Classic Media's Rodan, the only Toho title from Classic Media in 2002 which had not been previously released by Simitar in 1998, unfortunately ends up being just another inadequate DVD. Like Classic Media's other Toho releases of the time, the Rodan DVD lacks in nearly every aspect: poor video presentation, insufficient audio quality, and no memorable extras.

Video:
To put it bluntly, Rodan's video presentation is horrendous, and manages to do just about everything wrong. The print used for the disc is, sadly, in very poor shape. Following a decent presentation of the film's title sequence, the print's flaws become instantly noticeable as numerous scratches appear and the colors look noticeably faded. For the most part, the movie appears overly brown, as daytime skies become an ugly yellow. It's safe to say that the colors are far from vibrant on this DVD, but the brightness becomes a problem as well. A lot of the scenes on this disc have their brightness turned too low, while other scenes, such as when the two Rodans first appear, have the brightness turned up so high that details are hard to make out. Artifacting is present through out the DVD, as the film appears blurry, and pixilation is seen everywhere during the day scenes. The only good aspect of the video presentation is that the film's original 1.33:1 aspect ratio is maintained, which ends up being meaningless praise seeing as how that aspect ratio is full screen.

Audio:
The sound quality, while certainly better than the video presentation, still leaves much to be desired. The film here is presented with only the US dubbed audio track, which also means a 10 minute shorter run time with a missing Akira Ifukube music cue and added US military stock footage, and has no subtitles to go along with it. The US dubbed track itself needs some work as well, and its faults can be noticed right away as Rodan's roar in the title sequence sounds scratchy, and the subsequent theme by Ifukube sounds like the levels were played with (which is taking into account the original mono presentation of the theme). This trend follows through out the movie, but ends up being the most noticeable during the opening sequence. That's not all though, although it probably should have been, as Classic Media went the "extra mile" to include a "surround" presentation of the film. The "surround" audio track is even worse than the mono one, though, as it's plagued by an annoying "echo" type presentation of the film, as this feature was obviously slapped together and hardly simulates the "surround sound" experience.

Extras:
Extras on this disc are nearly not worth mentioning, as the only extra, which also appears on other Classic Media Toho releases of this period, is a trailer of Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee for the Gamecube. Although, it should be mentioned that the menus are done nicely here, in particular the opening sequence of Rodan approaching the viewer, with his reflection in the water, as the main theme from the movie plays. Chapters, though, are few, and given noticeably cheesy titles such as "Mr. & Mrs. Rodan".

Overview:
Bottom line, this is unfortunately the only way to experience Rodan on region 1 DVD, which alone will probably promote many to pick up this insufficient DVD; however, on the good side, at least it's a budget release and a copy should be obtainable for $12 or less.

This disc is also featured in the DVD box set, The Ultimate Godzilla DVD Collection.