Gojira tai Megaro (1973)

Director:

Jun Fukuda

Writers:

Jun Fukuda (writer)
Takeshi Kimura (story)

Release Date:

April 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Underground horrors attack!

Plot:

The undersea nation of Seatopia sends the gigantic Megalon to destroy the world above - and it's up to Godzilla and a size-shifting robot, Jet Jaguar, to defeat him.

Plot Keywords:

Godzilla | Megalon | Gigan | Jet | Jet Jaguar

Cast

Katsuhiko Sasaki	...	Inventor Goro Ibuki
Hiroyuki Kawase	...	Rokuro 'Roku-chan' Ibuki
Yutaka Hayashi	...	Hiroshi Jinkawa
Robert Dunham	...	Emperor Antonio of Seatopia
Kotaro Tomita	...	Lead Seatopian Agent
Wolf Otsuki	...	Seatopian Agent
Gentaro Nakajima	...	Truck Driver (as Gen Nakajima)
Sakyo Mikami	...	Truck Driver's Assistant
Fumiyo Ikeda	...	Man from Unit 1
Kanta Mori	...	Japan Special Defense Forces Chief
Shinji Takagi	...	Gojira
Hideto Odachi	...	Megaro
Tsugutoshi Komada	...	Jetto Jagâ
Kenpachiro Satsuma	...	Gaigan (as Kengo Nakayama)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rolf Jessup	...	Antonio's Aide (Radio Operator in White)
Eisuke Nakanishi	...	Asuka Island Nuclear Test (Narrator)

Also Known As:

Godzilla vs. Megalon (USA)

Runtime:

USA:78 min | Japan:86 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Fujicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:PG | USA:G | Canada:PG (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec)

Company:

Toho Company

Trivia:

Megalon was originally created to be the third evil monster (besides King Ghidorah and Gigan) in Chikyû kogeki meirei: Gojira tai Gaigan (1972) (in its second draft, "Godzilla Vs. the Space Monsters: The Earth Defense Command"), but budgetary cuts nixed Megalon from that film altogether. While he was originally created to be an opponent for Godzilla, he was considered for the role of the lone villain of this film when it was planned as a Jet Jaguar solo vehicle ("Jet Jaguar Vs. Underground Monster Megalon"), before, ironically, Godzilla was written into the story along with Gigan.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Obvious wires in numerous monster scenes.

Quotes:

[Jet Jaguar, controlled by the Seatopians, is spotted by our heroes flying around Megalon]
Inventor Goro Ibuki: Hey! Isn't that Jet Jaguar there?
Rokuro 'Roku-chan' Ibuki: Yes it is! It's him all right!
Inventor Goro Ibuki: Damn! They're controlling him!
Rokuro 'Roku-chan' Ibuki: It's a pity we can't send Jet Jaguar to go and get Godzilla!

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "South Park: Mecha Streisand (#1.12)" (1998)

Soundtrack:

Gojira to Jetto Jagâ de Panchi Panchi Panchi

Hilariously inept entry.

Easily one of the favorite Godzilla films, and why not? Let us see everything there is to love (or hate): Well, there's Jet Jaguar, the Ultraman rip-off who can't do anything and serves no purpose, Gigan, the cool buzz-saw monster, Megalon, a really weird cockroach thing, and our hero Godzilla, the real star of this fiasco. For a change, the enemies are coming from the ocean, instead of space, which is a concept TOHO recycled too many times. This film went the Gamera route this round, with an annoying little kid who won't shut up. I wish Rhino would release the MST3K episode of this film, because there's so much here to make fun of, it must have been gold. Positively hilarious the whole way through.