Lost Projects: Godzilla vs. Hitodah

[Gigantis]

https://www.tohokingdom.com/cutting_roo ... itodah.htm

The lost film many talk about,but not much is known about the film itself. The semi-sequel to Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Banno hatched a film which featured a starfish,mutated by pollution,to come on land and challenge Godzilla himself. It sounds like a fun concept,and Hitodah itself sounds like it could have had a very unique design to him (there's not a lot of starfish themed kaiju around,but that's probably because making a suit/puppet for them would probably be a pain in the butt.) but eventually,Banno opted for a full on sequel to Godzilla vs. Hedorah instead,until Tanaka eventually pulled him entirely. Shame this got scrapped though,i would have loved to see Banno's wacky film making skills come back for another G film.

[GmkGoji]

Hitodah sounds like a drunken mispronunciation of Hedorah. But a starfish kaiju sounds like fun.

[LSD Jellyfish]

Hitodah sounds like a drunken mispronunciation of Hedorah. But a starfish kaiju sounds like fun.

Hitode or ヒトデ is just the word for starfish in Japanese.
It’s just starfish plus the common RA ending for monster names, and taking from Hedorah’s name.

[GodzillavsRayquaza]

A starfish kaiju would indeed be interesting to see, but plot wise I don’t see what would have made this anything other than a retread of Godzilla vs Hedorah.

[LSD Jellyfish]

You know as dumb and obvious as this is, I wouldn't be surprised if the Barem arised as a result of this from Mothra 2. They're awfully design wise seperate from Daghara, and we know that Toho likes incorporating and reusing scrapped ideas (Shokirus for example).

[Gigantis]

If Toho liked using scrapped ideas so much,Bagan would have been in a film by now.

[Terasawa]

Certain elements of Godzilla vs. Mothra (Mothra making a cocoon on the Diet Building; Mothra flying into space at the film's conclusion) came from either an early draft of Mothra (1961) or the original story the film was based on. I can't remember which one, but both are mentioned in the audio commentary on the Sony releases of the '61 movie.

Toho definitely has drawn from long-unused elements of films before, just as all long-running film studios probably have. There's precedent. I think the Barem similarity is probably coincidental though, since Banno's original starfish monster plan didn't seem to get very far.

[LSD Jellyfish]

Certain elements of Godzilla vs. Mothra (Mothra making a cocoon on the Diet Building; Mothra flying into space at the film's conclusion) came from either an early draft of Mothra (1961) or the original story the film was based on. I can't remember which one, but both are mentioned in the audio commentary on the Sony releases of the '61 movie.

Toho definitely has drawn from long-unused elements of films before, just as all long-running film studios probably have. There's precedent. I think the Barem similarity is probably coincidental though, since Banno's original starfish monster plan didn't seem to get very far.

I didn't mean just the Barem, but also the plot elements. Prior to Dagahra appearing, the film almost feels like a set-up for a more distinct Hedorah like monster to appear. They have a lot of great imagery with red-tide.

Nothing is definite of course, but I always thought Mothra 2 was weird because it feels like a new take on Hedorah.

[edgaguirus]

Having Barem or Barem like starfish show up before Hitodah does sound like a good way to create build up. A giant starfish would have been an interesting foe.

[SonOfGorgo]

I wonder how they would've realised the Hitodah creature ub terms of practical effects. A mix of suitmation and stringed tentacles like Gezora, or full-on puppetry like Manda and Kumonga.