But yeah, like what are they even going to use the Cosmos for? Like there's one moment where it's like, oh, we can use them for publicity. It's like, is that the entire reason you're doing this? That seems like a terrible idea. And for how long? Right. What's the board going to say? What's Becky at accounting going to say? This has, this can't, you can't get away with this. Yeah. Their stock prices are going to plummet.
Yeah. Can't just do that. Right. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Camp Kaiju Monster Movie Podcast. We are your hosts, Vincent Hannum. And Matt Levine. And we are talking about all of our favorite monster movies, the good, the bad, and the downright campy, and asking if they stand the test of time. Traditional Kaiju, creature features, space invaders, the supernatural, and everything in between. All strange beasts welcome here. Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack, powered
by Coldwell Banker Realty. Your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential buyers. Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services. Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities. Links in those show notes. What's going to happen next? What we fear is that Batra won't wake up again. Earth SOS. It's not Batra. It's a creature with a special mission. Good to see you. Good to see
you as well. How are you, Vincent? I'm good. A little under the weather, but that's all right. I'm going to try to bring my A game here for Godzilla versus Mothra versus Batra versus Indiana Jones versus, I don't know, the list goes on. Battle for Earth. Yes. Throw that on at the end for for no reason. It was like the alternate title of this movie suggests it's an it's an appropriate title. But like, I don't know, it's it also kind of helps differentiate it from Mothra
versus Godzilla from 1964. So I do kind of appreciate that qualifier at the end. Oh, yes, there's lots to this title we'll get into. But how are you doing? I'm doing all right. Seen some good movies recently. I'm enjoying the almost spring weather in Minnesota. Oh, so good. Yeah, can't complain too much. Well, I know we were just talking offline about keeping things more succinct with our recording, but I've seen some good monster movies lately that I just want your quick, I just want a quick
talk about. Nice. Leviathan from 1989. I saw that on your Letterboxd. I'm a big fan of that movie. I agree with everything you wrote about it. It's like it has some flaws for sure, but it's so stylish and very entertaining. Yeah. Would love to talk about that one day. Yeah.
And then Event Horizon. another great one also with its own flaws but just like it's in that sweet spot of like 90s kind of dumb but kind of like genuinely scary sci -fi horror movies yeah i was pleasantly surprised with both of those movies lots to chew on listeners let us know what you think yeah those are fun i'm a little bit jealous that you both or that you saw both of those for the first time recently because i have fond memories of those for sure
yeah Cool. I mean, I haven't seen a lot of monster movies recently per se. I did see Time Cop with Jean -Claude Van Damme, which is so much fun. That's a really, really like such an entertaining movie. I love JCVD. He's like maybe my favorite action star of all time. Lost Highway, the David Lynch movie. Probably the best thing I've seen recently is Rope, the Alfred Hitchcock movie, which I hadn't seen. like 20 years probably.
So I rewatched that. Sorry, I know this isn't a monster movie, but I was just blown away by it. I didn't remember just how strange it is, how dark, stylish, like even aside from the long takes, there's like a lot of unusual stuff in that movie. So I really, really loved Rope. Yeah, and my favorite part is at the end when the rope comes to life and strangles everybody to death. Man. They must've cut that ending. Like that was Hitchcock filmed it. And then the studio
was like, no, it's just too weird. We can't get away with it. Hitch. We have to say no. Yeah. I would like to believe that's the story. No, those are great movies that I haven't seen. The first two you mentioned time cop sounds great. And I got to get on my David Lynch education. Rest in peace to David Lynch. Yeah. I like lost highway. Like many of his movies is really dark, very scary, very nightmarish, a little bit sleazy, but overall really great. I would say. Nice.
Yeah. Those are the words I would use to describe Godzilla versus Mothra sleazy, nightmarish. No, JK. Thank you everybody for hanging out and listening to this nonsense week after week. We sincerely appreciate it. So if you do enjoy this, Give us a rating. Give us a positive rating and a review wherever you listen. That really helps us grow. The algorithm loves that. And you can also send us listener comments at campkaiju at gmail .com, our Instagram page at camp underscore
kaiju. Or if you'd even like to be a featured voice on the show, leave a voicemail, 612 -470 -2612. Talk to us about your favorite monster movies. We'd love to hear what you grew up on, what you're watching these days. And you can visit campkaijupodcast .com for just kind of the one -stop shop for everything Camp Kaiju, including links to our Threadless store and our Patreon page, patreon .com slash campkaiju. Special shout out to our patrons, Jason, Chris, Sean,
Peggy, and our anonymous patron. You really keep the engine going here. Thank you so much. Now. Patrons and anyone willing to become a patron between now and May 5th, we, Matt and I, will be co -hosting with Naomi Osborne. As you've been listening all season, she hosts a monthly movie trivia night at Indeed Brewing in Minneapolis. And me and Matt are going to join her. We're very grateful for the opportunity. to host movie
trivia. And if you are a patron or become a patron between now and May 5th, you will get one free drink on us, alcoholic or not. And that's just our way of saying gracias. Indeed, I'm excited. I love trivia, love movies, love monster movies. It's going to be a fun time. Yeah, it's a good opportunity to put our trivia host hats on. So I'm looking forward to it. Oh, yeah. I have to assume there will be monster movie. trivia, horror trivia, sci -fi trivia when we come to town.
Totally. I think we can bring that too. And like Naomi has certainly done stuff like that before, but I'm sure between the three of us, we'll have some of that there for sure. Oh yeah. And speaking of Naomi, our Dracula's Daughter episode that precedes this one went really well. I did have some cut for time content that I will be tacking on to the end of this episode. So listeners, after you enjoy some Godzilla conversation, stick around and enjoy some cut for time conversation
with me, Matt and Naomi. Okay. Matt, what month is it? It is March, mid -March. It is. Yes, that is correct. It is also Mothra March Madness. Yep. Yeah, I should have known. That's what it will henceforth be known as. But, you know, I asked you and you answered correctly. It took me a second, though. I was like, it is March, right? Is that correct? Yeah, that's right. Not a trick question. I don't have any fun promos
for Mothra March Madness. It's just the time of the year where we get to celebrate Mothra, Queen of the Monsters. Now, last March. Camp Kaiju was on our hiatus while I was taking parental leave. And so we didn't really do anything last year. But two years ago, we talked about Mothra, the cinematic debut from 1961, and then Mothra versus Godzilla from 1964. So we haven't talked about Mothra since then. I'm excited to talk about this monster again. With this movie. Me
too. Yeah, it's been a long time. I like Mothra a lot. And from what I've been reading online, just like fan comments and stuff like that, it sounds like some people actually aren't a big fan of Mothra, which really surprises me a lot. How can you not love such a benevolent but still, you know, badass queen of the monsters? She's great. She is great. Mothra's my favorite. I have my action figure from the 90s, which is modeled after the depiction in this film. So
I always love especially the Heisei Mothra. I guess I could have some quibbles with this depiction of Mothra, but I'll get there. I'll get there. Yeah. And last thing I want to say before we dive in to some other fun things. This is also the first Heisei Godzilla movie we've talked about since Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, which I think was also two years ago. Yeah, I think you're right. And that movie is awesome. I love
it. Like, that's probably my second or third favorite movie of the whole Toho Kaiju canon. The original Godzilla, Ghidorah the Three -Headed Monster, probably numbers one and two, but Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah is really incredible. And so far, I've really been liking all these Heisei movies, I have to say. Yeah, and just through pure happenstance, we've been going through the Heisei era chronologically. which we have not
done with a show of movies. But the Heisei era, this works out really well because these movies do have an overarching narrative that it's been fun to watch them in order on our podcast. Totally. Yeah, some elements of the story are a little bit confusing if you don't remember what happened in the previous movie, which I didn't at first, but it eventually came back to me. Yeah, yeah. We'll get to more Godzilla vs. Mothra in a little bit, but... We got to get to this month in monster
movie history. Bat, I left your picks from last time on. I tacked on some more here. But what's a title that stands out to you? Oh, man, I'm sorry. Let's see here. It's hard to choose just one, isn't it? I think I'll have to go with the relatively recent one, It Follows from 2015. I'm a big fan of that movie. I feel like recently
over the last 10, maybe. Maybe a little bit more, but, you know, there's kind of like this age 24 art horror kind of like a sub sub genre that's become popular, like Ari Aster and Hereditary and Midsommar, I think are good examples of that as well. But it follows is really, really good, genuinely scary. I mean, it's a great depiction of being a teenager and just kind of like the. you know, the feeling of power that that entails, but also the feeling of like, it's not going
to last very long. There's a lot to that movie. So yeah, it follows if you haven't seen it. I know it's pretty popular, relatively recent, but I like that movie a lot. Yeah, long bit on my list. Excuse me. I'm going to go, I'm going to stick with the kaiju theme here, but here's a movie, I don't know if you've heard of, called The X from Outer Space from 1967. Not Toho, not Daiei. I don't even remember the name of the studio that made this kaiju. But it was in the
height of peak kaiju times in Japan. And it's kind of infamous for its monster, which has a kind of goofy look to it. It's a film that I do have on my list in the coming years. If Camp Kaiju is still going strong, it might be so bad it's good. It might also just be so bad it's bad. We'll see. Or just good, possibly. Or maybe. We'll see. I've never seen it. I have heard of that movie and I have always wanted to see it. So maybe it'll be on the show at some point.
