12.31.2013: Atragon Daikaiju Discussion

Martin, Rachel & Bryan help Kyle command the podcast while discussing Atragon (1963)! Celebrating another Toho film and its fiftieth anniversary, “the crew” in this episode talks about the 1963 tokusatsu classic, Atragon (aka Keitei Gunkan / Undersea Battleship)! If you can’t tell, this is one of Kyle’s favorites in the non-Godzilla series. The movie features the fan-favorite creative team of Tomoyuki Tanaka, Ishiro Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya, Akira Ifukube & Shinichi Sekizawa in addition to its amazing cast. If that weren’t enough, Atragon adds both an incredible looking monster (Manda) and a fantastic new mech (Gotengo) to Toho’s roster. We hopped a few rails to other sidebars during the discussion so I hope it doesn’t get too Lebowski on you, but it was a really fun talk. After the last couple of months, I was happy to have a somewhat slowing of the news. So there are just a few things that I felt needed your collective attention. More importantly, make sure you listen through the discussion for information on the upcoming Emergency Broadcast. Of course both the news and housekeeping links are included below. As usual, we played some splendid and monstrous music (which includes some request); see all of that below: MERRY MONSTER MUSIC: 1. Santa Claus ga Yatterkuru by The Peanuts (1962) 2. Godzilla’s Theme from Godzilla: Monster of Monsters (1989) 3. Sudden Attack In Broad Daylight by Lee Byung-woo from The Host (2006) 4. Atragon US Trailer Audio (1965) 5. Main Title (Atragon) by the Bukimisha Weird Secret Society from their album G.R.F.009 Goukai Na Chikyuboueigun (2001) 6. Take Me Higher by V6 from Ultraman Tiga (1996) SUGGESTED READING: Big Bad Toy Store adds Godzilla 2014 Pre-orders “50 Years of Heroes & Special Effects Exhibition” in Japan IMPENDING AWESOMENESS: 1/12 at 2pm PST The 3rd Annual Emergency Broadcast – It will be awesome! 1/17 at 6pm PST Fresh Vinyl Live DAIKAIJU DISCUSSION: The next film (and first of the new year) in our Daikaiju Discussions is Daiei’s last ditch effort to save their studio, Gamera: The Super Monster (1980). You’ll hear me rip on the film a little in this episode, but I should give it more of a chance. It’s a clip show, and essentially the Godzilla’s Revenge of the Gamera universe.  As silly as it is, I’m going to do as much research as I can on this film so I can sit down and have a better understanding on what was happening at the time. For this film, we’ll be watching the Shout! Factory DVD – the one that was “double billed” with Gamera vs. Zigra on the same DVD. If you want to contribute to this discussion, make sure you have your “homework” turned in by Saturday, January 25th to be part of the discussion.