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Godzilla To Retire (for now) 241

Posted by CowboyNeal from the taste-for-skyscraper-sated dept.
ackthpt writes "CNN is reporting that Toho, after 50 years and 28 films, will be retiring Godzilla (Gojira in Japan) after this years film. Toho has thought of retiring the venerable monster before, but after pulling the stops to make a special Best of Best this may be it (but you never know, particularly if it draws large audiences)"
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Godzilla To Retire (for now) More

Godzilla To Retire (for now)

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  • So long and thanks for all the fish! (Score:4, Funny)

    by poptix_work ( 79063 ) * on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:02AM (#8472876) Homepage
    It'll be sad to see such an icon of the 'old scifi' go, now if only william shattner would stop screeching on television =)

  • Good Luck, Big Guy (Score:5, Funny)

    by Enrico Pulatzo ( 536675 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:03AM (#8472881)
    Let me be among the first to with you well, in whatever endeavor you undertake in this chapter of your life.

    Hail! King of the Monsters!

    ps. don't attack my city

    • Mind your manners... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Behrooz ( 302401 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:10AM (#8472913)
      ps. don't attack my city

      Shouldn't that be 'please don't attack my city'?

      I'd certainly be polite to the 400-foot monster under those circumstances. Or any circumstances, really.

      • A few years ago I traveled to Japan. One thing that struck me about the place was just how skilled the model and set builders for the Godzilla movies had been. Their work was obviously a finely crafted copy of the real locations. Minus the destruction obviously the area was near photo copy of scenes from various such Movies.

        I have a great respect for the motion picture skills of the teams who did these movies. Their stories and plots may have been a bit hokey but they definitely did a great job in enter

  • 28? (Score:5, Funny)

    by bgeer ( 543504 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:05AM (#8472887)
    There's more than one Godzilla movie? I always assumed I was just seeing different parts of the same film... go figure.

  • Actually, you do know (Score:5, Informative)

    by OblvnDrgn ( 167720 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:07AM (#8472896)
    Quote the article: "Even if the new movie makes money, it will be at least a decade before Godzilla returns, Tomiyama said."

    That's pretty much telling us there's not going to be another sequel for a while no matter what. At least, unless you think he's lying.

  • Marketing at it's best :) (Score:5, Insightful)

    by djupedal ( 584558 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:07AM (#8472899)
    And how many retirement concerts did Barbara Striesand have?

    Go'zilla isn't going anywhere...the press will see to that. This will simply be another comeback spike. It worked before and it will work again, and that's a good thing :)

  • Retiring, or just resting... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:08AM (#8472902)
    Popular fictional characters never retire, they just get put away for a spell to create a pent-up demand. There will likely be more, but it'll likely be 10 to 20 years before somebody realizes they have a popular franchise that they're not using and it's time to revive it.

  • But wait! No! (Score:4, Funny)

    by RyanFenton ( 230700 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:09AM (#8472907)
    I thought Gojira was HUGE in Japan!

    Er...

    Ryan Fenton

    • Re:But wait! No! (Score:5, Informative)

      by tamnir ( 230394 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:31AM (#8473020)

      I thought Gojira was HUGE in Japan!

      Well, Godzilla has its own statue in Yurakucho (a district of Tokyo),
      so I thought I'd go and check for you...

      And indeed, Gozdilla may look huge [cool.ne.jp]...
      But actually, if you don't count the pedestal, he's about the height of a 6 year-old [hi-ho.ne.jp]

      So you were right: Godzilla is not huge, even in Japan. It is just special effects (^_^)

      (Anti-slashdotting measure: remove the spaces before the .jpg extension in the URL to view the pictures)
      • (Anti-slashdotting measure: remove the spaces before the .jpg extension in the URL to view the pictures)

        We have to type in the URLs by hand? You must work for Microsoft Security.
      • Of course now the computer generating their special 404 page is getting slashdotted instead, so your trick with the url's didn't help them any.

  • And at the unemployment line... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bobdotorg ( 598873 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:09AM (#8472908)
    ...a bitter dejected Mothra mumbles profanities in broken Japanese.