It's fun, though. It is fun to all you lovers of the X from outer space. New and upcoming releases. We do have Jurassic World Rebirth. I know we talked about this a few episodes ago, Matt, but I did cut that content. I think it was our Tusk episode. It was already running along. So I was like, eh, we'll talk about Jurassic World Rebirth later on. Directed by Gareth Edwards. And it comes out in July, I think. Could be June. It's
a decent cast. Scarlett Johansson. There's another actor in it that I like, although now, of course, I can't really remember who it is. Do you remember? Who else was in that movie? I think it was a velociraptor. Yeah, that's it. A shoo -in for best supporting raptor at the Oscars next year. That was a dumb joke. Hey, I set the bar low. The humor here. Oh, Mahershala Ali, I think is who I was thinking of. Yeah, we'll see how that
movie is. I haven't really liked the last couple Jurassic World movies, but maybe this one will be better. Maybe. Well, what else? What else we got coming up on Camp Kaiju? Matt, this is your pick. Yeah, The Island of Dr. Moreau from 1996. I've always been fascinated by this movie. Still haven't seen it. It might have the most notoriously disastrous production backstory of any Hollywood movie ever, which is saying a lot.
And it's not supposed to be very good, but I think it's going to be really interesting to talk about. So looking forward to that. I'm so excited. It's based on the novel by H .G. Wells, who wrote War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, many other classic. sci -fi novels. And folks, if you want to read this book before we talk about it, check it out. After that, I'm bringing some 50s sci -fi to the pod with Invaders from
Mars, a cult classic from 1953. And this movie is near and dear to my heart, and I've been wanting to talk about it since day one of the podcast. But now's the time. I'm excited. That's one of the few movies that I just like know almost nothing about. I've heard the title and that's it. Like I don't know anything else about it. So I'm really excited to dive into that one as well. Yeah, it's a treat. Both those movies I think are on Tubi. So folks, if you're out there, give them
a watch. Okay. Personal histories with Godzilla versus Mothra. What is your personal history? Pretty much nothing. Like I said a little bit earlier, I've really been enjoying the Heisei era of Godzilla movies. Return of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Biolante, and then Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, and then this one. So yeah, I had high expectations, but no other history with this film, really. Yeah, same. I mean, aside from my aforementioned Mothra action figure, I hadn't really seen this
movie. Until I was very much an adult in my 20s. I've seen it a couple times in the past few years. I'm not going to say it's one I gravitate towards. It's not a go -to of mine. But as a fan of Mothra, as a fan of these series of films, I find some things worth checking out, I would say. Yeah. Definitely, yeah. Yeah. Mothra was also in... Destroy All Monsters, right? Which we watched a while back and talked about. I'm thinking of
Giant Monsters All Out Attack. Yeah. Cool. Sorry, I'm just trying to rack my brain a little bit because I know I've seen Mothra and some other stuff. I couldn't quite remember exactly what though. Yeah, good callback. Godzilla, Mothra. King Ghidorah Giant Monsters All Out Attack. What a clunky title. And I know some people love that one. I wasn't as big a fan of that. But Ghidorah the Three -Headed Monster, which Mothra also is in, if I remember right. Like I said
before, I love that movie. So big fan of Mothra. I think in this movie, I actually prefer Mothra's evil twin, but we'll talk about that a little more soon. Yeah. And you just reminded me, in Ghidorah the Three -Headed Monster, in that film... Mothra is only depicted in the larval stage. And here's a Tencent word for you. The Imago stage is featured in this Heisei movie. The Imago stage is the winged moth butterfly stage of the evolution. Pretty cool moment in this movie when
we first see that. Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. That just got me excited to talk about some of this movie. A remote Pacific island where an expedition of world -famous scientists investigate incredible rumors of its fantastic mysteries and discover barren volcanic mountains surrounding strange green valleys. Mammoth caves that breed giant mutations. Vampire plants that devour humans. But most astounding of all, the tiniest women in all creation. Sacred beauties of a lost tribe
which worships a monstrous creature. What is the secret of Mothra? What is the bizarre spell that awakens Mothra? as these doll -sized girls call to the super god from captivity. Mothra, whose revenge is more devastating than any man -made weapon. Mothra, who defies warplanes. Wrecks ocean liners. smashes dams and bridges. Mothra, creating hurricanes. Mothra, enveloped in a shell that no human force can penetrate. Mothra, indestructible, all -powerful, indescribable. What kind of creature
is this god monster, Mothra? Monster of the motion picture screen meets The Thing. Godzilla versus The Thing. Innocent looking, but so feared, pagan man worshipped it. See the battle of gigantic forces spreading terror across the world. Inventions conquer them. See in color. Terror scope. Godzilla versus the thing. screen has ever shown before can surpass the thrills of Ghidra, the three
-headed monster. Created from an atomic fireball hurled from outer space, Ghidra, the three -headed monster threatens man's very existence on Earth. All new, all never to be forgotten. A new high in screen terror. Production history of this film. We're going to talk about some select crew, some select cast. Some faces are familiar, some are new. We have the director Takeo Okawara. Apologies on the pronunciations. Screenwriter
Kazuki Omori. The film was executive produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka, the man behind the birth of Godzilla in the 50s. But it was also produced by Shogo Tomiyama, who did a lot of the actual producing on the ground. The music is by Akira Ifukube. A lot to say about the music, but Ifukube is a legend, and I think this score bears that out. The cinematography is by Masahiro Kishimoto,
and the film is edited by Miho Yoneida. So the film stars Tetsuya Besho as Takuya Fujito, aka Indiana Jones, for all intents and purposes. Yeah. Slight joke, but you'll see what I mean. If you haven't seen this movie, the opening scene that he is featured in, you're like, oh, where have I seen this before? Yeah, Raiders of the Lost Ark, right. The movie also stars Satomi Kobayashi as Masako Tezuka, who is Takuya's ex -wife. Takahiro Murata stars as Kenji Ando. The
film also stars Megumi Odaka. She was a former Japanese idol, actress, and singer, very popular, well -known for the role of Miki Saegusa in six Godzilla films from 1989 to 1995. So I believe introduced in Godzilla vs. Biollante, if I remember right. Right. She has a psychic connection to Godzilla, if you remember. She has this connection, and you see that fleshed out a little bit more in this film, Godzilla vs. Mothra. Yeah, and
it doesn't explain it at all. That's one of the things where I was like, who is this character? I had a vague recollection, and then I had to read up again on Godzilla vs. Biollante a little bit. Not necessarily a bad thing, but you might want to do a little research if you haven't seen any of the surrounding movies for a while, preceding movies. It's funny, if I may interrupt, there's a battle between the kaiju, and everyone's rooting for Mothra and or Batra, maybe. And she is the
only one who's like, oh, no, Godzilla. And if you don't know her character, you'd think, why are you the only person on Godzilla's side? Which I kind of admire, you know, like she has her allegiance. That's great. Yeah. Someone's got to stick up for him. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's a cool character. It's a very cool character in Godzilla vs. Biollante, but still pretty fun
in this one, I would say, too. Rounding out the cast of Godzilla vs. Mothra, we also have Keiko Imamura and Sayaka Osawa as the Cosmos, who are the miniature twins who are kind of Mothra's, maybe not guardians, but stewards, maybe is the right word for it. Yeah, that's a good term. Yeah. And in the... Heralds. Heralds, yeah, that's an even better term. Yeah, totally. I believe they were called the Shobin or the Shobajin in the 1960s Mothra movies, right? Yeah. So this
time they're called the Cosmos. And then finally, we have to mention a stalwart of the Godzilla series, Akira Takarada. He was in so many Godzilla movies. We just saw him in Invasion of Astro Monster. Here he is. Opposite Nick Adams. Starring Nick Adams. I don't know. We gotta ring a Nick Adams bell or something. Well, yeah, like in the last Nick Adams episode that we talked about, which was Invasion of Astro Monster, we like
we both read off some of his dialogue. I think we're going to have to like record that from the movie. And that can be our Nick Adams, like Bell or whatever, you know, would like some line of dialogue from that movie. We'll figure it out. All right. I'll see what I can do. All right. Cool. I feel he's very important from a scientific point of view. Takahiro Murata, just going back.
