War of the Gargantua

1966 monster mash

Rating: 13/20

Plot: Japanese researchers raised and studied a cute little brown monkey man. They call it a gargantua even though it's the size of a seven year old. One day, it escapes. Years later, a not-so-cute brown gargantua starts eating people and destroying miniature villages and rocking toy boats. Naturally, the gargantua that escaped from the researchers is blamed, but then it turns up later on as the green one's brother. They don't get along very well as the military is brought in to put a stop to the destructive mayhem.

"Do you still want to wet nurse that monster?"

As expected, this is very close to being the greatest movie ever made. It starts with a bang, a giant octopus's (good effects, too!) attack of a boat interrupted by the mean gargantua leading to a goofy fight between the two. With singing saw accompaniment! It's a great start. There's not as much lag time with this one as some of the other Japanese monster movies. The action scenes are still a little redundant at times, but they come relentlessly with the necessary moments of dialogue and plot development being peppered in instead of vice versa. The gargantua look like guys in monkey suits, but the special effects are really pretty good in this one; obviously, there's a bigger budget than the earlier Ishiro Honda movies I've seen. A lot more miniature houses, buildings, and forests are flattened in this one. There's also a lot more blood and human violence in this one. The green gargantua gets pretty beat up as the story progresses, and it shows with the large patches of fur that fall off or the blood on him. I'm not sure I could convince anybody that they're terribly engaging monsters, but I really like the brother-against-brother plot. I really enjoyed watching this one, and anybody who enjoyed it as a child should find it and relive the memories.

Great. Now I've ruined the magic!