Director: Ishiro Honda
Written by: Shin’inchi Sekizawa
A new Godzilla film was rushed into production after the smash hit that was Destroy All Monsters.
The Clip-Show episode. Every series, if it survives long enough, gets burdened with one of these oft-maligned, money-saving installments, and for Godzilla’s Showa Era, we have All Monsters Attack.
Consisting largely of recycled footage from previous films Son of Godzilla, Ebirah, and King Kong Escapes, it tells the story of a bullied young boy who escapes to Monster Island in his imagination. In these wild daydreams, he befriends Minilla and together they learn to stand up to their monickered bully, Gabara.
In the real world, the child contends with absent parents and a bumbling gang of thieves, while in his dreams of Monster Island his life’s problems are mirrored in his time with Minilla.
One of the least popular entries in the series, for obvious reasons, this rehash of old footage meshed with an intimate personal drama is undeserving of the hate it often gets. This is first a foremost a kid's movie, and what child wouldn’t dream of being whisked away to a fantastical place where parental and familial figures take on wild and whimsical forms.
Bipedal Kaiju, Gabara has an interesting design. Bipedal like Godzilla, the beast lacks a tail and features an interesting facial design, reminiscent of Chinese dragon mythology.
Though often regarded as one of the weakest entries in the series, it remained the favorite of veteran director Ishiro Honda and is worth viewing on its own merits, rather than as the blatant money-saving experiment it was originally intended as.
**
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