Talkback Thread #14: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

[Godzillian]

So why did Mechagodzilla stop using the yellow "atomic breath" after the aliens gave up the fake Godzilla plan?

[Zarm]

Maybe it was either a component of the disguise, or did less damage than the other weaponry it could wield once released?

[Billzilla1974]

So why did Mechagodzilla stop using the yellow "atomic breath" after the aliens gave up the fake Godzilla plan?

Godzilla was able to endure the beam with no real visible pain or damage, it doesn't seem as concentrated as the eye beams or cross attack beam, so the aliens probably realized it wouldn't be much help against Godzilla .


Something that bothers me is that MechaGodzilla apparently has an "unused" destro-fire attack, and his "yellow heat ray", I feel like these attacks are actually the same, since there aren't any stats about the yellow heat ray, not even in the character analysis.
Showa G would have great durability if he could endure a ray as hot as the Heisei Godzilla's 500,000 degrees.

[Goji]

Who knows what the in-universe answer is, but the real answer is that the beam was used to make MG appear more Godzilla-like while in disguise, and once the disguise was gone, it was one less optical effect to add to the film's budget.

[Billzilla1974]

Who knows what the in-universe answer is, but the real answer is that the beam was used to make MG appear more Godzilla-like while in disguise, and once the disguise was gone, it was one less optical effect to add to the film's budget.

Yeah, but still, with all the info available about the other weapons MechaGodzilla had, you'd think adding details about one more beam wouldn't be a problem.

[LSD Jellyfish]

Purely an aesthetic choice. The yellow beam was just to show that Godzilla was slightly off, and also used to distinguish the beam from the real Godzilla's before the reveal.

[Goji]

Who knows what the in-universe answer is, but the real answer is that the beam was used to make MG appear more Godzilla-like while in disguise, and once the disguise was gone, it was one less optical effect to add to the film's budget.

Yeah, but still, with all the info available about the other weapons MechaGodzilla had, you'd think adding details about one more beam wouldn't be a problem.

I'm not sure I follow. What do you mean by "all the info available"? And by "you'd think adding details about one more beam wouldn't be a problem", are you suggesting that because they already went all out with all of the MG's other optical effects, that you're surprised they couldn't add one more? You'd be surprised the things that these productions do to save money, man. Like I said, it's one less thing for them to have to animate/pay for. It being Godzilla 20th's anniversary, they had a little more $ to work with, but even the smallest amount of money saved, is money saved.

[Billzilla1974]

Who knows what the in-universe answer is, but the real answer is that the beam was used to make MG appear more Godzilla-like while in disguise, and once the disguise was gone, it was one less optical effect to add to the film's budget.

Yeah, but still, with all the info available about the other weapons MechaGodzilla had, you'd think adding details about one more beam wouldn't be a problem.

I'm not sure I follow. What do you mean by "all the info available"? And by "you'd think adding details about one more beam wouldn't be a problem", are you suggesting that because they already went all out with all of the MG's other optical effects, that you're surprised they couldn't add one more? You'd be surprised the things that these productions do to save money, man. Like I said, it's one less thing for them to have to animate/pay for. It being Godzilla 20th's anniversary, they had a little more $ to work with, but even the smallest amount of money saved, is money saved.

You might want to re-read my comments again.

I meant that nobody gave any description on the "yellow flame breath" in any book/media depiction over the years, whereas the other beams/weapons are given descriptions, even minimal ones.
As far as I know even Tanaka never wrote anything about this power despite giving every other one a description.

I wasn't talking about the fact that they didn't use the yellow flame breath in the final battle, you think I don't know about the financial difficulties of the later half of the Showa Era?
I was talking about how it's strange that even unused powers such as "Destro-fire" or the "unisot" have gotten info written about them but the "yellow heat ray" has no info about it whatsoever, so I assume that "Destro-fire" and the yellow heat ray are one and the same.

[Goji]

I didn't understand the context. Your response was specifically about information in books, which wasn't clear.

Are you 100% certain it's not talked about in any books? Because there are a lot of them.

[Billzilla1974]

I didn't understand the context. Your response was specifically about information in books, which wasn't clear.

Are you 100% certain it's not talked about in any books? Because there are a lot of them.

Since I don't own any of the Godzilla books that would reference monster powers, and I can't translate, no I'm not 100% sure, but in the years that I've looked for Godzilla info online, no site i have visited ever commented on the ray. If there was some info about the yellow heat ray, i would've expected someone to have put it in the monster bio or character analysis by now.
(also someone made an error on the Character analysis page, MechaGodzilla only had 4 fingers per hand not 5.)

[Goji]

"No site has ever commented on the ray" because Toho Kingdom is probably the only place that uses actual information presented in books, and other reference material as it's source. Who knows how janky any other Godzilla devoted website would be; if there are even others that cover this sort of thing in as much detail.