He. is in several other Godzilla films from this time, including Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Godzilla 2000, Godzilla Mothra, and King Ghidorah Giant Monsters All Out Attack, and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. So he is one of those familiar faces for sure. Cool. Yeah, I knew he looked familiar. I couldn't quite remember from what exactly. Same, same. Same with Akira Takarada because he's just so much older. I mean, this is like 30 years after
Astro Monster. Yeah. And he has like a very bit part, but he has some like really amusing like expressions, facial expressions, and he gets really into the kaiju battles. So he's fun to watch in this movie. For sure. The idea for a Mothra movie, because this is the first film featuring Mothra since I think Destroy All Monsters, which was in the late 60s. It had been a while, but the idea for a new Mothra movie was conceived in 1990 with a screenplay by Omori called Mothra
vs. Bagan? B -A -G -A -N. Unsure how to pronounce that one. Bagan? Bagan? Bagan? Yeah, I guess I'm not totally sure either. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, anyways, this character is a vengeful dragon. who apparently sought to destroy humanity for its abuse of the Earth's resources, only to be defeated by Mothra, the goddess of peace. However, this initial screenplay was scrapped because of the low box office of Godzilla vs. Biollante, and Toho believed a standalone Mothra film wouldn't
sell overseas. Now, following the success of Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Toho announced a sequel that would feature Mothra, Originally, they had thought about a sequel to King Ghidorah where that monster would return. However, they polled audiences and found that Mothra was most popular with women who apparently made up the majority of filmgoers at the time. So purely looking at the bottom line, Toho said, we'll go with the moneymaker. I don't know. How do
you feel about that? I mean, I think it works okay. I don't have a big issue with the kind of, you know, like it's aside from just the appearance of Mothra, I think Godzilla versus Mothra has kind of like a family friendly sort of whimsical fantasy tone, which like was not really true of Godzilla versus Biollante or Godzilla versus King Ghidorah. But I'm kind of okay with it in
this case. Again, I love Mothra. And like, it's weird in this movie, I'll talk about this a little bit more later, but like, I think that kind of like lighthearted tone is balanced out by like some pretty serious and maybe preachy like themes about environmentalism and stuff like that. So it's, you know, they were looking at the bottom line for sure. They were trying to get as many, as much box office profits as possible, of course. But like, I still think there are elements of
like. you know, imagination and surprise and unexpected pleasures in this movie. Yeah. Nice. Sorry, one thing I wanted to mention real quick. So we talked about how the film was written by Kazuki Amori and how Amori came up with the idea of the Mothra versus Bagan or however you pronounce that. And I just wanted to mention that Amori also directed the previous couple movies in the series, Godzilla versus Biollante, Godzilla versus King Ghidorah, but he didn't direct this one.
And I just think that's kind of interesting because, again, this movie has a much less dark and kind
of ominous tone than the previous couple. ones maybe because he's not in the director's chair anymore that is interesting yeah uh thank you for bringing that up yeah yeah if there's anything else please jump in um speaking of omori producer tomiyama wanted still wanted to keep a lot of that first screenplay as possible obviously they just switched around some characters and threw godzilla in there the movie yeah yep as you noted return the franchise to a more fantasy -based
direction This is just so silly. This is the first film in the Heisei era not to feature a mecha character. Sorry, a mech character. A giant robot. There was an early idea of making a mecha Mothra, which I just feel like would have been like jumping the shark a little bit. Yeah. Although maybe the Godzilla franchise had already jumped the shark a few times, but like not in totally terrible ways. That's fair. That's fair. Why not? Yeah. Son of Godzilla is the particular
movie that I'm thinking of. Yeah. Godzilla vs. Mothra featured a new Godzilla suit that had been there. There had been one in Biolante and King Ghidorah, but the one in Godzilla vs. Mothra, it's a little slimmer. There's a bit more mobility in the arms and neck, more facial movements. And of course, we have our new kaiju for the series, Batra. who is meant to be a dark alter ego of Mothra. The name is a portmanteau of battle, and Mothra didn't know that, always thought it
was like a play on a bat. Hmm, interesting. Yeah, so when I read that, I was like, I don't know if Batra's the best name then, because I just picture a bat, but it's not supposed to be a bat. And I'm thinking about it way too hard. Yeah, I don't know how much logic went into that. But I like Batra. I guess I don't know how you pronounce it again. Sorry. But I really like this monster a lot. And the backstory is that 12 ,000 years ago, Mothra was the protector of
Earth. And then humans started endangering Earth. So this alter ego called Batra was... I guess it doesn't really explain how exactly, but then like Batra then just like destroyed everything basically. And Mothra, you know, had to like put an end to that and be like, oh, just don't destroy the planet. We just wanted you to like, you know, keep humanity in check a little bit, which I love that backstory. That's so cool. Yeah, I do. I do like this character as a foil
to Mothra. I think it deepens, it enriches Mothra's mythology a little bit. And yeah, it just makes that character herself more interesting. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Another fun trivia, Batra's cry is that of Rodan's, which I didn't note. I was like, oh, that sounds familiar. And Godzilla's own roar, the production team went back to a pre -1984 cry for that monster. So I don't know.
That's like some really in the weeds. You're not really going to notice unless you're like us really watching these movies, but that's some production trivia for you. Yeah, I can't say that I noticed the sound effects of the roar all that much, but I did notice the new look for Godzilla, which I really like in this movie. Like you can tell, it kind of just looks a little bit more menacing. Godzilla honestly maybe kind of plays like second fiddle to Mothra and Batra
a little bit, but he looks really cool. I like the new design of the suit a lot. Yeah, yeah. So, Godzilla vs. Mothra was released in Japan on December 12th, 1992. It was the second highest grossing movie in Japan in 1993 after Jurassic Park, which is just kind of, you know, a coincidence since this movie, in another attempt to get as much box office as possible, rips off the Indiana Jones series quite a bit, or at least a couple
times. Godzilla vs. Mothra was the highest grossing Godzilla movie at the time since Ghidorah the Three -Headed Monster from 1964. And it was the highest grossing Godzilla movie in Japan until Shin Godzilla in 2016. So a commercial success for sure. And a critical success as far as I know as well. Godzilla vs. Mothra was released in the United States on home video through Columbia TriStar under the title Godzilla and Mothra the Battle for Earth, which is what I alluded to
earlier. Because 1964's Mothra vs. Godzilla was known as Godzilla vs. Mothra in the USA at the time, just to make it more confusing. It is confusing, honestly. I keep, yeah. And then, so like the DVD I have that I watched, I watched, I have the Columbia TriStar Edition DVD, and it's dubbed. And I wonder if that took away a little bit of my enjoyment. With that version, but it is titled Godzilla and Mothra the Battle for Earth. So, you know. Can I ask, did you watch the subtitled
version? Yeah, that's the version that's on the Criterion channel. So that's the one that I watched. Nice. Have you seen both of them in the past? Or just the dubbed one? Okay. Yeah, the subtitled one is good. No complaints, really. I do sort of like watching the dubbed one sometimes, though. Yeah, I feel like compared to other dubbed Godzilla movies. And listeners, please chime in. I feel like the dub for Godzilla vs. Mothra is a little...