  • Aw Crap (Score:5, Funny)

    by morganjharvey ( 638479 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:10AM (#8472912)
    So, does this mean that we'll never get "Godzilla: The Musical?"
    'Coz that would have been cool.
    -err...

  • Damn! (Score:5, Funny)

    by 00420 ( 706558 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:10AM (#8472917)
    Oh man.

    They never even got a chance to do Godzilla vs. Mozilla
    • haha I can see it now

      Godzilla must fight mothra
      while Godzlla is distracted, those space aliens try to put a mind control virus on the internet*, only to have it fight Mozilla!

      this could explain pop-ups.
  • Toho group has taken over the operation of the Virgin Cinema movie theaters in Tokyo and seem to be doing a bang-up job of bringing first run movies to Japan in a very timely fashion.

    It still costs an arm and a leg to see a movie here, but the theaters are much more comfortable than any that I've been to in the US.

    Godzilla ought to be retiring. The threat of environmental damage and subsequent mutations caused by a nuclear waste spill has been shown to be a Chicken Little cause. As more countries shift their means of electricity production to nuclear, we have seen a progressive reduction of air pollution in those countries. In the US, coal and oil are still the primary means of power generation, and it shows when looking at statistical charts how much pollution per capita is produced by Americans.

    Godzilla ought to be retired because the reasons that he was brought forth in the first place are gone. A new creature, relevent to today's global threats ought to be created so that kids can learn about those threats in an interesting and entertaining manner. Whether the threat ought to be fossil fuel pollution, terrorism, or global warming, bringing the issues to the public in an easily digestible and entertaining medium is the first step towards educating everyone about the dangers posed by these global problems.

    • Godzilla ought to be retiring. The threat of environmental damage and subsequent mutations caused by a nuclear waste spill has been shown to be a Chicken Little cause. As more countries shift their means of electricity production to nuclear, we have seen a progressive reduction of air pollution in those countries. In the US, coal and oil are still the primary means of power generation, and it shows when looking at statistical charts how much pollution per capita is produced by Americans.

      True, but Godzilla wasn't really about nuclear power. Godzilla was all about the nuclear bombs that the United States dropped on Japan.

      The effect that Hiroshima and Nagasaki had on the Japanese psyche was simply incredible. It instantly broke the will of the Japanese to fight, enabling the Americans to come in and transform their society. The scars still haven't completely healed. Every time you see some post-apocalyptic anime/film/book come out of Japan, you can bet that it was influenced by the atomic bomb.

      Gojira was just a natural outgrowth of that. Look at the original story: A huge amoral destructive force comes from abroad and lays waste to Japan. Conventional weapons are useless against it, and it destroys the Japanese military. The monster is only stopped by the use of a weapon that is so terrible that the creator would rather die than see it unleashed upon the world.

      Gojira was always a bomb reference. As long as we have super-weapons, he'll never be irrelevant. I'll miss the big guy.

      • Re:Toho runs some of the best movie theaters in To (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Care to revise much?

        The Japanese military was thrilled to go toe toe superweapon to superweapon with the Americans. The Japanese people obeyed the will and word of their God-King. (Don't forget unit 731 and their already weaponized biological arms)

        And as much as Godzilla was about the aftermath of the atomic bombs it was also about the promis of an uncertain future technology might bring, for better or ill, only to be realized after the dye was cast, and of course the mercurial nature of US foreign poli
      • It instantly broke the will of the Japanese to fight. . .

        If by "instantly" you mean that we had to bomb them conventionally again and they were still prepared to go down to the last, man, woman and child if the Emperor called them to, than yeah, I guess.

        KFG
    • we could have a genetic mutation run wild and create a huge Tokyo smahing electric breathing mutant lizard.

      Nyuk.Nyuk.Nyuk.

      Do you think at anytime people actually bilieved nuclear waste would bring out giant lizards/people/any damn bug on stock footage?

      geez, thats what none technology is for, Guh.

