Varied Celluloid

	MST3K: Gamera vs. Zigra (1991)

Starring:

Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy.

The Plot: Joel Robinson and his robotic friends Crow and Tom Servo are stuck in outer space aboard the Satellite of Love where they are forced, by the evil Dr. Forrester, to watch very bad movies. The crew try to make the most of the flicks that are presented to them by continually cracking jokes while the movies play on for the audience at home. This time out the crew take on their very last Gamera film! The giant turtle doesn’t seem interested in going out quietly however, as he invites along the gigantic water monster Zigra along for the ride! The plot revolves around Zigra, the aforementioned water-based creature from outer space who looks to enslave all of mankind. Zigra has the ability to hypnotize any creature it comes in contact with and after kidnapping a female astronaut from the moon, the monster heads to the earth and looks to use this brainwashed young woman in order to further his goals of world domination. While this is going on, a group of kids based in a water park that best resembles Seaworld are soon on the case and look to put an end to Zigra’s nefarious plans! Their secret weapon? The one and only Gamera, friend to all children!

	The Review

This review marks our final foray into the world of MST3K vs Gamera, the box set from Shout! Factory that celebrates the brilliant gatherings between these two parties. As has been previously discussed in these reviews (starting with Gamera, then followed by Gamera vs. Barugon, Gamera vs. Gaos, Gamera vs. Guiron and finally our film today), the history that Mystery Science Theater shares with this gigantic turtle is actually quite immense. The beast has been around since the inception of MST3K as a show and has lead to some of the most memorable moments in this show’s history. Who could forget the Gamera theme song? Or Gamera spinning on that bar like an Olympic athlete in the show’s opening? Gamera vs. Zigra is treated as a celebration in this final episode, as the cast and crew make it a point to announce that it would be their final Gamera episode (something they are very excited about!), and they go out on top. Unfortunately, Gamera vs. Zigra is most certainly another lackluster Gamera outing.

The Gamera series, as it evolved, seemed to continue in a spiral (either for the positive or negative, depending on your point of view) into a world of progressive strangeness. Each subsequent film after Gamera vs. Gaos seemed to find director Yuasa taking the series into as strange of waters as he could. During Gamera vs. Gaos when you saw the giant blood-filled bird feeder make its appearance, you knew you weren’t dealing with a series concerned with following the rules of conventional filmmaking. At least this time, as opposed to the situation with Gamera vs. Guiron, Yuasa decided to keep this movie based on planet earth. However, in placing his film around a Seaworld-esque location Yuasa does manage to craft a rather wacky childlike feeling for the majority of the picture. Gamera has long been said to be a series dominated by a fanbase of children, and the setting for Gamera vs. Zigra reinforces this feeling. It’s as if the entire world that Gamera lives in is a theme park just waiting to be wrecked. Like most Gamera titles though, there is more fixation on the children characters than there is on explosive rubber suited monster action. As always though, the final act doesn’t let us down.

The kids are, as always, the focus here and these characters are every bit as annoying as the other children that have popped up in these American distributions. It’s funny that even though the child actors are dubbed over completely, we still get the idea that they can’t act. Although I’m sure it’s slightly more tolerable in the Japanese language, the performances from the children (especially the smallest child) show no kind of emotional reaction to anything going on around them. The older child of the two that we are saddled with through the majority of the picture is actually dubbed over as “Kenny”, which is the same name given to the young boy from the original Gamera. Despite this fact, I never picked up on any references made towards that original character and when Gamera first shows up it doesn’t turn out to be a reunion. Sure, Gamera does ultimately go pretty far out of his way to save these kids throughout the movie, but the last time we saw him he actually traveled to a distant planet for two lone earth kids that he most certainly did not know!

Zigra as a villain is a bit weak, in my opinion. Sure, he gives Gamera a hard time for most of the picture but all bad guys in these movies do that! Honestly though, a fish monster? Did the Gamera series really need this? I do like the fact that he is able to brainwash his enemies and sends human beings to do his bidding, but overall he’s the sort of character that you expect Gamera to crush quite easily. As we watch Gamera going into battle with this oversized Goblin Shark, we as an audience expect Gamera to take him and suplex this fish-monster into a mountain. While the overall design is well done and the plot is handled well enough that I found myself engaged by the back and forth plotting of Zigra, the lack of monster mayhem really hurts the movie. Thankfully we have the MST3K crew along for the ride providing some really fun commentary. Although their work isn’t as on-point as it was in the Guiron episode, this is another fine outing for the guys (or guy and robot, as it were).