It just creates an air of silliness. Maybe... I don't think the English voice actors honestly are very good. They don't seem to... Their voices don't seem to drop into the same emotional resonance as maybe the actors are portraying. It's kind of weird to explain, but I'd be interested in watching the subtitled version. Yeah, that's another challenge with all these movies. Ideally, I would like to watch the dubbed and subtitled versions of all these movies, but who has all
that time? It seems almost impossible, but it is an interesting comparison for sure. Yeah. Well, that's just it. A lot of these movies I will watch more than once in my life, so I'll just alternate then if I'm able to. Yeah, yeah. And I would like to do that in the future as well. I feel like I remember a couple of the dubbed ones maybe not being, you know, like the dubbing is a little bit distracting sometimes.
I feel like maybe it was the terror of Mechagodzilla that I feel like the dubbing was not very good on, but I can't quite remember. That was a while ago. Yeah. This movie was so popular, as we said, Mothra got our own spinoff series. There's a trilogy of standalone Mothra films in the 90s. called Rebirth of Mothra, Rebirth of Mothra 2, Rebirth of Mothra 3. These are bonkers movies.
If you thought Mothra has insane superpowers in Godzilla vs. Mothra, this character goes off the wall with abilities and powers and beams, and she has Progeny who just takes up the mantle. It's honestly, you have to see it to believe it. It's wild. It's crazy. It's straight out of a five -year -old's imagination. That sounds amazing. I mean, everything you just said makes it sound like those are exactly like my cup of
tea, you know? I've got to see those. Yeah. I think, again, I plan out what movies I'm going to watch because of this podcast next year for Mothra March Madness. I think I'm going to bring one of those movies. Cool. Yeah. Maybe I'll bring another one also. Another one of those movies. We'll see. I'm here for it. That'd be great. Yeah. True Mothra March Madness. Here's some more trivia if you wanted to read off these last
two points. Yeah, for sure. So this was the last film to depict the JSDF or the Japanese Self -Defense Force springing into action. The real JSDF, which was an actual thing, took umbrage, love that word, with their depiction as the bad guys. which I think is debatable in this movie, but I kind of get it. So Toho created the G -Force for subsequent films, maybe a thinly veiled version
of the JSDF. Actually, to be more specific with that note, there's a line of dialogue a child has in Godzilla vs. Mothra after a JSDF fighter
jet. shoots at godzilla or whoever and the kid is like oh no you're hurting godzilla you're hurting mothra so that's where like in the eyes of the child japan's yeah defense force were quote unquote bad guys that makes sense and there's the scene too where mothra is like causing a lot of destruction i think in yokohama it's in some kind of urban area and then mothra sees the cosmos and like after that mothra just like turns to like go back into the ocean and you
think everything is over and then the jsdf just like bombards mothra with like you know missiles and tank shells and stuff that probably doesn't make them look all that good at the same time author had just annihilated like half a city so it's kind of understandable you know Yeah, shut up, kid. It's a giant monster destroying your city. Yeah. How many citizens of this town were just killed by Mothra? What do you expect? Right. This is what the JSDF is here for. It's
kind of their job. Tax dollars are paying for your defense. Yeah, exactly. That is interesting trivia, though. Yeah. But yeah, critical reviews were positive at the time. They remain very positive. At the 16th Japan Academy Awards, this movie won for Newcomer of the Year. Well, two newcomers of the year, Keiko Imamura and Sayaka Osawa, who I believe play the Cosmos. And then Akira Ifukube's music and Takahiro Murata, who plays Ando, I believe, were both nominated as well.
Yeah. Which I've... I think that's a really neat contrast between the Japanese Film Academy and the one here in the United States that does the Oscars. Apparently in Japan, a movie like Godzilla vs. Mothra can be dominated and win major awards. And that would never happen here. It's such a big deal when a monster movie, a horror movie, makes waves at our Academy Awards. Totally, yeah. I mean, I know I've talked about the substance
a little bit on this podcast. I was surprised that that even got any nominations at all this year. And of course, it didn't win anything. But yeah, it's cool that Japan's, well, not Oscars, Japan's Academy Awards, you know, maybe seem a little bit more open -minded about that. Yeah, interesting. Love it. Okay, here we go with our sponsor break. Thank you, everybody, for bearing with me. I feel like I'm getting more nasally the longer we're recording here. I think it sounds
cool. You sound like you've been smoking a carton of cigarettes a day for the past five years. All right, here is our sponsor break. Cam Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential buyers. Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services. Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities.
Links in the bio. We have media's mailbox. Now, I did have a longer. email from a listener of ours. I'm going to hold off on that one for a future episode when we might have a little bit more time to dig into some really good conversation that that email will lead us to. So let me just give you something short and sweet. On our Instagram, camp underscore kaiju underscore podcast, actually, I posted a question on our story about Godzilla vs. Mothra, my question was, what's your history
with this movie? And we had Ken Tsukete, Sean Childers, friend of the pod. He says, not seen. Let's rectify that. My wife says, poop emoji. So love that from her. Scathing review. And another listener, Spickin' Spanish Show. It says, I saw it for the first time on bootleg VHS in 1993. Didn't like it then. Don't like it now. Womp womp. It's too bad. But cool. You saw it on a bootleg VHS in 93. That must have been a pretty cool way to see this movie. Yeah. That's cool.
But honestly, folks on Instagram, thank you for reaching out. If you're listening and you have thoughts about this movie. Hit us up and we'd love to feature your voice on the show. Matt, have you heard of King of the Zombies? I've heard of it, but I've never seen it. This movie, Poverty Row horror film that Peter Lorre is going to dish on. This movie, King of the Zombies. Let me tell you what. It has some problematic depictions of African -Americans as a zombie movie would
from the 30s and 40s. With that said, there are some images that make it an interesting watch. And this movie has a score that was nominated for an Academy Award. Wow. Is it a worthy nomination? Did you like the music? I did not notice the music. Okay. But then I did read that factoid about it. It's like a lot of jungle drums and rhythmic beatings. Sounds highly questionable. Yeah, you know, like how much more do I have
to say? But yeah, I think 1941 is also the year that I walked with a zombie came out, which we talked about on the podcast before, and which I really love. There's some questionable stuff in that movie, too. But I think the overall intention, not to go on too much of a tangent, is to, you know, condemn imperialism and slavery and kind of depict the white. colonizers in that movie as totally messed up and just like, like burdened with guilt. And yeah, that's a fascinating movie.
I would imagine that King of the Zombies maybe is not quite as complex as I walked with a zombie, but I could be wrong. Maybe not. But Mr. Laurie, let us turn it over to you. Welcome to Poverty Row Studios on the other side of Hollywood. Where the stars were dimmer and the red carpets dripped with blood. Together we will watch the best of the worst. Movies known for their limited budgets, outlandish concepts, and questionable performances.
