drindustrial

Hi everyone,

I have held off completely buying Godzilla DVDs until they were done "right", so to speak. I am super excited about the news for the upcoming releases in September, but since these do not represent the entire Godzilla catalog by any stretch of the imagination, I was wondering what is currently available that is worth getting? I define "worth getting" as OAR, original language track if applicable, uncut, good transfer, etc. Unfortunately, I have not been in as much touch with the DVD world over the past year, so I am not aware if anything has come out worth getting. I seem to remember something about several of the more recent movies being released in a box set, but I don't know if this is true or not or if they are worth getting. Even individual releases would be fine if they are worth getting.

Anyway, any help here would be greatly appreciated. I know there are a lot of Godzilla fans out there!

Thanks!
David

milo bloom

Over the past couple of years, Sony has released several good Godzilla DVDs, uncut Japanese versions (some include dubs too), 16x9, though not much in the way of extras.

Click on my DVDAF link below (embedded in the Star Wars quote)
These are the recent good titles (some of have been released before, cut and dubbed, so be careful you get the new ones)
Godzilla Vs the Seamonster
Son of Godzilla
Godzilla vs Hedorah
Godzilla vs Gigan
Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 1974
G vs Mecha 2
Godzilla vs Megaguirus
G, M, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-out Attack
Godzilla against Mechagodzilla 2002
G: Toyko SOS
G: Final Wars

Plus the upcoming ones you mentioned.

drindustrial

Thanks for the info! You have quite a collection, and I am sure you will be happy to replace some of the discs you have with the upcoming Sept release.

So, what are your thoughts on the following releases since you did not list them above:

Double Feature with: Godzilla vs. Destoroyah AND Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla

Godzilla 2000

Godzilla 1998 (yes, this should have been called Godzilla Park...is there any advantage getting the SE with the blue cover over the regular one with the green cover? I have never purchased this disc)

King Kong Vs Godzilla (is there a version with both the US and Jap versions available?)


Also, I take it that Godzilla 1985 has never been released?

And finally, on a slightly different angle, besides the 3 ADV released Gamera films, are there any others worth getting on DVD in their currently released form?

Thanks so much!
David

LiK

man,t hey really need to release a decent dvd versions of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah and Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla. they were pretty good. maybe release a better dvd version of Final Wars too. the japanese LE version is so much better. i really want that doc with subs.

Nebiroth

I listed, in another thread, the releases for all Godzilla films. With the release in September, the majority will see release in r1 in anamorphic OAR.

The main exceptions are vs. Megalon since the r1 releases are all dreadful pan-and-scan jobs, and vs. Biollante, which isn't available anywhere with an English soundtrack.

Megalon can be found in proper OAR in r4 however. Indeed, the Madman discs in r4 all contain the original Japanese editions as extras...

The majority of the r1's are worth it IMHO.

The double discer Space Godzilla/Destoroyah is fine, so is King Kong vs. Godzilla (at least the new release is, not the old Goodtimes one).

AFAIk the r1 Gamera releases are poor, again being dire quality pan-and-scan jobs.

The ADV Gamera set is excellent though...also out of print!

drindustrial

That's a shame about the Gamera releases, but I agree with you on the ADV set. It looks like you can still buy the individual DVDs from that set, but not the set as one set. Maybe with the nice recent Godzilla releases, some new interest will be taken in Gamera.

David

drindustrial

Actually, now that I look, it seems like a lot of places are still carrying the ADV set, so it is still available.

David

milo bloom

thank you, I've tried to make a decent R1 Godzilla collection, and it wasn't easy for the first few years of DVD.

1. I believe they're both 16x9, but the English dubs/cuts
2. It's the English cut/dub, but it does include a commentary with the American recut director/producer.
3. I believe the movie presentation is the same, but the newer disc included some episodes of the cartoon series based on G98
4. Dub only here in R1
5. Not in R1 that I've found.

JordanGLC

Godzilla 1985 is the only other, unless you want to include some Zone Fighter episodes.
Neptune Media still owns the US home video rights to the Showa Gamera films. They released some of the titles on VHS years ago (anyone here have any of those?). From what I've read on the MZ board there is nothing going on with Neptune anymore, which is why the companies releasing the P&S garbage aren't being chased by lawyers. Someone even said Neptune's owner is curently on active duty in Iraq!

