Toho Kingdom

And now back to our regularly scheduled topic....

I'd always heard Godzilla vs Monster Zero on tv, but the Astromonster title sounds more interesting. Other original Japanese titles can be too long, but this one is just the right length.

I am of the opinion that for marketing-sake, if you can put Godzilla in the title, you should. "Invasion of Astro-Monster" is incredibly generic and sounds like Engrish without a "the". I grew up watching "Godzilla vs. Monster Zero" on home video, but I also read G-Fan, which was the only really good source of reliable information about the older films until it was displaced by the Internet. G-Fan started by using the theatrical titles to the films, even the stupid "Terror of Godzilla." I would prefer Monster Zero because it is essentially shorthand.

Personally, I prefer "Monster Zero".

It's less awkward (and easier to remember) IMO than "Invasion of Astro Monster", and while I understand the marketing value of having "Godzilla" in the title I actually prefer when Godzilla movies DON'T have "Godzilla" in the title. This the same reason why I prefer "Ebirah, Horror of the Deep" over "Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster".

While I go back and forth between preferring Monster Zero or Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (I recognize that the former is the movie's actual title, but I grew up with the "vs." version), I absolutely detest Invasion of Astro-Monster. That doesn't even make sense. The words "Astro Monster" aren't uttered once in the entire movie. King Ghidorah isn't called "Astro-Monster." Godzilla and Rodan aren't called "Astro-Monster 1" and "Astro-Monster 2." "Monster Zero" is said like every five minutes in this movie. If Toho had called it Invasion of Monster Zero, I wouldn't like it as much as the other two, but at least it would make sense. But no, instead we get Toho's weird Engrish-y attempt at what should be Invasion of the Space Monster. It's just weird and makes no sense and replaces an iconic title for no real reason.

Godzilla vs Monster Zero is what I grew up with but Monster Zero is acceptable shorthand.

Goji wrote:Monster Zero is, without a doubt, my preferred English title. Not only is it the original U.S. title, it's mysterious, and isn't clunky like the TV/home video title.

Second that. I saw the film on its first release, and seeing that title in stylized letters over the P-1 and its spaceport (on a theater screen that seemed huge to me, at the time) perfectly set the mood for the first half of the film, along the U.S. version's use of Ifukube's music from the scene in which the aliens capture Godzilla and Rodan...very mysterious and powerful.

Invasion of the Astros wouldn't have come close.

Why does Toho prefer the title Invasion of Astro-Monster?

I'm not sure it's a matter of preference. Invasion of Astro-Monster is the English title they gave it 50+ years ago. And if Henry Saperstein had found a distributor earlier than 1970, Invasion of the Astro-Monsters is the title most of us would probably know.


http://www.tohokingdom.com/forum/viewto ... 0#p1355194

Personally, I just refer to it as either Monster Zero or Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, but I do also like the Japanese title a lot, especially with the added subtitle from the 70's Toho Festival reedit, Kaiju Daisenso: KIngu Ghidorah tai Gojira (Great Monster War: King Ghidorah vs Godzilla).

I prefer Monster Zero mostly because that's what I was raised on.
Calling it Astro Monster is jarring as shit for me.

Dannybeane wrote: but Monster Zero is acceptable shorthand.

Of course it's "acceptable", it's always been the film's U.S. title.

DoctorMafune wrote: I saw the film on its first release, and seeing that title in stylized letters over the P-1 and its spaceport (on a theater screen that seemed huge to me, at the time) perfectly set the mood for the first half of the film, along the U.S. version's use of Ifukube's music from the scene in which the aliens capture Godzilla and Rodan...very mysterious and powerful.

You saw the first release?? That's awesome! And agreed about the music change. I think it really works in it's favor. Hearing the Japanese version open with the March theme was honestly kind of jarring the first time, haha.

Goji wrote:You saw the first release?? That's awesome!

Well, if being one of the oldest guys on this forum is awesome... Not quite ready for retirement...
But these movies really take me back...great memories.

At the time, standing in line, some of us were convinced that "Ghidrah" (as we called him then) wasn't actually going to be in the film, and was just on the poster to sell tickets, because we'd seen him killed in Destroy All Monsters, the year before. No way of knowing then that Monster Zero had actually been released three years before DAM, in Japan...or that Toho's U.S. partners had pulled a well-advised switcheroo with the music backing the credits.

Drop-off time had us seeing War of the Gargantuas first, and we ate it up, but for me, a "new" movie in theaters with Godzilla in it was what made that afternoon pure magic.

If I could go back in time, I'd see some of these films in the theatre. It'd be an enjoyable experience.

edgaguirus wrote:If I could go back in time, I'd see some of these films in the theatre. It'd be an enjoyable experience.

If I'm not careful, I'll get it for being off-topic, but seeing these movies on a really huge screen (no megaplexes at that time) in indoor theaters was an incredible experience. The Preston Royal in Dallas, where my friend and I saw Destroy All Monsters the year before, had multiple copies of that beautiful (if inaccurate) American 1-sheet on display (we were trying to figure out which monster was supposed to be Godzilla), along with the 14x36" insert, in the theater lobby...no lobby cards, though. I would have given almost anything to get one of those posters, and imagine my delight when, a couple of years later, Dallas's Duncan Poster Service sold me the 1-sheet for $7.00!

Frankenstein Conquers the World was the other half of the double feature, that day...We knew absolutely nothing about it, except for the title printed in a tiny box in the newspaper, and assumed it was a horror film...but we saw that first, and imagine how pleasantly astonished we were to find out it was a Toho film, with Frankenstein squaring off against one of the monsters from Destroy All Monsters!

I don't recall the price of a ticket at that time, but that afternoon was solid gold.

Oh, and, uh, the title Frankenstein Conquers the World seemed so overblown that 1970's Monster Zero was a masterpiece of powerful understatement, by comparison.

Goji wrote:And agreed about the music change. I think it really works in it's favor. Hearing the Japanese version open with the March theme was honestly kind of jarring the first time, haha.

Oh man, the first time I saw the Japanese version, the music change caught me completely off-guard. Moody, dark music that sounds at once alien and monstrous, replaced by the happy joyful Monster Zero march.

Well, least I know why the track has that name, now.

DoctorMafune wrote: Oh, and, uh, the title Frankenstein Conquers the World seemed so overblown that 1970's Monster Zero was a masterpiece of powerful understatement, by comparison.

Haha, I've always just called the film Frankenstein vs Baragon for that reason.

Hm, maybe that could be a thread topic: the title preference of FCTW/FvB.

Godzilla vs. Monster Zero gets my vote...

I like the title that Toho uses, but there's one tiny thing wrong with it-it's grammatically incorrect. Why Toho hasn't fixed it so that it says Invasion of the Astro-Monster is completely beyond me. Perhaps someone can tell them this, nicely of course? Then they just might fix it and everything will be fine.

By the way, how do we go about doing this to everyone's satisfaction all around? Is there a way to do so at all?

It's hard for me because I prefer the title "Invasion of the Astro-Monster", but I LOVE the name Monster Zero. But we have so many "Godzilla vs." movies as titles.

Monster Zero all the way. I love the Xillien monster numbering system, first of all, and it's also the only title I knew for the first bunch of years of my fanhood, so familiarity and all. 'Astro-Monster' is kind of a lame, generic name for Ghidorah, anyway.

Godzilla vs. Monster Zero is the title I grew up with, and therefore it's the title I'll call it till the day I die. And I just think it's a cooler sounding name than Invasion of Astro-Monster, even if they did add a "the".