Fifty years ago, Toho tried to end the Godzilla series on a high note. Destroy All Monsters brought the King of the Monsters and ten kaiju co-stars to the brink of the 21st century, threw alien invaders and gun-toting astronauts into the mix, and invited viewers around the world to enjoy the ensuing mayhem. Director Ishiro Honda, special effects supervisor Eiji Tsuburaya, and composer Akira Ifukube reunited for one last adventure, with a straightforward, action-packed script by Honda and Takeshi Kimura. Though the film failed to turn a profit, at least in Japan, Godzilla soldiered on, enduring ever-dwindling budgets for six more entries until going on hiatus.
Today, its shoot-for-the-moon approach has earned it a sterling reputation in the Western fandom; the most recent G-Fan readers’ poll in 2014 ranked it third in the series, behind the original Godzilla and Mothra vs. Godzilla. Even factoring in non-Godzilla movies, its 8.3 rating was only equaled or surpassed by the Heisei Gamera trilogy, the original King Kong, and Rodan.
G-Fan didn’t provide demographic breakdowns for its respondents, but I’d wager the best ratings for Destroy All Monsters came from the people fortunate enough to catch it in theaters. For a Monster Kid in 1969, chasing TV airings and Famous Monster of Filmland issues for more exposure to those beasts from the East, few thrills could be greater than seeing so many of them on the screen at once, tearing the world apart. It was the Avengers: Infinity War of its day, requiring thorough knowledge of the Toho oeuvre to recognize all the returning kaiju. The rare fan who didn’t discover at least one new kaiju watching the film would had to have seen Gigantis the Fire Monster (1959), Varan the Unbelievable (1962), Atragon (1965), Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster (1965), Frankenstein Conquers the World (1966), King Kong Escapes (1968), and Son of Godzilla (1969) first, or have the aforementioned Famous Monsters of Filmland fill in the gaps. Small wonder that G-Fan’s Destroy All Monsters issue (July/August 1999, natch) dedicated five pages to first-viewing memories.
I’m about half the film’s age, and while I still haven’t seen it in theaters yet, I remember my first viewing too. A bootleg tape loomed large in my Easter basket of either 2003 or 2004, and I immediately raced downstairs to watch the whole thing. I don’t know why Dad didn’t opt for one of A.D.Vision’s official releases, but years later I would find myself glad that he did. That a fullscreen, faded bootleg could provide a better experience than a licensed product is a microcosm of how bizarre and unfortunate Destroy All Monsters’ treatment in the U.S. has been since it left theaters. Only King Kong vs. Godzilla (Japanese version still unreleased) and The Return of Godzilla (American version banished indefinitely to VHS and LaserDisc, Japanese version unreleased until 2016) have suffered more.
Destroy All Monsters’ U.S. theatrical run was courtesy of the exploitation masters at American International Pictures. As usual, they commissioned a stellar dub from Titan Productions in New York City, starring Hal Linden as Katsuo, Bret Morrison as Dr. Yoshida, Bernard Grant as Dr. Otani, and Lucy Martin as the Kilaak Queen. (Not that any of them were credited – all vocal IDs were made by the dubbing disciples of a certain private Facebook group.) Ken Films subsequently crammed as much action as possible into seven-and-a-half minutes of Super 8 film, with color and sound. This version has a few extra snippets of narration to “help” explain the condensed plot. “The evil spirits control all the monsters from a secret cave…”
Then, for reasons that remain unclear, it vanished. Every other Showa Godzilla film arrived on VHS in the States from 1983 to 1990, while Destroy All Monsters didn’t even air on television after the early 1980’s. When it finally came to the Sci-Fi Channel in 1996, fans were shocked at what they heard – a completely new dub, and an inferior one at that! It turned out the dub wasn’t new at all, but the work of Tokyo-based Frontier Enterprises, hired by Toho themselves shortly after the film was released in Japan. This was because the original AIP contract for Destroy All Monsters, inherited by Orion Pictures, stated that after the company’s rights expired, they had to return their film elements to Toho or destroy them. As Keith Aiken put it, Orion “decided to save some money on postage.”
The Frontier Enterprises dub returned for the VHS release of Destroy All Monsters by A.D.Vision in 1998. For the DVD in 1999, the Texas-based anime licensors wanted to include the Japanese audio track and bonus features galore, as they would later do for the Heisei Gamera trilogy, but Toho kneecapped the release to dissuade Japanese fans from importing it. (It didn’t even have a menu or chapter stops!) American fans grumbled but bought it anyway. It was this DVD that gave me the shock of my life after years of exposure to Titan’s dub; I don’t think I ever finished it before Media Blasters came along.
Media Blasters! While today their Facebook page is filled with hentai, for a few shining years no company did a better job of importing Toho sci-fi. All of fandom was a-quiver when they announced in 2011 that they would be bringing Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla vs. Megalon to DVD and Blu-ray. Not only did they fulfill A.D.Vision’s hopes for the title, they included the Titan dub too, utilizing a 16mm print owned by Ed Godziszewski. It remains the only official release of a Godzilla movie to include both English dubs. It also didn’t remain on store shelves for long.
