It is just a week to go before the premiere of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla and the marketing has begun to go into overdrive.
In addition to trailers and the latest tv spots, Warner Bros. has begun to release clips and behind-the-scenes to help announce the latest arrival of the King of Monsters.
We have here a brief clip that shows the Big Guy taking on the U.S. Navy as it tries to defend Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay it straddles. This marks two straight years that the Golden Gate Bridge has been threatened and/or destroyed by these damn kaiju.
With the release of the new American reboot/remake/sequel of the classic 1954 Godzilla by Ishirō Honda, I thought it was high time I shared one of my guiltiest of all film pleasures growing up.
Godzilla and everything kaiju I ate up as a wee lad growing up during the 80’s. There really wasn’t anything on Saturday morning and afternoon tv other than reruns of badly dubbed Japanese monsters flicks and anime. One such film was Ishirō Honda’s very own King Kong vs. Godzilla. Yes, you read that correctly. The King of All Monsters fought the Eight Wonder of the World to decide once and for all who was the greatest giant monster of all-time.
The film itself wasn’t that great when I look back on it. Hell, even I had a sort of understanding even as an 8-year old kid that King Kong vs. Godzilla was a pretty bad film, but I still had a blast watching it. The film lacked in coherent storyline and important themes of man vs. nature and the psychological impact of the two atomic bombings of the US on Japan to end World War II wasn’t at all evident in this monster mash-up.
What the film had was King Kong fighting Godzilla. It was like watching two of the greatest icons of youths of my generation duking it out for our pleasure. It didn’t need to have a story or worry about whether it’s depiction of the natives on King Kong’s island was even remotely racist (it was so racist). All it needed to do was show everyone the very fight they’ve been waiting for. Fans of both monster wouldn’t have to wait forever to see the fight happen. This wasn’t going to be a dream fight never to happen like Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.
So, while King Kong vs. Godzilla was never one of the good entries in the Godzilla filmography (I think it was probably the worst) it more than made up for being one of the most campiest and entertaining entries in the Big Guy’s decades long history.
If there ever was a film from my youth that needs to be remade it would be King Kong vs. Godzilla and only Guillermo Del Toro should be chosen to direct it.
Gareth Edwards’ upcoming Godzilla film has been gaining some major hype and buzz since last year’s Comic-Con and with each new teaser and trailer that the studio releases. Yet, outside of more and more looks at the King of Monsters himself we really haven’t seen anything to tell us that there will be other kaiju in this film.
Well, this latest trailer released for the Asian market finally answers the question of whether Godzilla will be wreaking destruction on human cities by himself or doing so while fighting other kaiju. From this latest trailer we see several glimpses of other giant monsters with a flying one being the most obvious. Some think this could be a new iteration of Godzilla rival and sometimes ally Rodan, but I’m hoping that it’s something new and that Rodan and other famous kaiju from past Godzilla films get introduced in later films (if there’s to be any).
We are just a little over a month away from the release of the Gareth Edwards reboot of the classic kaiju film Godzilla.
As studios are now seeming to get into the habit to help build up the hype for their big tentpole summer releases we have a new extended trailer from Warner Bros. to remind everyone that the Big Guy is seriously in need of a Snickers bar.
While it’s still speculation and this extended trailer doesn’t really show any clues or evidence I still believe that this latest iteration of Godzilla will have him fighting another monster and/or monsters.
Last summer, we saw the return of the giant monster genre on Western screens with Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim. This summer we see the return of the King of the Monsters back on the big screen where he belongs.
Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla looks to bring back the King to lay massive destruction on humanity. The trailers haven’t shown whether Godzilla will be the villain of the film or back to fight other monsters. Either as protector or destroyer he will cause much collateral damage on the cities of mankind.
This latest trailer seems to intimate that Edwards’ film will actually be a sequel to the original 1954 film of the same name.
This past summer saw the return of kaiju to the film vernacular with the release of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim. The very same studios which released this film, Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures return next summer with a similar film, but this time with the return of the granddaddy of all kaiju: Godzilla.
Godzilla is a reboot of the kaiju franchise with Gareth Edwards trying to make up for the travesty that was Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla of over a decade ago. This time around it looks like (at least from the teaser) that Edwards is going the serious route with this reboot. It helps that he has quite the cast to play around with. This Godzilla will star Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ken Watanabe.
We also get a brief glimpse of Godzilla itself right near the end followed by the iconic monster scream that’s as recognizable as the tweets and twoots of R2-D2.
Godzilla will return to the big-screen on May 16, 2014.
The Wind Rises aka Kaze Tachinu is the latest anime offering from Studio Ghibli and will be getting an Oscar-qualifying run later this year. It’s the latest from acclaimed Japanese director Miyazaki Hayao (My Friend Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) and, most likely, his final work as he’s announced that he’s retiring.
