Monster Movie of the Week: Rebirth of Mothra (1996)

Rebirth of Mothra (1996)
Directed by: Okihiro Yoneda
Genre: Kaiju eiga/Family

THE MOVIE

After Godzilla was "killed" in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah to make way for an American movie, Toho decided to produce a few movies focusing on their second most popular kaiju, Mothra (with the also-popular King Ghidorah in a supporting role). While she's best known to audiences for her many appearances in Godzilla's movies, Mothra actually debuted in her own eponymous movie in 1961, before being incorporated into the larger Toho monster universe, so Rebirth of Mothra is not her first time carrying a movie.

Rebirth of Mothra and its two sequels are not particularly well known in the U.S. (the third one has never even been available on DVD) and they might strike Toho fans as a bit kiddish but that shouldn't stop anyone from checking them out. Kaiju-philes will find a lot to love and some very cool monster designs despite the juvenile tone, ham-fisted environmental message, and low budget. It's also nice to see Mothra and Ghidorah get some of the spotlight for themselves.

More than any of the other Toho movies, the Rebirth of the Mothra series gives a central role to the Elias, the ubiquitous twins who have been Mothra's keepers and companions since her very first movie. Here the Elias are joined by a third (and evil) sister, Belvera. While the Elias ride around on a small butterfly, Belvera's mount is a tiny fire-breathing dragon. Throughout the three movies of the Mothra Trilogy, the three sisters battle it out, often using humans and monsters as surrogates, for the fate of the world. It's actually nice to see the Elias doing something more active rather than simply singing or waiting to be rescued.

In the first Rebirth movie, Belvera seeks to unleash an ancient monster, Death Ghidorah, from it's tomb deep within the heart of a mountain. She possesses a young girl to help her, while the girl's brother is enlisted by the Elias to prevent their sister from releasing Ghidorah. Sadly they fail and the monster wreaks havoc. The twins are forced to call upon Mothra who is old and exhausted from having just laid an egg. She is defeated by the monster but her offspring hatches and joins the fight. The battle rages and the mother is defeated but the new larva spins a cocoon and is reborn as Motra Leo, who finally defeats the monster and avenges his mother.


THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

The Mothras tend to be on the cuddlier side, as they had during the Monster's appearance during the rest of the Heisei movies but I'm happy to say that Mothra Leo is given a slightly more aggressive design than the traditional Mothra. This is perhaps because he is the first explicitly male version of the character that we have seen.


Death Ghidorah is a bit more interesting as he is a substantially different version of the character than we have seen. In fact, he is not really even King Ghidorah but rather a kind of "Ghidroid," who shares a lot of Ghidorah's characteristics-three heads, wings, a nasty attitude-but has a different body layout and coloration. I, for one, like the redesign as the traditional Ghidorah has always seemed a bit topheavy and awkward, stumbling around on two legs. A four-legged Ghidorah makes a bit more sense. As much as I like the classic golden scaled appearance of the original Ghidorah, I like the rough skin texture and dark color scheme on this one. It's a really good alternate look for the character.
This look for Ghidorah is pretty influential as well. The short neck and smaller proportions made an appearance in the great Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack. The quadrupedal body layout also returned in Godzilla: Final Wars as Kaiser Ghidorah, who looks a bit like Rebirth of Mothra's Death Ghidorah.


HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

The first two Rebirth movies are available as a two pack DVD in the same style as most of the Heisei Godzilla movies. They are available as mail rentals from Netflix and all three movies are free to watch on Crackle.


MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The extended battle sequence at the end is pretty cool and is actually the first time Mothra and Ghidorah have tangled without Godzilla.

TRAILER





Patrick Garone is a writer, director, sketch comedian, and blogger. He is the author of City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. Follow him on Twitter for fun-sized ramblings on nerd culture and politics.

Monster Movie of the Week: Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth

GODZILLA AND MOTHRA: THE BATTLE FOR EARTH
Director: Tokao Okawara
Genre: Kaiju eiga

THE MOVIE

After the ho-hum reception to Godzilla Vs. Biollante Toho decided that they were going to bring back some of the popular monsters from their vast pool of characters. After Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah, Toho decided to bring back the very popular Mothra for the third Heisei Godzilla movie and the result is Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth. While not a total remake of Godzilla Vs. Mothra, G&M revisits a lot of elements of the earlier Toho classic, which is widely considered one of the better movies in the series. Like the previous movie, there is a remote island, a mysterious egg, a pair of fairy-like twins, an environmental theme, and an evil corporation out to exploit Mothra. The 1992 movie does add a new character in the form of Battra, Mothra's dark doppleganger and ancient opponent.

