Gojira-Minira-Gabara: Oru kaijû daishingeki (1969) Directed by Ishirô Honda

This movie must have been a real disappointment and punch in the face for the hardcore Gojira lovers at the time. In this movie, they see their favorite and powerful over-sized lizard getting diminished to a secondary character in a children's movie, that in a lot of ways is more like a campaign movie against bullying.

It's really hard to believe that this movie is actually directed by Ishirô Honda, who previously brought us the first, classic, revolutionary "Gojira" movie back in 1954 and who also directed many of the best and most awesome sequels that came out in the years after it. This movie in no way or shape is like any of the other previous Gojira movies and it's clearly targeted toward a totally different sort of audience.

If you already thought that "Kaijûtô no kessen: Gojira no musuko" was a kids movie, wait until you see this one. It's a kids movie in every sense of the term, including having a new main character who is, as you probably would have guessed already, a young kid who dreams about hanging with Minira (Gojira's son) and all of the other monsters on Monster Island because that is what young Japanese kids did back in 1969 of course...

I think it's actually nice that they continued to expand on the Monster Island concept and for the Island and all of the kaijus on it to be featured in this movie again. I just wish that all of it would have been part of a better movie. It's weird but in some ways this movie still is more of a sequel than any of the other previous Gojira movies but in this case I wish that the movie would have done something different and more creative, that would have involved different kaijus and some new locations.

And really, all of it takes place inside of the young kids mind anyway, so the movie isn't even ever truly psychically taking place on Monster Island in the first place, which is just lame and disappointing in my opinion. Would have been so much more awesome and creative if the little kid actually somehow did end up on Monster Island and had to find his way back, with the help of Minira and some of the other 'friendly' kaijus, while fighting of some of the 'evil' kaijus. Now that would have been an awesome adventure movie for young kids to watch! Kind of like "Jurassic Park Jr.", way before "Jurassic Park" even existed. Now instead, we get some bad and cheesy side-plots involving a bunch of bank-robbers. a crazy professor and some fat school bullies.

I don't even really get the movie its message in the first place. This movie actually teaches kids to stand up and fight back. In other words, it's OK to use violence against kids. Maybe it's just a cultural thing or perhaps this was considered to be normal back in 1969 but I doubt that a lot of responsible parents nowadays are going to be very happy with the 'advice' that this movie is giving.

It's of course also especially disappointing how this movie isn't really about Gojira in the first place. Like I said before, he's really a secondary character in this and the kaiju that gets featured the most is his ugly, goofy son Minira. Really, do people actually like this character? He's just annoying and not in a cute or amusing kind of way. Also a thing that really kept bugging me was how the little kid was exactly the same size as the Minira character. Now, if Minira is the same size as a young kid, that would have to mean that Gojira is the same size as an adult male. We all know that that isn't true or
right of course but none of the film-makers seemed to be too bothered or concerned about this.

But lets also try to look at things from a different perspective. After all, this is a kids movie, so it of course also should be judged as one in my opinion. And in that regard, this really isn't the worst movie around. I'm actually sure of it that some kids would have loved this movie back in 1969. To them, this probably was a pretty enjoyable and exciting adventure movie, involving giant creatures, far off locations and a young kid as the lead. It's doubtful though that kids nowadays would enjoy this movie as well. It's an extremely old fashioned movie, in the way it looks but also with its terrible soundtrack and childish, simplistic plot lines and characters, that most kids nowadays most likely won't like to watch, since none of it is cool or fast paced enough for them.

A pretty weird entry into the long series of Gojira movies. Lets just say that it's only still good and watchable as a curiosity piece but I sincerely doubt that any of the Gojira-lovers are going to fall in love with this movie as well...Even as a kids movie, it's too flawed and simplistic to consider it to be much of a good one.

5/10

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