Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #24 (10/21)

[klen7]

[metal_bryan]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Henry88]

[metal_bryan]

[Alpha OTS]

[metal_bryan]

[Alpha OTS]

[Xenorama]

I'll do one if no one else wants to.. I've got an interesting theme in mind...

[metal_bryan]

[The Real McCoy]

Sorry for the absence guys. I'll be glad to do it, but it'll be the end of the day before it's up.

And I loved that PM, Alpha.

[metal_bryan]

[The Real McCoy]

[Alpha OTS]

[metal_bryan]

[Henry88]

[Alpha OTS]

Here's an interesting tid bit of trivia. I was browsing Amazon because of I was just thinking of buying Mysterious Island for my Harryhausen collection.

http://www.amazon.com/Mysterious-Island ... ous+island

The blu ray is something of a collector's item because only 3000 of them were pressed. Cheapest price they have listed there is $73 for a used copy, $95 new, and ebay seems to correlate with those prices.

The dvd, OTOH, is dirt cheap.

[metal_bryan]

Yeah, I still love this movie just as much as when I was a kid. The nostalgia factor probably has a lot to do with it, but watching it again after so long just left me entranced and all of the creatures were so well done. I especially love the bees and the giant crab.

I also want to point out that this remains my favorite interpretation of Captain Nemo ever put to film. RIP Herbert Lom.

[Alpha OTS]

Finally watched the dvd of this yesterday, following a watch of "The 3 Worlds of Gulliver", which is also technically a Harryhausen flick.

I just want to rant a bit about Gulliver for a bit. I'm almost finished with the Jonathan Swift novel, which was the main reason I went ahead with the impulse buy with Mysterious Island. The only similarity between the book and the movie are some names and that there's some giants. I mean, I expected it to be dumbed down, being a product of 1960 and all, but it was still really hard to enjoy knowing how biting and timeless the political satire is in the novel. That and the only part of the story that was anywhere remotely close to the book was his adventure in Lilliput. His travels in the land of the giants is completely re-written, and I guess the "3rd" world is the real world, so that title's a bit misleading. So no flying island or talking horses. Anyway, that out of the way.....

Mysterious Island. I remember watching this for the first time when I was a kid and the genuine suprise I had when Captain Nemo and the Nautilus showed up. Watching it now, I can't help but be dissappointed when they both show up and then don't really do anything! I know, I know, the whole island's gigantism problem and storyline is due to Captain Nemo, but still, you see that excellent Nautilus miniature, and it doesn't do anything but have rocks rained on it!

The good: Harryhausen creatures, and Captain Nemo and the Nautilus are still cool even if he doesn't take it out to sea.


Throwing in an Atlantis reference actually helps with the mystery...ous.....island.

The coolest underrated Harryhausen creature has to be the devilfish. According to the extras on the dvd, the island in the film was originally supposed to feature pre-historic creatures, but was eventually re-written to have the Nemo gigantism storyline. The devilfish survived the rewrite.


Yes, it's no giant crab, which is definitely the best technically done creature in the flick, but this is still genuinely cool. While going for that screen grab, I noticed how cool the flowing lava scene was.


Given how this type of thing shows up in the Tohoverse, its neat to see the Harryhausen counterpart.

The bad: It might not have been wise of me to watch this after being dissappointed with Gulliver, but this felt overly long, like it really needed some trimming to pick up the pacing.

So, a good movie to have in the Harryhausen collection.

[MekaGojira3k]

Finally watched this. It's fairly solid, but nothing that makes it a favorite. I feel like the cast is so boring. The film gets a touch more interesting once Nemo makes himself known, but it's still not quite enough to impress me. I love the animation, miniatures, and the sets.