Cinema Shares Releases

[Joseph Goodman]

I'm not exactly sure what year it happened, but the airings of ON MONSTER ISLAND were eventually replaced with Toho's international version (complete with speech bubbles in tact, the 35mm print I saw at G-Fest 2008 also featured them). Same goes for MEGALON and MECHAGODZILLA '74.

That was in March of 2002. The weird thing about Sci-Fi Channel's previous airings of MECHAGODZILLA, was that it ran titled as GODZILLA VS THE COSMIC MONSTER, but aside from the title card, it appeared to be the exact same master as the New World VHS/LD.

[Goji]

^ Yes, I have a copy of that. I heard that Toho did the new COSMIC MONSTER title card to gain back ownership of the versions of the film under that title. Unauthorized releases of COSMIC MONSTER were everywhere on VHS in the late 80's/early 90's. Hell, I have a release of it from '98(!). It was probably the last one that got out.

[Joseph Goodman]

Another question... when was the last time that Cinema Shares issued these films to theaters? Would there have been any prints made during the LLP low-fade stock era (post early 1983)?



EDIT: I have seen Fuji prints with good color of the Cinema Shares titles for sale on film collecting forums in the past. The Fuji (and Agfa) release print stocks of the 70's didn't have the fading problems that the Eastman stocks of that era did.

[o.supreme]

An excellent technical question, perhaps someone like Keith, or someone who has researched film prints would be more informed. I did see a recent video on Youtube (in fact it may be on the same list of video links as the cinema shares logo earlier in this thread), but it is an add for a triple bill of all 3 Cinema Shaes Godzilla films. It would have been anywhere between 1975-1978 (I'm guessing), since post-1980 I dont think any Classic Toho films appeared in theaters, they were pretty much TV viewings moving forward.

[Godzilla6014]

I don't know why but I just deiced to compare the Ineternational dubs to the cut dubs I'm one of those people who enjoys making list so here I go hopfully this is a full run down of similarites and differences between versions.

Godzilla vs. Gigan (aka Godzilla on Monster Island)
1. Toho and white text under blue background Toho Eizo Production logos are both omitted and replaced with the Cinema Shares logo.
2. The opening title reads Godzilla on Monster Island instead of GVSG. The text is in red while international in the white for the original title.
3. The opening credits are filmed under a different shot angle at the inside the tower credits look a little different to.
3. Gengo calling his girlfriends a hard bitch which in the CS one it's more like you a hard instead of your a hard bitch.
4. Godzilla and Anguirus talk in the Sci-Fi International dub with the speech bubbles above them while the CS and some international dubs have the speech bubbles removed.
5. Gigan cutting Godzilla's shoulder a few times causing it to bleed which was cut out (Surpirsingly enough they left the stock footage of it in GVSM.)
6. Gigan cutting Anguirus as he charged at him he cut his face the blood from that is gone to.
7. Gigan's left hook hitting Godzilla's head the blood from that is also gone.
8. Godzilla and Anguirus towards the end swim back to Monster Island. In the CS version the shot of Godzilla's atomic breath is shown again blasting the camera with a white the end card were as in the international version a blue screen with the end card is shown.

