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22 reviews in total

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Good, but not great Kaiju fantasy, 15 May 2000

Author: Blake Matthews (drngor@yahoo.com) from Stockton, California

This movie was the first of three solo Mothra adventures following the Heisei Godzilla series. This movie was pretty good. It has some great points to it: fast pace, great looking monsters, great optical effects, lots of monster fights, as well as a cute looking actress as Lora. However, I thought the movie was too kid-oriented and that the final battle was too short. The monster battles lacked the ferocity of Godzilla battles and Mothra's powers seemed overkill. However, it is a fun movie for fans of the genre.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
"MOTHRAAAAAAAAAAAAA!", 15 June 2000

Author: m_mould (m_mould@hotmail.com) from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England

With Godzilla dead and gone (yah, right), Toho concentrated on their other major star, Mothra.

In this first of a trilogy (more, more!) Mothra (the 1992 Mothra) battles a creature called Death Ghidorah (a cousin of King Ghidorah?). Thrown into the mix is the new Mothra, called MothraLeo. With time running out for Earth, can MothraLeo survive to carry on the long line of Mothras that have defended the planet?

Of course he can! If he couldn't, why did "Mosura 2" follow it?

The effects are outstanding in this movie. How can one moth have so many beam weapons?

I have to say that Megumi Kobayashi and Sayoko Yamaguchi, who play the priestesses of Mothra, now called the Elias, are excellent in this movie, as well as Aki Hano, who plays Belvera, one of the new elements to the Mothra saga. Of the two Elais, Moll is more determined than Lora, especially on calling the "old" Mothra into battle.

On the whole, a very good movie! Roll on Mosura 2!

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
This movie is for children, 31 May 2003
Author: Craig S. Thom (craig-111) from Illinois

I guess it can be argued that all kaiju is for children, but this one is in the way that the old Gamera films were. The principle human characters are children. The dialog is light and cheery, most of the time. This is not so much about monster battles but kids having an adventure and saving the day.

It's nice and entertaining, but those expecting a typical Godzilla-type kaiju film are going to be disappointed.

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Juvenile Antics, 31 May 2003

Author: rstef1 from Philadelphia, PA

Not the worst of the Japanese big monster bashes, but far from good, The Rebirth of Mothra will appeal mainly to kiddies under the age of 12 and should not be viewed by anyone older, unless they are die-hard completists of this particular genre. That's why I sat through a tape of this, plus Rebirth of Mothra 2 and 3. Thank God for the fast forward button.

The only interesting parts of this trilogy are the monster battles, which are pretty good, though they don't stomp on any cities in these owing to a small budget. Sadly, the viewer is forced to endure endless moments of whiny annoying youngsters and their dimwitted parents and precious little "fairies" who feel the need to break into song every now and then. Due to the budget constraints, the army never makes an appearance, which is strange considering giant monsters are rampaging through the countryside and, in the third movie, snatching children by the hundreds. Oh well.

Anyway, it was nice to see King Ghidora return in the third installment and beat the stuffing out of the way-too-cute Mothra. Maybe they should give Ghidora his own series, it would be better than this.

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
The wackiness of Mothra, 19 February 2003
Author: Chris McDaniel (steelcorpfilms@yahoo.com) from St. Pete, Florida

I got this DVD more then a year ago in L.A. Being a long- time Godzilla and Co. fan, and seeing a DVD with a double feature of Rebirth of Mothra, and Rebirth of Mothra 2 was just too silly for me not to buy. Rebirth of Mothra is definitely that, silly. Sometimes it's a good kind of silly, other times it's just a boring silly. The plot was a typical kaiju (Japanese for monster, i.e. Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, etc.) plot, with a seal being removed and a wicked monster coming out to wreak havoc on the planet. The human acting wasn't that good, really. The special effects were pretty cool in places, and bad in others and there was some pretty good cinematography.

Most of the kaijus I've seen, which is a hell of a lot, tie the humans into the story somehow. That way you're not just watching two bigass monsters going at it for 90 minutes. Most of the time, the human plot is cheesy but still entertaining. Rebirth of Mothra is not one of those. The human plot, if I could even call it that, was boring and pointless and pretty much just had a couple bratty kids sitting on a mountainside watching the battle. If that's not bad enough, some of the lines seemed to be spoken in telekinesis, considering it was just blank stares looking at each other.

