I used to rent this movie (without knowing the title, only remembering a picture of a dinosaur on the cover) from my local video store quite a bit when I was four to five years-old. When it was no longer available, I was pretty bummed out. It was a great film for kids back then, as I've found it intriguing with all the dinosaurs coming to life and attacking cities (under the command of a Tyrannosaurus king) and them doing battle with the superheroes. It was a clever special-effect touch, blending live-action with animation, which I thought worked fine in the film. There were plenty of action and heroism and the pacing was quick and to-the-point; I didn't find the movie boring at all.
My mom introduced me to the Godzilla movies after this video was unavailable and it resulted me in becoming one of the biggest fans of Godzilla and the Toho canon. After about 30 years later, through IMDb, I've finally found the title of this movie and realized, ironically, it was created by the production company founded by Godzilla special effects man Eiji Tsuburaya.
I've also found the entire stream of the movie on YouTube and watched it again after all these years. Although the campiness of the monster suits and city models and the simplicity of the plot were more evident, the film, to me as an adult, was still pretty entertaining and brought back memories. It was also nice to know that this film was actually edited from the 1977 TV-series Dinosaur War, which explains the movie's prologue of different monsters that weren't featured in the actual plot.
Overall, it was great seeing this film again and finally knowing the title. Although I didn't find the movie to be as great as most of the Godzilla and other Toho monster films, it was still a nice stroll down memory lane and it's a movie I would recommend to kids and hardcore fans of Japanese sci-fi.
Grade B-
My mom introduced me to the Godzilla movies after this video was unavailable and it resulted me in becoming one of the biggest fans of Godzilla and the Toho canon. After about 30 years later, through IMDb, I've finally found the title of this movie and realized, ironically, it was created by the production company founded by Godzilla special effects man Eiji Tsuburaya.
I've also found the entire stream of the movie on YouTube and watched it again after all these years. Although the campiness of the monster suits and city models and the simplicity of the plot were more evident, the film, to me as an adult, was still pretty entertaining and brought back memories. It was also nice to know that this film was actually edited from the 1977 TV-series Dinosaur War, which explains the movie's prologue of different monsters that weren't featured in the actual plot.
Overall, it was great seeing this film again and finally knowing the title. Although I didn't find the movie to be as great as most of the Godzilla and other Toho monster films, it was still a nice stroll down memory lane and it's a movie I would recommend to kids and hardcore fans of Japanese sci-fi.
Grade B-