USA Today Article On Criterion's "Godzilla" Blu-ray

by Armand Vaquer


USA Today is carrying an article on the upcoming Criterion Blu-ray edition of the original 1954 Godzilla and the 1956 Americanized Godzilla, King of The Monsters!

The article also includes interview comments by kaiju historians David Kalat and August Ragone.

The article starts with:

From terms like "Bridezilla" to films like Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster, the thought of Japan's most famous monster usually evokes a chuckle, not a roar.

But the roots of the Tokyo-stomping beast are dark and terrible. Long before its 27 sequels and endless spinoffs, the original 1954 film, called Gojira in Japan, was a fearful atomic fable from expert filmmakers, a metaphor for the bombing of Hiroshima that ended World War II just nine years earlier.

On Tuesday, the highbrow Criterion Collection, which usually traffics in the world of Hitchcock, Truffaut and Japan's Akira Kurosawa, will add digitally restored editions of Toho Studios' Gojira and the watered-down American version from 1956, Godzilla: King of the Monsters with Raymond Burr, to its prestigious DVD and Blu-ray catalog.

To read the full USA Today online article, go here.

USA Today Article On Criterion's "Godzilla" Blu-ray

by Armand Vaquer


USA Today is carrying an article on the upcoming Criterion Blu-ray edition of the original 1954 Godzilla and the 1956 Americanized Godzilla, King of The Monsters!

The article also includes interview comments by kaiju historians David Kalat and August Ragone.

The article starts with:

From terms like "Bridezilla" to films like Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster, the thought of Japan's most famous monster usually evokes a chuckle, not a roar.

But the roots of the Tokyo-stomping beast are dark and terrible. Long before its 27 sequels and endless spinoffs, the original 1954 film, called Gojira in Japan, was a fearful atomic fable from expert filmmakers, a metaphor for the bombing of Hiroshima that ended World War II just nine years earlier.

On Tuesday, the highbrow Criterion Collection, which usually traffics in the world of Hitchcock, Truffaut and Japan's Akira Kurosawa, will add digitally restored editions of Toho Studios' Gojira and the watered-down American version from 1956, Godzilla: King of the Monsters with Raymond Burr, to its prestigious DVD and Blu-ray catalog.

To read the full USA Today online article, go here.

Honda Estate vs. Toho: Delving Deeper

by Armand Vaquer

Above, the Godzilla statue at Toho Studios. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The story of the alleged lawsuit by the family of late director Ishiro Honda against Toho Co., Ltd. over the Godzilla copyright may have some legs after all.

Over on Facebook, some of us were mulling over the story.

It was asked by one participant: "Couldn't we have somebody in Japan verify if a Complaint has actually been filed? Those are a matter of public record·"

Noted Godzilla historian August Ragone replied that he had looked into it and he is currently "writing up something about this now [for his blog]."

Once he does, I'll post a link to his blog post. This should be interesting!

It appears we may be on the verge of learning something about Japanese copyright law.

Honda Estate vs. Toho: Delving Deeper

by Armand Vaquer

Above, the Godzilla statue at Toho Studios. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The story of the alleged lawsuit by the family of late director Ishiro Honda against Toho Co., Ltd. over the Godzilla copyright may have some legs after all.

Over on Facebook, some of us were mulling over the story.

It was asked by one participant: "Couldn't we have somebody in Japan verify if a Complaint has actually been filed? Those are a matter of public record·"

Noted Godzilla historian August Ragone replied that he had looked into it and he is currently "writing up something about this now [for his blog]."

Once he does, I'll post a link to his blog post. This should be interesting!

It appears we may be on the verge of learning something about Japanese copyright law.

It's Official: Media Blasters To Release "Godzilla vs. Megalon" and "Destroy All Monsters"

by Armand Vaquer

Above, the U.S. poster of "Godzilla vs. Megalon."

After weeks of speculation and rumors, it is now official: Media Blasters has Godzilla vs. Megalon and, also, Destroy All Monsters.

