Movies - Godzilla vs. Megalon

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	Movies - Godzilla vs. Megalon

Godzilla vs. Megalon (ゴジラ対メガロ) (Gojira tai Megaro) is a 1973 tokusatsu film, the 13th in the Godzilla series of Japanese monster movies. It was directed by Jun Fukuda, with special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano.

The monsters featured are Godzilla, Megalon, Gigan and Jet Jaguar.

The story

In the film, the undersea civilization Seatopia has been heavily affected by nuclear testing conducted by the surface nations of the world. Naturally upset by this, they unleash their civilization's protector, Megalon, to the surface to destroy those who would — unknowingly or not — destroy them. Agents of Seatopia attempt to steal the newly-constructed super-robot Jet Jaguar, which can apparently be used to guide and direct Megalon. They also capture the robot's inventor, Goro Ibuki, his kid brother Rokuro and their friend Hiroshi Jinkawa. After Jet Jaguar is used by the Seatopians to lure Megalon to Tokyo, Goro manages to regain control, and sends Jet Jaguar to Monster Island to bring Godzilla back to fight Megalon. An extended fight scene then takes place, with Godzilla and Jet Jaguar, the latter newly giant-sized and self-directed, fighting Megalon and Gigan in the hills outside Tokyo. The film ends with Megalon and Gigan defeated, Godzilla returning to Monster Island, and Jet Jaguar returning to his previous, human-sized state.

The worst Godzilla film?

Although produced mainly for children in Japan, this film is debated amongst fans to be one of the worst of the series. It is also one of the most widely seen due to it falling into the public domain (which has changed, thanks to Toho), and is considered by many to be one of the reasons for the low opinion of Godzilla commonly held in the U.S. It was one of two Godzilla films featured as episodes on Mystery Science Theater 3000, an American television comedy that mocks B-movies (the other being Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster
).

However, not all Godzilla fans share this low opinion. Some fans of the successful tokusatsu superhero genre find Godzilla vs. Megalon an enjoyable instance of the genre.

Trivia

While the principal scenes were shot in less than a week and the special effects scenes (by Teruyoshi Nakano) took three weeks, the overall production (including planning) took six months, especially since this was originally not going to be a Godzilla film (see below).
Jet Jaguar
was the earliest example of a fanservice in a Godzilla film, the result of a contest Toho had in mid-to-late 1972 for children to come up with a new hero for them to use (to capitalize on the many tokusatsu and anime superhero and super robot shows that were all the rage at the time). The winner of the contest was an elementary school student, who submitted the drawing of a robot called Red Arone, which superficially resembled both Ultraman
and Mazinger Z (both of which were very popular at the time). The robot was renamed "Jet Jaguar" and was set to star in a film vehicle for him, titled Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon, which pitted him against Megalon
(a previously unused Godzilla monster design). However, Toho figured Jet Jaguar would not be able to carry the film on his own, either in screen appearance or marketing value (both important to Toho), so they shut the project down during pre-production after doing some tests and storyboards. Several weeks later, screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa was called in to rewrite the script to add Godzilla
and Gigan
, providing more marquee value (especially since Godzilla was still very popular with children).
According to Teruyoshi Nakano, the Godzilla suit was made in a week, the fastest suit ever made to date. Haruo Nakajima, the original Godzilla suit actor, had just left the series, so it was refitted for Shinji Takagi. (Nakajima did try out the costume upon his visit to the studio in behind-the-scenes footage.)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Godzilla vs. Megalon ]

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