Daigoro vs. Goliath

[MouthForWar]

[Mac]

[king_ghidorah]

Agreed...but it does have some pretty cool kaiju stuff. I just can't sit through most of this film though.

[MouthForWar]

Having just come into possession of a subtitled copy of this film, I gave it another chance. If you go back to my old ass post on the first page, you'll see that I spat some intense vitriol towards this film having only seen an untranslated version.

Imagine my delight when I watched it with subtitles and came away really liking it! This is one of those movies that is so weird that you really need subtitles in order to know what's happening, and having the subs made it so much better.

What a unique and original idea for a kid's kaiju film... having a baby monster whose mother was killed by the military and is now being taken care of by the government, who wants to cut his food budget and stunt his growth because he's getting too big... until a space monster comes and f*cks things up!

I really had a lot of fun watching this and I'm very happy to have rediscovered this movie. What a charming little movie!

That being said, I found that a lot of the humor fell flat for me, the over the top theatrics of some of the characters got pretty grating, and some things just made no sense at all (I love how the main characters are constantly surronded by kids, and we have no idea who they are or how they know the leads ). And what's with the fat guy's wife supporting his alcoholism? She hates it when he stops drinking in order to save money for Daigoro and she loves at the end when he starts getting plastered again

However, I realize that I am NOT the intended audience for this film. This film was clearly made for kids even younger than the Showa Gamera's target audience. For the audience that this film was going for, I'm sure a lot of the humor works. But considering that this is a super SUPER kiddie film that was more or less made for pre-schoolers, that makes it all the more impressive that I had such a good time with the film.

One thing I'm not getting though is the constant praise for the SPFX work in this movie. There are a few good miniature sets and some good rear projection work, but that's about it. The kaiju suits are pretty poor (especially Goliath, who has to be one of the worst kaiju suits I've ever seen) and the fight scenes are horribly staged and more sluggish than a Heisei Godzilla film. And Goliath's brief rampage on the city is more or less a lot of things exploding for no reason. I'd say the miniatures are on par with the Godzilla films of the same era and the suits fall below the quality of the worst Ultraman suits. I think the only effects scene that is really well well staged is the scene of the military battling Daigoro's mother.

As far as I know, this and the Rankin-Bass co-productions are Tsuburaya Production's only stand alone kaiju films, so it has a unique place in the history of the genre.

All in all, a very delightful and fun children's film. If there is one word I'd use to describe this film: charming. I'd give it a 3.5/5.

[lhb412]

[Legion]

[MouthForWar]

[Xenorama]

Slow to the party, I just got around to watching the subbed version-

http://xenorama.blogspot.com/2014/02/da ... liath.html

I still wish I could like it more than I do.

[ILL GREEN]

I am still on the fence about watching this movie. I just saw the cover and was turned off by Daigoro's suit, but I am a kaiju fan and will get to buy this movie. I need to get more Godzilla flicks in my collection first

[klen7]

[joking]Do we need to petition SHMA to get figures of these guys made? [/joking]

[ILL GREEN]

Jokes aside, that wouldn't be a bad idea. I do dig Goliath's suit. Kinda reminds me of Ultra Monster Gomora.

[Legion]

[Sokubo]

^
Tho, that would be awesome.

[klen7]

i'm sorry Legion

[ILL GREEN]