The film is a fictionalized account of one Jiro Horikoshi. It’s a decades-long retelling of Jiro’s early life as a boy through his post-war life. Those who know their history will recognize the name of Jiro Horikoshi as one of the engineers responsible for the development of the legendary WWII fighter most commonly-known by the name given to it by the Allies during the war, The Zero.
While all of Miyazaki’s films have always have had the mature element in addition to the whimsical nature of the story he’s telling in his anime it look like The Wind Rises may just be Miyazaki’s most mature offering to date.
The Wind Rises has been making the film festival rounds of late and hopefully gets limited release dates announced before year’s end.
In late summer of 2010 the anime and film community lost one of its brightest stars with the passing of Satoshi Kon. With Miyazaki getting up there in age there was now a clamor to see who would take on the mantle that Kon had left behind with his passing. It didn’t take long for many fans of anime to finally look at Mamori Hosoda as the heir apparent. While Hosoda’s body of work as a feature-length animation film director hasn’t been as extensive as Kon’s or Miyazaki’s what he has done has garnered a near universal acclaim for their excellent storytelling, fully-conceived characters and lush, humanistic animation style.
In 2009’s most people were finally made aware of Hosoda’s skill as a director with the worldwide success of Summer Warsand this success made people look forward to what his next film would be. It took three years, but in 2012 Hosoda and anime fans were finally given his next film with the animated film Wolf Children Ame and Yuki (Ōkami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki). It would be a departure from the scifi themes which has been Hosoda’s go to themes for his first two films.
Wolf Children explores the themes of the unconventional family unit of a single mother of two children born of her love and relationship with an Okami (a sort of spirit-animal who can turn from human to wolf). It’s these two young children, Ame and Yuki (who have inherited their father’s gift for turning into wolves themselves), who become the focus of the film. The two children must navigate their childhood and teenage years knowing that they’re different from the rest of the kids in school and both must make the life-altering decisions to follow their own paths whether it be as a human or as a wolf.
To say that the film skews more towards the naturalistic and humanistic themes of the Hayao Miyazaki films would be an understatement. Hosoda doesn’t steal from the master, but instead takes what made the Miyazaki films such timeless and global classics to spin his own tale on the role of a mother’s love for her children even after suffering through a terrible loss and right up to the exploration of nature. So much of the wonder in this film comes from the two children exploring the wild nature around them. It’s a joy to see and at times will even bring tears to some.
It’s no wonder that Hosoda has become the latest name to be seen as Miyazaki’s next heir apparent. While it’s unfair to put so much on Hosoda to accomplish he seems to be more than willing to take on the task and have done so with surprising success.
Wolf Children Ame and Yukimight be a slight departure from Hosoda’s two previous works, but it just goes to show that he’s a director who is willing to branch out thematically and stylistically. This latest film might not be on the same level as his two previous, but it’s definitely one that should help build his reputation as one of the best director’s in the anime and film community.
This weekend was Otakon 2012. It’s sort of like the East Coast’s answer to Anime Expo. It’s the largest anime and Japanese pop culture convention on the East Coast and pretty much those who are not able to attend Anime Expo end up in Baltimore for this event. While pantsukudasai and I weren’t able to attend news still able to be had from the event by way of other means. Anime News Network has news from the FUNimation Entertainment industry panel during this year’s Otakon. This news is pretty much which new anime FUNimation has acquired the licensing rights to for the North American market.
One bit of news from this panel is that the company has acquired the North American licensing rights to the newest anime film bearing the title Space Battleship Yamato (Uchū Senkan Yamato). This Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection(Uchū Senkan Yamato: Fukkatsu Hen)and will take place 21 years after the events of the original series and 17 years after the anime film Final Yamato. This is very good news indeed with a new anime series already under way in Japan with the reboot Space Battleship Yamato 2199. It’s a good day to be a fan of the franchise.
It was the original series, retitled Starblazers in the US, that first hooked me into anime. I was barely 8 when I caught the series on syndication and to say that it blew my mind with it’s space opera action, drama and romance would be an understatement. For most American kids cartoons never involved such topics and themes as death, self-sacrifice, genocide and a host of other very heavy stuff. This series opened things up for me that cartoons need not be all safe and fun and games (though Tom and Jerry proved that ultra-violence wasn’t just in anime).
It’s going to be great to finally see a new series and film with the advancement in the animation process tackle this well-known franchise. It’ll be great to just see the Space Battleship Yamato ply the cosmos once again.
Here’s a 9-minute preview of the series that shows just how awesome the series is in addition to the film announced.
Through the Shattered Lens 