Godzilla Image of the Day

****Credit goes to Mister Mushroom for this image****

What more can one say?

This literally is a Bridezilla.

For those not in the know, a Bridezilla is a soon to be married woman who becomes so exasperated by her wedding, she turns into a monster bent on destroying everything around her.

...or something to that effect.

I've actually seen a few episodes of that "Bridezillas" show and the women there are bat-crazy. It makes for good material.

I think a lot of it is played for the camera though, but it's insane stuff nonetheless.

Godzilla Kingdom of Monsters #9 Rankings

New writer, new artist, new storyline, new direction...loss of sales?

So it seems as the latest issue within the "Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters" series, #9 is out, and things continue to slip.

As I recall from before, issue #8 was at 197th place with 10,637 issues sold.

And even though issue #9 came in at a higher ranking, 182nd place, it only sold 9,879 issues.

That's a loss of nearly 1,000 issues despite the increased positioning. I believe this is the lowest number of issues sold within the series too.

Could this be fans of Eric Powell jumping ship after hearing that their favorite writer was no longer on board?

Or could it be retailers not feeling so anxious without a headlining writer, and thus ordering less copies?

Time will only tell as next month's figures will definitely reveal which direction this new creative team is taking.

On a side note that cover is absolutely gorgeous. David Messina did an outstanding job of truly conveying Godzilla's menace.

"Anonymous" among 2011's worst movie flops of the year

Former Godzilla director Roland Emmerich made a film this year that branched out from his usual blockbuster routine.

Gone are the heavy special effects and large armies battling against an unstoppable force...instead replaced with character drama focusing on Shakespeare's past.

And for this Emmerich now finds his first official movie flop.

Blogs.indiewire.com created a great article highlighting the most financial disastrous movies this year, and "Anonymous" is included.

Interestingly enough, it's not due to large amounts of money being lost.

The film was made for $30 million and made nearly $15 million worldwide. So adding in DVD, rentals and television rights it will eventually recoup its cost.

And there were plenty of other films this year that lost FAR more money.

It seems it was included because (again) this is Emmerich's first official flop.

Here's how the article nicely describes it:

But when the maker of "2012," "Godzilla" and "Independence Day" tries to make a Shakespearean drama? Audiences could barely care less. It surely doesn't help that the cast, including Rhys Ifans, Rafe Spall and David Thewlis, aren’t exactly stars and the title surely does the picture no favors either, even if it does fit the film quite well. Budgeted at $30 million, the movie grossed a pitiful $14.8 million worldwide, and only $4.4 million of that figure came from domestic audiences. At one point, Sony was hoping some kind of Oscar talk would coalesce around the movie, but that moment faded fast.

In any case I recommend everybody to give the article a read. It gives a good analysis on why other films flopped this year too:

Blogs.indiewire.com: 2011 By the Numbers, the year in box office flops

Bambi Meets Godzilla makes a "50 Best Cartoons Ever" list

Like most everybody out there, I was first introduced to this comically absurd cartoon while watching the "Godzilla 1985" film on VHS.

I still think it's a rather pointless cartoon, but it undoubtedly made its mark within the cartoon world.

Added proof comes from Examiner.com including it within their "50 Best Cartoons Ever List".

The author Grey Hall remains vague as to why he included it within this list. My guess is that its absurdity again makes it so memorable.

That and practically most people out there, if asked if they've seen/heard of it, will undoubtedly say yes.

Here's the full article for this and further cartoons noted:

Examiner.com: 38th Best Cartoon ever: Bambi Meets Godzilla

A note before you go to that site. Examiner.com has made it frustratingly hard to even look at the article due to their infestation of streaming/rollover ads.

I always find it bizarre why websites do this.

If they're going to inundate a place with so many ads it causes the browser to nearly collapse, why on Earth would anybody come back to visit?

Also here's the cartoon in its entirety:

Fight of the Day: Godzilla vs Dr. Doom!

In one corner we have the arch-nemesis of the Fantastic Four. A man so powerful he once took on the Beyonder himself (a God no less) and won, and remains a villain for the entire Marvel Universe...Dr. Doom!

In the other corner is the King of Monsters himself...Godzilla!

Sorry G fans but this is one fight that Godzilla will definitely lose.

Dr. Doom's holds many talents that remain unrivaled within various worlds. Besides being the supreme polymath of the human race, his most dangerous asset remains his nth degree intelligence.