There are an insane amount of Japanese Godzilla books out there, just waiting to be translated by those that are willing and able to do so. Either MG's beam has (somehow) never been talked about, or it's covered in something that hasn't yet been translated by TK's staff/contributors, or the community. It's silly to assume that we already know everything, with there being so much reference material out there to go over.

[The Octopus]

This scene here (where Godzilla gets powered up by lightning)


Is that supposed to be Monster Island that he's on?

[King of the Monsters]

I always assumed Godzilla was on the remnants of Monster Island in that scene after it was devastated at the beginning of the previous film. I've never seen confirmation about it anywhere though.

[szmigiel]

Yeah, but still, with all the info available about the other weapons MechaGodzilla had, you'd think adding details about one more beam wouldn't be a problem.

I'm not sure I follow. What do you mean by "all the info available"? And by "you'd think adding details about one more beam wouldn't be a problem", are you suggesting that because they already went all out with all of the MG's other optical effects, that you're surprised they couldn't add one more? You'd be surprised the things that these productions do to save money, man. Like I said, it's one less thing for them to have to animate/pay for. It being Godzilla 20th's anniversary, they had a little more $ to work with, but even the smallest amount of money saved, is money saved.

You might want to re-read my comments again.

I meant that nobody gave any description on the "yellow flame breath" in any book/media depiction over the years, whereas the other beams/weapons are given descriptions, even minimal ones.
As far as I know even Tanaka never wrote anything about this power despite giving every other one a description.

I wasn't talking about the fact that they didn't use the yellow flame breath in the final battle, you think I don't know about the financial difficulties of the later half of the Showa Era?
I was talking about how it's strange that even unused powers such as "Destro-fire" or the "unisot" have gotten info written about them but the "yellow heat ray" has no info about it whatsoever, so I assume that "Destro-fire" and the yellow heat ray are one and the same.

Rewatching the yellow flame breath makes the same sound effect as the eye beams. So the simplest explanation is it is the eye beams modified by the disguise. So Mechagodzilla is actually looking out the mouth like a costume when disguise as Godzilla and that part of the disguise made the eye beams appear more like Godzilla breath, once the disguise is gone it is no longer needed to be modified and the eye beams are released at full strength.

[Billzilla1974]

Rewatching the yellow flame breath makes the same sound effect as the eye beams. So the simplest explanation is it is the eye beams modified by the disguise. So Mechagodzilla is actually looking out the mouth like a costume when disguise as Godzilla and that part of the disguise made the eye beams appear more like Godzilla breath, once the disguise is gone it is no longer needed to be modified and the eye beams are released at full strength.

"The yellow flame breath makes the same sound effect as the eye beams." Except they don't make the same sound:
The eye beam sound starts at 20 seconds while the "yellow heat ray" sound starts at about 45 seconds in the video, they are clearly different.
My assumption is that due to how large the fake Godzilla's head is, Mechagodzilla's nose would be at the roof of the mouth, so that would be where the ray came from, hence why I'm assuming the "Destro-fire" is the same as the Yellow beam.
The aliens realized the yellow heat ray wasn't doing anything to Godzilla (at most it seemed to surprise him) so they stopped using it.

[Ron Burton]

This movie is one of my favorites in the series! I vividly remember watching it under the title GODZILLA VS. BIONIC MONSTER at the theater in late December of 1976. Every written source lists it as having been released in the USA in March of 1977 but that's not true. I miss those days when a Godzilla movie could get a theatrical release.

[GojiraGuy2016]

Not to forget the great Basil Gogos who made such a beautiful artwork for FAMOUS MONSTERS. Still can't believe he isn't living anymore....

[Ron Burton]

I wasn't aware until some time later that the film had been retitled COSMIC MONSTER. It was in the latter half of 1979 when I read that info regarding the threat of a lawsuit in the first issue of Fangoria, which was originally to have been called "Fantastica". In 1978, there was a magazine, long since gone, called "Space Wars" which ran an article called "Giant Monsters vs. Alien Invaders" that mentioned MECHA GODZILLA'S REVENGE as having been completed and, sure enough, it played in theaters that year as THE TERROR OF GODZILLA.

[Pkmatrix]

As a kid, I actually had both the Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster cuts of the movie on VHS - the latter my parents picked up at a department store, and later we found the former at a video rental store. I noted the differences immediately at the time, and it was my first introduction to the concept of "alternate cuts" of movies. I remember being surprised to find that Mechagodzilla was Cosmic Monster but with extra scenes...I quickly figured out that "Mechagodzilla" must be the actual movie and "Cosmic Monster" some sort of shortened version, but at first didn't understand why somebody would do that. I didn't learn about Americanizations and localizations until a few months later when I discovered G-Fan and read about the idea there.

[LockBite]

The best, most energetic 70s movie. Love the blood, the surprisingly realistic human fight scenes, and the absurdity of the King Caesar song (also the slight edginess of the Okinawa guardian angle).