memories of Megalon

often the most reviled of Godzilla movies, Godzilla vs Megalon (1973) is one of my favorites, as it was the first Godzilla movie I remember wanting to see in the theater, and then getting to!  seeing the ads on tv were amazing back then.

with Cinema Shares ad campaign (the titular monsters on the Twin Towers, done specifically to cash in on the first useless Kong remake) was certainly an eye catcher.  it's kind of annoying to have to be grateful to a movie I dislike so much, but I'm glad Dino had to foist it upon us.

I saw the trailer before seeing Bambi (1942) on a re-release.  stayed to see the trailer again, couldn't get enough of "Robotman" helping out Godzilla.  plus seeing Gigan would be great as well.  the movie was shown in Longmont CO in the first of October.  I took a friend who would rather have seen The Big Bus (a disaster movie parody) but he was just out of luck.

I mean, really, what lame parody movie is going to compare to this image of Megalon destroying a dam?

sure, it isn't the best Godzilla movie ever, but it was aimed squarely at my age demo, 11 year olds, and I loved it.  three giant monsters and one heroic robot equals a win to any kid at that age.

it's too bad that this is the one original series movie that didn't get released when Sony did their good looking releases a while ago.  seeing it widescreen really makes a difference.  this is one colorful movie!

thankfully the German DVD release of it had this lovely gallery that contained the original theatrical trailer I saw, calling Jet Jaguar "Robotman".  of course, back then, there was not a lot of information about the movies, especially ones that hadn't been released over here yet.  I was rather surprised to hear him later called Jet Jaguar in the movie, as the other name I'd heard he was given was "Red Baron" (and having that name be nixed because of the WWI fighter pilot, not the excellent tv show of the same name).

Godzilla really was a superhero in this movie, as he appears to save our heroic robot from the massive beatdown that Megalon and Gigan were laying upon him.  every kid in the audience cheered loudly every time one of our heroes walloped one of the villains, and booed just as loudly when it appeared the bad monsters were winning.

now that's the way to see a Godzilla movie!

and I still have never seen The Big Bus.