GODZILLA: Tristar Godzilla Film (1998)

[Omegamorph]

this same document mentions

What document? Is it available anywhere to read?

[edgaguirus]

It sounds like Toho wasn't sure about this movie, and was waiting to see how it performed.

[EvaGhidorah01]

this same document mentions

What document? Is it available anywhere to read?

You can find it pretty easily on Wikileaks

[G1985]

Source: A 1993 Licensing Agreement Document for TriStar's Acquisition of Godzilla from Toho.
...this same document mentions that TriStar do not get the rights to King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan.

This doesn't surprise me. I read an interview with Randy Stradley of Dark Horse Comics around that time, and he said that the reason Dark Horse had Godzilla fighting knock-off enemies such as Cyber-saur was because Toho wanted a separate licensing agreement / fee for each monster in their stable. Dark Horse could only use Godzilla because that was all they could afford. I would imagine that a similar arrangement existed with TriStar.

[EvaGhidorah01]

Source: A 1993 Licensing Agreement Document for TriStar's Acquisition of Godzilla from Toho.
...this same document mentions that TriStar do not get the rights to King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan.

This doesn't surprise me. I read an interview with Randy Stradley of Dark Horse Comics around that time, and he said that the reason Dark Horse had Godzilla fighting knock-off enemies such as Cyber-saur was because Toho wanted a separate licensing agreement / fee for each monster in their stable. Dark Horse could only use Godzilla because that was all they could afford. I would imagine that a similar arrangement existed with TriStar.

TOHO likes to license things separately. Godzilla's design, roar, atomic breath, and music are all separate.

[LegendZilla]

TOHO likes to license things separately. Godzilla's design, roar, atomic breath, and music are all separate.

Why’s that? Are they just THAT desperate for cash?

[EvaGhidorah01]

TOHO likes to license things separately. Godzilla's design, roar, atomic breath, and music are all separate.

Why’s that? Are they just THAT desperate for cash?

Yes.

[SoggyNoodles2016]

TOHO likes to license things separately. Godzilla's design, roar, atomic breath, and music are all separate.

Why’s that? Are they just THAT desperate for cash?

It's TOHO. What do you think?

Added in 1 minute 11 seconds:
Though I will argue in this case, its more protectiveness of the property then being greedy.

Which given we're in a thread talking about the disaster the last time they gave someone free reign, can ya blame them?

[LegendZilla]

^Back in 1978, they put separate prices on both the character and his roar for crying out loud.

[Omegamorph]

this same document mentions

What document? Is it available anywhere to read?

You can find it pretty easily on Wikileaks

Do you mean the 52-page document? Only one I've found

[EvaGhidorah01]

What document? Is it available anywhere to read?

You can find it pretty easily on Wikileaks

Do you mean the 52-page document? Only one I've found

That is the correct document.
It's a pretty interesting read if you take the time to, gives a lot of context to the making, and especially the advertising of the film.

[TheLastGezora]

I had the opportunity to see this film earlier this year as part of a rewatch of the entire franchise. Up until that point, it was the last Godzilla film that I hadn't yet seen (barring the Netflix Anime Trilogy), having already watched every Showa, Heisei, and Millenium film twice up to that point as well as Shin Godzilla. The revisiting of the other films was refreshing as I had little recollection of many of them, having been a child or young teenager on my first viewing, and I was surprised at how often my opinion did not align with the majority mindset. Going into this film, I was cautiously optimistic that people were wrong about this one, that the hate was a kneejerk reaction to a film that didn't align with expectations and that this film was good, just different. I expected to echo the oft-repeated sentiment of "It was a good monster movie, just a bad Godzilla movie."

Boy, how wrong I was.

I can safely say that this is not only the worst Godzilla movie I have ever seen, but one of the worst movies I've ever had the displeasure of seeing in general. I know there's some truly awful cinema out there that I haven't dipped my toes into but even with my limited palette I could tell that Godzilla 1998 was atrocious. The characters are unlikable, generally behave like idiots, serious moments are undercut with pointless comedy at the wrong moments, bad Hollywood tropes are inserted everywhere you look, and to me, the biggest sin of all: the film was outright boring to watch. I couldn't wait for it to end. The only somewhat fun bit was the chase with the baby Godzillas in the baseball stadium, and even that was marred by being a blatant ripoff of Jurassic Park. I acknowledge that some Toho Godzilla films are bad, I'm not going to act like vs. Megalon is a masterclass of cinema, but at least they were fun due to how cheesy and over the top they were. This film had some cheesy moments but for the most part took itself almost completely seriously, making it a total snoozefest.

[Omegamorph]

That is the correct document.
It's a pretty interesting read if you take the time to, gives a lot of context to the making, and especially the advertising of the film.

Yeap, as someone who's been researching the movie for the better half of a decade, thank you for the heads-up mate

[EvaGhidorah01]

That is the correct document.
It's a pretty interesting read if you take the time to, gives a lot of context to the making, and especially the advertising of the film.

Yeap, as someone who's been researching the movie for the better half of a decade, thank you for the heads-up mate

I hope it proves useful to you

[Kaiju-Killer 751]

I don't know if this is the proper place to share it, but I had been trying to do a 're-write' of GODZILLA that I hope would be more palatable; It's really only a rough outline/script, but it's something

[Rurouni Senator]

I rewatched it a few years back and I still love it, but it is full of plotholes and nonsense is all over the board with this one.

Anyone else watched some episodes from the Fox cartoon that ties-into this movie? I've enjoyed what I saw, and the art style and coloring look neat to me.

[JAGzilla]

Anyone else watched some episodes from the Fox cartoon that ties-into this movie? I've enjoyed what I saw, and the art style and coloring look neat to me.

Most of us have, I think. General consensus among the fandom is that Godzilla: The Series is the silver lining to GINO's rain cloud. It has its share of problems, but also a lot to like. It turns the iguana into something a heck of a lot closer to an actual Godzilla, and introduces some cool new monsters along the way.

[LegendZilla]

Anyone else watched some episodes from the Fox cartoon that ties-into this movie? I've enjoyed what I saw, and the art style and coloring look neat to me.

Most of us have, I think. General consensus among the fandom is that Godzilla: The Series is the silver lining to GINO's rain cloud. It has its share of problems, but also a lot to like. It turns the iguana into something a heck of a lot closer to an actual Godzilla, and introduces some cool new monsters along the way.

There's no denying that the GINO cartoon was an improvement over the movie that preceded it, but one potential pro for it the Debont film got made could have been an even better animated tie-in.

[Rando Yaguchi]

I just bought Godzilla: The Series on DVD...never seen it. Gonna rewatch the 98 film before I start for context (even if I don't want to).

[eabaker]

I've tried to get through the animated series, but I honestly find it pretty boring.