DVD Title
 Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
International Title
 Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
Movie Length: 105 minutes Original Length: 105 minutes
Company: Tristar Release: 2004
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Anamorphic: Yes
Region: 1 Discs: 1
  
Language/Sound: Order
Japanese (5.1 Surround), English (5.1 Surround)
Subtitles:
English, French
Extras
· Menus (English)
· Chapters (28)
· Trailers: GODZILLA, Returner (US), Alien Hunter, The Medallion, So Close
Captures
Review
Anthony Romero

Released simultaneously with Tristar's Godzilla vs. Megaguirus DVD, this disc, like others from Tristar, excels in the video department, although has some issues with how it handles the audio. Unsurprisingly, the release is also, more or less, devoid of extra content.


 Video: Star Rating

While not flawless, the video quality found on this release is pretty solid. The best aspect is easily the very vibrant colors, while there are only minor signs of over saturation. The picture itself, while not as sharp as it could have been, is still pretty good, despite some obvious signs of edge enhancement being utilized. The print used for the transfer is also in excellent condition as well, noticeable better than the one used in Tristar's Godzilla vs. Megaguirus DVD, containing few scratches. Unfortunately, it's a print of the international version of the film, which means that all of the credits will appear in English, but the wonderful title sequence, often hailed as the greatest opening to a Godzilla film to date, is covered mostly by a rather large slightly transparent gray box, which has the English title super imposed on top of it.

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is Anamorphic for widescreen TVs.


 Audio:

The disc, like Tristar's other 2004 Godzilla DVD releases, contains both the original Japanese audio track as well as the, always horrible, international English dub track. Both audio tracks are presented in a 5.1 channel surround pretty faithfully, with good speaker distinction on the numerous sound effects. There are moments, particularly during the louder portions of Ko Otani's synthesizer heavy score, that sound a little harsh, but they are fairly isolated incidents and the tracks as a whole are pretty commendable.

The audio is complimented by removable subtitles, both in English and French; however, it's here where the disc's biggest problem lies. Like Tristar's Godzilla vs. Megaguirus DVD, the subtitles found here correspond to the international dub track, not the Japanese version. While this wasn't a huge problem with Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, as the dubbing stayed (for the most part) pretty faithful to the Japanese version, it becomes a huge problem for Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack where numerous liberties were taken in the dubbing of the film. The most notable offense being when Tachibana and company cheer after accidentally hitting King Ghidorah with a D-03 missile in the neck, while their reaction was quite the opposite in the Japanese version. Another scene with horrendous dialogue is when the two onlookers wish the solders: "Good luck everyone! You're going to die!" I'm not sure if the dubbers had intended it as dark joke or not, but it seems contradictory to Shusuke Kaneko's whole point behind the film. There are also several lines that were added in for the dubbing, which seem odd when one has the Japanese audio track on and subtitles appear when no character is heard talking.


 Extras:

The extras found on this disc leave much to be desired, to put it kindly. We are presented with the same modest collection of trailers found on Tristar's Godzilla vs. Megaguirus DVD, most of which seem rather questionable in why they were included (akin to Anaconda for Tristar's Godzilla 2000 DVD).


 Overview:

Bottom line, the disc has some problem, particularly the utter lack of extras and the "dubtitles", but the video quality and inclusion of the Japanese audio track makes this still a tempting release for fans of the King of the Monsters.

This disc is also featured in the DVD box set: 50th Anniversary Godzilla Collection.