mighty Jack.” Akira Watanabe worked on “The Green Slime.” The guy who wrote the score (clearly for the FVI version), Karl Michael Demer, also did the music for other FVI titles, including “Cave Dwellers,” “Pod People,” “Master Ninja I” and “Master Ninja II.” In front of the camera, Eisei Amamoto is also “Mighty Jack” and Wataru Omae was also in “Time of the Apes.”
• CreditsWatch: The whole “creative pit boss” thing is gone. “Villians” is still misspelled. Makeup lady Faye Burkholder must have tossed out some riffs that got used, because she was added to the list of writers for the first time since the KTMA era. Burkholder also gets a co-writing credit with Kevin on the “Geneaology Bop.” Mole person Sylvia was intern Robert Czech and mole person Jerry was intern Nathan Molstad. And the “Squeeky” Toy Orchestra (the people providing all the additional squeaky-toy noises during the Mads’ invention exchange) were Mike, Jef Maynard and Alex Carr.
• Favorite riff: “It’s the Mothra Graham Dance Troupe.” Honorable mention: “What a party! That last shot I saw crabs!”
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Back to back Godzilla. It’s like a double feature.
For me this falls into the Sampo “Good but not great” tm category. Very solid workmanlike riffing keeps this light and watchable.
Just as the Mads stealing Joel’s inventions was starting to get old, they come up with this clever twist to freshen it up. Joel may have had the superior version of the invention. I want one. If I had one there might still be hope for me with the ladies. But Frank had the superior rock look and Clayton and Frank together had a better stage show. At least as far as the invention exchange goes this was a strong end to season 2.
As Sampo mentions the Space Madness sketch does give us a glimpse into Joel’s acting chops. While he shouldn’t quit his day job it was fun to watch. At the same time I loved the symbolism of the Bots crushing Joel’s creation in a very Godzilla taking out Tokyo kind of way.
Someone explain to me where this fits into the Godzilla universe. On the one extreme there is the original film which was a monster horror flick. On the other extreme there was last week’s experiment which was a full fledged kid flick. So what is this film?
Favorite Riffs:
Tom “You guys are nuts. I want to party with you.”
Tom “The weather started getting rough.” Joel “The tiny ship was tossed.” Crow “So was my lunch.”
Joel “Hey you got my money in your backgammon.” Crow “You got your money in my backgammon.” Tom “Look they’re liquid assets now.” Crow “Is that what they call laundered money?”
Crow “It’s clobbering time.”
Joel “Maybe the eye patch guy taught him to shoot.” Crow “No, he was cleaning his bayonet and it went off.”
I actually really like the movie itself. I’ve never seen the episode, sadly.
Slight nitpick. It was Crow who pointed out the non-currentness of the Thicke of the Night joke, not Tom.
Of the two Godzilla flicks given the MST3K treatment, this is the weaker. And I think it’s because “..vs. The Sea Monster” is a pretty solid Godzilla movie. I would love to have seen them tear into “Son of Godzilla” or “All Monsters Attack” instead.
As I mentioned last week, I love both Godzilla episodes, but I seem to derive the most enjoyment from this one. Maybe ’cause I can sort of follow the plot better, and also, Godzilla is much more of his usual badass self in this one. Hell, he fights three monsters! (And he doesn’t have Jet Jaguar dragging him down, either.)
“Someone explain to me where this fits into the Godzilla universe. On the one extreme there is the original film which was a monster horror flick. On the other extreme there was last week’s experiment which was a full fledged kid flick. So what is this film?”
I think this comes from that period in the ’60s where Godzilla movies hadn’t quite become cheap kids’ fare yet, but Godzilla was still portrayed as a hero rather than a monster, so the tone of the series was lighter overall.
I suspect I can’t be very objective about this one. It was the first episode I taped and as a result it got a lot of runs as I played it for others who had never heard of the show. As a result I became very familiar with it (which results in extra fondness) — also I had not seen the previous Godzilla episode so there was no comparison at the time.
I sometimes manage to paraphrase Crow’s Thicke of the Night quip into other situations. It takes some doing, but the payoff is usually worth it.
BIG reason I enjoyed this one, NO kids in upsettingly small pants! The adults in this one were actually entertaining without being annoying, mostly.
Those evil soldiers must have a short shelf life, they seem to run in front of each other while firing weapons. Lots of toys in this one, especially enjoyed the canoes that look like converted wind toys.