But with enough haunted houses, zombies, ape men, and devil bats to keep you up at night. This is the Poverty Row Picture Show. I dare you to sleep through these nightmares. I am your host, Peter Lorre. You may know me from such horror pictures as Mad Love and Roger Corman's The Raven. If only I had been cast in this week's feature entitled King of the Zombies. After the initial casting of Bela Lugosi fell through, Monogram Studios reached out to me to play the
leading role. Alas, I had other obligations. Oh, what could have been? I've always wanted to play in a zombie picture, and the chance to play opposite the wonderfully talented Man Dan Moreland would have been an honor. Oh, but listeners, I get ahead of myself. We must begin with a little plot synopsis and... and... Hmm... No, sorry, I don't mean to be distracted by those lilacs that Pierre had gifted me last time on the show, but... No, no, it couldn't be. Did they move?
No, it must have been a shadow. A trick of the light. My rational brain clouded by paranoia. No. No, I am positive these are just your everyday Ronald O'Meal immobile flower cuttings. They smell wonderful. Okay, anyways. Thank you for bearing with me. So, King of the Zombies. tells the tale of three Americans who are piloting a reconnaissance plane over the Caribbean. The two pilots are clearly buddies, and the third is the valet, played by African -American comedian
Mandan Moreland. Naturally, the trio get lost. crash land on an island, and run afoul of a mysterious Nazi agent practicing voodoo to control a population of native zombies for nefarious deeds. Along the way, Mandan Moreland provides comic relief that is problematic in its minstrel presentation, and yet... You can't help but appreciate the energy and the charm the actor brings to an otherwise lifeless picture. Did you know King of the Zombies was even nominated for an Academy Award? Yes,
it's true, for Best Original Score. As dubious as it may seem, it adds an additional bit of novelty to this movie. King of the Zombies is a poverty row horror film that throws too many wild ideas into the mix to be ignored. Check this one out, friends, and let me know what you think of Mr. Moreland's performance of the rhythmic beating of the drums. And if I should have been in this movie. You can be honest. I can take it. I swear to all that is unholy. Next time
on the Poverty Row Picture Show. We will revisit those East End kids as they get mixed up in a haunted house stalked by none other than Bela Lugosi and a dwarf assistant in a film called
Spooks Run Wild. In 1956. he first appeared on motion picture screens across the country his impact on audiences was instantaneous and unprecedented his acting technique was revolutionary his presence overwhelming he possessed more raw talent than any performer of his generation he soon became an international legend a giant who took the world by storm then suddenly at the height of his fame He retired from motion pictures. Now, he is back. And he's more magnificent. More glamorous.
More devastating than ever. Prepare yourself. The greatest star of all has returned. Godzilla 1985 Coming soon to a theater near you. Let's get back to Godzilla vs. Mothra. What are some themes that stand out to you, Matt? We're destroying the planet, basically. Humans are not doing a very good job of taking care of the planet that we live on. The movie touches on climate change, deforestation, in pretty preachy ways. There are numerous explicit lines of dialogue about
how... The Earth is in peril, and it's because of greed and human laziness, basically. Yeah, so a very, very major theme. What did you think about those themes or that theme's presentation in this movie? I do think it's a fair criticism to say that they are extremely heavy -handed. I do think it's also fair to say that these are themes evident in many Godzilla movies. especially a Mothra movie, as Mothra kind of represents more of that humanity, the relationship between
humanity and planet Earth. It didn't bother me, though, the heavy handedness. I just kind of took it in stride, especially when as soon as I started to watch this movie, I understood very quickly that this was more of a family film than a previous Godzilla film. And for better or for worse, just because I'm like, oh, this is clearly meant more for children, the heavy -handedness just kind of fits that tone a little bit easier for me. Yeah. It's an easier pill for me to swallow.
I don't know if that's fair to children, but I was like, okay. It's just like, you know, we don't want the message to get lost in subtlety. Yeah. Yeah, no, I totally agree with everything you said, even though I said before that they're heavy -handed and preachy, those themes. That's definitely true, but I also am kind of okay with that. I think it's kind of interesting to see this movie from about 30 years ago that over and over again is saying, like, climate change
is a thing. Like, please pay attention. But, like, now, 30 years later, it's still obviously a thing, and arguably people still aren't doing a very good job of doing, you know, doing everything they can to protect our planet and conserve the environment and stuff like that. So I thought that was actually kind of refreshing in a way. And I think the ending of this movie, I don't want to give away too many spoilers or whatever, but it's surprisingly melancholy. Like the music
over the end credits is pretty sad. We see Mothra flying into space and there's like another sort
of imminent threat to the planet. And, you know, even though this movie is family friendly and very whimsical and imaginative, I feel like it ends on a pretty... sad note like just reminding us like you know the earth is not in very good shape right now so i kind of actually admire that in a way 100 i i i totally dig that the idea that it's it's like when we watch the blob too and there's a there's a final bit of dialogue about well we're safe as long as the arctic is
frozen and you're just like oh people have been talking about climate change for decades We think it's only a 21st century problem. Yeah. Big, here we go. Big fossil fuel has known about it forever. And some of the keener genre films have clearly wanted us to get the message as well. So yeah, I don't, I don't think it's, I don't think it's a bad thing that it's that we're, we're yelling to the back row here. Right. Stop strip mining. The planet. Totally agree. Yeah.
And to your point, like that is, you know, a theme throughout so many Godzilla movies and throughout so many kaiju movies in general. And that's one of many reasons I love genre films so much because. You know, if you have like a preachy message movie or drama, maybe even arguably an inconvenient truth, a movie like that, maybe people resist that a little bit. But I think if you kind of have this like fun, exciting kaiju movie that also over and over again is like,
hey, take care of the planet, please. Like maybe it's a little bit easier to accept that way, you know? Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. Beyond that, I didn't get any other themes from this movie. No. Yeah, there's not much going on beneath the
surface, but maybe that's okay. Yeah. Tied into the environmentalism theme is this theme of corporate greed, because the main villainous corporation, which several of the characters work for, has destroyed much of the forests on Infant Island, which makes another appearance in this movie. And that's pretty much a direct echo of Mothra vs. Godzilla from 1964. So I like that kind of repeated theme. Or, you know, updated riff on
the theme, I guess you could say. But, you know, I mean, that theme of, like, corporate greed is always going to be relevant, unfortunately. And I think is certainly relevant in Japan and, like, the latter half of the 20th century in particular. Yeah, I was just thinking about the similarities between this film and Mothra vs. Godzilla. You have the rich businessman, the greedy corporate... People who just want to use Mothra for profit. And they do get theirs in
the end. I forget what happens to the guy in this one. Like the greedy corporate individual. He has a scene where he's on the floor. That doesn't help. Oh, yeah, but that's an interesting scene, though. I remember what you're talking about. I feel like that's the last time that we see him in this movie, so I don't know if we really know his fate. I think he's in a building that Mothra, the larval Mothra, does destroy. I think you're right. Did we even watch this
movie? Honestly, with Mothra versus Godzilla and some of the other ones, they do kind of... Don't hate me, kaiju fans. They do sort of blur together a little bit sometimes. So it's kind of hard to remember. Well, it's the scene with Takahiro Murata. Because he's kind of the admin assistant. He's like the secretary to this guy. And they have a blow up in the office. And Murata says something like, this is the earth getting its revenge. And then he storms out. Yeah. Earning
that Academy Award nomination. Yeah, exactly. But then there is that interesting moment that you just referenced where the greedy boss, I forget his name. You know, he says another thing as the other character is leaving. He's like, oh, the Earth's life force. What a ridiculous concept or something like that. But then he like falls to his knees and like seems to bury his head in his hands or something. So it's a very brief moment where you're like, whoa, is there
like a shade of depth to this character? Where did this come from? Yeah, this otherwise mustache twirling. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Man, you remember that moment in Mothra versus Godzilla when the main antagonist, he gets killed. They like see the they see Mothra out the window and then someone gets shot right in the head. Whoa. I honestly don't remember that. No. Yeah, I know. It's graphic. Huh? Someone gets murdered right in the thick of it. One of the bad guys? Yeah.