    • Right - now that nuclear waste turned out to be completely safe [google.com], and no one ever needs to worry about nuclear warfare in their town [guardian.co.uk], we should forget about Gojira, and what happens when we attack the Earth when we think we're the baddest on the planet. I wonder if they'll mock us, or forget us, those who survive, after he's been gone awhile: when we next assault the planet, and bring some Gojira back.

  • Benefit... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SisyphusShrugged ( 728028 ) <me@@@igerard...com> on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:10AM (#8472919) Homepage
    As long as they dont make another incredibly terrible movie like that Godzilla 2000 movie, I will be very happy

    I would rather see a japanese guy in a rubber suit step on model trains for an hour than see the most expensive 3D technology used to string together a movie with plot elements so stupid it makes my eyes bleed!!!
    • Godzilla 2000 was a rubber suit Japanese movie. The Broderick 3d critter version was just called "Godzilla".

      And G2k was hilarious. Watch it with friends over beers, mst3k style. Endless material in that one.

  • Slightly off topic (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by LS ( 57954 )
    So where does the name "mozilla" come from anyway? I couldn't find it anywhere on the website...

    LS

  • Godzilla, giant monster, dead at 50 (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:20AM (#8472960)
    I just heard some sad news on talk radio - radioactive scourge of Japan Godzilla was found dead in at the bottom of the Pacific ocean this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an Asian icon.

  • USA gets the reissue of the first one this summer! (Score:5, Informative)

    by johnpaul191 ( 240105 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:20AM (#8472964) Homepage
    theya re rereleasing the orig 1954 B&W Godzilla in the USA in spring/summer (no dubbing!!!!!).... then next year we will get Godzilla: Final Wars.
    it'll be sad they are not making more, but we still will have 28 movies to watch.... that's not too shabby. i have to admit i am just psyched to see the first one in a theater.
    Teaser/trailer on apple.com [apple.com] for the reissue. fun fun fun!
    • they're rereleasing the orig 1954 B&W Godzilla in the USA in spring/summer

      Thank god for that. You know, despite being a Godzilla fan I've never actually seen the original. It never gets broadcast, and it's not available on DVD that I've found (I'm in the UK).

      Anyone know differently? Does the original exist, preferably on a region 2 DVD?

      Cheers,
      Ian

      • This version has added scenes with Raymond Burr as a visiting American reporter, and two or three others who are made up to look like the Japanese principals. Doubtless they altered the film in some other ways to introduce these scenes.

        However, this should not deter you, if the 1954 American version is all that you can find (understand, I mean the augmented version that was prepared by Toho for release in the US, back in 1954). The movie still holds together pretty well. Remember that Raymond Burr was gett

  • Retirement and boredom (Score:5, Funny)

    by minusthink ( 218231 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:21AM (#8472968)
    It takes a special kind of person to actually enjoy retirement, and call me cynical, but I don't think Godzilla is that type of person.

    In a couple months he'll start a consulting business.

  • Final Godzilla plot summary [*SPOILER*] (Score:5, Funny)

    by ArmorFiend ( 151674 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:21AM (#8472971) Homepage Journal
    In the end, to destroy the seemingly unbeatable (yet stupid looking) American robot monster, Godzilla is forced to explode himself into seperate fighting body-parts! His eTail will become a powerful digital entity known as GodThunderTail. His head will fly around and catch on fire : GodPhoenix! Ooops, I mean Firebirdzilla! Wrong again: GodFireZillaFox! The stupid american monster will be backed into a canyon, then becomes enraged by a massive wave of tiny annoying gophers which pop up both under and over him. He eventually starts to cry, and GodFireZillaFox pretends to feel sorry for him, and gives him some ActiveEcchs laxative ... whereupon Stupid American Monster forgets to eat a critical update monorail, and EXPLODES!

    Remember folks, you heard it here first.
  • They outsourced his job to a Rent-A-Zilla from India.

  • Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Dear Blue Lobster:

    I read that one of the largest crayfish ever found was 90lbs and 6 feet long. They found it in Louisiana in 1934 and named it Ol Papa Epice. They did not say, but I assume it would be a Red Swamp cray since they are native to that area. Does anyone know if this is true? I found this info at www.somaradio.ca/~minimalism/crawdad.html. I could not find any other info on it though. If anyone has any info on this please email me. It sounds crazy, but I dont know why it would be made

  • Oh no, they say he's got to go!

    Godzilla!

    Seriously, I liked some of the newer films that they released. The costumes have gotten to the point where you don't have to work hard to get past the whole "man in a rubber suit" issue. The city models have also gained an incredible level of detail. It's a shame really, but hopefully in a decade or so they'll bring him back.

    After all, you can't actually kill Godzilla. No matter what you may think you've seen or read, he always comes back again. He cannot die.

    Godz

  • That sound you hear... (Score:4, Funny)

    by SensitiveMale ( 155605 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:31AM (#8473022)
    is thousands of Japanese people going 'whew'.

  • Godzilla & Michael Dell to Collaborate (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sean Clifford ( 322444 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:33AM (#8473027) Journal
    Michael Dell stepping down from the helm at Dell and Godzilla going into retirement. Anyone smell collaboration?

  • great entertainment (Score:2, Interesting)

    by cbdavis ( 114685 )
    The plots were,at best, flimsy. But the strange dubbing, the even stranger cast of characters, the
    great miniature sets, throbbin music, and the lady with the big ears.

    You gotta love these movies. Just rent one, with
    a big bag of popcorn and a six pack. Sit back and
    watch the "big fellow" destroy Tokyo.

    My son, when he was very young, even came up with a dance called the Godzilla Stomp.

  • Thats a shame.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by adeyadey ( 678765 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:45AM (#8473070) Journal
    Its really a much better web browser than Explorer and..

    Oh wait, GODzilla. sorry..
  • Too bad, I'd like to see Kaneko write & direct another one. I just happened to watch Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah (2001) and it really was quite good, almost as good as the 1954 Godizlla. No stupid kids, no superheroes, only a teeny-bit of weapon X... just people struggling against the unknown, with a bit of superstition thrown in for spice.

    And those pupil-less eyes. Cool.

  • No dammit, he's not retiring. (Score:5, Funny)

    by bobdotorg ( 598873 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @02:53AM (#8473114)
    It's just a big linguistic misunderstanding. He merely called a contractor to give an estimate for his bathroom - he's retiling.

  • I for one ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by rholliday ( 754515 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @03:25AM (#8473205) Homepage Journal
    ... will miss our Gigantic Japanese Reptile Masters.

    So when do we get the Mothra spin-off sitcom, and the Gamera E! True Hollywood Story?
    • With current trends in television, we'll get Celebrity Monster Survivor. Set on Skull Island, each week famous giant monsters will cooperate to perform tasks for their team. At the end of each week, a monster will be butt-kicked off the island. At the end, when a single monster remains, the losers will get to come back and slag the winner. (And I mean slag.) Romance, shocking revelations, monster wupp-ass!
  • Good riddance, Gojira. You were always fun to watch, but sharing the planet with you, you ought to be more careful. At least take your friends with you, so they don't trash the place, either. *bows out of the way, graciously*
  • Long overdue. I mean, really. Given Japan's ongoing economic malaise, how could they keep rebuilding Tokyo for every film?
  • Godzilla is basically an oversized wrestler, and we all know that wrestlers never, ever retire. Just... one... last... grudge... match.
  • Because while Godzilla may be an icon, the whole 'man in a suit' think has become even more of a joke than it was, thanks to the likes of Power Rangers. I can't watch a Godzilla movie now without thinking these guys/girls in coloured lycra are going to jump into a giant robot and kick his arse.

    Lycra? Hmm.. now, X-Men vs Godzilla.. maybe that'd have mileage.

  • This calls for AMERICAN GODZILLA 2!! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Enoch Root ( 57473 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @04:54AM (#8473434)
    This is a plea to Hollywood, in particular the mor... the gentlemen behind the 1998 Godzilla:

    PLEASE make another American Godzilla.

