 |
DVD Title |
| Godzilla King of the Monsters |
| International
Title |
| Godzilla |
| DVD Length |
Original Length |
| 78 Minutes |
96 Minutes |
| Company |
Year of Manufacture |
| Simitar |
1998 |
| Language |
Subtitles |
| English |
None |
| Region |
Number of Discs |
| 1 |
1 (Double Sided) |
| Aspect Ratio |
Sound |
| 1.33:1 & 1.85:1 (altered) |
2.0 Mono, 5.1 Surround |
| Extras |
| . |
Menus (English) |
| . |
Chapters (8) |
| . |
Trailers: Godzilla King of the Monsters
(Simitar), Godzilla
Versus Mothra (Simitar), Godzilla
Versus Monster Zero (Simitar), Godzilla's
Revenge (Simitar), Terror
of Mechagodzilla (Simitar) |
| . |
Artist Gallery |
| . |
Trivia Game |
| . |
Sci-fi Monsters Documentary (trailer footage from
the US release of Rodan,
The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Deadly
Mantis, The War of the Worlds, the US
release of King
Kong vs. Godzilla, Invaders from Mars,
Robot Monster, the US release of Gammera
the Invincible, Gorgo, 20 Million
Miles from Earth, The Land Unknown, and
The Giant Claw) |
 |
|
| Captures |
|
|
| Review |
| Simitar's release of the US dubbed version of
the original Godzilla. Like Simitar's other
DVD releases, this disc is plagued by digital
inconsistencies that hurt the video presentation,
while the audio presentation is only adequate;
however, in terms of extras this is the best of
Simitar's releases, which still merits picking
this disc up over its Classic Media counterpart
if found at a very resonable price. |
|
Godzilla King of the Monsters is presented
in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and a
cropped 1.85:1 version of the film, which is
passed off as Godzilla's " theatrical
release" aspect ratio. This of course is
not the case, but Simitar tries their best to
give that impression as they even include the
original American Transworld Logo on that print.
As for the video quality itself, scratches are
numerous through out, but never enough to become
distracting. The brightness level is done fairly
well here, although the title screen does appear
washed out as details on the Godzilla King
of the Monsters title are hard to distinguish.
Digital inconstancies run rampant on this release,
like all of Simitar's discs. Artifacting is
noticeably through out the film, but the fact
that the Godzilla
is in black and white makes this harder to notice
compared to Simitar's other Godzilla releases.
Edge enhancement is also apparant here, as the
entire film looks blurred. Shimmering, a rainbow
like band of colors on fine details, is very
noticeable on this black and white release as
well, as the array of colors stand out when
they appear on people's clothing and other objects
during the course of the film.
|
|
The audio here isn't flawless, and at points
it gets a little scratchy, most noticeable around
the 27 minute mark of the "Letter Box"
edition of the film. Overall, though, it's a
good audio presentation of the American version
of Ishiro
Honda's classic. Like all of Simitar's Toho
releases, the disc also includes a "Surround"
presentation of the film's audio track, which
isn't bad, certainly better than the "echo
track" on the Classic Media releases, but
it pails in comparison to the original Mono
track for the film.
|
| The extras are really what separate this disc
apart from other region 1 releases of the original
Godzilla.
The DVD includes the standard fare of extras available
on all of the Godzilla DVD releases by Simitar,
Simitar's trailers for the other Toho films, a
"artist gallery" (a video showing mostly
sketches of the DVD covers with photos from
Godzilla
vs. Biollante, Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah and footage from Godzilla
vs. Mechagodzilla), and a trivia game.
However, as a added bonus, the disc also features
a 'Sci-fi Monsters Documentary', which is selectable
on the "theatrical" presentation side
of the DVD. The documentary is compiled by Simitar
themselves and, as one would expect, is incredibly
cheesy. The footage used in the documentary is
entirely from US trailers of various sci-fi films.
The footage found in the documentary, though,
is generally badly washed, appearing very brown
in the trailers which are in color, and contain
a almost unbearable amount of scratches. In the
documentary's defense, it's rather lengthy, featuring
the trailers from 12 films in total, and also
has the original US trailers for two Toho films:
Rodan
(1956) and King
Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). It's unfortunate,
though, that the trailers have a added music track,
similar to the menu music heard on the Simitar
DVDs, and narration playing in the background;
however, it's still a extra worth watching. |
|
Bottom line, this is sadly still the best region
1 DVD of the original Godzilla, US version
or otherwise, despite the fact that its video
and audio presentations leave some to be desired.
At least Simitar balanced out the lack of a
real widescreen presentation on the DVD with
a lengthy extra on Sci-fi films and their trailers.
This disc is also featured in the DVD box set,
Godzilla.
|
- Anthony Romeros
|
| Buy
this DVD |
|