I don't know whether to blame the writing, the directing, or the acting for all the blank, meaningless stares. All the humans were pretty horrible actors, and the bad dubbing didn't help any. The only three who were actually pretty cool were the three faerie girls. They weren't the same as the twin faeries from previous Mothra movies, and they weren't even twins. Actually, they looked totally different, but that's ok. They wore cool costumes, carried most of the story, and even sang a song or two. And the evil faerie sister, trying to use Desghidorah for her own evil ways, was actually pretty cute, so that's always a plus.

The special effects had its ups and downs. There were a few really great looking scenes, and Desghidorah (which was pretty much like a black King Ghidorah with four legs) was pretty badass looking.

Mothra looked pretty cool in a few scenes, too. There was the usual caterpillar version crawling around for a little bit which looked the same as always, if not a little worse then in older movies. I don't really want to give it away, but the underwater Mothra scene looked really good. The only problem is, there can't be the same kind of action that's in a Godzilla movie, and cause Mothra just isn't as tough or limber as Big G. She can fly around and shoot stuff, but that's about it. This is pretty evident through most of the movie, when Mothra's getting beaten pretty badly. But there is one pretty cool scene near the end where it actually convinces you that Mothra CAN kick some ass.

Overall: It's a so-so kaiju, with a couple cool fight scenes. It's mostly pretty boring, focusing on human's who don't really have much to say or do, other then run around, doing silly stuff. It's worth a rental if you're into these kinds of movies.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Not the Sacred Goddess anymore., 1 March 2001
Author: OllieSuave-007 from Sacramento, California USA

This film has many colorful and beautiful sceneries, especially the forest scenes. Mothra begins a new solo adventure, battling Desghidorah to save Earth's green landscape. The Mothra from 1992's "Gojira VS Mosura" hatches an egg and out comes her son MothraLeo. To pick up where his mother left off, MothraLeo battles Desghidorah to the finish.

Amusing battle scenes and great special effects by Koichi Kawakita.

And, a fine score by Toshiyuki Watanabe. This movie is a big change from the concepts of the original Mothra of the 1960s. The two tiny priestesses are not twins like the original one who were portrayed by The Peanuts, and each one in this movie is actually given a name: Mona and Lora (the "Elias"). They have an evil sister named Belvera who favors Desghidorah mission to turn Earth into a barren landscape. The central character in this movie is a kid who helps Mona and Lora battle their evil sister. The scene where the Elias and Belvera riding on their "Mothra" pets and shooting rays at each other at the kid's home is too childish and took away to much time in the movie. The scene is more associated with kids' shows or cartoons. And, MothraLeo's powers are way excessive, considering he's supposed to be a giant moth. Its excessive releasing of rays and beams make MothraLeo act more like a robotic creature. Though all the creatures in this movie are worked out well, there are limited emphasis to the human characters and overall, the movie is more kid-oriented. The Mothras in this movie are not treated like the Sacred Goddess in the Mothra films from the 1960s, but more like superheros ready to defend Earth. And, there are no natives worshipping Mothra in this film as in the 1960s Mothra films, making Mothra seem less sacred, as it was suppose to be according to the original concept. But, the ever-so-popular "Mothra's Song" (sung in Malaysian as always) returns and is performed by the Elias. Some new songs are introduced also. A serviceable movie, otherwise, to spend 106 minutes on a boring day.

Grade C+

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Not bad, just geared a bit towards kids., 24 April 2011

Author: mbftw from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

After ending the Godzilla series with the Heisei series, Toho wanted to maintain a higher grossing monster movie. The one that drew in females in what's admittedly a pretty male-centric genre was Mothra. Mothra is definitely known for her numerous roles as a hero of sorts in Godzilla films ever since her first role in a Godzilla movie (Godzilla vs Mothra, 1964). But actually, Mothra had her own movie before all of this, like some other monsters best known for their role in Godzilla movies (Rodan comes to mind). Her 1961 movie is something to check out, but getting that history out of the way brings us back to 1996's Rebirth of Mothra. Unlike the Heisei series of Godzilla movies, Toho decided to cater more towards kids with the Mothra series.

