This was the fourth installment of the massively popular Gamera films out of Japan. It was also the first one that's unabashedly made for kids. And before you ask: no, MST3K never riffed on it.
The unashamedly silly plot goes as follows: alien beings in a spaceship that looks like bumblebees plan to kill everyone on Earth so they can populate the planet themselves. Cue Gamera, the giant prehistoric flying turtle with fangs, fiery breath, and jet propulsion in his feet. Before the aliens can get near the Earth, Gamera kicks ass on them. The would-be invaders retreat but dispatch a second bumblebee ship. This time, the aliens trap Gamera on the bottom of the ocean with some kind of electronic net thingy.
But Gamera frees himself, prompting the aliens to affix a mind- control device to the turtle. He eventually loses the device and trashes the spaceship, only to do battle with Viras, the aliens' lord and master. If the storyline sounds familiar, it was recycled the following year for GAMERA VS. GUIRON, a/k/a DESTROY ALL MONSTERS.
When director Kinji Yuasa realized he only had about an hour of footage, he padded the film out with scenes from the previous three movies. Never mind that the first two were in black and white. The same thing happens when the aliens order Gamera to destroy Tokyo. Since the turtle had done so in the first film (when he was still a bad monster), director Yuasa merely inserted the footage here. So approximately one-third of this 90-minute film is in black and white.
There's also a sub-plot involving two mischievous Boy Scouts (or whatever the Japanese call them) who steal a mini-sub and end up racing with Gamera on the ocean's floor. They also get caught in the electronic net thingy when the aliens catch their turtle foe. Later on, they abduct the boys and take them aboard the Starship Bumblebee as leverage against the child-loving Gamera—not to mention the Japanese miiltary. That's right, folks. These two boys are apparently worth the annihilation of the rest of humanity!
It's ludicrous, but who cares? Certainly not the kids in the audience, who just wanted to see Gamera locked in mortal combat with his latest goofy-looking monster foe. In that regard, the film delivers. And unlike the next chapter, neither kid is obsessed with traffic accidents.
The unashamedly silly plot goes as follows: alien beings in a spaceship that looks like bumblebees plan to kill everyone on Earth so they can populate the planet themselves. Cue Gamera, the giant prehistoric flying turtle with fangs, fiery breath, and jet propulsion in his feet. Before the aliens can get near the Earth, Gamera kicks ass on them. The would-be invaders retreat but dispatch a second bumblebee ship. This time, the aliens trap Gamera on the bottom of the ocean with some kind of electronic net thingy.
But Gamera frees himself, prompting the aliens to affix a mind- control device to the turtle. He eventually loses the device and trashes the spaceship, only to do battle with Viras, the aliens' lord and master. If the storyline sounds familiar, it was recycled the following year for GAMERA VS. GUIRON, a/k/a DESTROY ALL MONSTERS.
When director Kinji Yuasa realized he only had about an hour of footage, he padded the film out with scenes from the previous three movies. Never mind that the first two were in black and white. The same thing happens when the aliens order Gamera to destroy Tokyo. Since the turtle had done so in the first film (when he was still a bad monster), director Yuasa merely inserted the footage here. So approximately one-third of this 90-minute film is in black and white.
There's also a sub-plot involving two mischievous Boy Scouts (or whatever the Japanese call them) who steal a mini-sub and end up racing with Gamera on the ocean's floor. They also get caught in the electronic net thingy when the aliens catch their turtle foe. Later on, they abduct the boys and take them aboard the Starship Bumblebee as leverage against the child-loving Gamera—not to mention the Japanese miiltary. That's right, folks. These two boys are apparently worth the annihilation of the rest of humanity!
It's ludicrous, but who cares? Certainly not the kids in the audience, who just wanted to see Gamera locked in mortal combat with his latest goofy-looking monster foe. In that regard, the film delivers. And unlike the next chapter, neither kid is obsessed with traffic accidents.