Monster and Kaiju Movie Thoughts and Impressions

#6: Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster

You know, given the title, one might argue this one wasn't meant to be a Godzilla movie, and it was a sort of crossover at a time when Rodan and Mothra had both starred in their own movies rather recently. Still, it's generally counted as such since Ghidorah has gone on to be something nearly like Godzilla's arch nemesis. It's also generally considered the start of Godzilla's somewhat accidental character development from villain to hero for the initial run of Godzilla movies.

This one was a favorite as a kid, probably helped by the definite turn towards the sillier and more character filled monsters in it. I had a vhs tape with an airing recorded on it with some show host... like guy in a safari hat and someone in a Godzilla mask and dinosaur suit...? I think the joke was something like Godzilla's estranged less successful relative or something... I barely remember that and no one in my family made much of a point of hanging on to those tapes. What stuck with me most of all was the scene where Mothra's trying to get Godzilla and Rodan to fight Ghidorah and parts of the fight itself so I definitely forgot about silly show host antics.

Watching these movies all in order and rather close together actually does kind of highlight Ghidorah as something of an escalation – both the widespread wind destruction of Rodan or an adult Mothra and those energy beams blowing up rows of buildings as Ghidorah flies overhead, a lot faster and more efficient than Godzilla's early slow rampages and closer to complete than Mothra or Rodan. It's just kind of funny that the movie doesn't show this until after it's told the audience this by having the fairies simply state that Mothra can't beat Ghidorah alone. Maybe it's just a matter of being used to more modern ideas of storytelling or a cultural thing.

I do feel like the movie drags somewhat until the monsters start showing up, but most of the monster stuff is entertaining. I do like how many fans like to bring up the conversation scene between Mothra, Roda, and Godzilla. The dub has some extra humor here, like the fairies expressing disdain at Godzilla's choice of "language" implying he cussed badly, which seems to be the internet's favorite part of the scene. Personally I've always been a bit more fond of "ahhh, these monsters are as stupid as human beings" but to each their own.

Funnily enough I called the three-headed monster "Gheedrah" for ages and really struggled to swap to "Ghidorah" and for some reason I've generally found the compromise pronunciation "Gheederah" to be kind of annoying. Guess which one the Japanese actors use in this movie? Funny thing is that I know it's inconsistent in future movies so being annoyed by anyone using any of the three pronunciations is deeply silly.