Elementry my dear kaiju!

            Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did two things which I will always thank him.  He created Sherlock Holmes which I have read his adventures and lost tales time and time again.  He also created The Lost World genre which many acclaimed authors like Jules Verne, and Edgar Rice Burrows have contributed to with captivating tales.

            Willis O’Brien’s King Kong (1933) was the first comprehensive exploration of the Lost World on film.  O’Brien used aspects of Doyle’s Lost World mythos, most importantly giant creatures.  O’Brien’s King Kong also added to the mythos of the Lost World giving it a mysterious location a continent shrouded in mist.  Since then it has been called many things;

Skull
Island, Monster Isle, and the Lost Continent of Atlantis.

            Godzilla: King of All Monsters (1954) or more appropriately Gorjira was produced in
Japan as a response to King Kong.  American actors were added subsequently and spliced into the film to appeal to American viewers when released in the states.  The Japanese also created the term kaiju which as a description of all giant monsters.  Later they created another term daikaiju for humanoid giants like Ultraman. Since Godzilla’s inception there have been 30 films featuring her with battles with close to 100 other kaiju. 

Yesterday I stayed home because I wasn’t feeling well.  During my time home lying on the couch I had loaded up several Godzilla movies including the allegedly last one Godzilla: Final Wars.  It was almost like comfort food, to hear the different versions of Godzilla’s scream, the background music, all those creatures smashing the city.  I still think my all time favorite is MechaGodzilla.

            That’s pretty much it.  I just wanted to share yet another obsession besides the usual foray of vampires, werewolves, angels & demons, time travel, alternate dimensions and immortals fighting till there is only one.

~ by mechakaiju on May 23, 2007.