I thought the riffs were funny and the host segments above average so I give it a solid 4.
This one is not as memorable as the Megalon episode simply because the movie itself is not as spectacular or amusing in its creative weirdness, but it is nevertheless filled with some great stuff from MST3K.
Joel reading what is supposedly “The Velveteen Rabbit” is one of those off-beat-yet-charming-and-cute sketches that were so prevalent when he was at the helm of the show. Terrific, amusing and funny on so many levels. When the ‘Bots ask him to “do all the voices” like little kids it cracks me up. Clever stuff.
J&tB singing “The Godzilla Genealogy Bop” is a winner. Again, creative, clever and really funny.
Joel’s “space madness” and the ‘Bot spoof of the Mothra twins are also great material.
Riffs during the movie are pretty solid. Another really good episode that should be on commercial DVD and hopefully by some quirk will be one day.
“Someone explain to me where this fits into the Godzilla universe. On the one extreme there is the original film which was a monster horror flick. On the other extreme there was last week’s experiment which was a full fledged kid flick. So what is this film?”
It was originally supposed to be a King Kong film but for some reason that couldn’t do it that way so they just plugged Godzilla in. For instance, usually Godzilla hated electricity but in this one is actually energized him.
I was actually pleasantly surprised by this one. I hadn’t seen it since it first aired and my memories were that the movie was a fairly dreary and hard to follow affair that even the riffing couldn’t relieve. I found myself laughing quite a bit at this one. I just about fell out of my chair laughing at all of the “Godzilla on the throne” riffs toward the end of the movie. Some of the best poopie jokes ever on the show. 8-)
The universe of the Godzilla movies is a mighty small one. The bad guys’ hideaway just happens to be on the same island where Godzilla is sleeping, which just happens to be one island away from Mothra. Maybe, when the terrorists were planning to build their installation, they should have surveyed more thoroughly and picked a monster-free spot.
The source movie might be better than the annoying kiddie fare of Godzilla vs. Megalon but it also makes for a slightly less interesting episode. It’s solid entertainment.
I really like the movie in this episode (it was the first full Godzilla movie I saw, and thus the movie that got me interested in sci-fi, MST and film in general), and the episode itself is one of those “good, not great” ones. I think 212 is obviously the superior of the two Godzilla episodes, but this also has the excellent Genealogy Bop.
“…for some reason, “Frankenstein Und Dis Ungehauer Aus Dem Meer” (“Frankenstein and the Monsters from the Sea” ) when it was released in Germany. Frankenstein?”
Frankenstein was a popular name in the German versions of Japanese monster movies. The distributors really liked to change the name of the monsters, probably to add some marquee value. I’ve never seen any of the German dubs myself, but I know that in some cases, Dr. Frankenstein isn’t even mentioned in the dub! Actually “Frankenstein und Die Undehauer blah” is one of the tamer titles – GODZILLLA VS MEGALON was released as “King Kong: Demons From Space”! Here’s a trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OBKfTu63Nw
213- Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster
Host segments:
Opening: Joel reads to his “robot monsters” The Velveteen Rabbit.
Invention Exchange: Joel’s Mind Control Guitar; Dr. F’s Squeaky Toy Guitars.
Segment 1: The Godzilla Genealogy Bop.
Segment 2: Joel makes miniature buildings, like the ones from the movie.
Segment 3: Crow and Tom worship Mothra.
Ending: J&TB discuss famous lines of dialogue that were never actually said. Winners of the Cool Thing contest.
Stinger: Natives bow before Mothra.
Memorable Riffs:
Joel (sining along to music): “Batman! Batman!”
Servo: “Up there! It says ‘Go-Go’. That must be the bathroom.”
Crow: “Hey, it’s the Boatniks!”
Joel: “Hey, don’t talk with Steve in your mouth.”
Servo: “Uh-Oh, guys! Look out! Rock climbing!”
Servo: “James Bond is back as the spy with the biggest crab claw you’ve seen in you life…Double 0 Crab”
Joel: “It’s Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills in The Mothra Trap”!
Joel: “Hang on, I just gotta adjust my package here…”
Joel: “Shoot randomly! Wait you’re killing our own men!”
Crow: “I told you we should have gone Greyhound!”
Servo (as Godzilla): “Alright, who woke me up? Heh, I don’t care! I feel great! Good morning, world!”
Servo: “We’re having an adventure just like The Goonies!”
