Even
from the beginning, many of Godzilla's most ravenous
fans have been children, and the same can be said
of the 1998 American Godzilla as well. Most of the
GODZILLA
(1998) book releases for children centered around
merely retelling the movie, but at least one publication
attempted to provide a bit more variety, if perhaps
not any more depth. The Official Godzilla Movie
Fact Book, strangely identified as Danger
Zone: Fact Book on Amazon, would seem from the
title to be a light non-fiction look behind the
scenes of the famous critical flop. Instead, the
book is largely a compilation of humorous trivia
about what happens in the movie; details about the
characters, monsters, and vehicles; and sundry jokes
and miscellaneous goofiness. If you want character
profiles of the largely unmemorable protagonists,
as well as endless multiple-choice quizzes about
the minutiae of the plot filled with tongue-in-cheek
answers, this is the book for you.
Some examples of the trivia contained herein:
The number of times Nick Tatopoulos is referred
to as “Worm Guy” in the movie.
The number of years since Nick and Audrey broke
up.
The number of cans of air freshener required to
oust the stench of the fish dumped in Flatiron Square.
The entirety of the text is very high on cheese,
which is the book's greatest weakness—or greatest
strength, depending on how you look at it. For me,
the dippy prose reminded me of when I used to go
to the library as a kid and check out piles of children's
non-fiction books, or pore over the loopiest monster
riddle books I could find. The authors also include
several Godzilla Mad Libs based off of events in
the film, and while they are poorly thought out
and are likely to produce gibberish rather than
jokes half the time, I laughed anyway. Some might
even argue that the resulting prose is better than
the screenplay for the movie itself. (I don't
really hate the movie, but I couldn't resist
a good-natured jab.)
Perhaps most memorable of all are two pages of
impressively stupid rewrites of famous sayings rewritten
to include Godzilla references—the best being
“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never
know if you're going to get eaten.”
The Official Godzilla Movie Fact Book is
very light entertainment aimed squarely at kids
who are probably too young to watch the movie anyway.
Nevertheless, for fans of the film (if there are
any left), it's harmless amusement. And I
learned that the boat destroyed by Godzilla early
on is named after a Star Fleet examination that
takes place in the Star Trek universe.
Hey, I was impressed.
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