It is my ardent belief that every boy (and some girls as well) at some point in his (her) life has seen a Godzilla film and loved it. Not just liked it or thought that it was merely okay but flat-out loved it. You would have been flicking through the TV channels, or perhaps you would have been given a video. And in both cases you inevitably would see Godzilla. At this point your brain would get ever so slightly scrambled, like so “ITS A GIANT DINOSAUR BREATHING FIRE AND BLOWING STUFF UP!!!WHEEEE!!!”. Also at this point you may have been so excited that you started running around your house until 1) you tired yourself out, 2) a parent/parents told you to stop or 3) you ran into a table. You probably also imitated Godzilla (know I did) like Calvin here:
Anyway, here now is a list of things that I think/thought as a child that make Godzilla awesome:
Godzilla Himself
Video uploaded onto YouTube by the user Godzillakid92
This is pretty much self-explanatory, with helpful video accompaniment. Godzilla is a 100 metre tall radioactive dinosaur with an awesome nuclear heat beam that blows buildings up and reduces them to vapor. Also that’s a video of him emerging from a volcano with nary a scratch. Seriously, when you’re a kid who loves dinosaurs seeing one that big with fire breath is just fantastic. Godzilla is a dinosaur in excelsis.
Godzilla’s Roar
Video uploaded on to YouTube by the user Reasjer.
Tied first place for the best sound effect of all time (the other is the noise the Ark of the Covenant makes when it is opened). It’s a truly excellent creation. It’s loud, and sounds massive. Like it would be the noise that a gargantuan creature would make. Also, it’s instantly recognisable and utterly unique. And as a bonus, here is the 54 roar, which sounds both powerful and utterly terrifying.
Video uploaded on to YouTube by the use Gojira2012.
Fire Breath
There are two parts to this. The beam itself and the build up to the beams firing. The build up is great. First, there is a quiet crackling noise. Then the spines begin to light up. First they merely glow, then they become incandescent and they turn to a blue, blinding flash and then beam rips out. That blue, azure beam of unparalleled destructive ability. It just blows everything in its path to irradiated rubble. Just keep watching that gif repeat (found on gifsoup.com, under the name Epic Godzilla fight). Nuclear, destructive poetry in motion.
Fights
Video uploaded to YouTube by the user GIGAN05.
This concerns fights with both monsters and the armed forces. The fights with other monsters were and are awesome because cities were destroyed, beams were fired and well, more monsters the better.
What I really want to highlight here is the fights with the armed forces. Normally in monster films the armed forces always win. And as someone who loved dinosaurs this always annoyed me. Even now when I doodle dinosaurs and monsters they are always winning these fights. Anyway, doodle observations aside Godzilla was the first time (second was Gorgo) I saw a monster win. And win convincingly. Entire divisions annihilated by one angry lizard. Fleets and air forces too. Like in the Biollante trailer. In a normal monster film, the battleship would kill the monster. Here its just a nuisance to Godzilla, who deals with it very easily. And in an awesome manner. Also, Godzilla hardly ever sustained anything more than a scratch in these encounters.
Music
Video uploaded to YouTube by the user BeyondLimitz.
This theme deserves far more recognition. It’s just as good as any Ennio Morricone and John Williams work and it is an outstanding piece of composition. All at once it is ominous, heroic, powerful, awe – inspiring and terrifying.
And that’s why Godzilla is awesome. If you can think of anymore reasons please do not hesitate to list them below. Also feedback is welcomed as always.
Also here a shout out to Dr Kronner (here is his outstanding blog: http://grizzlybomb.com/). He commented on a Godzilla related thing I had written earlier and his comment stuck in my head. And it gradually grew into something bigger, which is this.
Golden Giraffes Riding Scarlet Flamingos Through The Desert of Forever 