Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

In another thread about possible future DVD releases, walshbeme said that G'85, in particular, may be the new "lost" Godzilla film after GRA is released. Since I never saw the American version of this film (I only know the international version), I would like to ask you American fans which one (and why) you'ld prefer to have on DVD. And, please, don't say "both", because I think that's quite unlikely.

@Baradagi:

Thanks a lot for pointing out why you prefer the American version over the Japanese. This was a very interesting read!

> Godzilla's reflection in the building didn't need to go [...]

That's missing? It's sad, because it's a beautiful shot! By the way: Did they also cut the stock footage shot with the exploding cars? I always thought it looked pathetic.

El Brazo, no. That shot is in "Godzilla 1985".

I actually have to disagree with you. The shot was culled from 1974's "Prophecies of Nostradamus (Catastrophe 1999)" and I've always felt that it blended seemlessly for ten year old effects footage.

BTW, that same footage was also trotted out for "The War in Space", "Deathquake" (on the Prime Minister's big-screen no less!) and striking back from the dead most recently in "Godzilla: Final Wars".

@musukogoji:

> I've always felt that it blended seemlessly for ten year
> old effects footage.

What I meant was that the miniature cars were just too small. It looks like they were blowing up some plastic toys using firecrackers [right word?]. Since the whole preceding scene is so beautifully shot, this is a bit of a letdown, in my opinion.

> BTW, that same footage was also trotted out for "The War in
> Space", "Deathquake" (on the Prime Minister's big-screen no
> less!) and striking back from the dead most recently in
> "Godzilla: Final Wars".

Thanks for the info! Think I'll have to watch The War In Space and Deathquake again.

El Brazo, there's a good reason for that...

"Prophecies of Nostradamus (Catastrophe 1999)" was shot in a different aspect ratio... anamorphic widescreen. However, "Godzilla '84" was shot in normal widescreen so the PON footage has been cropped down, making the shot appear closer than what it originally was, and thus there's your reasoning why the cars look faker than usual. The shot looks excellent in the original Tohoscope.

I was told that in "Godzilla: Final Wars", the footage looks even worse, because they did not cull the footage from PON, but from "Godzilla '84". That means that the footage has been cropped from anamorphic to standard widescreen and cropped back to anamorphic... so you'd basically have lost 3/4 of the shot.

Slightly off-topic--
When Godzilla 85 premiered on tv way back, there were two Dr. Pepper commercial with Godzilla in them that were shown. Here's some pictures from those and a short video clip. I thought these were pretty cool.


Rc