El hijo de Godzilla

To look at the other reviews, one can see that many don't appreciate this film. It is understandable why someone may not like it. No one dies. No cities are destroyed. It has a hopeful ending. Baby Godzilla is overly cute and cuddly. The list can go on, but I feel that these attributes as well as the setting, the story about scientists on an island trying to change weather patterns, and the overgrown monsters of a spider and several praying mantis, along of course with Godzilla enhance the film and make it one of my favourites of the series. Not one of the best, however. Baby Godzilla is a real hoot to watch, and seeing Godzilla practice fatherly ways with him is fun to watch. We get to see a human side to a killing machine. Don't get me wrong, the film is hokey - but for me it brings back memories of my childhood when on many a summer day I would be camped in front of the television watching a Godzilla film.

Easy to laugh at it, but if you give yourself over to the experience you might feel some real emotion from this oddity. Godzilla is back and he's traveling to an island. On this island are a team of scientists, a reporter, a plan to stop world hunger, and giant insects. Godzilla's here to find his son. Like the previous effort, this is set on an island. Not my favorite setting for the city stomper, but this time it didn't detract from my enjoyment. Your enjoyment will all depend on how willing you are to see the ferocious monster as a dad. He's a reluctant father at first. A protector to his heir, but not all playful and loving. As the film progresses, he teachers his son the ways of atomic breath and even rubs him on the head to congratulate him. The film is aimed as a much younger audience, with Minilla being a constant source of slapstick humor. A tail in the face here, tumbling down there etc. The big insect monsters are pretty darn decent if unimaginative. The final scenes in the snow are really sweet, and as long as I'm still entertained, I'm willing to see a more human Godzilla.

Despite being enjoyable films, the last two Godzilla installments had not matched the success of Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964) and had fallen below expectations at the box office. In an effort to boost audience attendance, Toho Studios made the decision to soften the king of the monsters and give him a cute baby son. The first Godzilla film to be geared directly towards children, Son of Godzilla (1967) is harmless fun and sweet - the cinematic equivalent of a gum drop. Alas, the film proved to be the most poorly attended Godzilla film yet. Either Toho's kiddie approach had backfired or the film just couldn't compete with the rising popularity of television.

Son of Godzilla (1967) shouldn't be the first Godzilla movie you see, or even the second or third. With the Godzilla suit from Invasion of the Astro Monster (1965) torn and frayed, a new one was constructed. Unfortunately, it is one of the most poorly designed suits in the series - bulky legs, large doll-like eyes, and a toad's head. However, it is arguably better than the one audiences would behold six years later in Godzilla vs. Megalon. If you have small children and want to introduce them to kaiju films, I recommend Son of Godzilla.

Wow! I expected something along the lines of GODZILLA'S REVENGE, what I got instead was a pretty exciting giant monster film. Sure Minya does make for a few cutesy moments but I didn't feel these were overdone as badly as they could have been. Plus I thought the ending embrace was quite moving..of course it does work to take some of the hard edge off of Godzilla so some may hate it for that. I'd recommend this one mostly to older kids who love science fiction adventure stories and who won't be frightened by all the cool-looking giant insect critters. Too bad Minya and Godzilla look so thoroughly silly and goofy in comparison.

On an island, a scientific team's experiment goes totally wrong, it mutates mantises into deadly mantises and they unearth an egg and out hatches a slimy, talking, peice of crap that keeps saying this word, WAAAAAGWAAAAAA!!!. Then we find out it's supposed to be Godzilla's son and sure enough Godzilla comes to save it and he sure kicks the deadly mantises' asses. Father and son have many more adventures together. The creature, Minya grows into this toddler Godzilla that looks much more like a human than Godzilla and puffs smoke Os, but when Godzilla steps on his tail he breathes fire. Then a huge mechanical spider named Spiega attacks Godzilla and son while the scientists' experiment causes it to snow on the island (this is the first and only Godzilla movie that shows the big G in snow). This is really silly, but a lot of fun to watch. It's not only silly, but also funny, and with an effective playful score by Masaru Satoh. I recommend this is mostly recommended to kids though.