Godzilla shows off the prize he won from cashing in his tickets at Dave & Busters.

A meteorite crashes into the Pacific and awakens Godzilla and also begins causing climatic disruptions. The meteorite also awakens a giant horned worm, which had apparently be slumbering beneath the sea as well. This new monster is aggressive and begins wreaking havoc.

Meanwhile, the storms reveal a giant egg on a remote island in the Pacific. A Japanese corporation sends in a crew to investigate, including a very Indiana Jones-like treasure hunter and his estranged wife. After discovering ancient cave paintings of battling insect monsters, they are contacted by the Cosmos, the miniature twins who speak for Mothra, an ancient Earth Guardian and that in the distant past she battled and defeated Battra, another guardian who had gone rogue. Battra-or at least another Battra-was sealed away beneath the sea until 1999 when he would rise again to intercept an asteroid headed for Earth.

When the company attempts the take the egg back to Japan, their ship is attacked by Godzilla, who is then attacked himself by the worm creature, now revealed to be Battra's larva. The egg then hatches revealing the Mothra larva. Battra battles Godzilla on the sea floor until both are trapped in a volcanic trench, leaving Mothra to swim away.

Later, Mothra spins her cocoon and hatches as the adult butterfly form of Mothra. Godzilla soon reappears as does the now adult Battra. The three battle until the two guardians join forces (after they apparently talk out their differences) to overcome Godzilla. The giant is defeated but Battra is killed, leaving Mothra to fulfill his task of intercepting the giant asteroid on a collision for Earth.

Can you blame him for being cranky?

All-in-all, Godzilla and Mothra is a decent entry to the Heisei series of Godzilla movies and a fun update of Godzilla Vs. Mothra. Battra is a pretty cool addition to the Toho pantheon. It's interesting to have a darker spin on the Mothra design, however his actions toward the end of the movie aren't adequately explained. Also unexplained is why the ancients would use him to thwart the asteroid if he was so dangerously unstable in the first place.

This movie adds the "Earth Protector" mythos to the Mothra story and gives her a role in ancient human history. This plot point is utilized even in the later Millennium movies and is pretty much the standard back story at this point as opposed to the primitive "island goddess" backstory that she used to have.

How'd you like to find that crawling around in your backyard?

THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

Between Godzilla and the various Mothra and Battra forms, G&M has quite a bit of monster variety going on. Goji himself is largely unchanged from his look in Ghidorah. He retains the characteristic mammalian Heisei head and muscular upper body. One thing that has always struck me as weird about this version of Godzilla is that the upper half of his body is buff, yet he has enormous thunder thighs and cankles. He really needs to spread that work out around.

This version of Mothra was her first real appearance since 1968 and her re-introduction was only moderately successful. While the familiar larva design is actually pretty well done in G&M, the actual adult imago form leaves a lot to be desired. Often Mothra has suffered in Toho's movies from looking a bit like a plush toy and that is certainly the case here, where she looks like something you would pull out of a claw game. She's a bit too cuddly looking and it appears the puppet is totally flocked, even the wings. Needless to say, the flying is less than convincing, which is a problem that was not really solved until Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah in 2001.

Perhaps a giant can of Raid would be useful?

Battra, however, is quite a cool design in both the larva and flying form. The designers took the basic Mothra larva form and made it a lot meaner and more aggressive-looking, with some bold colors, sharp scales and a giant horn, from which it shoots energy beams. The adult form is pretty cool as well and a lot less butterfly-like than Mothra. Battra has a kind of crown of horns and a more powerful-looking body with more robust legs than his counterpart. Interestingly, Battra does not need to spin a cocoon and simply transforms into his adult body. Also, Battra is able to fire lightning out of every orifice.

This is Battra's sole movie appearance but he does make an appearance in the Xbox game Godzilla Save The Earth as a summonable character. In the Playstation 2 version of Godzilla Unleashed he is a playable character, although he is just a clone of Mothra. He does make an appearance in the recent IDW comic series Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The end battle sequence is pretty cool and takes place at an amusement park. Battra sustains some pretty nasty injuries from Godzilla as the two Earth Guardians fly him out to sea.