	The Conclusion

Sure, it doesn’t go out with a bang, but it is a fun way to end a fantastic series. The episode features a watchable monster movie and many great laughs. Certainly worth a look and just another reason (of many) to pick up this fine collection. A three out of five, check it out!

	Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gamera vs. Guiron (1991)

Starring:

Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy

The Plot: Joel Robinson and his robotic friends Crow and Tom Servo are stuck in outer space aboard the Satellite of Love where they are forced, by the evil Dr. Forrester, to watch very bad movies. The crew try to make the most of the flicks that are presented to them by continually cracking jokes while the movies play on for the audience at home. In this episode the crew tackle yet another Gamera movie: Gamera vs. Guiron. This time out we focus on two young boys who notice what seems like a spaceship crashing into earth near their home. When the two go out and find this mysterious aircraft, they accidentally hijack it and steer it toward its very strange homeplanet. As the family of the two boys deal with their disappearance, despite the sister of one boy continually telling them what happened, the boys find themselves coming face to face with the alien creatures who inhabit this planet. At first glance it seems that two women, who look VERY human, seem to be the main inhabitants of this desolate planet, however there is also Guiron: the giant knife faced monster lurking about. With the boys held captive here, their only hope turns out to be the giant monster Gamera who as we all know is a friend to all children!

	The Review

As we get closer to the finale of the MST3K vs Gamera box set, it seems that the movies are becoming progressively more and more abstract. Although Gamera vs. Guiron is yet another very familiar title within the lineage of Gamera movies, it is a flick that ultimately takes the childlike innocence that was very much a part of the original movie but manages to amplify it to some rather insane levels. It seems to be the movie that director Yuasa was always moving towards, but in a slightly more disastrous turn that I would have ever imagined. Essentially Yuasa takes the concept of children being central figures within the Gamera universe, but moves the entire production in a direction that leaves the earth’s stratosphere both literally and figuratively in terms of general weirdness. The resulting mess creates a Gamera movie that leaves a lot to be desired as a movie of its own, but turns out to be a suitable and highly entertaining episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

With every episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, it always seemed as if Joel and the bots were getting better with what they do, and watching these Gamera movies in linear-order really allows for the viewer to see that in action. Straight out of the gates, Joel and the bots are all over this Gamera title in an episode that likely compiles the very best riffing that this series has seen. Not only is this Gamera title the most purely insane feature within the collection so far, it also acts as one of the most incompetently distributed. Sure, Gamera vs. Barugon and Gamera vs. Gaos weren’t exactly well-handled when it came to their English dubbing, but Gamera vs. Guiron is on a completely different level of bad. The introductory sequence which features Eiji Funakoshi, the scientist from the first Gamera movie making a return, marks one of the very best moments of MST3K riffing as far as Gamera movies go. Pointing out just how terrible the dubbing is, and how long it takes Funakoshi’s character to actually complete a very simple sentence, the guys exacerbate the ridiculousness of the situation and strike comedy gold. A gut-busting’ly funny sequence in the very opening minutes of the film thankfully doesn’t fill us with false hope, because the rest of the movie gains on those laughs.

According to Kaiju expert and resident man of awesomeness August Ragone, who has an amazing featurette on the MST3K vs Gamera box set, at this point in time the Gamera films were finding overseas financing in the form of American distributors who liked the movies so much that they were buying them up before the movies had even been made! So, with this Western influence on the productions we started to see Caucasian characters popping up here and there within these movies. With Guiron we’re introduced to a neighboring Western family who allow for their boy to spend time with their young star-gazing neighbor. Normally this kind of strange international casting would probably have you scratching your head… but lets be honest here, this is a movie where two young boys hijack a space ship and fly across the galaxy to another planet, where they are nearly devoured by cannibal women, until a giant space turtle comes to rescue them. The international casting is far from the strangest thing going on here.