*jets bomb Godzilla*
Servo: “He really is having a rotten day isn’t he?”
Crow: “Hey, if these sticks and stones don’t work, we’ll use names to hurt them!”
*footage of Godzilla cannonblling into the ocean, from ep. 212 is shown*
Servo: “Haven’t we seen this before?”
Fav. Riff:
*Godzilla sits on a rock, looking for all the world like he’s going Number 2*
Servo: “Uhh… just a few minutes on the Thunder Bucket here.”
Joel: Uh, would you guys get me a magazine, I’m gonna be in here awhile.”
Crow: “Hey, Godzilla, did you fall in or what?”
Servo: “Hey, give someone else a chance!”
*bird attacks Godzilla while he’s sitting*
Joel: “Oh, that’s really unfair, attacking a guy while he’s vulnerable!”
Servo: “Caught him with his pants down.”
Crow: “Hey, what do you think I am? Teppi Hedrin? Get out of here!”
Servo: “He does NOT like to be distrubed while he’s on the throne!”
[I know that’s a lot, but really, all the “Godzilla pooping” jokes killed me]
Comments:
-My goodness, it takes a LONG time for Joel ad the Bots to get to the theater. Even longer than it did in the season 1 shows.
-Man I feel sorry for the actors who had to run barefoot on those beach rocks. Ouch!
-At the end of the Genealogy Bop, Joel accidentally says movie sign instead of commercal sign.
-Gypsy still hasn’t evolved into the socialble character most MSTies are familiar with. She’s still kindof the grumbling, clueless, robot we knew in Season 1.
-Mothra is actually female. Clearly the Brains weren’t aware of this when they wote this episode.
-Charles Boyer may have never said “Come with me to the casbah”, but Pepe Le Pew, who was a spoof of Boyer, did in one cartoon.
-Kim Catrall reference in the final host segment!
-Faye Burkholder is listed as a writer for this episode, but she’s also listed as co-writer for the “Geneology Bop” song. Did she help write any riffs, or was her part in the song the extent of her involvement?
Best Segments: Segment 2 with Joel going crazy just barely beats the Geneology Bop segment.
Worst segment: Don’t care much for the Mothra bit. Goes on way too long.
Overall: Sampo of Satellite News doesn’t seem to like this episode. I think it’s really good, and a great finish for season 2. Excellent riffing, and funny host segments. And we;d get more of this, and then some with season 3.
***1/2
Actually the original story was it was supposed to be King Kong , not Godzilla fighting Ebirah the Sea Monster..but like many Toho films, it wound up scrapped.
This film is actually a pretty good one, made during the classic Godzilla era with effects by Eiji Tsuburaya and the plot is confusing due to the edits for the skits…as with MST – the show is for the riffing not for the continuity of the films
If you notice at the end of the film where Godzilla jumps into the water before the island goes boom – the scene was used as stock footage in Godzilla vs. Megalon –
Tom points out “havent we seen this scene already?” And he did, as stock footage..this scene actually originated here ..
Kumi Mizuno was the island girl ( she was Miss Namikawa in Monster Zero)
I also would have picked another Godzilla film instead of this one since its not that bad…but the rights…how did FYI get the rights anyway …
Joel’s hair really grew out quite a bit – sometimes watching Joel’s hair grow out is more interesting than the films :)
I have a question for Sampo –
Episode 301 Dave Dwellers – was this shot just after Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster ?
I was wondering because the sets, Joel’s hair still growing out all seem like they made this right after Sea Monser…it is like the started Season 3 right after Season 2 ended – at least for the first few episodes
The King Kong project that this film was originally written as later became “King Kong Escapes” (1967), loosely based on a Rankin-Bass cartoon.
Sony put out an amazing looking widescreen DVD of this film back in 2005.
Some my favorite stuff from this one are the very Japanese interpretations of American culture at the beginning. “Big Apple” and “Go Go” on the wall of the teen dance bunker. The dance marathon in progress. I’m pretty sure the dance marathon was well out of vogue in the west by the time this flick was made. I believe Tom even comments about how the Japanese kids have all the western stuff upside down and backwards. It’s interesting culturally.
Otherwise, it’s a very good ep. I agree with Mr. Bargo that a lack of catastrophically annoying children in tiny shorts is a huge plus. The riffs are pretty much top notch, everything from scatological (the aforementioned “thunder bucket” references) to sort of Groucho-esque (“quick pass up the bush!”). I always look forward to this one.
