Godzilla: The Look/Appearance Speculation

[Cimmerian Dragon]

The problem is that Godzilla's face has more-often-than-not displayed noticeably mammalian features. The style of the eyes, the feline nose and muzzle (especially in the Heisei incarnation)...it serves to distinguish him from reptiles and amphibians. When the suits go against that, like the '62 head, I don't care for it. It just makes him look more generic.

[CatfaceFourtoes]

Yeah, I remember being a kid and having a Godzilla action figure with the catface, and noting how it contrasted with other dragon and dinosaur action figures with more reptilian head shapes. At first I thought the look was weird, something that did not belong on a reptilian or bird-like creature. But then I came to recognize it as one of those traits that set the monster apart from what was conventional about dinosaurs, like having the sharp teeth of a predator while having a back full of armored plates like a herbivore, and plantigrade feet with four equal sized toes as opposed to the digitigrade three toed feet of say, a T-Rex.

Then I saw how Asian folklore depicted dragons with mammalian features like ears and cleft muzzles and it just kind of fit Godzilla, being a Japanese monster. The funny thing was when I saw later Showa era films where Godzilla did not have those features though, like in King Kong VS Godzilla. I like the caiman head with 1954 eyes. If the head was to look totally reptilian, I think that look would work. A reptillian head was probably the only new thing of the GINO interpretation that I liked.

[Tyler]

Godzilla needs a great expressive face like this


Or this

[CatfaceFourtoes]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I identify with the monster, right down to the almost burnt looking ridges on the face. It would not be too hard to put those on the caiman head though, and the size of the head is reminiscent of the GMK version of Godzilla, which for me showed a bit of the mammalian face, but not enough.

[Kiryu2012]

I think he should be like this:



Or this:

[kaiju_wars]

^^ Second one is pretty badass.

[godzilla898]

I'd really prefer if they kept Godzilla's tail on the ground.

[Rody]

^ I'll second that. Godzilla needs to retain his retro-Theropod appearance.

[CatfaceFourtoes]

The second one does a bang up job of integrating a T-Rex like head with Godzilla's mammalian features, and the rest of the body is pretty much sticking to the retro dinosaur tradition. From straight on the nose on the muzzle kind of reminds me of Joe Camel, but I think that is because of the suggestion of an upper lip. The proportion of the nostrils seems right on with what you would get if the JP T-Rex's nostrils were to intersect. The fins look traditional but at the same time capable of doing damage if the monster was to say, come up from beneath a ship.

[Living Corpse]

I agree with Tyler that the big G needs to have an expressive face. One of my friends said that a really cool scene if this film takes place in New York is to have him be curios when he encounters the Statue of Liberty and get closer to it, but as soon as the tourists start taking pictures he thinks he's being shot at and gets angry and blows them up. An expressive face would work wonders here to show his curiosity, confusion and rage and show that he is a thinking animal.

Truthfully despite it's flaws (stupid pot belly) I really liked GMK Godzilla's expressive face. Heisei and a few of the Showa suits are really good too.

[Gyaos]

Eh, I dont like the face and spines of Matt Frank's design. The rest of the body is great though.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

I like the spines and the face is alright, but I don't care for that pointy armored chest-thing.

[Kiryu2012]

I think that's his chest scar, based on the one from Tokyo SOS.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

Maybe, but it sure looks like some kind of bony protrusion to me. Either way, it's a pretty good design overall, imho.

[omgitsgodzilla]

^I am SO tempted to make that my new sig. If I can just figure out how to put quotes as sigs.

Just click "quote," copy what comes up in the post editor, and paste it as your signature.

[Gyaos]

Personally I like the chest bones and the grooves on the pectorals, brings Abomination to mind


I'd be interesting to see Godzilla rendered in that style. Not OMGSUPERMUSCLES , but something similar.

[CatfaceFourtoes]

Cool rendering of Abomination in that film, they just skipped out on the fish-man ears from the comic. Those would have made it look a little more demonic.
As for Matt Frank's design, its always nice to see aspects of GINO's features put into a Godzilla the right way.(projecting chin, pointy fins facing up/forward, more therapod-like feet) The chest thing just looks like the artist's way of fleshing out heisei Godzilla's central boob-thing. Anyhow, the pictures below that do a better job of that with the suggestive patterning of the rocky looking scales.

[Tyler]

I think the thing on this chest is just a take on the prominent chest-bone you see in some Godzilla designs. Frank just took it to an extreme. I'd honestly take that over a poofy Heisei chest.

We know Godzilla's gonna be CG so I say they take advantage of it and tweak minor things here and there. The idea of his tail hovering above the ground shouldn't bother any of us if he still walks somewhat upright like in those two pics posted above. I think we should welcome updates like that. Of course he should LOOK like Godzilla but just having him be a CG guy in a suit would be lazy. They have the oppurtunity to make him more life-like than ever and they should jump at it.

[Viva la revolucion!]

Back in 1994, when Tristar's Godzilla was a different script, the Stan Winston Studio designed their own version of Godzilla:

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh91 ... dzilla.jpg

It's what the american Godzilla should be like: different, but we know it's Godzilla.

[Legion1979]

I said it the last 546 times that thing was posted: it's freakin' ugly.