Godzilla

Glorious green Godzilla. Who could fail to love this giant fire-breathing lizard which epitomises the Japanese "rubber suit" monster movie genre?

What Is Godzilla?

Godzilla is a giant, lizard-like radiation monster. He looks a little like some kind of dinosaur, standing on two legs with a tail, scales and dorsal fins. He is almost invulnerable, has great strength and breathes fire.

Godzilla - known as Gojira in Japan - began life in 1954 and 50 years later has starred in almost 30 movies. In his career he has been both hero and villain, rampaging through Tokyo and fighting a variety of giant monster foes.

History

The original 1954 Gojira movie was produced by Toho Studios and directed by Ishiro Honda, a friend of Akira Kurosawa. Godzilla was a "nuclear" monster and the film is often interpreted as symbolic of the devastation of nuclear warfare.

Godzilla went international when US distributors acquired the rights and released a version (Godzilla, King of the Monsters) that had little in common with the original other than Godzilla himself.

Following the success of this film, numerous others followed which usually pitted Godzilla against some other monster or even alien creatures. His memorable opponents include King Kong, Mothra and Megalon. Toho Studios finally killed off their version of Godzilla in 1995 with Godzilla vs Destoroyah.

Following this retirement Hollywood decided to bring Godzilla back and 1998 saw the release of Godzilla. This made the common mistake of concentrating on special effects and getting almost everything else wrong. It totally lacked any of the original Godzilla style or feeling and was unpopular with fans.

Toho Studios presumably decided to remind the world of the real Godzilla because they have since then returned to the franchise with the Millenium series of movies. Of these perhaps the most spectacular is Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (GMK).

At the time of writing the last Godzilla film was the aptly named Godzilla: Final Wars in 2004 Toho Studios has decided to "retire" Godzilla for some years. There are rumours that he may be back in front of the camera for his 60th anniversary in 2014.

Until then fans of the big green guy have to make do with the DVDs of the movies - plus, of course, the huge range of toys, action figures, games and other cool stuff available to buy around the world.

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