Godzilla vs Megalon DVD... extras edition

I really like this shot of the car driving up to the battling monsters.

just watched the entire movie with commentary by Steve Ryfle and Stuart Galbraith. I usually never listen to commentaries on movies.  I'd rather watch a documentary.  mostly because I end up wanting to watch said movie without people talking over it.  however, I know this movie very well, and these two men know their stuff.  they almost know it too well.
they start the commentary by saying they won't make fun of the movie, since "that's already been done".  and then proceed to barely talk about anything going on in the movie for 80 minutes.

this shot got a big laugh in the theater in 1976

now, that's not exactly a bad thing, as they go into the actors' histories and the various filmmakers and the decisions at Toho to make movies like this.  a lot of it is fascinating and very interesting, but I think they also miss out by not talking about some of the shots and effects going on in the movie.  I do find it amazing that no one knows where Hiroyuki Kawase is now.

they do repeat the old saw about the movie being edited on it's initial release- Roku-san being kidnapped and the blood and ever so slight nudie picture being cut.  this isn't true.  when I saw the movie in October of 1976 all of that was intact.  the only things cut were the opening credits, because the target audience wouldn't care about those at all (at age 11, I can affirm they were right).  the kidnapping scene was in the hour long version aired on NBC as well.

I did enjoy the commentary, but wish it had had some more focus on the movie.  I still think "Godzilla vs. Gigan" is the worst first series movie though.

the rest of the DVD is really great- tons of trailers, a 30 minute interview with Ted Thomas, who dubbed so many movies it's not funny.  the interview during the commentary with Mel Maron was great as well- he claims Megalon made $5,000,000 in it's initial run in the US, a huge success for a small company.  I'm glad I have this version, it's close to the one I would have wanted to produce!