Mothra received a huge intake of power with her Heisei Godzilla redesign, and that continued even more so with this RoM series. Boy, even the larvae can beam spam! Mothra looks okay, but a bit fuzzy in moth form. Her offspring, named Mothra Leo, looks pretty good and doesn't fall apart like the larvae of the Showa series. This is also the first time we have a distinctly male Mothra, Leo. In moth form, Leo looks notably different from the female Mothra. Mothra also has blue circular eyes, whereas Leo has more angled green eyes and other design tweaks. I like that. How about the villain monster in this movie, Desghidorah? He's an interesting take on the Ghidorah family, relying on four legs and with an almost elephant-like roar. He sure makes you hope for his death the way he heartlessly attacks Mothra and Leo in larvae stage. Kinda graphic actually if the kids are too young. Overall the monsters are a plus and the action is pretty good. The drawback is that the final battle between Leo in moth form and Desghidorah is just way too easy. Desghidorah overpowers the aging Mothra in the beginning, but then Leo just comes in and gives him a good one-two. Easy peasy. Except it was annoyingly easy. Maybe this has something to do with the kid-centric theme.

Moving on, what else does the film bring? Well, the RoM series has one distinctly annoying trait for me, at least with the region one release: the women just scream and scream and SCREAM. It gets old. The pacing is a bit iffy here too and a number of scenes could've been cut entirely or trimmed.

What we have here is a decent movie, and you might certainly be emotional when you see the larvae desperately trying to keep its dying/dead mother alive. It's probably worth more than a 6/10 for younger people, but if you're a much beyond perhaps a teenager you may not enjoy as much. Its sequel, Rebirth of Mothra II, is arguably even more child-themed, so it doesn't get better here on out in that sense. But for all this kid theme talk, I still like the movie and have a copy on DVD.

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Kaiju for the kids, 30 September 2010

Author: MikeA from Isle of Man, British Isles

When a logging company uncovers an ancient artifact in the mountains of Hokkaido, the Company's boss Mr. Goto finds a mysterious talisman. He prises it free from its resting place, thinking it would be a nice present for his daughter. Unfortunately he's unsealed the resting place of Desghidorah, a three headed, fire breathing beastie that's soon freed to run wild and destroy the local scenery, sucking Earth's precious energy.

Only a giant plush moth can save the day! A tired old Mothra - tending a lovely big egg - is reluctantly summoned (in a slightly more J-pop than usual fashion) by her tiny priestesses Moll and Lora. These cuties are from a race called the Elias, and they spend much of the movie astride a mini-Mothra called Fairy, battling their nemesis Belvera, who gets to fly a mini dragon thing and cackle a lot.

First in a trilogy of Mothra films for the nineties, while Godzilla was taking a well earned break. Clearly aimed at kids more than the average kaiju fan, this is still great fun, and while no cities get totalled in this offering, the countryside looks nice and there are some cool fight scenes between Death Ghidorah and Mothra.

There's a 'save the planet' theme going on that gets rammed down your throat a bit before the movie ends, but the more obvious beef many western fans are going to have with this flick is the lack of a Japanese language option on seemingly the only version available. Why do they do this? Yes, the film's been tarted up nicely, and the dubbing is lip-synched and not overly annoying, but some people will always prefer the original language and there seems to be little reason why it shouldn't be included.

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Disney's version of MOTHRA., 29 May 2010

