Talkback Thread #5: Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster(1964)

[Mr. Xeno]

Destroy all monsters was the Avengers, this was Iron Man II or Civil War.

DAM is the Age Of Ultron. Too many characters that get sidelined.

[Pkmatrix]

Yeah, I agree with Mr. Xeno: GTTHM is clearly the Avengers parallel. I'm not sure if I'd call DAM a parallel to Age of Ultron - the comparison between the two CUs breaks down after GTTHM, IMO - but, it's definitely not The Avengers.

[Kaiju no Kami]

Destroy all monsters was the Avengers, this was Iron Man II or Civil War.

DAM is the Age Of Ultron. Too many characters that get sidelined.

Who was side lined in AoU?

[Kaijugriffey]

Destroy all monsters was the Avengers, this was Iron Man II or Civil War.

DAM is the Age Of Ultron. Too many characters that get sidelined.

Who was side lined in AoU?

Mainly just Falcon, who they added in late in production and War Machine who they used minimally and cut most of the planned scenes with him and Captain Marvel showing up with the Helicarrier.

I just rewatched GTTHM the other day. First time in many many years. I was surprised how well it not just holds up, but actually gets better with age. I think you guys are comparing it to the wrong Avengers. It has much more of a John Steel/Emma Peele style Avengers feel to it. Or an early Connery era Bond film. It really is one of the best most compelling stories of the Showa era. Above and beyond the completely awesome Kaiju team up. It lacks some of the inherent silliness that the later Showa films are so famous for. It has some silliness but still remains firmly grounded mostly in a real seeming world with politics and conflicts and assassins. I think this one may have risen to the top of my favorite Showa list (after Gojira of course)

[ebirahsmeg1]

Just purchased the new LEGENDARY MONSTER MAKER: KEIZO MURASE book (More info can be found at this link on August Ragone's blog:
http://augustragone.blogspot.jp/2015/08 ... 6.html?m=1) which has numerous rare, never before seen photos from Murase's career, spanning from Showa to Heisei eras.

One particularly interesting and rare photo that stands out is a blue King Ghidorah still





My Japanese girlfriend translated to text caption. According to her, it is said in Japanese folklore that Yamata no Orochi was a greenish color. Drawing inspiration from Yamata no Orochi, they initially decided to go with a blu-ish color for KG(For those who are not familiar with Japanese culture, older Japanese texts, writings, and literature have always blurred the lines between the colors blue and green, with green often being lumped into "blue". For example, green traffic lights are often referred to as blue over here, and Haiku poet Basho often described "the blue grass and blue trees" of spring.

Anyways, I'm glad that they decided to eventually drop the blue paint scheme in favor of the more majestic gold, which I think makes KG look much more grand and frightening. Nevertheless, this is pretty fascinating stuff regarding the design process and development of KG prior to filming of GTTHM had commenced....Great book so far...

[Space Hunter M]

Anyways, I'm glad that they decided to eventually drop the blue paint scheme in favor of the more majestic gold

Wasn't it suggested by one of the staff that Ghidorah should be gold ("kin") because of his connection with Venus?

[KaijuFiend]

Blue's not a terrible color for Ghidorah, but I definitely think gold is better.

[Giga Kaiju]

Ghidorah looks strange with any color but gold. Well, he still looks eerie with it in a way.

[GodzillaFanatic2001]

Does anyone know if there are any posters from Toho with the "Monster of Monsters, Ghidora" title? I'd be curious to see what they look like.
Thanks.

[Stevo_1985]

Ahhh. On of my favs from the showa era. This one is just alot of fun. Now is it me, or does KG come across as godzillas arch enemy more prominently then any other of his later appearances.

[DoctorMafune]

Just purchased the new LEGENDARY MONSTER MAKER: KEIZO MURASE book (More info can be found at this link on August Ragone's blog:
http://augustragone.blogspot.jp/2015/08 ... 6.html?m=1) which has numerous rare, never before seen photos from Murase's career, spanning from Showa to Heisei eras.

One particularly interesting and rare photo that stands out is a blue King Ghidorah still


http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx81 ... qz2bac.jpg


My Japanese girlfriend translated to text caption. According to her, it is said in Japanese folklore that Yamata no Orochi was a greenish color. Drawing inspiration from Yamata no Orochi, they initially decided to go with a blu-ish color for KG.

Reliable sources told me years ago that the decision to paint Ghidorah in gold was last-minute: spurred by a visitor to the sets shortly before filming commenced, who remarked that because Ghidorah was a monster from outer space, he'd look the part better with an unusual color, like gold.

But this is the first time I've ever seen a color photo of Ghidorah prior to that decision. And with this as an appetizer, it looks like I have a book to buy. Thanks!!

[Goji]

Does anyone know if there are any posters from Toho with the "Monster of Monsters, Ghidora" title? I'd be curious to see what they look like.
Thanks.

Yes.

[Israha]

Hmm, that blue-colored Ghidorah looks odd. I guess everyone is so used to him being gold, that picturing him in any different color just doesn't seem right. I thought the same way until I saw this Gigabrain figure:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/502/1935 ... dd55_z.jpg

Black Ghidorah would have been super-awesome.

[Giga Kaiju]

That Black and Gold Ghidorah looks sweet. But I still think that going with Gold as the primordial color WAS the better choice. He stands out a lot more and makes him a part of who he is.

[Chris55]

Just purchased the new LEGENDARY MONSTER MAKER: KEIZO MURASE book (More info can be found at this link on August Ragone's blog:
http://augustragone.blogspot.jp/2015/08 ... 6.html?m=1) which has numerous rare, never before seen photos from Murase's career, spanning from Showa to Heisei eras.

One particularly interesting and rare photo that stands out is a blue King Ghidorah still


http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx81 ... qz2bac.jpg


My Japanese girlfriend translated to text caption. According to her, it is said in Japanese folklore that Yamata no Orochi was a greenish color. Drawing inspiration from Yamata no Orochi, they initially decided to go with a blu-ish color for KG(For those who are not familiar with Japanese culture, older Japanese texts, writings, and literature have always blurred the lines between the colors blue and green, with green often being lumped into "blue". For example, green traffic lights are often referred to as blue over here, and Haiku poet Basho often described "the blue grass and blue trees" of spring.

Anyways, I'm glad that they decided to eventually drop the blue paint scheme in favor of the more majestic gold, which I think makes KG look much more grand and frightening. Nevertheless, this is pretty fascinating stuff regarding the design process and development of KG prior to filming of GTTHM had commenced....Great book so far...

Was this the only shot of the blue KG in the book?

[edgaguirus]

Gold did look much better on him.

[ebirahsmeg1]

Was this the only shot of the blue KG in the book?

Yup, pretty much. There is another alternative shot that is nearly identical, with just the people in the photo posing slightly diffferent....

[miguelnuva]

Hmm, that blue-colored Ghidorah looks odd. I guess everyone is so used to him being gold, that picturing him in any different color just doesn't seem right. I thought the same way until I saw this Gigabrain figure:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/502/1935 ... dd55_z.jpg

Black Ghidorah would have been super-awesome.

Only if we would have gotten Green Godzilla.

[edgaguirus]

We did in the HB series.

[Israha]

Hmm, that blue-colored Ghidorah looks odd. I guess everyone is so used to him being gold, that picturing him in any different color just doesn't seem right. I thought the same way until I saw this Gigabrain figure:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/502/1935 ... dd55_z.jpg

Black Ghidorah would have been super-awesome.

Only if we would have gotten Green Godzilla.

Hard to imagine, but even that would work if he was green from the start and everyone got used to it over years.