Bookworm–thanks for the catch. Now fixed/
Fart Bargo–I know, right? I was thinking: “Wow, that general must really have a lot of faith in his troops to stand in front of them and yell ‘fire!'”
Brandon–Seems like you look my comments in the old episode guide but not my current ones at the top of this page. Don’t take my old comments (the season two page will probably be replaced by this weekend) to be how I currently feel. I’m completely rethinking my reactions as I go, and, I liked this one a lot more this time than I did when I wrote the old comments.
Dsman71–I don’t know for sure but your observations seem to suggest it.
My only familiarity with this episode is a fan made Gamera shoot-em-up game. Level four, I think.
I have heard the Godzilla Genealogy Bop. Glad it made the Clowns in the Sky CD given some of its weird omissions.
I just finished rewatching this one about 10 minutes ago and found it more enjoyable than I remembered. The last time I watched this one was in the early 2007 and forgot a lot of riffs and plot.
I’m giving this episode ****.
I loved both the riffs and the host segments. Really fun experiment.
Sampo- Yeah, my review with that comment is from a couple years ago. I had started my own episode reviewing project like 5 years ago. I’m only in early Season 3 right now! Damn, I’m slow.
I really love both Godzilla episodes from Season 2, Megalon is hilarious and so is this one. I kinda enjoy this one a bit more but that’s just me.
The riffing is very good and consistent in this one. I really love the wide range of pop culture based riffs in this (Pro Tennis, He-Man, Red Lobster, Legoland, the Batman TV series, Get Smart, Top Gun, Hitchcock’s The Birds and more) The callback to Rock Climbing was great, and like Brandon listed above I found the bathroom riffs when Godzilla is sitting down to be one of the highlights of the episode. That whole sequence is a winner.
The host segments are good too, love the Invention Exchange, the “The Godzilla Genealogy Bop”, and Joel suffering from Space Madness and the Bots destroying his models Godzilla style (I really love Servo saying “I AM SERVOTRON! DESTROYER OF WORLDS!” while they are wrecking them).
So overall a very good episode and a nice finish to Season 2, thanks to the back to back excellence from two Godzilla movies
Next week is going to be fun, we start Season 3. Cave Dwellers rocks!
Good episode, but you’re right, not as great as the previous one.
In the “Joel gets space madness” segment, Joel’s acting is HORRIBLE. Let’s face it, Joel just plain can’t act. Most of the time that’s fine, given the nature of the show. But here, it’s just cringe inducing. The bots (as usual) are hilarious when they get manic, which saves the skit.
Favorite riff “It’s Kabob! And Kasteve!”
As has been pointed out, J&TB don’t enter the theater until after the title sequence. I wonder if they anticipated that they might have to edit out the title sequence because of rights issues.
I think this is the only time they entered the theater after the titles – it seems like there must be a reason.
On the German renaming of stuff, there was a Kamen Rider V3 movie released over there as “Frankenstein’s Kung-Fu Monster” with bizarre poster art of V3’s head on a Kong-like monster.
Hey, Trip Shakespeare made it national (basically a 1 hit wonder). I grew up in Michigan and heard them there.
I feel a little self-conscious reading the previous postings; for example, I’ve probably seen this one four or five times in the last year. Yes, I really, really like this episode. The movie’s a lot of fun (and I couldn’t agree more with Fart Bargo about the absence of kids!), and I LOVE Mike’s Mothra. Just an excellent skit. I’ve liked Megalon for a long time, but right now I think I like this one better. (Okay, I was just thinking about Rex Dart, so I’m going to hold off on making any final judgements.)
I love the scene at the beginning with the mother rolling the dice, hoping for her lucky number. :-))
From what I can remember this was a very good episode. Think I have only seen this twice and that was a long time ago…..I think when the Gamera set is released I’ll dig out this one and Godzilla vs Megalon and have a super duper Japanese monster marathon. Hell yeah that sounds freakin awesome!
Side note: wouldn’t you love to have a 1000 watt external speaker system on your car and blast the Godzilla roar at the next person that cuts you off in traffic! That would be sweet!
This episode was much better than I remembered and it was nice to have no annoying kids in it for once, probably the only Japanese monster movie on MST3K to have this distinction. I had completely forgotten the Genealogy Bop and any episode that mentions a shrine to Leonard Nimoy and singing snatches of The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins is aces in my book. If you haven’t seen Leonard Nimoy’s Ballad of Bilbo Baggins, check it out on youtube, it’s hilarious! 4.5 stars. Unfortunately, the DVD I recorded of this episode from my old tape had Comedy Central’s annnoying Butafuko commercial in it, I had forgotten how much I hated that!