Now I feel like I need to rewatch that movie too. It's been a couple years. There was another, sorry, I'm trying to think there was another Godzilla movie where there's like a big subplot about like a highway that they're building and there are a bunch of protesters. And now, of course, I can't remember what movie that was. I feel like it was from the 70s, maybe late 60s. You know what I think you're thinking of? is Gamera versus Gauss. Oh, yeah, I think you're
right. Yeah. This just kind of proves the point that not just Godzilla movies, but kaiju in general, it's a very common theme. Yeah. So if any other themes come up, let's definitely talk about them. But I think we can get to our breakdowns. Yeah, for sure. That sounds good. I have some form and aesthetic stuff, but I'll wrap that up in my breakdowns. Okay, sounds good. Cool. All right. What's good about this movie to you? I mean,
it looks really beautiful. There are several striking visual moments throughout, sorry, throughout. That's a hard word to say, apparently. My favorite example is when the larval Mothra is like building a cocoon around herself on some building. I think it's like the National Diet Building, which I don't understand what that is. But there's a really gorgeous moment where it's like dusk and she's like spinning a silk cocoon around herself.
the cocoon in her imago stage and ifa kube's beautiful score is playing it's just a gorgeous moment and it's kind of slow paced i feel like the movie slows down to let us enjoy that for a little bit and i really loved that there are some really great kaiju battles i think all the underwater stuff especially the first battle underwater between godzilla and batra is really gorgeous and like some really good underwater
effects in there as well Let's see here. The like urban destruction scene of Mothra, like annihilating, I believe it's Yokohama. It's like the first kind of monster attack scene in this movie. Looks really gorgeous. I love the model effect in this model effects in this movie. Yeah, I, you know, I guess maybe I'll just leave it at that. Like aesthetically, it's a really striking, beautiful, well -made movie. Yeah, I'll save some other stuff for my later breakdowns. Okay.
The first thing that comes to mind with this movie that I love is Fukube's score, particularly in that moment with the larval Mothra spinning her cocoon. What he does with that, it's beautiful, it's poetic, and coupled with the lighting of this film in that moment, there's like a sunset. It's, again, poetry is what came to my mind. And the final battle at an amusement park. Just the use of lighting. It's a nighttime sequence. Lighting is done really effectively with smoke
effects. And I was impressed with that aspect of the film. I love Batra as an antagonist. I love the design of Mothra in this movie. I think that all works really well. Those are my big takeaways for the positives of this film. Yeah, totally agree. Sorry, I guess I would just repeat, I do kind of like how direct and sincere the environmental themes are, even though they are preachy and heavy -handed. Again, I'm kind of okay with that. Yeah. What are you not okay with?
As usual, the human characters are not very interesting. And I think that's especially glaring in this movie. I feel like... It might have been interesting because like the two. You know, there's like this archaeologist, Indiana Jones -like character, and then his ex -wife who works for the kind of evil, greedy corporation. And they're forced to reunite on this project. But, you know, that could have been a compelling theme, but like
those characters are introduced so poorly. And like the fact that they used to be married is like told to the audience by like a totally different character. It's like, well, why don't we should see that? We shouldn't be told about that, you know? So that's one example where like the human relationships are not very well conveyed. I do think like the Indiana Jones stuff, not to make too big of a deal about it, but it is very blatantly just like trying to rip off a very successful
franchise. So that's not great. And then like it kind of in a way, the human stuff, I think it's even worse because like at a certain point, they don't have anything to do with this movie at all. Like it's just all about the monsters. But like we still have repeated cutaways to the human characters just looking at the fight scenes and like reacting, which are sort of fun. But at the same time, it's like we don't need this at all. Like it has nothing to do with the movie.
So, yeah, as usual, the human stuff is not. Not very interesting, and it could have been more interesting, but it's just very poorly done. Totally agree. I think that leads into my biggest criticism of the film is not just the script, but the way relations are fleshed out with the monsters themselves, even. I don't think Godzilla is needed in this movie, and I love seeing him, but I think... This is my take. I think this is a good Mothra movie and not a great Godzilla
movie. Yeah. I don't know why Godzilla's there. I also don't know really why Mothra and Batra become friends at the end. Right. Other than just like the script needs them then to fight Godzilla. Maybe Mothra. it looks like to give credit to where the film is doing. I do think Mothra, it is, it is, it is visually told to us that Mothra sees that Batra is hurt. And because Mothra is a force for good, God bless her. She, she heals Batra because she is, you know, an
all forgiving character. So like, I do understand maybe where we were trying to go, but I'm watching this fight going. I'm just ping -ponging between relationships, and I didn't care for it. It sounded really harsh just then. That was garbage. No, it wasn't. It wasn't that bad. I imagined you shifting your monocle when you said that and twirling your mustache. Oh, but one more thing. I'm really getting into it now. I think... Mothra and Batra are fighting. And I think the effects
are really great. The flying effects through the night sky and this and that. And Batra is firing off these laser beams. And Mothra's not doing anything to fight back. It's kind of a really one -sided fight. And this is where my criticism of Mothra comes into this movie. In this moment, why didn't Mothra fight Batra? Maybe there was backstory. But it wasn't obvious enough for me. And then Mothra does use her laser beams against Godzilla. And I kind of flipped the table.
I was like, you had these the whole time? Yeah. Right. And why is Mothra so mad at Godzilla, like you alluded to before? Godzilla is being destructive as usual, but that seems to be the only reason for this animosity between them, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree. There are some things I liked about that. Like I think it's, and I didn't, if you had anything else
to say, I didn't mean to cut you off there. Well, I think like with Mothra and Batra, it's kind of interesting in like a metaphysical way is like the good and evil destructive forces of like the same figure or entity or person, you know, like, like. considering that Mothra and Batra are like alter egos, it's kind of interesting to think that like they both are here to protect the planet, but one does so through peace and love and the other does so through like utter
destruction. Like that's kind of a cool idea to me, but it's not well conveyed in this movie at all. You kind of have to come up with that yourself, you know, like, or you kind of have to like fill in some things that the movie doesn't, I don't think really intended. You know what I mean? Right. Yeah. That's just it. Like, I feel like, There's that movie in here somewhere. Yeah. But it is what we get. And I'm not complaining about a killer kaiju movie with some great action
set pieces. I'm just looking at the script and thinking this needs another pass. Yeah. We need another rewrite here. For sure. I feel like you can tell that, like, Atomi, I believe is his name, the screenwriter, Kazumi Atomi, is that his name? Omori. Mori, sorry. You know, he had the initial scripts, like the Mothra versus Bagan. And then they really rushed this into production after the success of Godzilla versus King Ghidorah. And I feel like there were just too many producers
who were like, we got to throw in Godzilla. Like, we got to do this. We got to make it more family friendly, all this stuff. And it's like, yeah, to your point, they should have spent a lot more time on pre -production. Yeah, yeah. So campy things. I don't know. What do you got? Well, there are a lot of specific moments in the kaiju battles that I thought were really fun. Like at the end when I think it's Mothra, but it might be Batra who like lifts up an entire Ferris wheel
and like throws it into Godzilla. Really love that. I was laughing a lot at that part. So that's a little campy. And then like the way that Mothra and Batra at the end, like carry Godzilla, they like, like one takes the head and one takes the tail. I just thought that was kind of fun and
silly in terms of. maybe a little more campy than just like fun i think like the daughter character that the you know estranged husband and wife have together is just so so blatantly like just kind of like a concession to like young audiences you know and it's kind of like not very convincing in this movie and has some pretty clunky lines of dialogue just about you know saving earth and stuff like that that character in general is just yeah i don't know if campy's
the right word but just like over the top far -fetched pretty it feels pretty fake yeah yeah i think it's so funny i i think i was taking this movie a little more seriously than i should have when i first began so it really with me this film didn't stand a chance but by the end i i i allowed myself to lighten up a little bit As I think one needs to do when watching this movie, not like not take it too seriously, you
know? And there was a moment that happened in the final fight between Godzilla, Mothra and Batra. As soon as Mothra and Batra become allies, the movie, the camera cuts to Godzilla. And to me, Godzilla gave a reaction like, ah, crap.
