Toho Films and MST3K?

[JessIAm]

I fell in love with Gamera from watching the Mystery Science Theater 3000 spoof of the Gamera films.

Should Toho Godzilla films be sent up by MST3K?

[edgaguirus]

Two of them already have been. G vs Megalon and G vs the Sea Monster have been riffed by the Satellite of Love crew. The movies of the late 60s might be good material, but the Heisei and Millennium films wouldn't be a good fit IMO.

[Spuro]

It depend on the movie.

Something as bad as Godzilla vs Megalon? Go for it.

Something that's actually a fine movie, like Ebirah: Horror of the Deep? You have incurred my wrath.

[Al Diplodocus]

They already have. Given I don't like MST3K when it mock our movies, I don't like it.

[JessIAm]

Two of them already have been. G vs Megalon and G vs the Sea Monster have been riffed by the Satellite of Love crew. The movies of the late 60s might be good material, but the Heisei and Millennium films wouldn't be a good fit IMO.

Nice! I'll have to get copies (if I can, sometimes copyright laws keep representation from being available).

[Legion1979]

No movie is above a good riffing. Rifftrax did the original Mothra a few years back and it was pretty funny. Personally, I think they'd have a good time with the Heisei series, if they were ever able to do it.

[JAGzilla]

No movie is above a good riffing. Rifftrax did the original Mothra a few years back and it was pretty funny. Personally, I think they'd have a good time with the Heisei series, if they were ever able to do it.

vs. King Ghidorah, especially, is obvious riff material.

[Terasawa]

We'll never see another Toho film on MST3K.

And even just supposing, the problem with the later Godzilla movies is that they're too long for the format. The old MST3K episodes were 98 minutes (seasons 1-3) and 92 minutes (4-10) while the Netflix episodes were even shorter (this seems to be what Joel favors for the show these days). During their heyday, MST was aiming for the movie segments of the show to run 78 minutes. Except for the Kiryu films, the Heisei and Millennium movies are all north of 100 minutes, so those movies would have to be cut to ribbons. They've done that before, but IMO, those episodes are usually inferior.

[Legion1979]

Two things...

MST3K couldn't show Godzilla, but I wouldn't rule out Rifftrax, which is basically the same thing without the robots. Like I said, they did the original Mothra a few years ago on a live show.

And regarding the length of the Heisei films...none of them would lose much at all if they were edited for time. I dont think people would even care as long as they're not cutting out battle/FX scenes. Regardless, it wouldn't matter with Rifftrax anyway, which doesn't have to deal with tome constraints.

[Terasawa]

I wouldn't bank on Rifftrax, either. Sure, they've done Mothra and the D&E Godzilla, but Sony owns those films outright. I don't think Sony (or any future Toho licensee) would offer or allow Rifftrax to sublicense Godzilla movies. It's the same reason why you won't see Janus sublicense Sea Monster and Megalon to Shout! Factory -- X company isn't going to jeopardize its relationship with Toho for MST3K or Rifftrax.

Rifftrax could always sell "just the jokes" files for any Godzilla movie, but they typically reserve those for widely-available movies. Most of the Just the Jokes movies are new releases (typically something you can get from Redbox or whatever), and the older films they've done in this style are on at least one of the popular streaming platforms. (There's a search function on Rifftrax site for this purpose which limits results to movies on Netflix, Hulu, Prime, and HBO NOW.) That opens the door for the Showa Godzilla films (at least the few that are in English on HBO NOW) but not the Heisei or Millennium movies.

But I think the MST and Rifftrax people are well aware of Toho's litigious nature (especially after Toho C&D'd Rhino Video for releasing Godzilla vs. Megalon) and wouldn't wanna risk any trouble. While Rifftrax would be well within their rights to sell a detached commentary for Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla (for example), I'm sure they know it will also attract Toho's attention. They're not gonna poke the bear, even if a potential lawsuit would get tossed out.

And FWIW, Rifftrax does edit its movies, even though they don't have time constraints to worry about: "Just like back in the Mystery Science Theater days, we sometimes edit our Video On Demand titles for comedic value. That's to help you, the viewer, as well as to make the end result more entertaining — or, at least, watchable." Link. But that's a moot point since they will never be able to do Video on Demand or Live versions of Godzilla films, anyway.