space? what voyage?

a nice comp movie based on the "Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot".  it was compiled in 1970 and presented as a feature movie to various tv stations around the country (none in CO, of course).

I only ever saw one episode of "Sokko" growing up, the first one, and that is mostly presented here.  I actually first saw the movie in an 8mm box in K-mart, of all places, back when that was all you could own.  which I am sure just astounds many kids these days that can see just about anything they want to immediately.  the movie is made up of the first, second, third and fourth episodes, the thirteenth (I think) and the final one.  they used each monster at least twice, which saved on costs, I'd think.

of course, since there was no blurb ON the box telling me it was a Japanese movie, I passed it up for quite possibly "Varan, The Unbelievable".  while I greatly enjoyed seeing all 11 minutes of destruction that Varan does, I think perhaps a giant robot fighting 2 or 3 monsters would have been more my thing then.  I mean, look at this thing!

there's 26 episodes in the series, and it was dubbed by a different team than AIP's usual go to guys, Titra/Titan.  Jerry Berke, AKA the voice of 8th Man, is the narrator.  Bobbie Byers, the voice of Prince Planet was the voice for Johnny (and probably the rest of the female characters).  it's good dubbing, but not quite up to Titan/Titra standards.

it's a really fun show, full of energy and destruction and monsters.  it's also pretty violent, as our heroes gun down villains with no remorse- even Johnny, who appears to be about 12, is armed and dangerous!  of course, not quite as well equipped as Giant Robot is!  eat your heart out, MechaGodzilla!

did I mention that none of our heroes voyage into space at all in the movie?