Yeah. right yeah there is like a surprising amount of like expression from Godzilla in this movie even though it's just one suit so maybe it's more you know just like the magic of editing that makes you believe that but like it seems like a human character yeah no I think the suit mechanics animatronics on Godzilla's face are incredible yeah like that's that's like so so ingenuity and such ingenuity and craftsmanship to make this rubber suit as expression as full
of expression as it is. Yeah. And there's a similar moment with the larval Mothra towards the beginning where she is like swimming through the water and just the movement of Mothra, like, which seems to be kind of like going up and down as like a worm might actually do in water is like really impressive. It's very well done. Yeah. Yeah. I like that fight too in the, in the, in the ocean. between Mothra and Godzilla when Mothra first hatches out of the egg. Yeah, hadn't seen
that too often before. So I thought that was new and interesting. I like that a lot as well, yeah. And again, just like a very beautiful scene. You have like bright blue skies and like the wide open ocean and all that. It's very, very nice to look at. Yeah. I'm trying to think of other things. Otherwise, I'm okay wrapping this up. I had to say... You know, back to our mustache twirling villain. It's the same. I just thought he's so determined to kidnap and enslave the
cosmos. I'm like, you can't just do that. Right. Which is like the same exact thing that happens in Mothra versus Godzilla. The same operation takes them. Just because they're, you know, 12 inches tall doesn't mean they don't have agency. They're still like. I guess humans, I don't know, but like you can't enslave them for your own gain. Yeah. Another example of an extremely obvious heavy handed theme, but yeah. Like what, what
are they even going to use the cosmos for? Like there's one moment where it's like, Oh, we can use them for publicity. It's like, is that the entire reason you're doing this? That seems like a terrible idea. And for how long? Right. What's the board going to say? What's Becky at accounting going to say? Like this has, this can't. You can't get away with this. Yeah. Their stock prices are going to plummet. Yeah. There's kind of a
lot of campy stuff with the cosmos. Like there's one moment where they're sleeping inside of a shirt pocket. I thought that was kind of cute. And yeah, just, I don't know. I can't really think of too many other examples, but with both the show being or the show regime and the cosmos in this movie, I like those characters a lot. They're a lot of fun. Yeah. I wish they would come back in the same way. In the newer movies. In the Monsterverse. Legendary movies. They're
not really a part of Mothra's story. And I really wish they would be. Yeah. That's too bad. I was also hoping that there would be more appearances of Batra. In future movies. But I don't think that is the case. No it's not sadly. Maybe someday. Someday who knows. Well then. Let's give this. Bad boy, a rating. Should I go through our ratings as usual? It wouldn't be an episode without it. Exactly. Yeah. So our top rating is it's a timeless classic. It definitely stands the test of time.
Our second rating, there may be some antiquated moments, but overall it's great. It stands the test of time. Number three, it may be historically significant or just fun, but it does not stand the test of time. Number four, it is not worth revisiting. It definitely does not stand the test of time. I, I think I've seen this movie a few times now. I think it has a lot of potential to be more compelling than it is. I like the family friendly things. I can't wait to show
my kid this movie. But for me, that's not exactly the tone I'm always in the mood for. So it's very hard for me to keep my attention. glued to what's happening, especially when the relationships and the human characters are as lifeless as they are or confusing. So for me, I think this movie has a lot of great moments. I think the visual effects are great. The Fukube score is a masterpiece, and I don't use that word lightly. However, I don't think it stands the test of time, but it
has a lot of great individual elements. That's great. Objectively, I do totally agree with that, but you're right that I am going to overrate this movie. I know I'm overrating it, but for me, I have to give it our second highest rating. To me, it did stand the test of time. This was the first time I saw it, but I really like these Heisei Godzilla movies so far. put a little bit too much stock in visual style and aesthetic form. Soundtrack, the Ifukube soundtrack. But
this movie just looks so beautiful. And in almost every scene, there's something striking to look at. Maybe not almost every scene, but there's a lot of visually spectacular stuff. You know, I do actually like the kind of preachy, heavy
-handed themes. I kind of, you know, if you're not going to stick up for the... health of our planet what are you going to stick up for you know so it's it's charming it's and like you said before vincent like i think if it's trying to sort of like get young audience members like kids to sort of like believe very passionately about that i think that's ultimately a really good thing you know i think the kaiju battles are really fun to watch you're right that a lot
of the time they don't make a lot of sense with godzilla it's Like he seems to just be mad that he like now is back on earth. Like, cause he like, there's a meteorite that strikes earth in the first scene, which is kind of a continuation of the previous movie. And that seems to be the only reason that he's here and that he's mad, which I, in a way is kind of fun to me. Like
it's just here and he's doing his thing. Like it's, it's a flaw and it's, I wish there had been more to it, but at the same time I just found that kind of funny. Yeah. So yeah, a very flawed movie. Could have been a lot better. But as it is, I still found it really entertaining and beautiful. And I'm excited to watch more of these Heisei movies because I'm really liking them a lot. I love that. I mean, you asked me my favorite era of Godzilla films. This is my
favorite time period. The next film, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2. I love that movie. Then you have Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla. Which kind of gets a bad rap, but it's a guilty pleasure of mine. And then the final one is Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Very Japanese name. Yeah. But that's regarded as one of the best Godzilla movies ever made. Wow. So, I mean, Godzilla vs. Mothra may not be my favorite of this bunch, but it's still a pretty high bar to everything you were saying.
