Tsuburaya using Stop Mo for Godzilla

[Gussilla95]

I was watching this video and saw this still at the 4:50 mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Uq9wdPjcc
What was if for? It doesn't resemble Goji from 62'.

[TokyoVigilante]

Judging by how goofy the arms look and the head, I would hazard to guess it was the prop used for really wide shots from Mothra vs. Godzilla.

[Space Hunter M]

What was if for? It doesn't resemble Goji from 62'.

That's definitely the prop from KKvG. If you've watched the film, you'll remember it from the infamous "drop-kick" shot. Not sure if it was used in MvG like TokyoVigilante said, but it's possible.

[TokyoVigilante]

It was the stop-motion prop from KKvsG, but its use in MvsG is what came to mind first for me.


Note the burly arms on Godzilla.


It's harder to tell here, but this is likely the same prop in action, and holy butts this is such an incredibly well composed frame and technically complicated at that.

[Space Hunter M]

The second frame is spectacular to this moment, but the first one always makes me snicker slightly.

[Legion1979]

I've never understood why Toho's little Godzilla props had weird arms like that.

[SuperSaiyan4Godzilla]

I've never understood why Toho's little Godzilla props had weird arms like that.

Yeah. It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to make a small Godzilla model.

Hell, give them a Bandai toy from today, they'd go crazy with in those shots.

[Tyler]

I've never understood why Toho's little Godzilla props had weird arms like that.

Especially when Nakajima kept his arms tucked in to make them seem smaller.

Here's some cool, unused stopmo-zilla from Biollante
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKLXIfTnNkA

[Moonewe73]

That pic of Godzilla in the distance at the oil refinery is one of my favorites. I thought that was the same puppet used in KKvG near the end when they where using those 2 puppets fighting near the cliff.

Growing up, some of my favorite scenes in the Toho sci-fi films were of the giant monsters seen in the distance. That use of space. And most of them only lasted a brief few seconds.

[JAGzilla]

^ Same here. The refinery scene is one of the few that stuck with me for years after my first viewing of MvsG as a kid. It was funny seeing it again more recently; that prop looked so much more realistic and menacing when I was seven.

[Living Corpse]

Huh.

Those shots actually look good enough to use in LPG as a sort of montage showing news clips about the world having to deal with Godzilla for several decades.

[SuperSaiyan4Godzilla]

I've never understood why Toho's little Godzilla props had weird arms like that.

Especially when Nakajima kept his arms tucked in to make them seem smaller.

Here's some cool, unused stopmo-zilla from Biollante
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKLXIfTnNkA

Something tells me that, if Ray Harryhausen and Tsuburaya collaborated on a Godzilla movie, it would be one of the best Gold/Silver Age Godzilla movie period. At least, in terms of special effects.

[wrongnote85]

I've never understood why Toho's little Godzilla props had weird arms like that.

Especially when Nakajima kept his arms tucked in to make them seem smaller.

Here's some cool, unused stopmo-zilla from Biollante
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKLXIfTnNkA

Something tells me that, if Ray Harryhausen and Tsuburaya collaborated on a Godzilla movie, it would be one of the best Gold/Silver Age Godzilla movie period. At least, in terms of special effects.

that would have been magical

[Tamura]

It would never have happened. Harryhausen considers Godzilla to be a ripoff of BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS.

[SuperSaiyan4Godzilla]

It would never have happened. Harryhausen considers Godzilla to be a ripoff of BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS.

Well, its hard to deny how similar the movies are.

And I don't think it was that. He's said that he hate the use of suits because he felt suits looked less believable than stop motion.

[Ethan]

Well, its hard to deny how similar the movies are.

Just as similar as Monster Zero and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers are. Seems to me Tanaka was somewhat of a Harryhausen fan.

[SuperSaiyan4Godzilla]

Well, its hard to deny how similar the movies are.

Just as similar as Monster Zero and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers are. Seems to me Tanaka was somewhat of a Harryhausen fan.

Can't blame him. The guy was one of the best stop motion artists of all time.

[Tamura]

From http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2005/nov ... es.review2:

The traumatised Japanese nation instantly took to the 'destroying cities' genre, and 1954's Godzilla was born. 'Oh, the Godzilla stuff was a direct ...' Harryhausen bites his tongue as he says it. 'I don't like to use that word. But that was a filch from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.'

[SuperSaiyan4Godzilla]

From http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2005/nov ... es.review2:

The traumatised Japanese nation instantly took to the 'destroying cities' genre, and 1954's Godzilla was born. 'Oh, the Godzilla stuff was a direct ...' Harryhausen bites his tongue as he says it. 'I don't like to use that word. But that was a filch from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.'

In his art book, The Art of Ray Harryhausen, he has a few sentences tearing apart the use of suits on larger scales.

[hammysammy59]

Which, as much as I love Harryhausen, bums me out and strikes me as a bit hypocritical. Stop-motion, even at it's best, has its own set of flaws and artificiality.

That said, the stop-motion Godzilla/Biollante clip is skreeonk awesome, and makes me wish we could have gotten an American Godzilla in the 80s, because I'd bet a hot dollar that's probably what it'd look like. A Godzilla that can turn his head and swing his tail and twist his torso is something I'd pay to see more of.