General Gamera Thread

[InfiniteHollywood]

I find Gamera The Brave very underrated.

I've always quite liked GTB, and I believe its lukewarm reception is due to it succeeding the beloved Heisei trilogy while returning to being more of a "family-friendly" and less "dark" Gamera movie.

Oh absolutely. Even though much of that film is as bleak as any and it was hardly a kid’s movie in the way classic Gamera films had been.

It seemed the backlash was mostly just reactionary but somehow the “it’s a kids movie” sentiment has retained even years later. The effects, fights and monster designs in the film are all fantastic and hardly kid’s stuff.

Good stuff!

[Janjira-York]

You just gotta believe, bros.

Ive got news for you buddy

[Kaltes-Herzeleid]

You just gotta believe, bros.

Ive got news for you buddy

Faith is rewarded. <3

[mikelcho]

I saw this joke on a kaiju website somewhere (its name escapes me at the moment):

Q: How do kaiju take photographs?
A: With a Gamera!

[darthzilla99]

I find Gamera The Brave very underrated.

I've always quite liked GTB, and I believe its lukewarm reception is due to it succeeding the beloved Heisei trilogy while returning to being more of a "family-friendly" and less "dark" Gamera movie.

Oh absolutely. Even though much of that film is as bleak as any and it was hardly a kid’s movie in the way classic Gamera films had been.

It seemed the backlash was mostly just reactionary but somehow the “it’s a kids movie” sentiment has retained even years later. The effects, fights and monster designs in the film are all fantastic and hardly kid’s stuff.

Good stuff!

Changing Gamera's roar to Kong 76 was a huge part of the backlash. Also it got overlooked because of the hype for The Great Yokai War at the time.

[king_ghidorah]

It’s a good film but the roar, weird designs/suits kind of kill it for me.

[mikelcho]

I saw this joke on a kaiju website somewhere (its name escapes me at the moment):

Q: How do kaiju take photographs?
A: With a Gamera!

I found the website. It's The Toku Professor.

[Maverick Centigrade]

It’s a good film but the roar, weird designs/suits kind of kill it for me.

I would have been more interested in Gamera The Brave had the Avant Gamera suit been used against Zedus. I mean you could have Toto in the majority of the film. And then the final battle is between a fully grown Toto (Avant) and Zedus.

Also they all should have been bigger. I just can't really stand small kaiju.

[Anguirus]

^Wow, I did not know they replaced Gamera's roar with Kong 76's in The Brave. That's incredibly dumb.

Anyway, hopefully we can get Shin Gamera within the next few years?

[LegendZilla]

^Wow, I did not know they replaced Gamera's roar with Kong 76's in The Brave. That's incredibly dumb.

Anyway, hopefully we can get Shin Gamera within the next few years?

It was because Kadokawa didn’t have the rights to Gamera’s traditional roar. It was snagged by Toho for a while.

[G-Matt]

^Wow, I did not know they replaced Gamera's roar with Kong 76's in The Brave. That's incredibly dumb.

Anyway, hopefully we can get Shin Gamera within the next few years?

It was because Kadokawa didn’t have the rights to Gamera’s traditional roar. It was snagged by Toho for a while.

Is that really the reason? I'm sure Avant Gamera still used it.

[Gigantis]

^Wow, I did not know they replaced Gamera's roar with Kong 76's in The Brave. That's incredibly dumb.

Anyway, hopefully we can get Shin Gamera within the next few years?

It was because Kadokawa didn’t have the rights to Gamera’s traditional roar. It was snagged by Toho for a while.

Is that really the reason? I'm sure Avant Gamera still used it.

I don't think he did. I just heard pretty generic sounding roars.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

Anyone who hasn't picked up the Arrow Blu-Ray releases for the Showa and Heisei Gamera films, as well as the Daimajin trilogy, might be interested to know that they are all on sale for 50% off on Amazon right now! I just ordered the Showa Gamera movies and the Daimajin trilogy.

I also have a question for anyone who has already purchased the Arrow release of the Heisei Gamera movies. How much of an upgrade in video and audio quality is it from the Mill Creek Blu-Rays? Like is it substantially better? I love the Heisei Gamera trilogy enough that I'm seriously considering dropping another $50 for the Arrow collection but I wanted to make sure I'm actually paying for quality and not just fancier box art.

Sorry if this was the wrong place to post this, I didn't see a designated Gamera Arrow thread.

[StreamOfKaijuness]

^ Arrow's releases of the Heisei Gamera films are the best I've ever seen them look. The black levels and colors are more natural than Mill Creek's discs and there's more visible detail. G1's composite effects actually look better. G2 looks the least different because it already looks really good on Mill Creek's release but it has more visible detail too. G3 has the most noticeably different color correction, with flame-filled scenes now tinted orange and scenes high in the night sky now tinted blue, and that also helps to mask the film's weaker composite shots. At the same time, comparing Arrow's G3 disc to Mill Creek's reveals just how yellow-tinted a lot of the daytime scenes look on Mill Creek's release, with Arrow's disc having the more natural-looking colors overall.

