In the mid-1990s Sony Entertainment established an animation division (Columbia TriStar Children's Television, now known as Sony Pictures Family Ent.) to adapt some of the studio's properties into animated television series. Following successes with shows like MEN IN BLACK and JUMANJI, the studio turned their attention to an obvious choice...a cartoon based on Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's heavily hyped, big budget remake of GODZILLA.
Eight months before the movie's May 20th, 1998 release date the decision was made to go ahead with the animated spinoff. Executive Producer Jeff Kline wrote an outline and bible for the show and it was pitched to the networks. With all expectations that GODZILLA would be the big hit of the summer, FOX Broadcasting bought 40 episodes of the show. Producer/Head Director Audu Paden brought on two old friends, Robert Skir and Marty Isenberg, to write several episodes and serve as story editors for others. The team set up the series' premise in the 2-part opener (Episodes #101 and 102, entitled "New Family")...the lone surviving Godzilla hatchling imprints on scientist Nick Tatopoulos as a surrogate parent. Nick brings together a mix of scientists, a computer hacker, and a French secret agent to form H.E.A.T. (the Humanitarian Environmental Analysis Team). As more giant mutations appear around the world, Godzilla and the H.E.A.T. must find a way to capture or defeat these new menaces.
GODZILLA: THE SERIES premiered on the morning of September 12, 1998. Despite the box office disappointment and critical drubbing the film had received, the animated show was a ratings success. It also proved popular with many Godzilla fans who had hated the Devlin/Emmerich movie. The producers and writers had insisted that the cartoon Godzilla retain many of the Toho Godzilla's attributes (including the radioactive breath, glowing fins, and fighting spirit) and fans were quick to notice and appreciate that the character was finally treated with respect.
Each show's advertising budget is calculated during "rating sweeps" periods that occur in February, May, and November so particularly strong episodes or events are scheduled for those times. The event for GODZILLA's first season was Episodes #115-117, a three-part adventure originally broadcast February 13th-27th, 1999. Strongly inspired by Toho's classic DESTROY ALL MONSTERS- aliens invaded earth, nine giant monsters attacked, and Monster Island was introduced in "Monster War".
The groundwork for "Monster War" was established in an earlier episode of the series; #107, "Leviathan". An alien spacecraft called the Leviathan is discovered at the bottom of the ocean, and H.E.A.T. joins a team of scientists in the investigation. Once aboard the spaceship, they find that the aliens are still very much alive and extremely hostile. While Godzilla battles the Leviathan's protectors, a pair of aquatic dinosaurs called Cryptocleidus, H.E.A.T. defeats the alien invaders.
While the first battle was won, the conflict was far from over. "Monster War (Part One)" reveals that the US military has dredged up the Leviathan to study its technology. This reawakens the Leviathan Aliens, who use their mind control powers to take over the base, cause in-fighting among the members of H.E.A.T., and take control of many of Earth's monsters, including Godzilla, Cryptocleidus, the sea monster Crustaceous Rex (introduced in Episode #102, "New Family (Part 2)"), the giant earthworm El Gusano (from #104, "D.O.A."), the Giant Rat (#106, "Cat & Mouse"), the Queen Bee (#109, "Hive"), and King Cobra (#113, "Competition"). Two other monsters are also introduced; a giant bat creatively named Giant Bat, and Cyber-Godzilla - the reanimated, mechanized corpse of the Godzilla from the TriStar film. Over the next two episodes, H.E.A.T. must set aside their differences and find a way to free the monsters and military from alien control. The monsters attack cities around the world and also occasionally fight each other as the story builds to a battle between Godzilla and Cyber-Godzilla.
The "Monster War" story was a hit with viewers and was rebroadcast multiple times. It was also selected as one of a pair of GODZILLA: THE SERIES videos released on VHS in 1999 (the other paired the first two episodes under the title "Trouble Hatches"), and is now the first storyline to be available on DVD. Columbia TriStar will release GODZILLA: THE SERIES-THE MONSTER WARS TRILOGY on August 24th at a SRP of $14.94. As may be expected with a DVD of a Saturday morning children's show (or any US Godzilla DVD), the disc is a bare-bones release - but the one big plus is that the show looks and sounds as good as anyone could possibly hope for.
GODZILLA: THE SERIES-THE MONSTER WARS TRILOGY is uncut and presented in it's original 1:33:1 fullscreen aspect ratio. The image quality is excellent with sharp colors and no artifacting. The English-only audio is in Dolby Surround Stereo, and English subtitles are also provided. The story can be viewed as 3 separate episodes or as one 65 minute-long feature (though the individual episode titles and credits are still shown). There are 7(!) chapters for each episode making for 21 chapter stops in all. Extras are non-existent unless you count a color insert and Sony's standard "50th Anniversary of Godzilla" sticker. The only previews are for two straight-to-video releases aimed at kids; BABY GENIUSES 2 and SOCCER DOG: EUROPEAN CUP (nice to see that Scott Baio's still getting work!)
As one of the artists who worked on GODZILLA: THE SERIES (don't blink and you'll see my name in the end credits of "Part Three") my opinion is admittedly biased; but I would recommend THE MONSTER WARS TRILOGY DVD to any Godzilla fan. These are three episodes packed with monsters and aliens, beautifully presented and reasonably priced. If this disc does well, it would convince Sony to release the rest of the series on DVD - including two episodes that were never aired on television in the US.
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Godzilla the Series - the Monster Wars Trilogy
Re: Godzilla the Series - the Monster Wars Trilogy
die US-DVD der Monster Wars Trilogy gibt es nun bei www.adrenafilm.de für 20 €