Godzilla: The Series

I saw this cartoon rerun in Zurich (where i live), and I could not believe my eyes! The movie back in '98 made me disappointed, a. for having one monster fighting off a military (people don't come to see a monster fighting just the military, they want monsters fighting each other) and b. because they were trying too hard to be like Jurassic park at the end.

But this takes a completely different approach. The last baby of the Godzilla movie considers Nick (the main character) his "father", so whenever some ugly creature starts rampaging around New York (the enemy monsters can also be very well designed), so Godzilla comes and pretty much makes sure they can never touch New York again. He has the same design from the movie, and he can finally shoot fire from his mouth and is a lot more nimble. Godzilla fans rejoice.

This is my second, more carefully constructed review for this series. As said, i won't cover the ground details as i did before, but offer a second opinion.

I still like this series, and I do think it's better than the movie, in that it has better, more believable characters, and Godzilla acts more like Godzilla than he did in the remake.

The main problem is that, in his own cartoon show, Godzilla is rarely seen, and often treated as a mere Deus Ex Machina!

Sure, there are some interesting monsters, and they get plenty of screen time, but most of them are just large insects, and any potential mystery about their appearance is ruined, since they usually are completely seen in the prologue before the opening credits.

And yes, the human characters are more than just cardboard cut outs, they earn our interest, and interact instead of just act towards each other. In other words, the almost exact opposite of the characters from the 70's Hanna-Barbara show (but even they had good intentions).

But, unfortunately, while the the humans and monsters are often interesting, the producers of the show forgot one thing: this is called "Godzilla: the Series", so why is it he only shows up twice an average episode?!? And when he does show up, its usually when he either makes his first appearance, gets injured, then comes back in at the end to kill the monster after the humans fail.

While the humans don't fail always, whatever plan they do have requires Godzilla uses him as a plot device, and without it, he probably wouldn't have shown up in the episode at all!

Its like in most of the Gamera (re: flying-turtle Godzilla knock-off) movies: Cool evil monster comes in, humans stare at it, Gamera comes in, get wounded, retreats, humans attempt to kill cool evil monster, fail, then either Gamera comes back and kills it himself or becomes integral to the human's attempts to kill it. (also, for fun, add in tiny short wearing children who are "friends of Gamera")

Basically, take this formula, replace the boring Japanese people with the interesting cartoon characters, take out the tiny-short wearing kids and put in NIck Tatopolous, and (this is the worst part) replace Gamera with Godzilla, and you have generally every episode of the series, though not as lame as the older gamera movies, but not as good as the recent ones.

also note: While Godzilla and Nick in the show have a relationship somewhat like Gamera had with whatever small kid he was saving, Godzilla is not under Nick's control. And while Godzilla does often protect Nick, it is often not his main reason for being in the story. Also, while Gamera mostly followed the kids, Godzilla and Nick often follow each other to wherever the story takes them.

However, the episodes where Godzilla is the center of attention are absolutely excellent! The episode where Godzilla is cloned, where he is being mind controlled, where Nick and Monique go inside him to stop a virus, are all great shows.

Especially great is the one where Godzilla meets up with another monster like him, and becomes a surrogate mate. That episode takes everything good about the series (character development and interaction, monster fights, and drama), and rolls it into a perfect episode. Heck, they even have a giant mutant turtle in that one! An obvious nod to Gamera, and a monster fight Kaiju fans would kill to see.

Overall, "Godzilla: the series" is good, a great improvement on the movie, and its worth seeing every episode, but it could have been great if only Godzilla himself were in it more.

Godzilla the series

Picking off moments from the end of the 1998 GODZILLA movie, Dr Nick Tatopolus discovers and befriends the last remaining baby Zilla. It imprints on Nick as his parent but is chased away when the military comes calling. Baby Zilla soon grows to full size and although he displays an undying loyalty to Nick, Nick can no longer hide it. While the army is hell bent on exterminating this beast, new monstrous behemoths start to emerge across the world, some the result of mutation, some ancient, others extraterrestrial. Teaming up with former co-scientists Elsie and Craven, along with mysterious French secret agent Monique, Nick forms the H.E.A.T team aiming to track down these giant creatures for scientific purposes before the military blows them apart. But not all these monsters are friendly, and that's where the now adult Godzilla comes in to take them down.

Clearly inspired by the Showa era of heroic Godzilla movies, as well as the Hannah Barbara GODZILLA power hour cartoon, Godzilla the series ranks among the better animated shows based on movies. It is arguably better than the movie itself, returning a generic giant monster premise to its Japanese roots. Where most animated adaptations/continuations dumb down the story (see Robocop, Rambo, Star Wars Droids), this shows ups the ante in action, scale and enjoyment.

The plots could be a tad formulaic: new threat shows itself, H.E.A.T team investigates, gets into trouble, Godzilla helps, monster attacks, fights Godzilla who may or may not be evenly matched, godzilla ultimately wins thanks to its own cunning or human assistance. Thankfully, the execution is too notch. For a start, the characters are well written with snappy dialogue and good chemistry among the voice actors. There are hints of character development across the series. They start off one dimensional but as episodes go along, they change slowly, subtly adding depth to their personalities. For example, Nick outgrows his geeky personality into a confident action leader type by the second season.

On the production side, Godzilla the series looks quite good for a 1999 animated show. Animated by korean studio DR Movie, this show displays a good balance of art detail and animation fluidity. Shadows are consistent, clothing show folds; only the backgrounds come across a little half baked. The backgrounds are flatly colored with the odd scene looking a tad unfinished. Though the character designs may also take some getting used to, coming across like Rugrats mixed with bad early 90s Japanese anime, the monster designs are marvelous. You can tell that most time and effort went into the monsters themselves. They are drawn with an insane level of expertise and animated very smoothly.

Fans agree that this series is what many wished the 1998 Godzilla remake delivered. It is not shy to delve into darker territory, such as the acclaimed "monster wars" 3 part saga, and manages to balance a coherent plot with some timely humor. (Poor N.I.G.E.L). Initially only selected episodes were released on DVD. But now, A complete series DVD set has been released to coincide with the 2014 GODZILLA movie from legendary studios. The late 90s and early 2000s was a new renaissance for American animation, with GODZILLA THE SERIES right there among the best.

This Godzilla series was great and much better than previous efforts (the earlier animated series and even the movie). This series picked up where the Sony movie left off. In this series, the HEAT team and Godzilla faced new monsters: giant bat and bee, mutated seas creature, that kind of stuff.

I highly recommend Godzilla: The Series to anyone who enjoys well written stories, great monsters and characters you can really root for. The stories are imaginative and filled with Fil Barlow's fantastic creature creations. A big plus is the inclusion of strong female characters. Monique Dupre, Elsie Chapman and even Audrey Timmonds are brave, intelligent and capable.

The underlying relationships of the characters are often what makes the show such fun: Randy Hernandez' endless quest to impress Monique, his teasing friendship with Mendel Craven, and Mendel's quiet longing for the oblivious Elsie truly hooked me on the show. Characters are also multi-dimensional and capable of change. Mendel is often used as comic relief, but his creative genius often saves the day and he can be selflessly heroic should the need arise.

Check Godzilla: The Series out. You won't be sorry.