Sunday, May 3, 2009

SON OF GODZILLA / Toho - 1967 / Music by Masaru Satô

Hey, yo!! Heads up, everyone, GODZILLA's looking for his son!! Jun Fukuda gives director Ishirô Honda a break and handles this one.

Masaru Satô had already done the Dungeon all-time favorite GODZILLA vs THE SEA MONSTER prior to this outing. Then, his next project would be GODZILLA vs MECHA-GODZILLA in 1974, and, that would be his last one for the series. He ended his career with 211 composing credits between 1952-1999!.. Wow!!

Obviously, the studio heads wanted a playful feel to the music, and, well, that's what they got! GODZILLA had been turned into a 'children friendly' monster and Toho was now competing with Daiei's GAMERA for the top spot with that audience.

Akira Kubo plays Goro Maki, a reporter that drops in to get a story!..

The island is a research outpost for weather manipulation.

And, ever since the atom bomb tests back in the fifties, there's also giant preying mantis referred to as GIMANTIS!!

For some unknown reason, Godzilla shows up on the island!

The Gimantis unearth an egg, an egg that hatches little Minya, the SON OF GODZILLA!! Can you say... WAAAAAGWAAAAAA!!!

Luckily, Bibari Maeda, as Riko, shows up to help out the baby monster, and make the boys in the audience happy!

Pops shows sonny boy how to fight and use their fiery, atomic breath! Minya struggles with the new power at first.

Great shot!!

Oh, yeah, don't forget about the web spitting giant spider, what makes pop and son miserable! At one 'point' the spider pokes Godzilla right in the eye with his spiked mouth!!

The science guys give one last shot at making it snow on the island.

In the meantime the big guy drops a boulder on Minya's tail, and viola, he now has the full power of his breath! Then, the boys really turn up the heat on the pesky arachnid!

It starts snowing like crazy and Minya can't make it back to the sea with his dad!

The gang make it off the island and Godzilla decides to stay with Minya, like a good dad, afterall...

2 comments:

Prof. Grewbeard said...

nice to see this film get a little respect...

BillyWitchDoctor said...

Sato also scored "Godzilla Raids Again" (AKA "Gigantis The Fire Monster") as well as several Kurosawa masterpieces with his unmistakable, exciting style.

There's a hardcore Godzilla-fan sub-base that believe "if it ain't Ifukube, it sucks," but that's sheer close-mindedness. Thanks for combating that mindset!

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