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I grew up watching
a lot of the Godzilla movies, and loved
them in spite of the old ‘man in suit’
look of the films. They were cheesy to be
sure, but they were fun. Pop in a video,
grab some popcorn, and you were off and
running. A few years back, director Roland
Emmerich proved that ‘plot matters’
when he tried to re-invent the character
in the big budget film named after the famous
lizard. The ‘man in suit’ was
replaced by some pretty good CGI, but still
it landed with a THUD in theatres.
Not too long ago it was turned into a cartoon,
as big movies like this often are, and Sony
/ Columbia Tristar is releasing some of
the episodes on DVD this week. Entitled
“Godzilla: The Series - Monster Wars”,
one gets the feeling it will be an all out
attack… which it is… and isn’t.
The basic premise of these particular episodes
take a nod from an earlier Godzilla film
called, “Destroy All Monsters.”
Again we have an alien race trying to take
over the planet by controlling all of Earth’s
monsters.
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It is up to Nick Tatapolous (from Emmerich’s
“Godzilla”) and the organization H.E.A.T.
to stop them. Somehow they have teamed up with
Godzilla (didn’t they destroy her in the
movie?) to take down this threat.
The series itself wasn’t so bad. It suffered
from weak animation, as most new cartoons do,
but the storylines seemed pretty good from the
few I had caught on TV. The problem with this
DVD release is that the studio decided to release
just the episodes that make up this part of the
overall story. They would have done better to
release the series in full season sets (though
I don’t know offhand just how seasons there
actually were), because there is too much back
story that is missed by starting in the middle.
The DVD does not come with any extra features.
Since they didn’t release the full season,
it might have been nice to at least add some kind
if feature that brings viewers up to date. There
are too many unanswered questions, like who the
heck is H.E.A.T.??? Why are they fighting alongside
the creature they destroyed in the movie? Who
invented liquid soap and why????
In spite of the inherent weaknesses in not telling
the whole story, “Godzilla: The Series -
Monster Wars” is still kind of better than
the movie, and I’m sure kids will get into
it. I think next time, I’ll wait for the
whole series, though.
Specifications: Full Screen, Dolby Surround
Studio: Sony / Columbia Tristar
Release Date: 8/24/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website
We'll give Godzilla: The Series - Monster Wars
a C.
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