Nebiroth

The ADV Gamera set was Limited Edition, and both it and the individual releases are officially out of print; like so many ADV titles, they only did the one run. So the stock in the shops and at ADV is what there is.

The boxset, being Limited Edition, had an even smaller run; so if you find it, grab it while you can. It's selling fast; for example, at DVDPacific it has gone from In Stock to Low Stock to non-existant in about the last two weeks.

The individual releases are easier to find.

The other Gamera films have been released in utterly awful "Public Domain" (even though the films are not P.D.!) style editions by what might be termed "dubious" studios...the very cheap prices reflect the quality...

Ky-Fi

For the original poster, you may also be interested in some of Media Blasters recent issues of some classic Toho sci-fi/kaiju movies, like The Mysterians, Atragon, and Varan the Unbelievable, among others. Anamorphic OAR, original language, great looking prints. Very nice releases.

Joseph B

Does anybody know anything about a decent Destroy All Monsters? I purchased a so-called "Anniversary Edition" last year (which even included a soundtrack CD); and the video quality was horrendous! It was quite a shock after having just purchased the very nice "King Kong vs. Godzilla" the week before.

drindustrial

Sounds very cool to me. Where can I get these at? Any specific titles you would recommend for me to try up front?

Thanks,
David

drindustrial

So, when I started buying these, I bought the first disc that came with a box (has space for the other 2 individual releases) and then the others. What is different between this and the Limited Edition box set? Is only the box different? Are any of the disc features different?

Thanks,
David

Ky-Fi

Well, Varan is B&W widescreen, and it's a straight monster movie. Mysterians and Atragon are color/widescreen, sci-fi with some giant monsters/robots sprinkled in. All three were directed by Honda and have the Ifukube scores, so they're worth it in my book. I probably liked the Mysterians the best of those. There's also Dagorah and Space Amoeba released by the same company.

They're major releases, so you should be able to get them anywhere--Amazon, Deepdiscountdvd, etc.

Here's some summaries of them:

http://www.giantmonstermovies.com/movies/japan-c.html

JordanGLC

It was hoped that Gamera: Guardian of the Universe would be 16x9 and 5.1 with the limited edition boxset. As it was, it only got a 5.1 track, and that is only on the English dub track.

Nebiroth

No they are identical, aside from a minor upgrade to 5.1 sound on the English track

So you haven't missed on anything

It's a very common strategy for ADV to release their collections this way; first, individual releases with the first volume appearing in a "collectors" edition with a box for the rest and a "standard" one with no box.

Once the whole lot is released they will follow up with a complete boxset, sometimes limited, sometimes not. The complete boxsets are sometimes released in "compact" form - in slimline cases in a box, with the discs having fewer extras.

For example their RahXephon and Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum releases were like that.

The complete boxsets are often much cheaper than buying the singles would be...

sparks

The Gameras from ADVfilms are all garbage prints.

The first package says widescreen 16x9, but it's not anamorphic. I wrote them and they they didn't care what the package said, the film was widescreen and 16x9 means widescreen, not anamorphic!

Their second film, which I didn't buy, says widescreen 16x9 and it is anamorphic, but the picture is lousy. I could care less about the 3rd one.

After the fiasco with the first one, I'd never buy anything from them again.

I did get store credit for the first film and I'd thought they send it back to ADVFilms, they didn't. The store repackaged it and it's back on the shelf to piss off another collector!!!

Nebiroth

Yeah - ADV just repackaged their previous crappy version with an audio CD. It's not even OAR, it's cropped down to 2.14:1 from it's original 2.35:1!

The one you want is the edition released by Madman in R4 in Feb 2006, which is proper 2.35:1 and anamorphic. Don't confuse this with the previous R4 edition from Shock, which is cropped to 4:3...

Oh, and I wouldn't say that the ADV Gameras are quite garbage - though the first one disappoints and all of them aren't brilliant prints, they are much better than some of the truly horrendous junk issued by various labels, which are dreadful butchered 4:3 jobs, and look like second generation VHS copies to boot.