When it comes to technical innovations from previous Kaiju movies, these flicks have one scale to judge them by: the monsters. Is the monster impressive? And how are the fights? Well, even though Guiron is probably the silliest looking Gamera creature ever, director Yuasa does a great job of quickly establishing Guiron’s incredible skills by immediately killing off one of Gamera’s greatest enemies: Gaos. Not only does Guiron kill Gaos, he completely butcher’s him. Literally! Guiron, whose nose is a gigantic blade, chops the bird monster into tiny little pieces in one of the most violent sequences I have seen from a Gamera movie at this point. This is of course quite odd, considering the considerable role that children play within this movie, but what exactly makes sense about a project like this? The fight sequences that Guiron and Gamera have throughout the majority of the picture turn out to be some of the most entertaining of his career, including the notorious bit where Gamera spins on the parallel bars like an Olympic athlete, but unfortunately there just weren’t enough. Truly the monsters play background roles while the majority of the film focuses on the children and their exploits on this wild and new planet.

	The Conclusion

A weak Gamera film makes for an epic and strong episode of MST3K as Joel and the bots tackle this movie with the greatest of ease. Although these episodes seem to get better and better as they go along, Gamera vs. Guiron is hard to beat.

	Gamera vs. Gaos (1991)

Starring:

Stars: Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy

The Plot: Joel Robinson and his robotic friends Crow and Tom Servo are stuck in outer space aboard the Satellite of Love where they are forced, by the evil Dr. Forrester, to watch very bad movies. The crew try to make the most of the flicks that are presented to them by continually cracking jokes while the movies play on for the audience at home. This time around we delve back into the Gamera series and find that a team of construction workers are doing their best to pave through a wooded area right next to a mountain. This incites violence from the locals, but what happens next baffles everyone. When a UN survey team, flying in a helicopter, are wiped out by a beam of light coming from the mountain, a massive panic is felt by all involved. It turns out that the ball of light came from Gaos, a giant flying space creature! As mankind tries to figure a way to stop this giant monster, the only hope earth seems to have is with the giant turtle known as Gamera!

	The Review

Continuing on in our exploration of the Gamera vs MST3K box set, we venture out into the third Gamera title. Also distributed by Sandy Frank, Gamera vs. Gaos is yet another poorly dubbed version of a classic Japanese monster movie. However, this time out the series is placed back into the formidable hands of director Noriaki Yuasa who created the series and nearly directed every film in the original run. Yuasa was discarded in the previous Gamera vs. Barugon but his touch was sorely missed from that film as it tried to reach a more adult tone that simply didn’t seem to catch on with audiences. While the Gamera series does play well enough to an adult audience, there tends to be a childlike innocence behind many of these movies and Yuasa brings that with gusto as he steps back into the director’s seat and truly epitomizes what a Gamera movie really is. While this doesn’t ultimately prove to be the very best film in the series, it is so preposterously insane in its logic that you almost can’t help but walk away liking it.

When the decision was made to return original director Noriaki Yuasa back into his rightful chair at the helm of the Gamera series, the heart and presence was certainly brought back to the Gamera movies. Yuasa showed that he had learned quite a bit during his hiatus from the series, and handles both the color format here as well as the larger production values to a far greater extent than even his more experienced predecessor did. There are sequences, such as the one where the young boy and a stranger from the forest wander out into a cave near the location of Gaos (who is resting in the early section of the movie), that show off Yuasa’s tremendous use of color and lighting. This scene, which comes early on, demonstrates a lot of visual potential from the director. The use of vivid blues and warm lighting within closeups (the rosy red cheeks of the boy stand out amidst the green and blues of the cave) gives the film a very otherworldly feel, and Yuasa continually makes use of this alien atmosphere. Although this is a stretch, the only thing I can think to compare this atmosphere with is director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi and the work he did in both the surreal titles Hausu as well as The Difting Classroom.

