Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

[Terasawa]

From another thread:

Anyone care to guess what prevented Destroy All Monsters from receiving a western home video release until the late 90's?

It did, though: it was first released on video in the UK in 1992. In America, however, it's probably simply because Orion's rights lapsed no earlier than 1989 (it was still in an Orion TV package that year). Orion had earlier licensed some of its AIP library to HBO Video and other distributors and founded its own video division in the late '80s, but many, many, many AIP and AITV titles were never released by Orion Home Video (or through its earlier contracts with HBO, et al). So, the rights lapsed and reverted to Toho, and no American video label licensed the film until 1998.

[Omegamorph]

Lovely movie, I'm proud to have a copy of it

in my country, the local translated title somehow includes King Kong ("The Heirs of King Kong") because we reallyyy loved De Laurentiis back then I guess

[LegendZilla]

From another thread:

Anyone care to guess what prevented Destroy All Monsters from receiving a western home video release until the late 90's?

It did, though: it was first released on video in the UK in 1992. In America, however, it's probably simply because Orion's rights lapsed no earlier than 1989 (it was still in an Orion TV package that year). Orion had earlier licensed some of its AIP library to HBO Video and other distributors and founded its own video division in the late '80s, but many, many, many AIP and AITV titles were never released by Orion Home Video (or through its earlier contracts with HBO, et al). So, the rights lapsed and reverted to Toho, and no American video label licensed the film until 1998.

So you’re saying we could’ve gotten the film as part of the same pack of Orion releases that included the likes of Guilala, Gappa, Hedorah and Yongary. But the company’s licence for the film expired at the last minute?

[Terasawa]

From another thread:

Anyone care to guess what prevented Destroy All Monsters from receiving a western home video release until the late 90's?

It did, though: it was first released on video in the UK in 1992. In America, however, it's probably simply because Orion's rights lapsed no earlier than 1989 (it was still in an Orion TV package that year). Orion had earlier licensed some of its AIP library to HBO Video and other distributors and founded its own video division in the late '80s, but many, many, many AIP and AITV titles were never released by Orion Home Video (or through its earlier contracts with HBO, et al). So, the rights lapsed and reverted to Toho, and no American video label licensed the film until 1998.

So you’re saying we could’ve gotten the film as part of the same pack of Orion releases that included the likes of Guilala, Gappa, Hedorah and Yongary. But the company’s licence for the film expired at the last minute?

Not precisely. I don't know exactly when Orion's rights to DAM reverted to Toho, but it was most likely between 1989 (according to the Television Programming Source Books 1989, DAM was still in Orion's "Sci-Fi 63" syndication package) and 1996, when the Toho-licensed export version first turned up on the Sci-Fi Channel.

What I was trying to say was that a lot of AIP titles held by Orion weren't released on video before the late '90s (by which time it seems almost certain that DAM had reverted to Toho), not that 1989 was the last possible date Orion Home Video could have released DAM. I also don't know if DAM would or even could have been released on video by Orion or one of its contractors.

[Gailah 1966]

This movie featured the SY-3
Battle in outer space featured the SY-1
But in which movie was the SY-2?

[Spuro]

Battle in outer space featured the SY-1

I’m gonna need a source for this.

[Major sssspielberg!]

Seconded for sauce, only because I'm unable to watch BioS right now

[edgaguirus]

This movie featured the SY-3
Battle in outer space featured the SY-1
But in which movie was the SY-2?

Weren't the ships in BiOS called SPIP 1 and 2?

[Gailah 1966]

This movie featured the SY-3
Battle in outer space featured the SY-1
But in which movie was the SY-2?

Weren't the ships in BiOS called SPIP 1 and 2?

SY-1 was the space station at the beginning of the movie. The radio operator says it during his report to earth before the station gets destroyed.

So the SY-2 should be in a Toho movie between 1959 and 1968.

[Follinollante]

Watched the US version last night. The dub was actually hilarious (though, in the grand scheme of dubs, fairly stereotypical). Effects were the usual mixed bag, but certainly not bad for Showa. The human plot was pretty long and weirdly paced. The kaiju parts, however (oh, ho ho!). Music was Ifukube.
Was anyone else really turned off by the autopsy and earring scenes?
Also, this is Showa Ghidorah's canonical death, is it not?

