Legion1979 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2024 5:46 pm
Weird to me that people say the puppets in GTTHM are a sign of a low budget, a rushed production schedule or a crew being spread too thin. Because these puppets weren't uncommon in the first half of the 1960s. It was a stylistic choice.
Yeah, I have to agree with this. Mothras have always been puppets, Rodan is always a puppet when flying, Ghidorah's heads were puppet work, Manda, Kamacuras and Kumonga were props -- and I actually assumed Ebirah was puppet for some years and imagine puppet work was probably involved in the suit, similar to Ghidorah, but haven't seen this confirmed anywhere. Kong, potentially Ebirah and Gabara are really the only
Godzilla antagonists in the sixties represented strictly by suits.
Varan, Gorosaurus and Baragon had also been portrayed with suits but their debuts were outside
Godzilla films, which I think is partly because Toho relied a lot on Nakajima as their primary monster actor in terms of characterization (puppets do a lot of the character work for Ghidorah) with others mostly filling in as antagonists to Nakajima's characters or taking over for him while he was playing Godzilla. Gorosaurus was opposite his Kong while Varan and Baragon, like Rodan, were recast for reappearances.
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster is also the first film with more than two monsters portrayed by suit actors, with
King Kong Escapes following this route afterward, and I think that's where this started to become more the default option.
Destroy All Monsters features eight kaiju that had been portrayed with suitimation (Godzilla, Anguirus, Rodan, Varan, Ghidorah, Baragon, Gorosaurus, Minilla) and three previously portrayed strictly with puppetry and props (Mothra, Manda, Kumonga) but Varan is reduced to a prop for this film and Rodan and Ghidorah also use some puppetry.
I used to be a lot more optimistic and outgoing, believe it or not. I used to actually be passionate about this stuff.