According to their Facebook page:

Talking about Godzilla we can make it official now, we have DAM and Godzilla vs. Megalon. DAM is scheduled for October and will be both Blu-Ray and DVD releases. Do not know all the details about the extras yet. We will post with it later as they become available. Now for the funny part, we were not looking at Godzilla vs. Megalon till everyone said we have it so we asked they said ok so we picked it up.

There is no word as yet on the release date of Godzilla vs. Megalon, but it will likely be in 2012.

The last sentence from Media Blasters' announcement is interesting:

Now for the funny part, we were not looking at Godzilla vs. Megalon till everyone said we have it so we asked they said ok so we picked it up.

As mentioned previously, Robert Dunham's daughter Emiko Jade Frost said she was approached by someone working on the extra features for the DVD some months ago. Then, the word about it was announced by August Ragone. I posted the news as Ragone has been a reliable source for news in the world of kaiju. Then Media Blasters said they don't have Megalon. After this, all hell broke loose and Ragone found himself on the receiving end of attacks by irate fanboys.

Perhaps the hullabaloo surrounding the Ragone announcement was a good thing in the end as Media Blasters acquired Megalon and it'll finally receive an official release.

As far as Destroy All Monsters is concerned, I have the ADV VHS and DVD releases. Unfortunately, both have Toho's international dub instead of the original A.I.P. dub. It is hoped that Media Blasters can release Destroy All Monsters with the A.I.P. dub or, at least, the Japanese language, but subtitled version. The international dub is atrocious.

Nevertheless, this is good news! (Now if we can only get Return of Godzilla (Godzilla 1985) and Godzilla vs. Biollante released on DVD.)

Rondo Awards: 10 Days Left To Vote!

by Armand Vaquer


Right, Miki Hayashi with "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan." Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Ten days from tonight (March 27), voting for the 9th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards will end.

So if you haven't placed your votes for the best of 2010, you have ten days to do so.

Two things near and dear to me have been nominated: The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan for "Best Book" and Monster Island News for best blog. I wrote the former and contribute to the latter.

Also, please consider the following nominees (who are also friends of Monster Island News):

BEST COMMENTARY

August Ragone, Jason Varney, GAMERA VS. BARUGON

FAVORITE HORROR HOST OF 2010

KARLOS BORLOFF (Monster Madhouse, Washington, DC)
COUNT GORE DE VOL (Creature Feaures)
PENNY DREADFUL (Shilling Shockers, New England)

and ...

MR. LOBO (Cinema Insomnia, California)

BEST HORROR COMIC

BELA LUGOSI'S TALES FROM THE GRAVE (Monsterverse). Colorful and clever anthology features Bela as a very sinister host..

VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS (Bluewater). Anthology includes Witchfinder General tales.

To vote, go to the offical Rondo Award website at www.rondoaward.com.

Thank you for your vote!

Rondo Awards Voting To March 27

by Armand Vaquer



Regarding the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, voting continues up to March 27. So if you haven't cast your vote on the Rondos, please take the time to do so.



From the Rondo Awards website:

The Rondos, now in their ninth year, are fandom's only classic horror award, decided by fans, for fans, and dedicated to preserving the undying spirit of monsters past.

Every Rondo nominee below is being recognized for a significant achievement in the genre during the year of 2010. So please take a look at the ballot and let the nominees know how much we appreciate their work by voting.

Be sure to read the directions on how to vote (it's really simple, just copy and paste the ballot onto an email, mark your votes with an 'x' and address it to taraco@aol.com). Be sure you include your name so your ballot is counted!

Above, the masthead for Monster Island News.

Above, Miki Hayashi with "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan." Photo by Armand Vaquer.

When voting, please vote for Monster Island News* for Best Blog and The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan for Best Book of the Year.

And please consider these friends of Monster Island News...

BEST COMMENTARY

August Ragone, Jason Varney, GAMERA VS. BARUGON

FAVORITE HORROR HOST OF 2010

KARLOS BORLOFF (Monster Madhouse, Washington, DC)
COUNT GORE DE VOL (Creature Feaures)
PENNY DREADFUL (Shilling Shockers, New England)

and ...

