All Things Godzilla - Page 4

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

They absolutely own the rights to the original "Mothra". Columbia actually put up part of the money for the film's original production. Recently, their reperatory division even made a new print of the Japanese version.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Thanks for the update Joseph. Now all we need is for them to release it to DVD.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Yes, it already has. Just buy the excellent r4 edition from Madman. Anamorphic OAR with original Japanese track.

The r1 editions are uniformly awful, and out of print - thankfuly!

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

The Madman r4 edition of Destroy All Monsters is good, much better than ADV's mediocre effort.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Bummer.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

I'm unable to compare Godzilla vs Monster Zero since I no longer own the US release, but there sure were some differences between the two Ghidorahs. Not only are some scenes removed entirely in the US release, but the order in which scenes appeared is different as well. Weird. Seems like a lame attempt at making it more palatable for American audiences of the time.

The Japanese version of Ghidorah is much preferred in this case. At the same time, I also want to understand the dialog so I'm glad Classic Media is providing the English subs.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

This over on DVDTalk, originally in Sci-Fi Japan

"* Packaging will be identical to Classic Media’s recent DVDs of GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN and MOTHRA VS GODZILLA.

* Previous Classic Media DVD releases were distributed by Sony BMG, a division of Sony Entertainment that is separate from Sony Pictures. Sony BMG has shut down the DVD division to focus on its core music business, so the upcoming Godzilla DVDs will be distributed by Genius Products.

* In addition to the two Godzilla films, Classic Media will release GODZILLA:THE ORIGINAL ANIMATED SERIES VOLUME 3 this summer. The DVD will include Episodes 9-12 of the 1978 Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon show."

The last is very good news, I thought that maybe sales had been poor and the serie shad been dropped, I guess it was the Sony thing that screwed it all up!

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

My local Best Buy broke the April 3rd street a bit for GRA & MvG. I picked them up yesterday. The transfer for the Japanese version of MvG looks nearly identical to the actual Japanese import. However, I think Classic Media goofed somewhat in the conversion to DVD. I'm seeing some faint interlacing actifacts showing up here and there. The effect is very subtle on my home theater setup but more pronounced on my PC's PowerDVD player. It also doesn't help that the two versions of the movie are crammed onto one dual-layer disc. This is a practice I thought was abandoned years ago. Remember full-frame and widescreen on the same disc (ala early New Line)? As a result, the bit rate is half what it would normally be and the overall quality suffers. Still watchable, mind you, but not as good as the import.

I know the two-movies-on-one-disc was done to reduce cost, but I would have gladly paid more to a get higher bit rate.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Me too, I hadn't realised they'd done that. Seems a bit counter-productive if you're going to all the trouble of a specialist title like this and then cram it all onto one disc.

As a niche title, probably most of the sales would be made anyway even if the price was higher. You're appealing to collectors, and we like our quality.

Particularly given the price-point of the Columbia/Sony releases, which are all more expensive than these (except of the double features).

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Been looking for War of the Gargantuas for years.

It is my favorite of all the Japanese monster films. All I
remember is the green and brown Gargantuas fighting each
other. One was friendly -- one was not.

Glad to hear that we may finally be seeing this on DVD soon.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Perhaps it's just my mind playing tricks on me - but I could have sworn that the ones that I got direct from Godzilla on DVD.com had two movies on two discs. If that's the case (I'll check when I get home), daaaamn! Sucks to buy it retail then.

I know there were some issues with the Japanese version of G Raids Again, but they offered an error free replacement pretty darn quick. My new version looks really sweet.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Ok, pay me no mind - I'm smoking crack. G Raids Again and G vs Mothra are both one disc DVD's. Man, I could have sworn that they were 2 discers.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Hoo, apparently, the original MOTHRA is one of the Sony titles that DD Video have areached agreement to release here in the UK along with a bunch of Hammer films never released anywhere.

- begin usual boring stuff about how everyone really should own a multi-region player blah blah blah blah.....-

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Where'd you hear about this? Got a link of any kind?

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

The DVD Times annoucement mentions Mothra among the films they've licensed

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

From DVDTimes...

"Japanese monster movie Mothra will also be a forthcoming guilty treat for the genre aficionados"

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Ghidorah & Astro Monster reviews up at DVD-Drivein.

http://www.dvddrive-in.com/reviews/e-h/ghidorah65.htm

http://www.dvddrive-in.com/reviews/i...omonster65.htm

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Like there was any doubt that I'd pick these up in a hot second, but it's good to know that theyre nice sets.

So what else does Classic Media have in the wings? Isnt the upcoming Frankenstein Conquers the World theirs too?

(Actually, I'd do The Happy Dance if Classic Media announced that they were releaseing ALL the Godzilla films with this loving care treatment. I'd double dip on that *SO* fast, it wouldnt be funny. And I'd do it while a big cheesy grin on my face the whole time)

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Those reviews have me hyped.


Godzilla's Revenge and Terror of Mechagodzilla. Which unfortunately for me, I'm not really fond of (blasphemous I know). After that I hope they continue on with more kaiju films (Rodan, Mothra, Destroy All Monsters).

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

*prays for a new copy of Destroy All Monsters*

Meanwhile, DVDDrive-in has the review for Frankenstein Conquers the World up: http://www.dvddrive-in.com/reviews/e...qrsworld65.htm

That's why I got confused with Classic Media - both movies have similar presentations (both the American and Japanese cuts) and are coming out about the same time. Damn, but it's a good time to be a monster movie fan.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Sadly the rights to the Godzilla movies are all over the place. So I guess that Classic Media are releasing all the ones they could get hold of.

It's very difficult to get a complete set of the Big G movies, let alone a complete set of good copies! It is not possible to do it at all without looking outside of the r1 fence. For example, you must look to r4 to get good copies of Megalon, Destroy All Monsters, vs. King Ghidorah and vs. Mothra since the r1 editions of those are inferior in a number of respects. Godzilla '85 and Biollante are the most difficult.

I think that only the Japanese Toho releases ever represented a complete set of high-quality releases. Of course the special edition in the Godzilla head is out of print anyway, and being Japanese they are all wildly expensive!

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

No English subs on these either, if I recall!

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Sorry if this has been addressed already...

Why, on Godzilla vs. Mothra, is the English language version presented in cropped 1.78:1? The version released by simitar contained the english version in 2.35:1. The simitar version was non anamorphic.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Short answer: the cropped transfer (acquired from the Monsters HD cable channel) was more complete and had better colors than the alternative, 2.35:1 transfer available to them. So they went with the former.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Woo hoo! DDD just sent my copys of Ghidorah and Monster Zero yesterday. So just a week of slow ass shipping (why is it that a DVD I order from the UK gets across the Atlantic faster than a DVD from these guys?) and I'll have my Toho fix!

I'll report back on the discs once I get done with the Monster Mash.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

DDD? Were you stuttering? So these are out to buy than? [runs out the room]

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

If you have a DVD burner in your computer (and if you don't, they're pretty inexpensive), you can go to this website (defunct now, but still archived) and download burnable subs for the Japanese R2 Toho discs and make English subtitled copies. I've done it for quite a few R2s (including Biollante and Godzilla '84) and it works terrific.

Re: Both Godzillas on Nov.7th cancelled

Yeah - except the preorder shipped the day before the sale started. Poor timing on my part, I know. Looks like I get to refuse delivery and order them on the 5th!