Author: The_Depressed_Star_Wars_fan from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I cannot f**king believe it. I'm serious, this movie is beyond belief. OK first lets talk about Mothra. She is a giant moth/butter fly thing, who protects these 2 fairies called the Cosmos, who keep the universe in balance. This character first appeared in MOTHRA (1960). After that she went on to star along side Godzilla in MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA, after that she ended up staring in many Godzilla movies yet to come. But after the success of GODZILLA AND MOTHRA: BATTLE FOR THE EARTH she managed to break free of the Godzilla franchise and star in this flick and boy is it an experience. A very bad experience. First of all this is actually a very clean G rated movie, well actually this movie is labeled as not rated but if it did I have a hard time believing that it would not be G. First of all I should mention that I kinda like the fact that the twin fairies are not the same actress and talking at the same time, like they did in some of the earlier Godzilla movies. What should be noted is that in this movie we are introduce to a third twin fairy person named Belvera, and boy is she ridiculous. She wears black and rides this robotic dragon thing named Garu-Garu. Speaking of dragons in this movie we are introduced to a new Ghidorah named DesGhidorah. He's pretty much just a less cool version of King Ghidorah. Actually he kind of looks like King Ghidorah from GODZILLA: FINAL WARS. Which actually came out after this movie. Isn't that interesting. Oh wait and let us not forget how King Ghidorah actually appeared in REBIRTH OF MOTHRA 3, which I think was actually Ghidorah's First movie appearance outside of the Godzilla franchise. Now lets talk about the acting as expected, it is pretty corny. Yet again I only saw the dubbed version so I don't know how the acting was without it. Now the effects in this movie are okay. There not great but there not bad either. There some where in between. Now the story line is awful. That's all I can say about it. So this is a bad movie, but because it is a children's movie so maybe your kids will enjoy it.

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All right comeback for Mothra, 24 September 2006

Author: Donald (gore_lord_84@yahoo.com) from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"Rebirth of Mothra" is a nice kiddie film, but a flawed adult monster movie.

**SPOILERS**

A deforestation company in Malaysia unearths an ancient trinket containing mysterious symbols and carvings. The head of the dig, Mr. Goto, (Kenjiro Nashimoto) brings it home to children Taiki, (Kazuki Futami) and Wakaba, (Maya Fujisawa) which entices the evil fairy Belvera, (Aki Hano) to take notice of the fact and starts to control them. The Elias, Moll, (Megumi Kobayashi) and Lorna, (Sayaka Yamaguchi) discover her evil actions and try to put a stop to them, only for Belvera to succeed and raise the monster Death Ghidora. With Taiki and Wakaba's help, the Elias are able to resurrect Mothra to fight Death Ghidora before it destroys the Earth's ecological systems.

The Good News: Viewed as a kiddie film, this has to be called somewhat of an accomplishment. The battle scenes are the most important aspect of this. They are big and full of spectacle, which is what they should be. Full of energy rays blasting about, explosions going off in many directions and plenty of exciting camera angles make the several fights quite exciting. The design of the monsters is pretty decent. Death Ghidora fares the best, a three-headed dragon with a four-legged stance. It looks quite evil, moves respectably, and scores big. The adult Mothra looks decent, with the main change appearance-wise being a color-redesign on it's body and wings. White and green take a predominant appearance, along with some yellow, red and orange. It's not a radical change but there is some done to it. The caterpillar has finally been given the undulation that real larvae have, making it score some realism points as well. Seeing the two in action for the first time together is a real treat, and adds some nice scenes to it. Combine these with a rather harmless wand kiddie approach, it certainly will attract the younger set.

The Bad News: As a kiddie film, it's okay, but as a film for the older generation, this one noticeably lacks. Much of this is due to the story. When not concentrating on the monsters, it meanders around for no real reason and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. The characterization is almost nonexistent, and it may be hard to match names with characters. The fairies here also score low, due to the fact that they sing three songs in here and each one literally stops the show dead and segues from the action into a music-video montage of scenes over the singing. It's a jarring change that doesn't suit the film at all. This is also true of monsters as well as humans. The living room battle should've been the highlight, but after a while, it becomes obvious that they're just trying to destroy everything in the house, making it last far longer than it should and just retreads into an endless series of swoops and dives that just becomes boring. Death Ghidora's entrance carries out just slightly longer, a shame as it could've had a great entrance that was only spoiled by the constant waiting around for it to appear. The titular creature fares the worst in appearance, looking so much like an over–sized novelty prop covered in plush fur and unrealistic movements that damage it irreparably. The wings switch from nice movement to some jerky motion to none at all, and the legs' twitching in places only underscores the obvious puppet it really is. With an extended running time, it becomes a real stretch sitting through some of it as it just wears on and on.

The Final Verdict: If taken only as kiddie entertainment, this isn't all that bad. It will certainly entertain. However, the more old-school fans who prefer the Mothra of the 60s will be groaning or bored through most of it. Take it from what age category you fall into.

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