MR. LOBO (Cinema Insomnia, California)

BEST HORROR COMIC

BELA LUGOSI'S TALES FROM THE GRAVE (Monsterverse). Colorful and clever anthology features Bela as a very sinister host..

VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS (Bluewater). Anthology includes Witchfinder General tales.

*I am a contributor to Monster Island News.

"Destroy All Planets 2010": The Case of the Missing DVD

"Destroy All Planets 2010": The Case of the Missing DVD

by Armand Vaquer

An alert fan discovered today that the Retromedia DVD, Destroy All Planets 2010 has "mysteriously vanished" from Amazon.com's website.

No doubt this may be due to the issues Ryan Clark and other fans raised pertaining to the rights issue at Amazon.com and several kaiju-oriented message boards.

This is probably a cautionary move on Amazon.com's part until the rights issues are resolved.

UPDATE: The DVD is still being offered at Amazon.com.

FOR THE RECORD: Kaiju historian August Ragone commented on several message boards about the rights issues. I had quoted him as he has the most knowledge on Japanese movie companies, DVD & screening rights and many other facets. As his comments are on several public message boards, I took the liberty in quoting him. Unfortunately, I should have given him a "head's up" first. It was not my intention to box him into the fray which may give someone the impression that this was an "August vs. Retromedia" situation. It wasn't. He also expressed that he'd like to also hear what Carl Craig has to say in his commentary. He was only speaking as a fan and not in any official (or otherwise) capacity with his role in Shout! Factory's Gamera releases. I apologize if that is the impression given.

"Destroy All Planets 2010" Controversy - Part II

"Destroy All Planets 2010" Controversy - Part II

by Armand Vaquer

Avery Guerra, who has been a reliable source for news and behind-the-scenes info on many movie productions, posted this message from Fred Olen Ray at the Monster Zero message board about the Destroy All Planets 2010 DVD controversy:

"I have never been contacted by anyone associated with these films in the ten years we have distributed them except about five years ago when I emailed Daiei to ask about buying rights to the wide screen versions and they told me they didn't own the US rights. Toei likewise denied knowing anything about THE MAGIC SERPENT which we also tried to buy the wide screen rights for at the AFM three years ago.

Otherwise as far as we know there are no rights issues "a'brewing".

The biggest point that everyone is missing is that I only put this out because I was led to believe that the fans wanted it. I had no intention, or desire, to do this, all my usual distribution outlets had turned it down... but I was encouraged by fans to invest in doing the commentary, which we did, but then thought better of putting the show out as it would have to compete with a plethora of other editions.

Continual and repeated emails from fans made me want to offer it to them, but I didn't believe there was enough people really wanting it to do a big run so I went the Amazon.com route so copies would only be created for those who really wanted it... why can't anybody see that I only tried to give them what they kept asking me for? I could give a OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE otherwise... this could have stayed on the shelf for the rest of my life and I wouldn't care. I'm not going to make any real money off the Amazon release, it was done strictly for the fans who asked me for this. It might move a grand total of 25 copies, who knows? Get a life guys, I have bigger and better things to do. The DVD company is my hobby, not my business, I do it for the fans... but probably should have known better.

On different points "Ryan" posted his slander in Amazon's "Customer Review", a section created so that people who have actually bought products on Amazon can view them, then create a review of them. It's not your private flame forum, dude. If this basement dweller doesn't understand the concept of "customer review" then maybe someone should cut him off from a word processor.

Secondly, Copyright registrations begin with the letters PA, not V... don't you kids ever do your homework? The copyright registration the other ignorant guy puts forth is also BS... that's a transfer letter and has nothing to do with registration. Period. He hasn't a clue about copyright laws.

The item you mention is probably a transfer for banking purposes, I don't even need to look at it to know it's not a registration of copyright. Please write 100 times "I will know what I'm talking about before embarrassing myself on-line again".

Third, I'm legally not able to disclose the details of the settlement we made regarding this film and its legal action. However, drop your own dime and search the LA Court records... it's there as far as I know...

After all is said and done DESTROY is already out on 30 different labels and has NEVER been out of print on Retro in almost 10 years... I'd say the horse is out of the barn on this one."