[mikelcho]

Watched the US version last night. The dub was actually hilarious (though, in the grand scheme of dubs, fairly stereotypical). Effects were the usual mixed bag, but certainly not bad for Showa. The human plot was pretty long and weirdly paced. The kaiju parts, however (oh, ho ho!). Music was Ifukube.
Was anyone else really turned off by the autopsy and earring scenes?
Also, this is Showa Ghidorah's canonical death, is it not?

Yes, it is. It's also the end of the Showa storyline.

[edgaguirus]

Was anyone else really turned off by the autopsy and earring scenes?

Not at all. The autopsy adds body to the plot.

[JVM]

Watched the US version last night. The dub was actually hilarious (though, in the grand scheme of dubs, fairly stereotypical). Effects were the usual mixed bag, but certainly not bad for Showa. The human plot was pretty long and weirdly paced. The kaiju parts, however (oh, ho ho!). Music was Ifukube.
Was anyone else really turned off by the autopsy and earring scenes?
Also, this is Showa Ghidorah's canonical death, is it not?

According to Toho, yeah it's his final death, although based on early drafts of Godzilla vs. Gigan, I think they were at least briefly intending to suggest the 70s films followed it. as early drafts for that film focused on King Ghidorah's return post-DAM. Toho has since clarified the 70s films are set before DAM, which is accepted by fans.

[mikelcho]

Watched the US version last night. The dub was actually hilarious (though, in the grand scheme of dubs, fairly stereotypical). Effects were the usual mixed bag, but certainly not bad for Showa. The human plot was pretty long and weirdly paced. The kaiju parts, however (oh, ho ho!). Music was Ifukube.
Was anyone else really turned off by the autopsy and earring scenes?
Also, this is Showa Ghidorah's canonical death, is it not?

According to Toho, yeah it's his final death, although based on early drafts of Godzilla vs. Gigan, I think they were at least briefly intending to suggest the 70s films followed it. as early drafts for that film focused on King Ghidorah's return post-DAM. Toho has since clarified the 70s films are set before DAM, which is accepted by fans.

Not only those, but the 1973 Toho TV series Zone Fighter as well.

[Follinollante]

Wait, so Godzilla got 5 prequel movies immediately after DaM?

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

Not really. The continuity of the Showa movies was very loose, aside from Ghidorah "returning from the dead" in Godzilla vs. Gigan, there's nothing to really suggest the 70s movies take place before DAM. It's only been in the years since that DAM has "officially" been considered the end of the Showa era.

[miguelnuva]

Not really. The continuity of the Showa movies was very loose, aside from Ghidorah "returning from the dead" in Godzilla vs. Gigan, there's nothing to really suggest the 70s movies take place before DAM. It's only been in the years since that DAM has "officially" been considered the end of the Showa era.

DAM is set in 199x and the 70's films are clearly set in the 70's.

[mikelcho]

Not really. The continuity of the Showa movies was very loose, aside from Ghidorah "returning from the dead" in Godzilla vs. Gigan, there's nothing to really suggest the 70s movies take place before DAM. It's only been in the years since that DAM has "officially" been considered the end of the Showa era.

Not really, my friend. Godzilla vs. Gigan has a scene in it about scientists having a base (or something like that) on Monster Island. Maybe this was the earliest implacations of Monsterland in the Ogasawara Islands by 1999 or 2000 (this is what I think is meant by "the end of the 20th century" mentioned in the Japanese version).

[Legion1979]

Don't overthink it. There's nothing in Revenge, Gigan or Megalon that states that the Monster Island in those films is the same as Monsterland in Destroy all Monsters. Don't look so hard for continuity that isn't there and was never intended.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

The most "futuristic" thing about DAM is the existence of a moon base. According to Monster Zero, we've been capable of interplanetary space travel since the 1960s, which is honestly more futuristic than establishing a base on the moon. The Japanese version of DAM doesn't specify 1999, just that the film takes place at the end of the 20th Century. None of the 70s films make explicitly clear when they're set, and could be set after DAM just as easily as before based on the actual onscreen evidence we see. Even King Ghidorah's return in GvG can be explained by the fact that there are supposedly two Showa Ghidorahs, though just like DAM being the end of the Showa era, this is retroactive information that came out years after the fact.

Like Legion said, these films never tried very hard to have continuity. As far as I'm concerned, anything that isn't explicitly stated in the films themselves is "head canon." While I'm in favor of considering DAM the final film chronologically in the Showa continuity, I'd call it a big stretch to refer to the six subsequent films as "prequels."