Godzilla vs. Megalon
1. Toho and red text under white background Toho Eizo Production logos are both omitted and replaced with the Cinema Shares logo.
2. The title card for the movie is in a lighter red were as in the international version it's pretty much the same except a little bit of a darker red. The UK VHS of the film however, has it in white.
3. The opening credits are deleted and it skips to a Toho Eizo production logo.
4. Rokuro being abducted by the two Setopian agents who drag him into the car is cut out.
5. The same Setopian agents knocking Rokuro out with a srying gun before braging right in.
6. They do the same thing to his adult brother Goro before the breaded Setopian takes off.
7. Any scenes of porn pictures of topless girls on the walls of the truck which were excusive to the International version.
8. Jinkawa's fight with the lead Setopian is shortened like he he grabs his neck and strangles him asking him what he did to his friends is removed.
9. The two heppies throughing the breaded Setopian out of the truck and killed when he threated to kill them for not taking Rokuro and Goro to Setopia. Evening the part where they hit him in the head before doing that is cut.
10. In the scene where Jinkawa and Roko hit the lead Setopian in the head with the model jet the part where his head bleeds is cut.
11. The part where Jinkawa hits the lead Setopian on the wall and Roko is on top of the dice cub attached to a string hitting the lead Setopian in the gut and knocking him out is shortened and cut.
12. Megalon flying over and hitting a rock causing it to crush the lead Setopian and kill him is cut.
13. Right at the end of the movie when the gang heads off with Jet Jaguar there is no ending title it just ends except on some VHS copies of the film like Anchor Bay's version shows the Japanese symbol in red that says end. While the end title is in red and in English in the International version Taiwanese DVD but in the UK VHS and Sci-Fi Channel International versions the end title is in White. Some copies like Sci-Fi's have an extended ending shot showing the actors waiting for their cue.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (aka Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster and Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster)
1. Toho and white text under blue background Toho Eizo Production logos are both omitted and replaced with the Cinema Shares logo.
2. The beginning of the opening with the exploison above the moutains weaving Godzilla three or four time and then going to the main title of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla or in one Sci-Fi airing it shared the Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster title (At one point probably Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster.) both with white text over black background. Well all of this is removed after Anguirus arrives from underneath the ground then white text for the title Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster is shown placed in white text under a red background. Some copies of this have Basil Goro's artwork for the film right beside it others like TV airings don't.
3. The opening credits are deleted and it skips to the Azumi princess singing.
4. The pillow fight over the statue was shortend and somewhat cut between the one guy (Can't find any sites that metion his name but youknow who I'm talking about.) and the simians alien.
5. Godzilla beeding after his first fight against Mechagodzilla isn't cut altogether but it's shortened a little bit.
6. A scene in which Nabara the interpole agent strangles one of the simians aliens by putting a rope over his neck and then leaveing is cut I almost want to say completely.
7. Nabara in the International version had a line I'm going to go inside and take care of those bastards was omitted. In this version when he said I'm going to go inside and as, it fades into another main charater's line I want to go inside to.
8. Godzilla sparying blood was also left alone in his second fight against Mechagodzilla but some of it is shortend.
9. The final shot out between Nabara and the Simians is also cut.
10. The epiloge of the movie shows the Azumi Princess, her father and friends that were through out the movie putting the King Ceasar statue away and then celebriting. CS cut this and after the Simiains and Mechagodzilla were defated and killed with King Caesar going to his resting place and Godzilla returning to the ocean and the humans escaping the layer it jumps to the end with the King Ceasar statue and the white the end title under white background.

Hope this was helpful to anyone browsing through this topic. By the way just one real quick question has anyone on this forum ever seen the Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla with the Bionic Monster title card in the theatres before Universal threatend to sue Cinema Shares? and was that one cut or uncut?

[Brian R Culver]

By the way just one real quick question has anyone on this forum ever seen the Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla with the Bionic Monster title card in the theatres before Universal threatend to sue Cinema Shares? and was that one cut or uncut?

I saw the original BIONIC release. By coincidence I spoke to a friend who also saw it back in the day after seeing your post, and asked him to compare notes. We’re both pretty sure it was the same edit as COSMIC.

Regarding the credits our memories are fuzzy and shouldn’t be taken as fact. Here’s what we THINK we recall:

- The sequence with the GODZILLA text getting larger then smaller from the International English print was intact.
- The BIONIC title was optically printed similar to how it appeared in the International Version credits.
- The credits were cut out the same as in COSMIC.

[Godzilla6014]

By the way just one real quick question has anyone on this forum ever seen the Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla with the Bionic Monster title card in the theatres before Universal threatend to sue Cinema Shares? and was that one cut or uncut?

I saw the original BIONIC release. By coincidence I spoke to a friend who also saw it back in the day after seeing your post, and asked him to compare notes. We’re both pretty sure it was the same edit as COSMIC.

Regarding the credits our memories are fuzzy and shouldn’t be taken as fact. Here’s what we THINK we recall:

- The sequence with the GODZILLA text getting larger then smaller from the International English print was intact.
- The BIONIC title was optically printed similar to how it appeared in the International Version credits.
- The credits were cut out the same as in COSMIC.

Alirght well thanks for doing what you can. I know what it's like to try and remember something and then end up missing bits of pieces of what you do and don't remeber I hate that sort of thing. However, I always feel as if though people that are one this forum for the most part seem more knowlegable than on any other forum that's left to deal with this sort of thing.