FRED

Removed by request of the quoted person for failure to seek permission and being taken out of context

I wonder if Ray tried to contact Kadokawa Pictures through their Los Angeles office when he began this project. It would have only taken a simple phone call at the very least. (I even have their number programed into my cell phone.)

He said he sent emails to Daiei five years ago (was he aware that Kadokawa took them over around about that time or earlier and released Gamera The Brave in April 2006?). We all know that emails get lost, deleted (people thinking they're spam and other reasons) and it appears he might have emailed the wrong person. A traditional business letter would have been more appropriate in this instance (but that's just my opinion), sent via registered or certified mail if need be.

For the record, I happen to like Ray's output and have posted articles about his movies my blog and at Monster Island News, so I have nothing against him. In the blog posts on this DVD, I tried to be even-handed (by posting both sides of the matter) and just stuck to the facts as we know them. He can get permission to release the documents giving him the DVD rights from the parties involved. Doing so could possibly put to rest this matter.

It appears something fell though the cracks involving this particular DVD.

Fight Over "Destroy All Planets" Rights Brewing

Fight Over "Destroy All Planets" Rights Brewing

by Armand Vaquer

A new controversy is brewing over whether or not a Gamera DVD being issued by Retromedia is legitimate or not. Cries of "bootleg" are being posted at the Monster Zero message board. Is it?

The movie in question is Retromedia's DVD of Destroy All Planets 2010 which features a commentary by one of the movie's stars, Carl Craig.

At issue is whether Retromedia has the rights to issue the U.S. version of this movie. Shout! Factory is slated to release the same movie (the subtitled Japanese version) in a few months and this is seen by some as a bit of one-upsmanship by Retromedia.

The movie was originally released in 1965 by Daiei, which was bought out by Kadokawa Pictures.

Removed by request of the quoted person for failure to seek permission and being taken out of context

Fred Olen Ray, who is the owner of Retromedia, said this in a response to Ryan Clark's review post at Amazon.com:

Since this program only became available yesterday it's physically impossible for "Ryan" to have seen it or even have received a copy of the DVD. Your "review" is a lie and obviously fueled by a personal agenda. Retromedia was the first company to ever present the AIP-TV Gamera films to the public on DVD and quickly became the source of material for all the cheap DVD labels that flooded the market afterwards. Retromedia also successfully initiated and won a copyright case based on their release of DESTROY ALL PLANETS, so your claim of illegality is BS as well. This DVD doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't. It's simply the best edition of the AIP-TV version of the film ever released on DVD and it has an actors commentary track with star Carl Craig. That's all it advertises as being and that's what it is. Next time try watching the film first before rendering your "opinion", and if you happen to work for a rival DVD company, I'd have to say I'm disappointed... these kind of smear tactics are nothing less than juvenile.

[Note: Ryan Clark never claimed to have viewed the DVD nor received a copy of it.]

Removed by request of the quoted person for failure to seek permission and being taken out of context

If all U.S. rights to this film reverted back to Kadokawa (by virtue of buying Daiei), then Retromedia would be in hot water. However, if Fred Olen Ray is correct in claiming that he has the U.S. rights over the U.S. version (and can provide the paperwork to back that up), then he should be able to continue to offer the movie. At this point, no back-up material has been provided by Ray (he's welcome to send it me me and I'll be happy to post it).

Removed by request of the quoted person for failure to seek permission and being taken out of context

[*"Dubious Comforts" is the handle of a member of the Classic Horror Film Board forum. - A.]

He continues in a subsequent post:

Removed by request of the quoted person for failure to seek permission and being taken out of context

To see the CHFB thread for the above quotes, go here.


It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. The courts may have to be the ultimate decider in this matter.

Anime.com Japanese Monster Book Reviews

Above, Yuu Asakura. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Anime.com Japanese Monster Book Reviews

by Armand Vaquer

Anime.com has posted reviews of The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan along with Steve Ryfle's Japan's Favorite Mon-star and August Ragone's Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters on a page entitled, Godzilla and Other Monster Movies.

Each were reviewed by Brian Cirulnick.

There are also reviews of kaiju DVDs on this page.

To check out the reviews, go here.