    Back in 1996, Toho killed Godzilla in Godzilla vs Destroyah, and "Minilla" (aka Baby Godzilla aka Son of Godzilla aka NOT THAT FUCKING MUPPET AGAIN) took over as the "new Godzilla". This was Toho's way of saying, 'We will not make Godzilla movies anymore.'

    Then the WONDERFUL Godzilla 1998 arrived... And the Japanese were so OUTRAGED that they demanded a new Japanese Godzilla.

    So we got the kick-ass Godzilla 2000, and the following very entertaining Kaiju flicks. You guys gave us 5 more years of "Godzilla borrowed time".

    So PLEASE MAKE GODZILLA 2 and repeat the magic!!

    P.S.: If you like Japanese SF, check out "Returner", also from Toho. Nice special effects, derivative but highly enjoyable story.
  • http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/02/08/13/1748247.shtml ?tid=154
  • So does this mean he'll be sentenced to a lifetime of horror on Monster Island?

    (Don't worry, it's just a name)

  • Not Strictly Correct (Score:5, Funny)

    by CdBee ( 742846 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @05:24AM (#8473517)
    The Godzilla franchise is closing its doors and selling off their locks, stocks and barrels, however

    A select group of original Godzilla developers have licences the genome and starting a new project, OpenGodzilla, which will allow the innocent victims of primeval sea-dwelling beasts to view and contribute genes to the monsters that destroy their lives.

    Senior OpenGodzilla developer Owyabitme Muvathuka said that people have traditionally had no input into the supermonster design process leading to poor quality genetics and weaknesses to conventional weapons that proper review of the code would prevent, and hailed an era of free-as-in-beer, invincible terrors.

  • Thank God! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Pan T. Hose ( 707794 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @05:45AM (#8473570) Homepage Journal

    Godzilla To Retire

    Thank God!!!!1!

    --
    Pan T. Hose, PhD
    Skyscraper Construction Consulting Services
    Tokyo, Japan.

  • We're safe now. (Score:4, Funny)

    by zaunuz ( 624853 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @06:12AM (#8473630)
    Finally you can fly helicopters over Japan without getting smashed like a bug, and you can drive in the streets of Tokyo without being stepped on.
  • Wouldn't surprise me in the LEAST.

  • In related news... (Score:3, Funny)

    by SamSim ( 630795 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @06:37AM (#8473683) Homepage Journal

    ...Godzilla said today that after winding up his acting career he intends to move into politics, and will be running for Governor of the Kyoto Prefecture next year.

  • I never understood... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Hanno ( 11981 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @08:59AM (#8474095) Homepage
    ...why the Japanese Film industry isn't capable of making a non-cheesy Godzilla SFX film.

    I mean, Emmerich's German-American Godzilla in New York had pretty decent effects, but a dull story.

    The Japanese Godzilla films often have a good or at least a cute story (*), but really really bad effects. And bad acting. And bad costumes. And bad props.

    (* I just _loved_ one Godzilla film that included an UFO traveling to the WW2 era. An American soldier spots it and says to his superiour: "Do we report this, sir?" "No, they wouldn't believe us, anyway. But you can tell your children about this when they're older, Major Spielberg.")

    So why don't the Japanese filmmakers get together, set up a decent special effects budget and a good script and make THE ultimate Godzilla movie? It's their national trademark, after all. They should know, shouldn't they?

  • "If you cut me down ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by stuffduff ( 681819 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @11:14AM (#8475147) Journal
    ... I will become stronger than you can possible imagine!" -Obi Wan Kenobi

    I can see it now:

    • The SciFi channel offers a month long commercial free All Godzilla Marathon - "It's GIGANTIC!"
    • Gojira themed Halloween costumes.
    • Homade 'Tribute' films start popping up in alt.binaries.vcd.
    • The latest thing in Movieoke bars: "You too can rampage through Tokyo" For 100,000 yen they suit you up, you trample sponge skyscrapers and swat jets for 5 minutes. And for an extra 25,000 yen, you get to keep the DVD!

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