TALKBACK #23: Godzilla 2000

[walshiam]

[william newell]

[william newell]

[miyasaka]

Hi, let me just confirm that it was absolutely NOT our intention to spoof or degrade Godzilla in any way, but to try and improve the film and do so with honorable intent. I did inject some humor into the dialogue, but that's the way people talk, and since G-films tend to take themselves so seriously, I felt people would respond positively to a more natural kind of speaking, and by and large they did. (Some didn't, of course, but no movie ever made has been loved by everyone.) And yes, we did on occasion blow the lip synch, but we did the best we could with what was available to us in terms of time and equipment; moreover, if one take had a better "performance" but worse lip synch, we opted to go with that. As some have suggested, please listen to the commentary track, where I go into excruciating detail about how and why we did what we did.

Mike S.

[MouthForWar]

[Alpha OTS]

[kpa]

Following up on Mike's post, the Sony team that handled the Americanization of GODZILLA 2000 first screened Toho's cut (the international version, I believe) in June, 2000, and the finished film opened in US theaters that August. So they had less than two months to do everything needed... writing the English script, casting the voice actors, directing the actors, ADR, editing the film, adding new music, creating the new sound mix, and so on. And all of that had to be approved by Toho. The US version isn't perfect, but I think it's very well done particularly given the tight deadline and budget the Sony crew was working under.

I think the Americanization really shines with the sound mix. Toho rushed G2000 so the sound design on the Japanese version is rather weak. Sony basically tossed out the Toho audio and created a brand new 8-channel
digital sound mix; every sound effect is new in the US version. The first time I saw GODZILLA 2000 was at a preview screening on the Sony lot and I was amazed at how fantastic the sound was. I've never heard a Toho Godzilla film sound that good.

Regarding the dubbing, I think the performances are very good and most of the dialogue closely follows Toho's work. An occasional funny line doesn't bother me... people tend to joke around in conversation it's more natural to have them do so in the film than have everyone be serious all the time. People quote movies all the time, so having an overconfident military officer quote PATTON is fine with me. "Gott in Himmel!" ("God in Heaven!") is another one I don't have a problem with... Toho's English version of that line was "Holy Baloney!" Even the most serious Godzilla films (including the original movie) have bits of intentional humor so the English dubs should reflect that.

The dubbing syncronization is hit-and-miss early in the film but all in all it works well. Mike Schlesinger talked about that in a 2000 interview with Bob Johnson:

"Once we actually got to the ADR stage, we were constantly rewriting lines--and even adding and cutting--to make them sync up better; indeed, I frequently had my nose pressed to the monitor to see if they worked. Problem is, video playback is not particularly sharp, and when we got to the final mix--which is done on film--we saw that we had blown it in a few places, but by then there was nothing to be done, and so we fiddled with them the best we could to make the sync look reasonably decent... Do I wish it could've been better? Of course, but you do the best you can with what you've got. Also, there were cases where a better reading of the line might sync up less perfectly than a poorer reading, and we almost always went with performance over sync."

Someone may or may not like the American version, but claiming that Mike and Sony were disrespectful or mocking the movie isn't true and says more about the eye of the beholder than it does reality. Toho actually (and somewhat grudgingly) said they preferred the Sony version to their own. Toho also decided to use it for the international release of G2000 and they even played it in Japanese theaters, and that shows how "disrespected" they felt about it.

Here's another quote from Mike...

"I knew what I didn't want to do: make huge cuts, and throw rap and metal on the soundtrack, a la the Jackie Chan films; use inappropriate voices for the dubbing, a la PRINCESS MONONOKE; and above all, goof it up, a la WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY? (A great movie, to be sure, but not one we wanted to emulate, either deliberately or accidentally.) It doesn't cost any more to do it "honorably," yet few would have bothered. The results speak for themselves, especially in the generally favorable reviews, and especially in Toho's pleased reaction."

[MekaGojira3k]

I had no idea they had so little time. When given how great the end product turned out, it makes me appreciate it and the effort put into it even more.

[king_ghidorah]

[canofhumdingers]

[jellydonut25]

[lhb412]

[Benjamin Haines]

[jellydonut25]

[RaymondBurr]

[Barnzilla]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Barnzilla]

[king_ghidorah]

[jellydonut25]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Legion]

[ebirahsmeg1]

I would take GFW (and G2K), its giant warts and all, anyday over the mind-numbing bordom, sleep-inducing, gross unoriginality, and paint drying on a wall qualities of GxMG and GSOS....

[Barnzilla]

I have to agree. It's not that I dislike GXMG and GSOS they just put me to sleep every single time. I can watch G2000 and GFW from beginning to end without the same problem.

[Kaiju Nexus]