Often times what makes or breaks a good Kaiju movie is the level of villain presented. Sometimes the leading monster is our villain but often times we have a good monster versus a bad monster. Such was the case with the majority of Gamera titles, and Gamera vs. Gaos is no exception. Gaos is a tremendous villain for the Gamera universe. His design may actually be one of the most obvious in its hokeyness, as his head has a very square look to it that doesn’t invoke any sense of organic flow, he offers a number of troublesome functions for Gamera himself. The first and most obvious fact is that Gaos is able to fly. Although Gamera himself can match this ability, he is only able to fly whenever he sucks his body inward and propels himself by his rockets. So now we have Gamera dealing with a monster who flies above him for the most part and if you’ve ever seen this giant tortoise in action: you know he isn’t the most flexible monster out there. The main problem for Gamera however has to be Gaos’ ability to shoot a ray from his mouth that can actually pierce through Gamera’s incredibly thick skin. Never has Gamera at this point in the series been so harshly injured during a battle and it seems that through the first two thirds of the movie Gamera is consistently hammered by the Gaos creature. Yuasa handles this situation brilliantly and truly creates a creature that seems impossible to beat.

The movie however does come across as relatively silly and Joel and the bots make sure to point this out at every junction point. The character of young Ichi steps up to the plate as one of the most annoying children ever put to screen. The English dub makes the character absolutely unbearable in his whinyness. The character doesn’t so much recite his lines as he screams every single one of them… throughout the entire movie. In the grand tradition of Gamera movies, the character of Ichi is taken far more serious by the adults around him than one would expect which makes for some of the most hilarious riffing in this episode. Indeed, why is Ichi given as much credence as the adults like to pass upon him? Utterly ridiculous, but entertaining in all of the wrong ways. Another point of interest for those just looking to have their jaw dropped by the insanity of the Gamera universe: the plan to destroy Gaos, as concocted by the human race, may be one of the most idiotic and disturbing ideas known to cinema. Being that Gaos seems to love human blood so much, the scientists come up with the idea of creating a massive bird-feeder filled with BLOOD as a lure. When Gaos manages to sit on top of the perch the plan is then to start spinning him on a table… in the hopes that it would screw up the evil bird’s equilibrium… I think. Honestly, in a poorly dubbed affair such as this one, where you are laughing at both the movie and the brilliant banter of the MST3K crew, who can say?

	The Conclusion

Although Gaos is a tremendous villain and the riffing is on par with many of the best in this series, this still didn’t turn out as one of my favorites. The plot is a bit too convoluted for the MST3K treatment to really get off of the ground. Still, not a bad showing at all! It gets a three out of five.

	Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gamera vs. Barugon (1991)

Director:	Jef Maynard
Writers:	Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy
Starring:	Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy

The Plot: Joel Robinson and his robotic friends Crow and Tom Servo are stuck in outer space aboard the Satellite of Love where they are forced, by the evil Dr. Forrester, to watch very bad movies. The crew try to make the most of the flicks that presented to them by continually cracking jokes while the movies play on for the audience at home. After the events of the previous film Gamera, the giant turtle of the same name escapes from his missile and heads back towards earth where he soon feasts upon an electrical plant. Meanwhile, we watch as some mafioso types head out into the jungle in order to find a particular “oval” which could be worth a fortune to them. However, this is no regular “oval”, it is in fact the ancient monster Barugon! When the creature finally hatches all hope for mankind will rest on the massive shell of Gamera the giant monster!

	The Review

Continuing on through the epic “MST3K vs. Gamera box set from Shout Factory, the second film in the series marks another triumphant return to form for the MST3K cast. In one of the most divergent films in the Gamera series, and one of the few not directed by Gamera icon Noriaki Yuasa (this film was directed by Shigeo Tanaka), Joel and company find a lot of fun to be had at the expense of our most beloved tortoise. With Gamera vs. Barugon the quality of the riffing seems to find a steady increase over the original episode and the movie itself seems to work even better due mainly to it seeming to be a slightly “lesser” Gamera movie. While I won’t go out and speak for the hardcore Kaiju fans who know everything there is to know about these movies, a lack of Gamera or any of his typical traits might lead this one to holding a rather strange torch within the lineage of these movies. However, that ultimately leads to a very entertaining episode of Mystery Science Theater that features some fun host segments and plenty of referencing towards the original Gamera episode reviewed previously.