F. Bargo and others, I agree absolutely about the lack of annoying, short-panted children making this ep memorable. That was the first thing that occurred to me when I was watching it, and it’s probably one reason I enjoy it so much. And, Cheapskate Crow, I think you’re right that this is the only MSTied Japanese monster movie that has that distinction.
The sports commmentator riffs are back, and even more fun, for me at least. Maybe it’s because the fight sequence between Godzilla and Ebirah isn’t as drawn out and my mind is less likely to wander.
And how could Mothra be mistaken for anything but female? She’s got such a cute shape!
Favorite callback: “That guy bugs me, he really bugs me!”
More useless, non-MST related trivia: When Trip Shakespeare broke up, one (or two?) of the members formed Semisonic, who had a major hit in the late 90s with “Closing Time”. That’s all, really. Would probably make for the shortest, most boring Pete Frame Rock Family Tree ever, but there you have it. Um, impress your friends!
Oh, great, derp on my callback: “That BUG bugs me…!” is much funnier & makes more sense.
Great episode. Karl Michael Demer must ONLY have written the FVI opening credits music, ’cause the rest of the film’s score is in the original Japanese version, and was written and conducted by one Masaru Sato and, yes, that INCLUDES the weird B-52’s-esque portions. To those who have posited that this is the only Japanese monster flick on MST without a skin-peelingly annoying kid, I have to inform you that you are incorrect. While I haven’t seen any of the Gamera episodes, I HAVE seen Gamera vs. Barugon unriffed and I defy you to find ANY children, annoying or otherwise, among the main characters.
#22: I don’t want to split hairs, but wasn’t Joel essentially acting all the time on the show? Maybe he’s just not very good at acting like he’s acting? Or maybe he wanted that effect? Or something. I myself like the skit, although it has its awkward moments (which is maybe the point?).
My guess as to why they come into the theater after the tacked-on FVI credits is that they weren’t going to show them at all and only learned that they had to include them (for copyright reasons that I’m not clear on) after they had already shot the theater segments. I can’t think of any other reason why they would have purposely left such a long silent stretch.
It’s funny how Sampo describes Joel’s space madness models as “really bad.” If anyone else had made them at home with found objects they’d be considered pretty decent but since we know how talented Joel (and Jef Maynard) are at building such things they look crummy.
Good one definitely. I enjoyed everything about it. One thing that I don’t think anybody (maybe not even J&tb, since I sorta skimmed this time around) mentioned is that Ebirah is supposed to be a shrimp monster instead of a crab monster, I think. Ebi is the Japanese word for shrimp.
#23, Mike in Portland: That’s a good theory. The titles feature clips from a different Godzilla movie, so maybe they thought they’d have to pay rights for those clips.
If you want, you could pretend Joel had to use the bathroom real quickly before the film started.
Real shame they missed the credits at the beginning. I would’ve loved it if they pointed out how Son of Godzilla was different from this movie.
Excellent episode. Seeing the Gamera flix in order, you notice how they descend from adult disaster movies to campy kindergarten fare by the end. Godzilla is spared such a fate, but there is still a big difference from the serious tone of the first movies to the silliness of Jet Jaguar, and now, late in the series, I guess the audience is meant to be adolescent judging by the grown-up kids in the dance contest and the Hardy-Boys type adventure they fall into. I have to admit, I’m charmed by the innocence of the plot and the earnest effort to tie all the chracters together, the teens, the lost brother, the bank robber, the slave girl, the Mothra islanders, and throw in a bunch of monsters at the end. Oh, and Godzilla’s in there too.
I know it only happens a few times, but the bits when Joel goes off the deep end are some of my favorites. And the fatherly attitude he adopts towards the bots is great. They did revisit that a few times in the Mike era (like during Time Chasers when Pearl is lstening to Bobo on a baby monitor); I wish they did that more for some reason.
For Sampo:
This is probably nitpicking to the extreme here. However, I do not believe the slaves were used to make the heavy water. I have seen this movie pre- and post-MST3K (pre meaning before I ever knew the show existed) and it is my belief that the slaves made the yellow liquid to keep Ebriah at bay. That seemed to me the only reason for the slaves with each viewing of the movie over the ensuing years.
