Although held in contempt by many Toho G-Fans, this 1998 Columbia/Tristar VHS release does lend some good attributes to the same year's Godzilla remake. The cover features one of the title monster's eyes which appears to be enraged and displays a ring of fire circling the pupil. The cover also has raised surfaces to give it a realistic feel. The front of the box also displays the film's famous tagline "Size Does Matter". The back features a small array of in-film stills such as an entire shot of the American Godzilla, a shot of "Animal" (Hank Azaria), a picture of a pack of baby American Godzilla's, and a still of Nick Tatapolous (Matthew Broderick) and Philippe Roaché (Jean Reno). In the film's description the statement "much better than ever" is an extreme overstatement as many believe this incarnation of Godzilla to be the worst ever. Each side of the box has the same setup: a still of American Godzilla at the top and the title running down the rest of the way. As much as many people despise the film itself, this VHS box is still worthy to be included in anyone's collection.

As whispers of changes in home entertainment began to emerge (with the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio slated for alteration), "widescreen editions" were starting to become more and more common for standard VHS releases. GODZILLA (1998) was no exception. The biggest difference in the actual look of the box is concentrated mainly on the front. Featuring a cropped version of Godzilla's eye (in what appears to be a mock stylization of the so-called "letterbox" format), the word "WIDESCREEN" is stretched vertically on the right side. There really isn't much else worthy of notation in regard to differences between this and the fullscreen cover.

The art work featured on this VHS release of GODZILLA (1998) consists primarily of one of the film's famous teaser posters. The rear displays stills of the main characters, along with a (revealing) shot of the star monster's snout. The synopsis contains only one noticeable error: "a body as tall as London's Big Ben". The monument in question is, in actuality, more than 50% taller.

The back of the box has five small stills somewhat haphazardly placed: a shot of Godzilla from Destroy All Monsters (1968), King Kong battling the airplanes from the original King Kong, transforming Hedorah from Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971), Jet Jaguar restraining Megalon from Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973), and, strangely, the aliens from the old-school serial Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) in a shot apparently taken from an old lobby card. The text on the back is partially gleaned from the narration in the film itself and includes the "funny" assertion that Godzilla's job is to "crush Tokyo at least once a year," and the spurious statement that Godzilla sparked such movies as King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949) -- a mistake that could have been avoided if the author had bothered to watch the entirety of the film included in the box!

As for the film itself, very little money was sunk into it. There are a lot of movie trailers included, but most of them aren't Toho and are blatantly used to pad out the time. They include such b-movie classics as The Alligator People (1959), Return of the Fly (1959), Teenage Caveman (1958), War of the Colossal Beast (1958), Attack of the Puppet People (1958), The Angry Red Planet (1960), One Million Years B.C. (1966), Beware! The Blob (1972) (a.k.a. Son of Blob), The Green Slime (1968), How to Make a Monster (1958), The Black Scorpion (1957), The Day of the Triffids (1962), Reptilicus (1961), and The Land Unknown (1957). There are also clips of A Trip to the Moon (1917), The Lost World (1925), Mighty Joe Young (1949), and Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973). When there aren't trailers or film clips, instead the audience is "treated" to badly cropped photographs, film shots, lobby cards, and posters. Ostensibly the film focuses on Godzilla, and narrator Jeff Thomas does include some interesting trivia, some of it taken from David Kalat's: A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series. This narration is generally given over various trailers from Toho's movies when they were released in America, such as Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973), Godzilla (1954), King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), Rodan (1956), Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), Destroy All Monsters (1968), and Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971), but the narration from the actual trailers is not muted, just lowered in volume, so the viewers can hear the dramatic advertisement chattering in the background while Thomas drones on. Because he has a lot to say about Destroy All Monsters (1968), the entire trailer is shown twice--once in color, once in black-and-white, as if the audience wouldn't notice they were watching the same thing two times. If a Godzilla movie isn't included in the above list, Thomas basically doesn't talk about it. The film ends with the notorious Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969), followed by extremely cheap credits.

Spanning well over half a century of monster mayhem, Godzilla and other Movie Monsters is chock full of film trailers and behind-the-scenes infotainment. The case features a predominantly crimson motif, adorned with thumbnail movie posters (as well as detailed cover art). The synopsis contains no visible errors, aside from using outdated spellings such as "Hedora", "Ghidrah", and "Gammera". Lastly, it should be noted (perhaps for reasons beyond the norm) that this feature includes the quote-unquote "hit song" Godzilla Rap.

On the back is a brief synopsis of the feature with sparse details, followed by a description of the bonus material via incomplete sentences. Not counting the logos for the movies and companies, there are four images on the back. The topmost image appears to be a promotional shot featuring Mewtwo, Pikachu, Ash Ketchum, Bulbasaur, and Dragonite. Below left is an image from (I believe) Pikachu the Movie, also included on the tape, featuring a pocket monster stampede with Pidgeotto, Geodude, Vulpix, Charizard, Staryu, Onix, Zubat, Goldeen, and, one of my personal favorites, a happy Psyduck. Below right is a still from the movie showing Mewtwo looking intimidating. The bottom image actually looks to be a collage of popular promotional Pokémon art, most of which is also featured radiating clustered around the edges of the front cover. The pocket monsters included in this image are, from left to right, Blastoise, Marill, Snubbull, Butterfree, Pikachu, Charizard, Togepi, and Donphan. All of these design elements are arranged over a purple background with gray squiggly lines completing the composition, the somewhat gaudy colors used in an attempt to appeal to younger consumers. Thus the box ends up looking a little bit like a big box of sour candies.

One of only two VHS releases of the 1998-99 Godzilla animated series, this volume contains the 2-part pilot episode "New Family". The back goes into a nice descripiton, setting the story up without giving too much away. The other VHS release was the "Monster Wars" 3-part episode. However, while the latter has seen a subsequent DVD release, "Trouble Hatches" has not... making it somewhat of a collectors item as of present (despite the popular trend of bringing whole TV series to DVD, Godzilla: The Series only has 9 episodes available on 3 DVD's).

A phosphorescent green, stylized Godzilla destroys a hapless city with the aid of flying saucers (and one crawling saucer) hovering ominously overhead. This marvelously unique artwork adorns the slip cover for Godzilla Trailers & Sci-Fi Monsters, a documentary which covers the golden age of B-movies in the '50s and '60s. This rare gem could be purchased alone, or together in a Godzilla-sized 3-pack.