Attack of the Super Monsters

I'm not here to say this movie is good. When inflicting it on my friends, I have found they often experience physical pain. And while this is not the worst of all Japanese giant monster sojourns (Redman, I'm looking at you), it generally isn't worth it even for a kaiju enthusiast.

BUT...there is something to be told about this movie that people need to know when they go in to see this. When giant monster movies were all the rage in Japan in the mid-60s to mid-70s, dozens of superheroes sprung up to combat this rubbery menace. Some, like Ultraman or Spectreman, had staying power and would later prove to be cultural icons. Others, like Silver Kamen and Fireman, would fade into obscurity.

Enter Tsuburaya Productions. Eiji Tsuburaya's company, the owners of Ultraman and the special effects producers behind Godzilla, decided to continue with the trend that had netted them so much money and also jump on the embiggening anime bandwagon. Hence the new TV series Izenborg. It combined live action giant monsters, miniatures, and fairly primitive anime.

Enter Quality Video. They cut four of these episodes together into one movie. That's why it is "episodic" and "formulaic."

That doesn't explain why Jim hits his sister (which drew laughter), or the line "I'll get you, you ratty rat rat!"

My three kids and their friends loved this film.From the animated portions to the dino puppets.My boys were especially fond of King Tyrannus,surely one of the most camp villians of all time.The picture plays like it might have been meant to be the first of many sequels or an unsold tv pilot.At any rate,park your sensibilities at the door,grab your popcorn and enjoy.Let the farce be with you.

I used to rent this movie (without knowing the title, only remembering a picture of a dinosaur on the cover) from my local video store quite a bit when I was four to five years-old. When it was no longer available, I was pretty bummed out. It was a great film for kids back then, as I've found it intriguing with all the dinosaurs coming to life and attacking cities (under the command of a Tyrannosaurus king) and them doing battle with the superheroes. It was a clever special-effect touch, blending live-action with animation, which I thought worked fine in the film. There were plenty of action and heroism and the pacing was quick and to-the-point; I didn't find the movie boring at all.

My mom introduced me to the Godzilla movies after this video was unavailable and it resulted me in becoming one of the biggest fans of Godzilla and the Toho canon. After about 30 years later, through IMDb, I've finally found the title of this movie and realized, ironically, it was created by the production company founded by Godzilla special effects man Eiji Tsuburaya.

I've also found the entire stream of the movie on YouTube and watched it again after all these years. Although the campiness of the monster suits and city models and the simplicity of the plot were more evident, the film, to me as an adult, was still pretty entertaining and brought back memories. It was also nice to know that this film was actually edited from the 1977 TV-series Dinosaur War, which explains the movie's prologue of different monsters that weren't featured in the actual plot.

Overall, it was great seeing this film again and finally knowing the title. Although I didn't find the movie to be as great as most of the Godzilla and other Toho monster films, it was still a nice stroll down memory lane and it's a movie I would recommend to kids and hardcore fans of Japanese sci-fi.

Grade B-

Wow, this was something. The kaiju dinosaur monsters are depicted in 3D clay stop-motion animation. After being imprissoned for (I didn't catch how long, but at least millenia), they awaken, vowing vengeance upon all humans. They turn all of the dogs on earth red, which somehow makes them evil, and the dogs start wreakaing havoc and destruction on humans and their cities.

It's up to four heros, depicted in 2D cell animation, to somehow stop the madness. Unfortunately, two of the heroes are bumbling klutzes. The other two are siblings? Married? I couldn't tell, but they unite in mind, body, and spirit to fight the evil monsters and restore sanity.

The rapid switch between the stop-motion and cell animation was jarring. Overall, the movie was quite bonkers.

Watched via "Rifftrax: Attack of the Super Monsters"

4 episodes of a TV show put together to form a movie much like forming Voltron, but this isn't nearly as good as that show. From what I've read the show got better, but that still doesn't change the fact that this was tough watch and I would not recommend unless it's the rifftrax version or you and your buddies want to hang out and riff on it yourselves.