Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

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.

Director:

Jun Fukuda

Writers:

Jun Fukuda, Takeshi Kimura (story "Gojira tai Uchu Kaijû")

Stars:

Katsuhiko Sasaki, Hiroyuki Kawase, Yutaka Hayashi

Cast

Credited cast:
Katsuhiko Sasaki	...	Inventor Goro Ibuki
Hiroyuki Kawase	...	Rokuro 'Roku-chan' Ibuki
Yutaka Hayashi	...	Hiroshi Jinkawa
Robert Dunham	...	Emperor Antonio of Seatopia / Motorcycle assailant
Kôtarô Tomita	...	Lead Seatopian Agent
Ulf Ôtsuki	...	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
Kenpachirô Satsuma	...	Gaigan (as Kengo Nakayama)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ralph Jesser	...	Antonio's Aide (Radio Operator in White) (as Rolf Jessup)

Storyline

The underground kingdom of Seatopia sends out Megalon, a giant beetle, and Gigan to destroy the above ground dwellers. In an attempt to stop them, an independently thinking robot brings Godzilla into the fight.

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Plot Keywords:

kaiju | jet jaguar | tokusatsu | giant monster | psychotronic film | 

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Taglines:

Underground horrors attack!

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Family | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

April 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

Godzilla vs. Megalon

Filming Locations:

Machida, Tokyo, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$760,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Fujicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Megalon's ray beam is animated the same way as King Ghidorah's gravity beams. This was made to ensure that stock footage from Ghidorah's movies could easily be interspliced between shots of Megalon firing his beam.

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Goofs

Megalon can only fire one beam, but in certain shots during the city destruction, multiple beams are seen. This is because these shots have been taken from movies featuring the three-headed monster King Ghidirah firing beams from his multiple heads.

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Quotes

[Jet Jaguar is about to ram into an army helicopter, in which Goro attempts to regain control of the robot with his miniature control transmitter]
Inventor Goro Ibuki: Jet Jaguar, stop!
[Jet Jaguar stops]
Lead Seatopian Agent: [back in Goro's laboratory, looking on Jet Jaguar's POV camera monitor] What the hell's happened? He stopped!
Inventor Goro Ibuki: Get Godzilla! You'll find him on Monster Island!

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Alternate Versions

The 1976 U.S. Cinema Shares release omits approximately 3 minutes from the original Japanese version in order to get a G rating. The deleted scenes include: the opening credits; a brief shot of young Rokuro being abducted and taken away in a car; several shots of the men in a truck, with pages from nudie magazines hanging behind them; an extended fight scene as Hiroshi escapes from the Seatopian; the truck drivers throwing a man off a cliff; the kidnappers asking "what the hell is that?" and yelling "go to hell!"; several brief shots of blood and violence when the brothers break into their home; and the Commander getting crushed to death by a giant boulder. This is the version that remains available on several cut-price video labels.

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Connections

Referenced in Neon Genesis Evangelion: A Human Work (1995)

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Soundtracks

Gojira and Jaguar, Punch Punch Punch!
Music by Riichirô Manabe
Lyrics by Shinichi Sekizawa

User Reviews

Can't rate this masterpiece of amateurish film-technique

This is the funniest single entry into the Godzilla series. It is so incredibly bad, that there is not a single scene that doesn't have at least a chuckle or two; and many that have slap-your-knee hilarity to them - all unintentional.

The director, Jun Fukoda, was no stranger to the Godzilla series, and had already demonstrated that he could deliver a solidly competent B-movie. But this ain't one of those; and it's hard to say where Fukoda's head was at when he made this film.

We see actors miss their cues; we see strings lifting "flying" monsters; we have a robot with an idiotic smile painted on his face; we have a theme song popping up at the end that is only a parody of a pop-music movie theme. We have an annoying little kid actor that can't act. We have a cheesy giant cock-roach rubber suit flopping about crushing buildings, and then running from Godzilla with the gate of an old woman. We have the magic words that bring Megalon to life: "Rise up Megalon! Hey, get up!" while nymphettes do a veil dance. we have a background music that sounds like easy listening played at twice the tempo. Obvious stock footage from previous Godzilla films get inter-cut in the fight scenes. We have a special guest appearance from Gigan, called in (no showing or explanation how) from a galaxy called "Space Hunter M" Now, what wit could actually come up with that as the name of galaxy? Really, you must see this film at least once in your life; and if you don't see the humor in it that one time, see it again, because it will dawn on you like the blast of a heat-ray that, yeah, this film really does make NO sense whatsoever! Obviously made in two days by a group of brainy grammar-school students who happen to be drunk. One couldn't make a parody of the Godzilla films as funny as this; yet, incredibly, there's no sign that this was not intended to be taken seriously.

But we don't have to take it seriously just because it was intended that way. And taken as a comedy, it's just grand!