SEQUELS

Followed by Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla II.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

On a double sided DVD with Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah.

TRAILER





Patrick Garone
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Monster Movie of the Week: Mothra (1961)

Warning: Staring at Japanese movie posters for extended periods may induce a seizure.

MOTHRA (1961)

Director: Ichiro Honda

Genre: Daikaiju eiga

THE MOVIE

Mothra ushered in a short-lived Golden Age of 1960’s kaiju filmmaking in which the norm became high production values and colorful visuals before the genre sank into camp and kiddie nonsense . Mothra is the best of the three non-Godzilla kaiju movies produced by Toho in the wake of Godzilla Raids Again and also introduced us to one of Toho’s most iconic and popular monsters. Mothra has been featured in more Toho movies than any other monster save the big guy himself and is even popular enough to have starred in her own trilogy of kids films in the 1990’s. Her popularity (particularly with the ladies) has caused her to be plugged into numerous Godzilla movies in which she was not originally slated to appear. She’s one of the few female Japanese giant monsters and one of the only ones that is consistently benevolent and she’s the only kaiju with a catchy theme song sung by a pair of mini-twins.

Mothra's story borrows heavily from King Kong and deals with a joint expedition between Japan and a fictitious country (that strongly resembles the U.S.) to the mysterious Infant Island that is home to a tribe of natives and also the site of atomic testing. Once on the island, one of the Japanese expedition members is saved by a pair of tiny singing twins. The twins are stolen from the island by an unscrupulous member of the foreign party and put in a musical revue a la Kong's Broadway show. My question is: how the hell are you supposed to see them from the audience? I don’t think a stage show is quite the right venue for six inch singing twins. And how did they get them to rehearse elaborate musical numbers?

Anyhoo, the twins launch into their chart-topper “Mo-su-ra” and a giant silkworm hatches from a pastel colored egg and swims towards Tokyo, impervious to all weapons. The larva climbs up Tokyo Tower and breaks it in half before spinning a silken cocoon. What hatches is perhaps the most improbable of a giant monster designs: a big pretty butterfly. Perhaps the Japanese Defense Force would have fared better against her if they had built a giant net. So, Mo-su-ra follows the twins to New Kirk City (NKC!) and eventually reclaims her twins (does she swallow them? I’m not clear on where they “boarded”) after blowing stuff around with her wings.

Why even have a Tokyo Tower?

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

It takes a real man to be a Mothra fan. Her femininity, her colorful appearance, her harmonizing sidekicks all elicit a derisive reaction from kaiju mandom. I mean, a guy can get away with wearing a Godzilla t-shirt, no problem but if you walk around with a Mothra shirt you better watch your back. If you are not entirely comfortable with your masculinity, the idea of a giant ass-kicking psychedelic butterfly nature goddess may be somewhat disturbing for you. Although the somewhat fecal appearance of the larva will be good for a chuckle from the guys.

The effects in Mothra are surprisingly good for the time and are certainly better than any of Toho’s prior kaiju movies. I am very surprised and happy to say that there is very little Rodanitis present in the flying sequences. Mothra’s wings move in a very realistic and even elegant way. The wirework and other mechanisms are for the most part well-concealed. I can only speculate that more of the budget was devoted to the flying sequences since there were only two creatures to design for this one.

MONSTERS PRESENT

Mothra in both her larval and adult form.

DVD AVAILABILITY

This one’s a little hard to get. I managed to buy a copy of the Japanese version from ultramanstuff.com. There’s not much else on the disc and the video is not excellent but at least it’s the Japanese version. As with the other disc I bought from them it took a long time and a couple of check up emails before I got my disc but I got it. I don’t know what changes or cuts were made to the American version.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The larva’s attack on Tokyo Tower.

SEQUELS

Some say the world will end in fire others...by giant stuffed animals.

Mothra is featured in quite a few of the Godzilla movies but as far as I know the only true sequel is Godzilla X Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) which directly refers to the original Mothra movie and even features one of the actors reprising his Mothra role some forty years later, which is kind of cool.

SEE ALSO

Godzilla vs. Mothra (1964) Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) Rebirth of Mothra I-III (1996) Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)