[Tamura]

Here is the theatrical title card for COSMIC MONSTER from a 35mm trailer:

[Godzilla6014]

Here is the theatrical title card for COSMIC MONSTER from a 35mm trailer:

That's cool it was hard of me to tell if that was on my UAV Croporation tape or not because the colors were just so dark I couldn't hardly see anything but I think that poster was in deed on there. On o.surpreme's disc it wasn't though which I figuered because that was a TV airing and they cut that part out whenever it would be shown on Television your notes also do say so.

[CTHimes]

To my knowledge, the right portion of the title card (the poster) has never been seen on any American home video release. I have three of them (on by UAV), and it's always cropped to show just the title itself. I also have a copy from an early 80s broadcast that, despite different framing (see below), has the same cropped title card. There is a British pre-cert video release in widescreen that shows the whole title.

Example of the different framing in the 1980 TV recording and the later 16mm source that was released by several distributors.

[Godzilla6014]

Ah ok now I understand it. Is my list of edits up above on all three accurate or is there something that I missed? Just wanted to make sure everything I have up above is correct.

[CTHimes]

Godzilla vs. Gigan (aka Godzilla on Monster Island)
3. The opening credits are filmed under a different shot angle at the inside the tower credits look a little different to.

I don't know what you mean by "tower credits", but the footage behind the opening credits in GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND is the same footage in the Japanese and international versions.

8. Godzilla and Anguirus towards the end swim back to Monster Island. In the CS version the shot of Godzilla's atomic breath is shown again blasting the camera with a white the end card were as in the international version a blue screen with the end card is shown.

The end title card is blue with white text.

Godzilla vs. Megalon
2. The title card for the movie is in a lighter red were as in the international version it's pretty much the same except a little bit of a darker red. The UK VHS of the film however, has it in white.

Again, I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but here's a rundown of the main English title screens:

White version - Probably Toho's original international version. Released on video in the UK and included as an extra in Media Blasters' DVD.

Red version - Also a Toho international version. There's no documented reason why there are two, but I'd guess it's because the white text is very hard to read over the footage in the credits. This red version was shown on Sci-Fi broadcasts from 2002 to 2006 and also in the Power Multimedia DVD release.

Cinema Shares version - Cinema Shares created a new title card using the English logo Toho created. It's much smaller and in most releases, it's squeezed to fit the 1.33:1 frame. When properly displayed in scope, it looks very distorted. The text is red.

There are a couple different versions of the Cinema Shares opening, though I think most of these alterations were done by the various video distributors. Check them out here.

13. Right at the end of the movie when the gang heads off with Jet Jaguar there is no ending title it just ends except on some VHS copies of the film like Anchor Bay's version shows the Japanese symbol in red that says end. While the end title is in red and in English in the International version Taiwanese DVD but in the UK VHS and Sci-Fi Channel International versions the end title is in White. Some copies like Sci-Fi's have an extended ending shot showing the actors waiting for their cue.

There is no 'Owari' symbol in the Anchor Bay version, and as far as I know, the Cinema Shares version has never been released with it (though if anyone has proof to the contrary, please share it). The original international title was white (as seen on the UK video releases), but a red version of that also exists (Power Multimedia DVD). At some point, Toho created a new bland end title (white text) with a copyright notice along the bottom of the screen. This version was shown on Sci-Fi (2002 to 2006) and was also included on the Media Blasters DVD as an extra.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (aka Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster and Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster)
2. The beginning of the opening with the exploison above the moutains weaving Godzilla three or four time and then going to the main title of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla or in one Sci-Fi airing it shared the Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster title (At one point probably Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster.) both with white text over black background. Well all of this is removed after Anguirus arrives from underneath the ground then white text for the title Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster is shown placed in white text under a red background. Some copies of this have Basil Goro's artwork for the film right beside it others like TV airings don't.

The "Sci-Fi version" of COSMIC MONSTER was shown many times from the early 90s until 2002, not just once. In the Cinema Shares' COSMIC MONSTER, the title card pops up either before or after the first explosion (I can't check my copy right now), not right after Anguirus appears. It's "Basil Gogos", by the way.

I'm also not certain of all the edits in MEGALON and COSMIC MONSTER, but I know you missed some of the censoring in COSMIC MONSTER ("Damn Godzilla" becomes "---- Godzilla").

[Godzilla6014]

I have to go back in to reply due to this post acting up because of me submited this on accident. Mods please deleat this reply not the one I'm going to post but this one right here. Thanks.