If anyone else knows other wise, please correct me. I don’t want to spread misinformation.
As for the episode, I do enjoy it. I wish they could have done more Godzilla movies (like Son of Godzilla and Godzilla vs Mothra aka Godzilla vs The Thing). Godzilla Genealogy Bop is one of my favorite MST3K songs. A lot of what they say just seems so true even now.
Definitely not as solid an outing as “Godzilla vs Megalon”, but still not bad. I certainly believe this episode is better than “Sidehackers”, “Hellcats”, “Lost Continent”, “King Dinosaur” or “First Spaceship to Venus”. I would’ve enjoyed more Godzilla movies than the Gamera series as I think there was better material to work with, being that the former was an iconic Sci-Fi character compared to the forerunner of the Mutant Ninja Turtles! 3.5 out of five for this episode.
Laura–I thought the yellow liquid WAS heavy water.
I agree with L @38. The very large cell where the natives were kept, a large stone mill was used to grind up the ‘lemons’ to liquify them so the ships could spray out to keep the monster lobster at bay, I think?
I came to the same conclusion as Laura – the natives know how to make the yellow stuff that keeps Ebirah at bay, and are helping (against their will) in that manner. I can’t see how remote islanders would provide useful nuclear plant slave labor. The movie’s goofy but it isn’t THAT stupid.
Both Godzilla movies had their own WTF moment. In -vs. Megalon it was Godzilla’s flying kicks.
In this one it was Godzilla spending quality time with the girl.
The whole “King Kong” thing makes sense now. It sounds like they had already started shooting when they lost the rights to “Kong”.
The movie itself reminds me of a Blue Öyster Cult concert.
I miss the 70’s.
“it is my belief that the slaves made the yellow liquid to keep Ebriah at bay”
Right, and the slaves leaving out a key ingredient is what dooms the soldiers to be eaten by Ebriah at the films end.
Plus, grinding lemons isn’t a part of the process of making heaving water is it?
LOVE this ep. IMO more solid all-around than Megalon. The host segments aren’t quite as memorable as last week’s episode, but the Geneology Bop and Space Madness are great. Plus, I’ve always gotten a huge kick out of FVI’s hatchet jobs, so seeing a long-time favorite ‘Zilla flick given their treatment is pretty interesting – did anyone ever see this FVI edit outside of MST3K? I certainly never did, and I used to be quite heavy into different variations of these old Japanese monster flicks (believe it or not). Actually, I don’t mind the riff-less opening credits for that very reason, the unique opening credits. Which begs the question: The hell’s wrong wth me?
“Plus, grinding lemons isn’t a part of the process of making heaving water is it?”
Hey, I didn’t say it was GOOD heavy water!
Okay I have edited the movie description a bit.
This episode was the one that started it all for me. I was already a godzilla fan, so I think that’s why it caught my attention (came across it on some over-the-air channel at 2 in the morning). Instant MSTie. Anyway, while G vs M has its merits(the host segments, mostly), I find GvsTSM to be the superior episode riffwise. Just my opinion.
Fav Riff: ” Salute higher, idiot!”
“Spearhead the committee.” :smirk:
Way back when I taped this, I had forgotten I had it on this particular tape, I guess. I had taped part of the British version of “Whose Line is it Anyway?” in the middle of it (it was on late at night, so I didn’t want to watch it when it aired, I didn’t tape it to save it, but I still have it). So, a good chunk of my ep is missing. :-(
I missed the Godzilla Geneology Bop. I’ll have to get this from Skyroniter, or something.
Bunch of annoying commercials on this one from all those years ago: ITT Technical Institute, Craftmatic adjustable bed, Playboy, that Art instruction institute – whatever it was called, Psychic Solutions, those REALLY annoying Dr. Katz promos, and the EXTREMELY annoying “think positive” Comedy Central promos: “You’re gonna WIiiiiIInn!” :-P
This one was pretty good, but I liked Megalon better.
Overall, enjoyable, but no riffs really jumped out at me.
People have mentioned Joel’s acting abilities (or lack thereof): I did like his take on the Paper Chase Guy from the Warrior of the Lost World ep. I thought he did that sketch pretty good. Maybe he got better with time, though he always seemed a little bit uncomfortable performing.
Anyway, not a bad little ep.
(What kind of laboratory or factory is this?)
Servo: “It’s a laboratory factory.”