Arrow's Heisei Gamera discs also include all of the extras from ADV's DVDs and Mill Creek's BRDs plus a lot more. All three films have video introductions by August Ragone, image galleries, and audio commentaries by Matt Frank on G1, by Kyle Yount on G2, and by Steve Ryfle & Ed Godziszewski on G3. The biggest additional special feature is a retrospective Japanese documentary from 2010 called "A Testimony of 15 Years" that runs more than six hours in total, split into three parts among each disc.

Plus, unlike Mill Creek's releases, Arrow's Heisei Gamera set includes Gamera the Brave on the fourth disc! It has an audio commentary by Keith Aiken & Bob Johnson, all of the extras from Media Blasters' release and even more ported Japanese extras.

Arrow's standard-edition Yokai Monsters collection is also available for $50 right now. Those movies are worth getting too!

[HeiseiGodzilla117]

Anyone who hasn't picked up the Arrow Blu-Ray releases for the Showa and Heisei Gamera films, as well as the Daimajin trilogy, might be interested to know that they are all on sale for 50% off on Amazon right now! I just ordered the Showa Gamera movies and the Daimajin trilogy.

I also have a question for anyone who has already purchased the Arrow release of the Heisei Gamera movies. How much of an upgrade in video and audio quality is it from the Mill Creek Blu-Rays? Like is it substantially better? I love the Heisei Gamera trilogy enough that I'm seriously considering dropping another $50 for the Arrow collection but I wanted to make sure I'm actually paying for quality and not just fancier box art.

Sorry if this was the wrong place to post this, I didn't see a designated Gamera Arrow thread.

Thanks for sharing! Just nabbed both Showa and Heisei. I already have the Mill Creek Heisei ones. But since I don't have Gamera the Brave, I have more incentive to go ahead and buy the Arrow release.

[CyberZilla]

Thanks for the heads-up! I noticed it but I may have to wait to grab these. Moneys tight. Might get Daimaijin bc I don’t have a phys for that yet!

[Shenanigans]

So I'm still making my way through Rebirth (pleasantly surprised by how good it is so far!), and I'm avoiding looking around online too much to avoid spoilers, but I happened upon this - new pictures of the 2015 Gamera model from the short film!






Shot in the dark, but would anybody happen to know what book/magazine these are from? Appears to be something recently released ('cause there's also concept art from Rebirth in it). These images are from a Tweet, but they neglected to share the source and I suspect they're reposted from somewhere else anyways.

[Gigantis]

Wow, Rebirth really took cues from that model huh? The chest looks almost the same.

[Spirit Ghidorah 2010]

^ Arrow's releases of the Heisei Gamera films are the best I've ever seen them look. The black levels and colors are more natural than Mill Creek's discs and there's more visible detail. G1's composite effects actually look better. G2 looks the least different because it already looks really good on Mill Creek's release but it has more visible detail too. G3 has the most noticeably different color correction, with flame-filled scenes now tinted orange and scenes high in the night sky now tinted blue, and that also helps to mask the film's weaker composite shots. At the same time, comparing Arrow's G3 disc to Mill Creek's reveals just how yellow-tinted a lot of the daytime scenes look on Mill Creek's release, with Arrow's disc having the more natural-looking colors overall.

Arrow's Heisei Gamera discs also include all of the extras from ADV's DVDs and Mill Creek's BRDs plus a lot more. All three films have video introductions by August Ragone, image galleries, and audio commentaries by Matt Frank on G1, by Kyle Yount on G2, and by Steve Ryfle & Ed Godziszewski on G3. The biggest additional special feature is a retrospective Japanese documentary from 2010 called "A Testimony of 15 Years" that runs more than six hours in total, split into three parts among each disc.

Plus, unlike Mill Creek's releases, Arrow's Heisei Gamera set includes Gamera the Brave on the fourth disc! It has an audio commentary by Keith Aiken & Bob Johnson, all of the extras from Media Blasters' release and even more ported Japanese extras.

Arrow's standard-edition Yokai Monsters collection is also available for $50 right now. Those movies are worth getting too!

Did they do away with the cringe-inducing bloopers and joke commentary? I remember way back in 2006 or so wanting to hear the thoughts of the folks behind G3, but what I got was some ridiculous discount MST3K-style riff featuring a posh-accented Gamera. In fact, anyone remember the redneck audio track for G2? It was fucking bizarre.

[Gigantis]

In other news, apparently some concept art for a scrapped Gamera anime came out. It was scrapped after The Brave flopped at the box office.






Apparently even Zanon was supposed to reappear. There's also a lot of returning Showa monsters, Garasharp, and I think even a couple more members of Gamera's kind?