Yeah, and that makes me very excited to continue with this era of Godzilla films. And I yeah, like after I see some more, maybe I'll think a little bit less of Godzilla versus Mothra knowing like we've seen a couple of really great ones. But like, I think over time, it'll become apparent that this maybe is not the best of this era. But, you know, maybe that kind of goes to show that even the subpar Heisei era Godzilla movies
still have a lot of pleasure to them. And maybe next time I watch this movie, I'll watch the subtitled version. Maybe it's maybe the. the pictures cleared up to over my VHS, which is clearly a, a transfer from the VHS or sorry, my DVD, which is a transfer of the VHS from the nineties. So maybe you just watched a better quality film. Yeah, it's, it's certainly possible. I mean, again, it's, it is strikingly beautiful. So I think probably like a sharper transfer might
help some of that stuff as well. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well, everybody, please let us know your thoughts. Before you do that, remember that Dracula's Daughter, we have some cut -for -time bonus content you can enjoy after this. And before we get into our outro here, we may be coming at you a little bit later than two weeks with The Island of Dr. Moreau. Just some scheduling stuff on our end. But we will have an episode in two weeks. It
may be some more bonus content. An old episode that we repackage and make all shiny for you. Who knows? But stay with us. We appreciate it. And let us know what you think. Please rate and review Camp Kaiju wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe to Camp Kaiju. campkaijupodcast .com and send us listener comments at campkaiju at
gmail .com instagram youtube all those links are in our show notes if you'd like to be a featured voice on the show leave us a voicemail telling us about your favorite monster movies and memories. Again, that number is in the show notes. Camp Kaiju is recorded in Minneapolis, St. Paul with Media's Mailbox by Ben Cook -Felts. Thank you,
friends. And until next time, stay campy. Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential buyers. Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services. Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities. Links in the show notes. This Friday on the Sony Movie Channel, turn down the
lights and get some hot buttered sushi. What could it be? It's Godzilla time. Godzilla is back. Oh, no. It's Godzilla versus Mothra. Okay, China monster checklist. Planet in peril? I'm afraid it looks like we may be headed for doomsday. Oh, no. Check. Men in rubber suits? Check. Monsters who only attack Japan? Check. It should reach Japan tomorrow afternoon. Oh, no! So, a meteor crashes on Earth, waking Godzilla and unearthing Mothra's egg. But none of that matters. What
is all this? It's all about giant monsters doing what they do best. What could possibly happen next? Destroying Tokyo. Oh, no! Join us for a night of monster movie mayhem. That's huge. Check out Godzilla vs. Mothra. Batra and Mothra are joining forces again, Godzilla. Boy, what a day. This Friday at 10 p .m. Eastern, 7 p .m. Pacific on the Sony Movie Channel. Films with benefits. What could possibly stop all of them? Hey, Vincent. How are you doing tonight? I'm excited to talk
about this movie. We have Naomi on, which I'm always excited about. Yeah. Thank you for having me. Yeah. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I was super excited that you guys wanted me on this episode because I have never seen this movie and good friends show you good movies. And that is what happened. So thank you for having me. Very happy to be here. Well, thank you, as always, for joining us. We really love having you on
the show. Really appreciate your unique perspective on movies, just how many movies you've seen. It boggles the mind how many movies you watch. And always a pleasure to talk with you about movies. So thanks again for joining us. Of course, of course. Dracula's Daughter actually was my 130th film that I've watched in 2025. So it was kind of satisfying to have a nice number on that one. That makes me think I'm going to check out
my letterbox right now. And not the Camp Kaiju profile, shameless plug, but my personal one where I watched non -monster movies. This year, I've watched 21 movies. Well, that's reasonable. You know, 130 is just bonkers. And I'm aware of that. It's high even for me. I thought it would be higher, though. Yeah. January is cold and long and as is February. So, you know, you
gotta, gotta do something. Something that's been keeping me though is, or I've been making it, my tally go up is watching all the Oscar, trying to watch as many Oscar noms as I can. My friends and I have kind of taken it to a new level this year. We already sort of treat it like our Superbowl or something. But we have made special effort to see a lot of the shorts, which I don't normally see, but the Lagoon screens them. So that was really cool. But yeah, each of those, you know,
gets added as part of that 130. So short films too. Yeah, I always kind of forget about the short films. Like I've seen some of them at the Lagoon and I believe the Riverview plays them as well. So I try to make it out, but I haven't been able to this year, unfortunately. Yeah, I did a double feature on Sunday, the animated shorts followed by the just like narrative, you know, live action shorts. It was three hours, I think. That's awesome. So impressive that you've
seen 130 movies so far this year. I try to aim for like a movie a day, which is about where I'm at. I've seen maybe like 60 or so. Nowhere close to 130. That's the level that I aspire to. Well, I'm lucky I work from home. So I always have a movie on in the background. It's a good life. Yeah. That's awesome. I was thinking probably the only Oscar nominated movie. That's really
a monster movie in terms of the features. Anyway, it's probably the substance, unless you count, you know, like wicked, maybe Nosferatu is nominated for some of the like technical categories. Yeah. I guess I'm kind of rooting for the substance by default, just because it has that monster movie sort of grossness to it, you know? Absolutely. I would love to see The Substance win. And if you would have asked me before Parasite won if it was possible, I would have said no, you know?
And so there's a glimmer of hope, but I don't know who it'll be. But I don't think it'll be The Substance, but I would love it if that happens. Totally, yeah. And Vincent, you have a lot of reasons for only seeing 21 movies this year. You have a lot going on. So, you know, you shouldn't feel too bad about that. I feel terrible about it. Shame. I bring shame to my movie podcast. Well, it's something to work on, you know, but
we all have things we strive for. Now, I will say, just briefly, I have been on a kick lately of modern monster movies, which is really good for me. I am trying to watch more contemporary stuff. Have you all seen Late Night with the Devil? Yeah, I did see that one. Let me look it up. I forgot. I think it's pretty solid for what it is. Matt, I think you'd like it. The one with the talk show guy. David Goshmalin.
I saw him at New York Comic Con. He did a talk as part of a shutter panel for the streamer shutter. Very cool. And then I saw Night Bitch with Amy Adams. which I really, I found enjoyable and a real thinker. I also liked that one. I was surprised because it has such a, you know, arresting name, but I don't know. I was just surprised, but I enjoyed that one as well. And then one more that I I'll just plug. I it's not new, but
it's from the early nineties. It's called brain dead, but it's not the Peter Jackson dead alive. It's brain space dead. And I was looking for Dead Alive, like on Tubi. And I searched Dead Alive. Nothing came up. I searched Brain Dead. And this movie came up. And I thought, this isn't that movie. But it stars Bill Paxton and Bill Pullman. And I thought, well, you have my attention now. So I watched it, which I never do really just like watch a movie that I know nothing about.
It's weird. It's trippy. It's got a really interesting backstory, but it's like you basically go into Bill Pullman's mind and it gets really surreal and there's some body horror. I don't know. Go check it out. That sounds cool. Yeah, that sounds cool. I had a similar thing where I think I had torrented, was trying to get the Peter Jackson film and got that one and started and I was like, wait, wait, this is a minute, but I didn't watch it, but it sounds good. I will check it out.
Yeah. Not bad. That does sound great. Yeah. I would like to see all three of those. I like late night with the devil, especially was on my radar and just never got around to it, but I'm, I'm pretty bad at watching newer movies. Like I try to stay up on stuff, but old movies are where it's at. I mean, that's my sweet spot, you know, but I should work on that. I don't know, but good to hear. Glad that you liked it,
Vincent. I did see the first omen recently, which I liked quite a bit more than I thought I would. So that's my semi recent movie plug of tonight. Don't you love that scene with the glass that cuts the guy? Yeah, right at the beginning. Amazing. There's one moment where the main character, a nun, is walking around a statue and she's moving really slowly and the camera inches around and there's something staring at her behind the statue. It's just blood -curdling. It's amazing. That's
my favorite part of the movie. I won't ruin it anymore, though. So what has happened in the world of monster movies since the last time we talked? I wanted to ask both of you, have you seen the movie The Monkey yet? It's on my radar. I have not, but I'm really excited to see it because that's Osgood Perkins, right? Yeah. Is that his latest? It's his latest, yeah. Yeah. No, I'm excited to see that and just see another one from him. His career has been developing
nicely. But yeah, I'm excited. I just have not had the chance to see it, but I'll probably see it after the Oscars. Yeah. Oscar movies take precedence, probably. Yeah, the clock's ticking. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what to, you know, what to feel about the monkey. It's another strange thing to say, but... Just cover your nuts and bolts, all right? Yeah. Cover your nuts and bolts. We're about to talk about the monkey. Yeah, I didn't really love Long Legs all that much, which
was Osgood Perkins' previous movie. I know it kind of was a word -of -mouth success. There is some stuff that I liked about it, maybe some overrated stuff in there as well, but the trailer for The Monkey is just so fun and entertaining. It looks like a blast, so hopefully we'll all see it soon and share our thoughts on the next episode. Yeah. It's so funny because when I first saw the marketing for that, I assumed it was a remake of Monkey Shines. Have you all seen
that movie? And I was just like, wait, what? Oh, so it's not. But I'm excited to see it. It does kind of look like a much gorier version of that movie. I thought, yeah, I've never actually seen Monkey Shines, but I do have like an awareness of it. And that was my first thought as well. But probably very different. Yeah. just a couple days ago to... A character actor who was featured in a lot of great monster movies, horror and sci -fi movies, who worked very often with John
Carpenter, passed away. So I wanted to say rest in peace to Peter Jason. I read that name and didn't recognize it, and then I saw a picture of him, and I was like, oh yeah, that guy. He has been in They Live, Village of the Damned, Ghosts of Mars, Arachnophobia, the Jurassic World movies, Prince of Darkness, and then what I presume to be some lesser monster movies with names like Alien Nation, Planet Raptor. Alien Apocalypse. I kind of just want to watch his entire filmography
now. But he's very recognizable. He's been in a lot of great horror movies as well. So rest in peace to Peter Jason. Yeah. Rest in peace.