*. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster was released (in Japan) only some eight months after Mothra vs. Godzilla, which tells you something about how smoothly the assembly line was moving at Toho. Say what you will about them, these Godzilla movies (and their kaiju cousins) were still major productions, and they could be turned out now quickly, often being produced all at the same time and using the same cast and crew.
*. In his DVD commentary David Kalat makes a lot out of the comedy here but I find it more whimsical, even lunatic, than humorous. It’s not a funny movie, at least in the way King Kong vs. Godzilla went for laughs. But it is a weird movie. As things get started, Princess Selino Salno of Selgina is possessed by a spirit from the planet Venus (or Mars in the English-language version) and jumps out of a plane to avoid an assassination plot. It turns out she’s being used to warn us about the coming of a powerful monster named Ghidorah that Godzilla will have to team up with Rodan and one of the Mothra slugs to defeat.
*. This is bonkers, and I haven’t even mentioned the fact that The Peanuts are back as the faeries who can magically summon Mothra. As a bonus they can also translate monster language into English (or Japanese). Which leads to even more silliness.
*. Kalat attributes much of the weird spirit of the film to writer Shin’ichi Sekizawa, who also wrote Mothra vs. Godzilla and King Kong vs. Godzilla. It’s a quality that’s hard to describe. For starters, it’s obviously aimed at kids. The adult seriousness of Gojira is long gone and Godzilla and Rodan are now a couple of squabbling adolescents wrestling and throwing things at each other until mom (Mothra) comes along to whip them into line. As a kid I think I could relate.
*. Is it camp? Kalat talks about this quite a bit, mentioning the theory of how “the cancer of camp” gradually took over the franchise until the movies were too ridiculous to survive. But he disagrees with this, arguing instead that the world of genre filmmaking was being co-opted by the big studios, moving such films away from low-budgeted, assembly-line productions (Star Wars would be the spectacular culmination of this trend). Kantor, however, likes the “joyful silliness” of the Godzilla franchise and thinks it’s what makes these movies unique.
*. I see Kalat’s point, and admit that these movies do have a charm that it’s hard not to respond to even as a grown-up. With so many monsters on screen now the proceedings have a carnival-like quality, with lots of spectacle and chaos that you can’t begin to take seriously. Also charming are the old-school effects. Eiji Tsubaraya was unhappy with Ghidorah — played by a man in a suit and several puppeteers moving the heads and tails — but I don’t think he looks too awkward. No more so than Rodan anyway.
*. That said, I also reach a limit with these films. After a while they do all play the same, no matter how ridiculous the human plots. And nothing is really ever at stake, since this is a comic-book world where no one ever dies. Even Ghidorah flies away, to return, we can be sure, to fight another day. Judged against the rest of the franchise I think this is one of the more enjoyable and entertaining outings. The concept was still pretty fresh, and the template just settling into its final form. From here on out it was going to be more of the same. Which is just what people wanted.