A supreme tactician/inventor, Dr. Doom can easily invent any device/weapon to suit his immediate needs.

Coupled with his unparalleled chess/war techniques...and you have someone who would have already figured out how to defeat Godzilla only moments after meeting.

I would imagine that their fight would go like this.

Dr. Doom would see Godzilla lumbering towards him and completely ignore the beast. Why should he?  He's fought Gods before and won. What's some mindless animal going to do to him?

The moment though that Godzilla fires his radioactive breath, suddenly Dr. Doom knows that this is one opponent that cannot be ignored.

(By the way his suit would instantly shield him from this breath, at least against short bursts).

Using his boots to fly up to Godzilla, Dr. Doom would micro-scan the beast to instantly gauge any weaknesses.

He could use his gauntlets to blind Godzilla with two short bursts. He could trick Godzilla into roaring and expose his open mouth, where he'd fire two who-knows-what bombs to counter-act his radioactive strength. He probably has Dr. Pym's shrinking technology tucked somewhere in his suit, which he'd use to shrink Godzilla down to an ant.

He could even create a time portal to send Godzilla back to the stone age!

The possibilities are endless!

Dr. Doom has seen and done it all.

Most likely though he'll choose the path of least resistance, which is create a mini-wormhole to teleport Godzilla near the surface of the Sun, where gravity will take care of the rest.

At most I see this fight lasting less than 30 seconds after Godzilla first fires his breath.

The only hope Godzilla has is to catch Dr. Doom by surprise, and use his mass/strength to crush him to death.

Godzilla Criterion early review from Aintitcool.com

Aintitcool.com has a nice review of the soon to be released Godzilla Criterion film, specifically the Blu-Ray.

In essence they highlight the near flawless picture produced, with must restoration done to make the film(s) as crisp and clean as possible.

Now apparently it's not necessarily fantastic looking, but it looks good enough to get the most out of Blu-Ray's capacity.

He goes on to state that the audio commentary provided on both films (Gojira and Godzilla) by David Kalat are fantastic.  Without straying too far into scholarly land, David is still able to provide enough information to make it geeky amount of fun.

 In other words he is able to keep your interest without sounding too snotty, something that apparently other Criterion releases failed to do.

And then there's a whole checklist of items that come with the release, too many to name here but definitely something that can be read on the review below.

There's even a mini-documentary chronicling the Lucky Dragon #5 boat, the one that inspired this film to first be made.

(Interesting side note that I was not aware about. The front cover artwork is done by none other than cover artist Bill Sienkiewicz! Great stuff).

All in all author "Monty Cristo" gives the Blu-Ray very high marks, and finishes by stating "no offense to the previous Classic Media releases (on DVD and Blu-ray), but this edition eclipses everything that has come before quite handily".

Great to hear this happen with Godzilla, so outstanding work Criterion.

I personally can't wait to pick up this copy.

Here's the original article for further info:

Aintitcool.com: Godzilla Criterion Blu-Ray review

Toho to stream films in Japan

How interesting that this news articles comes out just as I was chronicling Toho's struggle during the 1970's (seen here).

Apparently Toho Studios is struggling again in the theater screen medium, this time due to a reduction in movie attendees within Japan.

So much so that box office revenue is down 20% when compared to last year.

20% is a huge drop, and Toho is not taking this sitting down.

So they're teaming up with several other partners (ad shop Dentsu and the NTV, TBS and Fuji TV networks) to help create a service that will stream their films and other Japanese films.

Such a service will be specifically aimed towards smartphones, and will be paid for through the use of debit/credit cards.

Hmm...I don't know if they see this outright...but wouldn't this further deplete the number of people attending the movie theater? Wouldn't they want the opposite if they're trying to bring attendance up?

In any case here's the article for further info:

Variety.com: Toho to stream films in Japan

Godzilla Movie News: The History of Toho Studios

Here I go over a very fascinating article I found detailing the history of Toho Studios, how Godzilla came to be, and the way the studio operates now.

For the original article please visit Mania.com: A History of Toho

Merry Christmas!

I wish all of my fellow Godzilla fans a Merry Christmas, and I hope everyone enjoys this holiday with their families and loved ones!

Thanks as always everyone for being a fan of this website, and take care!

- Fernando