Veteran director Shigeo Tanaka, who was better known than Yuasa and who was given a larger budget than the original film, took on the Gamera series in this second entry. Although I know little about the director myself, I will applaud some of his work here and say he definitely steps up to the plate with his film and creates an even more visually creative space for Gamera and Barugon to run around in. The first major divergence from the previous Gamera is obviously first and foremost the fact that this film is in color while the original was in black and white. Still, Tanaka does a lot more than throw a little bit of color onto the palette. There are a number of impressive shots throughout the movie and at nearly all moments we are consumed by a rather epic vision, which seems suitable for a movie about two giant monsters fighting one another. Right from the start we’re introduced to Gamera as he heads back toward earth, directly picking up where the previous film left off and we watch as begins a quick tirade of destruction. Tanaka seems to promise us a rather grand and destruction filled sequel as we watch on with Gamera shooting his flames in a much more directly visual presentation of the giant turtle creature than what had been seen previously. However, in an epic bait and switch move Tanaka introduces us to Gamera but then sets him on the sidelines for almost the entire duration of the movie. Afterward our story focuses primarily on Barugon and the intense destruction that this monster looks to devastate the world with.

Barugon, by his design, is actually quite similar to Gamera himself. Both walk on all fours and have a very distinctive “animal” look in opposition to other Kaiju beasts such as the famed Godzilla who was much more anthropomorphic. Their differences of course come primarily in their superpowers, which are both quite epic. Gamera of course has the ability to absorb and spit fire, as well as fly by sucking his head/legs inside of his shell and firing rockets from the holes. In the case of Barugon, his power was created as an exact opposition to Gamera’s famous fire breathing antics. Barugon is a monster who has two main powers. The first, and most ridiculous, is that he can somehow shoot forth a rainbow out of his backside which is somehow a destructive force to anything it touches. Secondly, he shoots a projectile tongue-like weapon from his mouth, similar to one of Ridley Scott’s Alien, only this tongue of his shoots forth an ice storm that freezes anything in his way. So, it becomes easy to see what the producers were really hoping for with this one. You take two polar opposites and set them up against one another in the most gargantuan battle of giant rubber-suited monsters that this world has ever seen! Unfortunately, by sidelining Gamera for nearly the entire movie it really hurts audience members who had grown attached to the beast throughout the course of the previous movie.

The distinct lack of Gamera is certainly a big issue with this movie. The lack of children, for whom Gamera is always a friend to, is also another lacking element. Some however might count that as a positive. One can only hope that while our cameras here were steadily watching Barugon for almost the entire duration of this film, in some alternate dimension there was another Gamera movie being made where our giant turtle friend was then coerced into his climactic showdown with Barugon by a very simple Japanese boy. Unfortunately, one can only guess at what the original contents of this film were as this version, distributed by Sandy Frank, is missing roughly 14 minutes worth of additional footage. While its doubtful that there’s much more additional Gamera footage in the original cut, the spliced together feel of Gamera vs. Barugon shows a lack of affection from the distributors. Apparently the film was originally picked up by American International Pictures and originally featured a different English dub soundtrack, but this version became less available as the Sandy Frank version took over as the most popular amongst television studios who were looking to buy up cheap content. The AIP print also exorcized the additional 14 minutes worth of footage but one wonders if the dubbing could have at least been better on that print because the one we’re stuck with here is pretty awful even for Kaiju fare.

	The Conclusion

There’s really not a whole lot to say. This is a weaker Gamera film but is an incredibly entertaining piece of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The riffing is top notch and the guys rarely relent as they continually point out the campy atmosphere of the movie. A lot of fun is had and this marks another impressive addition to the excellent MST3K vs. Gamera box set. It gets a four out of five!

