What would the Gamera equivalent be like to the 1998 Godzilla film?

[Godzillander]

Suppose in an alternate universe TriStar chose to make their next 90s summer blockbuster about Gamera rather than Godzilla. They would choose the same production team and cast, but how would their interpretation of the Guardian of the Universe change from what he originally was? How would the rest of the movie be?

[KaijuCanuck]

At that point in history, an American Gamera film would probably be something like Mars Attacks. Just sort of cheesy-on-purpose and constantly winking to the audience.

It would probably suck.

[Zarm]

Oh, see, I thought from the thread title the question was going to be 'what is the Gamera series equivalent of the 1998 Godzilla film?'- which is definitely Gamera: Super Monster.

But an American Gamera film? I agree with KaijuCanuck. lacking any cultural weight here, it would probably be a send-up.

[Desghidorah]

Gamera explicitly trying to kill or eat children. About as Opposite Day as Godzilla being vulnerable to the military.

[Gigantis]

Gamera has a box shaped head, stumpy legs that makes him move slow as molasses, a thin neck, no tusks and constantly runs away from the military. He also doesn't breath fire. For some reason ancient civilizations created him to destroy enemy nations and he was specifically made to kill children as a threat to them. Nukes wake him up from his sleep in Antarctica, he goes on a rampage in a constantly raining and very dull looking Las Angeles, till the U.S. Government kills him via fire. Post-credit scenes show that he laid an egg in the Arctic and it's about to hatch. This only happened because Earoland Remmerich and Dev Dealin, the director and producers respectively, had no respect for the original Gamera films.

Early draft for the film had him be much more traditional and had him face off against a monster called the "Hydra", an extraterrestrial monster that turned into a kaiju via "Probe Snakes" that absorbed the DNA of reptiles to become one gigantic form but then Day Je Bot walked off the set because Tristar raised the budget too damn high. A sequel was suppose to come out in 2001 but Kadokawa took the rights away because they hated the movie so skreoonking much. But they never got a chance to bring Gamera back in traditional form anyway. Since the American film was such a laughing stock, Toho took the spotlight and brought back Godzilla, and since Gamera was viewed as nothing but shlock, the turtle monster never surfaced in cinema history ever again.

[Cryptid_Liker]

Gamera is a fully aquatic leatherback turtle mutated by nuclear testing. His legs resemble bird legs and his head looks like if a stegosaurus banged a crocodile. Here, he's a villain who uses his bladed proboscis to impale humans and eat them. The protagonists are a married couple trying to protect their son from being devoured by Gamera after he finds a strange ring (Emmerich's excuse for the magatama). He breathes a ray of ice at the bus the main characters are driving away in right before he gets killed by napalm.

Also, the post-credits scene shows a village in Alaska worshipping a statue of Gyaos (that looks more like one of those 1950s Harryhausen-era pterodactyls than Gyaos).

[Jetty_Jags]

I just find it funny that Godzilla wasn't the only one to have cg bastardization of the character, as yongarry got that treatment as well. I'd be interested to imagine what the same thing might be for other famous kaiju.

[GojiDog]

Oh God, the Youggary remake. I completely forgot about that until now. Soooo bad, lol.

It was like the Asylum version of the 1998 Godzilla film.

[Ivo-goji]

Gamera can't fly or breathe fire and only walks on four legs. Almost all of his attacks happen at sea. He gets pregnant and gives birth to a brood of human sized turtles in the sewers of New York, which begin attacking people who stray near manholes and drainage tunnels. The army sends in a team to blow up the nest in a scene that should play out as a homage to THEM! but does not. The offspring are eventually destroyed and Gamera goes on an above ground rampage that ends with him being killed by an exploding oil tanker.

[Rody]

I'm just trying to imagine a scenario where/when Gamera was famous enough to warrant Tristar even being AWARE of him - much less drawing the sort of talent to the project Tristar cycled through for Godzilla.

[GojiDog]

A late 90s Tristar Gamera film:

For some reason, I picture Jon Peters dictating to the rules to Kevin Smith like he did with that Superman movie they were going to make:

1) I don't want to see him fly
2) I don't want to him in that shell
3) He has to fight a giant spider in the 3rd act (which in Gamera's case would actually be a positive, lol).

[miguelnuva]

Tristar Gamera to me would be Toto but take away his Fire breath and flying and he isn't a friend to children.

That or a giant version of one of Bay's TMNT.