MOTW- Gappa

Gappa was such an odd monster movie back in the day before the internets.  We saw the movie as Monster from a Prehistoric Planet, which was released directly to TV thanks to AIP.  It's a fun movie, with one of those rare happy endings for a monster.  Actually, for three monsters, since this time it does Gorgo one better and has a father as well as a mother come to the rescue of the baby Gappa.  There's also a brief shot of a small pterosaur and a large octopus that mama Gappa brings along for baby to eat.

This cause some of the confusion, since the ad for the 8mm home movie mentioned there was a giant octopus to watch out for, and it was hard to spot in a full screen version on television.

There are some really cool shots in this movie of the monsters, which can fly, walk and swim under water.  Hence the European title of Gappa, The Triphibian Monster.  When the rare pictures of this movie would show up in various books or magazines, there would usually be no mention of why it had such a name.  The poster was cool to see, though.

The mature Gappa also came equipped with a breath weapon which was very similar to Godzilla's atomic breath.  Same color and everything.  Toho would probably sue Nikkatsu now for infringement.  There was a rumor going around in the late 90s, I think that Gappa would reappear in a movie and fight the X From Outer Space Guilala, but that never came to fruition.  Probably for the best.