	Gamera (1991)

Starring:

Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy

The Plot: Joel Robinson and his robotic friends Crow and Tom Servo are stuck in outer space aboard the Satellite of Love where they are forced to watch bad movies by the evil Dr. Forrester. The crew try to make the most of the movies presented to them as they continually crack jokes while the movies play on for the audience. In this particular episode Joel and company are forced to watch the original Kaiju classic: Gamera. This is the age old story of a boy, his pet turtle and a gigantic monster tortoise who destroys cities. After an airplane carrying nuclear explosives is shot down in the Antarctic, out of the icy terrain the ancient monster Gamera is awakened. A massive turtle who breathes fire and feasts on destructive energy, it seems that earth can in no way compete with this monstrous beast. However, a small boy named Kenny realizes that while Gamera most assuredly does destroy nearly everything in his path – he has a heart and is a friend to all children!

	The Review

Take Mystery Science Theater 3000, now combine it with one of the most notable Kaiju series to ever come out of Japan and then what do you get? Well, you get MST3K Vs. Gamera, the latest box set from the fine folks over at Shout! Factory. This was ultimately a no-brainer for the company as they own the rights to the Gamera license as well as MST3K and when you look back on the many episodes from the series throughout the years you have to admit that any episode where the inhabitants of the Satellite of Love were to watch a gamera movie: the results were generally pretty spectacular. This box set packages all five Gamera episodes and today we start off with a look back on the very first in the epic series. If you read this site, you’re likely already vaguely aware of our love for Gamera from our review of the previous Gamera: The Giant Monster Shout Factory release, but I promise that with the English dub and the masterful riffing of Joel and the bots – this is a completely different movie experience entirely.

The history between this show and the Gamera series actually travels all the way back to the original KTMA local access station that originally hosted Mystery Science Theater 3000 before it was picked up by what would later become Comedy Central. Although the Gamera series would be visited in those early days, it wasn’t until the show had been given an actual budget that we would truly get a feel for what these two giants of Geekdom could produce when paired together. The Gamera series on the whole is rather child-like and surreal to enough degree that it would make for perfect fodder for this show, and it seems that the MST3K crew realized this. The original Gamera might prove to be one of the most serious entries, but Jole and the bots manage to keep things from being able to be taken as stoneface as it was originally meant to be. In the post-war years that the film was made in, and with the cold war threat of looming nuclear apocalypse surrounding it, the original Gamera was another stern look at the results of nuclear warfare. With the help of Sally Frank however, who distributed the series some time after their initial release, the movie becomes a bit of a farce and Joel & company perfectly capture the sense of silliness inherit in this new version of Gamera.

Although you’ll see in my Gamera: The Giant Monster review that this can, and very well should, be taken as a somewhat legitimate film in its original format, when Sandy Frank grabbed ahold of this series he sort of put a hole in all of that. With ridiculously over the top dubbing it proves much more difficult to picture these characters as anything remotely three dimensional. As anyone who has ever seen a Kung Fu movie can tell you, when it comes to children being dubbed the results are almost always annoying. Such is the case with young “Kenny”, the lead child and inevitable friend of Gamera himself, who in this dubbed form becomes an annoying nuisance. His whiny voice and hysterics over his recently deceased pet turtle grabs the attention of Joel, Crow and Tom Servo, who lampoon the young boy without mercy. Throughout the movie it becomes a running gag for the crew to insert “evil” lines of dialogue into the young boy’s mouth as things play out. The idea is ludicrous and generally makes no sense, but as they insert these evil lines about murder and Satan worship, you’ll find it impossible not to laugh.

As with each film featured on the MST3K Vs. Gamera boxset from Shout Factory, you can expect some very high quality special features. On this first disc there is a very nice featurette that details the background history between the show and the entire Gamera series. The background delves into both Gamera’s North American distribution as well as the original KTMA coverage of the series, all featuring interviews with the majority of the cast. The featurette is relatively short but incredibly informative and frankly its always nice to see the cast in their current day appearance. The DVD set is rounded off with cool mini-flyers as well as a metallic case that should look pretty swank on any collector’s DVD shelf.

	The Conclusion

Easily one of my favorite episodes and a great start to a classic collection. As good, in its own unique way, as the original Gamera: The Giant Monster, the MST3K treatment creates comedic gold. Some of the best riffing from this period in the show’s history and a really great episode of an amazing series, you can’t go wrong with snatching up the box set.