Toho had been unusually stubborn in negotiations with Media Blasters, originally wanting no bonus features and no Titan dub. Even after they relented, they required Media Blasters to downplay the extent of the bonus features, which is why the packaging is so vague about the extras and only lists one English audio option. Then, less than two months after the discs came out, Toho discovered that they hadn’t approved all the pictures in the galleries and ordered a halt to reorders. To make matters worse, Media Blasters was in dire financial straits – they laid off over half their employees the following January. By March 2012, they decided to go ahead with the barebones versions Toho wanted, but those took until 2014 to come out, riding the Legendary Godzilla hype train. These renditions served as a balm to fans who missed the 2011 discs and helped lower aftermarket prices for those discs as well.
The 2014 Media Blasters releases have since gone out of print, and the U.S. rights to the film are currently in the hands of Janus Films and Criterion. They’ve made the Japanese version and the Frontier dub available to stream on several platforms, including Filmstruck. Home video releases of Destroy All Monsters and the many other Toho titles they’ve licensed have yet to be announced, but are hotly anticipated by fans as Godzilla: King of the Monsters approaches. The Frontier dub has also been airing frequently on Comet TV.
Considering I just co-hosted a panel on the subject at G-Fest, I would be remiss not to mention the fan efforts to preserve Destroy All Monsters’ English dubs. You see, Media Blasters synced each track to the Japanese version, saving disc space but losing the unique visuals of each version. There were other issues too: the Frontier dub’s pitch was lowered by 4% for some reason, while audio damage is present throughout the Titan dub, especially at the beginning. Godziszewski was surprised by the distortions early on, suspecting a mistake by the company Media Blasters hired to do the film transfer.
Space Hunter M reconstructed the Frontier dub in 2013, using audio from the A.D.Vision DVD and the credits and title card included on the Media Blasters Blu-ray as a bonus feature. Bootleggers have been offering the Titan dub for years, of course, but the reigning champion is Red Menace, who in 2016 combined the video from the Media Blasters Blu-ray, the audio from an Australian DVD and bootleg VHS, and a digitally recreated title card and credits. So far, Toho hasn’t complained, likely because neither project is for-profit.
Toho had been unusually stubborn in negotiations with Media Blasters, originally wanting no bonus features and no Titan dub. Even after they relented, they required Media Blasters to downplay the extent of the bonus features, which is why the packaging is so vague about the extras and only lists one English audio option. Then, less than two months after the discs came out, Toho discovered that they hadn’t approved all the pictures in the galleries and ordered a halt to reorders. To make matters worse, Media Blasters was in dire financial straits – they laid off over half their employees the following January. By March 2012, they decided to go ahead with the barebones versions Toho wanted, but those took until 2014 to come out, riding the Legendary Godzilla hype train. These renditions served as a balm to fans who missed the 2011 discs and helped lower aftermarket prices for those discs as well.
The 2014 Media Blasters releases have since gone out of print, and the U.S. rights to the film are currently in the hands of Janus Films and Criterion. They’ve made the Japanese version and the Frontier dub available to stream on several platforms, including Filmstruck. Home video releases of Destroy All Monsters and the many other Toho titles they’ve licensed have yet to be announced, but are hotly anticipated by fans as Godzilla: King of the Monsters approaches. The Frontier dub has also been airing frequently on Comet TV.
Considering I just co-hosted a panel on the subject at G-Fest, I would be remiss not to mention the fan efforts to preserve Destroy All Monsters’ English dubs. You see, Media Blasters synced each track to the Japanese version, saving disc space but losing the unique visuals of each version. There were other issues too: the Frontier dub’s pitch was lowered by 4% for some reason, while audio damage is present throughout the Titan dub, especially at the beginning. Godziszewski was surprised by the distortions early on, suspecting a mistake by the company Media Blasters hired to do the film transfer.
Space Hunter M reconstructed the Frontier dub in 2013, using audio from the A.D.Vision DVD and the credits and title card included on the Media Blasters Blu-ray as a bonus feature. Bootleggers have been offering the Titan dub for years, of course, but the reigning champion is Red Menace, who in 2016 combined the video from the Media Blasters Blu-ray, the audio from an Australian DVD and bootleg VHS, and a digitally recreated title card and credits. So far, Toho hasn’t complained, likely because neither project is for-profit.
Speaking of fan initiatives Toho turns a blind eye to, Daikaiju TV will be streaming the Japanese version of Destroy All Monsters tonight, with Red Menace’s reconstruction tomorrow. If you’re unfamiliar with them, that’s an open invite to tune in with an online crowd and revisit the Toho dream team’s final collaboration, where Godzilla and company finally found peace – and kicked King Ghidorah’s ass along the way.
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