TALKBACK #13: Godzilla vs. Megalon

[ryuuseipro]

An additional discussion: It seems Godzilla Vs. Megalon was produced longer than we thought!

As we all know from past data, Godzilla Vs. Megalon was originally supposed to be a solo vehicle for Jet Jaguar (which was designed after the winning design, "Red Arone," of a design contest for children), fighting Megalon, a rejected Godzilla foe. The title was something like "Jet Jaguar Vs. Insect Monster Megalon." But after storyboards and screen tests were done, filming was halted at the last minute, as it was decided that Jet Jaguar didn't have marquee value. But rather than let the film go to waste, Tanaka called in Shin'ichi Sekizawa a few weeks later to write Godzilla and Gigan into the script.

According to several experts (including the late Guy Mariner Tucker), the production time was 6 months, from planning to finish.

I just made a discovery: 6 months was the timeframe of when it was a Godzilla film!

Thanks to this awesome website:
http://www.cyberkids1954.com/toho_script.html

It seems the actual production time was longer than we thought, as Shin'ichi Sekizawa turned in the first draft (titled "Godzilla Vs. the Megalon Brothers: The Undersea Kingdom's Annihilation Strategy"/"Gojira tai Megaro Kyoudai: Kaitei Oukoku Zenmetsu Sakusen") sometime around September of 1972! (The second draft, called "Insect Monster Megalon Vs. Godzilla: The Undersea Kingdom's Annihilation Strategy"/"Konchuu Kaijuu Megaro tai Gojira: Kaitei Oukoku Zenmetsu Sakusen" was turned in on September 5th) I can guess, based on past data, that the Jet Jaguar film was probably planned earlier in the year, and was probably canceled sometime in August.

If the original Jet Jaguar project succeeded, he also would've been Toho's first superhero, beating Godman and Rainbowman to the punch!

Now I'm really astonished.

[TXKaiju]

[jellydonut25]

[The Dark Uniter]

[TXKaiju]

[jellydonut25]

Full review of Godzilla vs. Megalon. .

I bag on it a bit...over the years, I'd say my appreciation for this one has faltered a bit...I'd still take it over 90% of the Heisei series, but it IS on the low-end of the Showa food chain

[MouthForWar]

This is one of the most retarded movies I've ever seen and I'm thankful for every second of it.

[Legion]

[jellydonut25]

[Goji 84]

[Tyler E. Martin]

[jellydonut25]

[Mac]

I was watching this film recently, and I noticed Megalon's head falls off at one point in the film!



While it lacks the charismatic characters of GODZILLA VS GIGAN, I still feel that the movie has more enjoyable monsters sequences (Hell, Gigan's biggest detractor is its horrible battle scenes), and I like the really weird music score.

I still don't understand why Godzilla has "Vertigo" eyes, though:

[Benjamin Haines]

[Mac]

I can't stress just how much fun the final fight is, all the monsters are oozing with personality and "The Ring of Fire" is just fantastic, especially while Gigan and Megalon are laughing at our heroes:


LOL @ MEGALON SMACKING HIS ASS!

[MekaGojira3k]

[canofhumdingers]

[Tyler E. Martin]

[jellydonut25]

[ryuuseipro]

[Xenorama]

[canofhumdingers]

[jellydonut25]

[Einstürzende]

[Legion]