Jump to content

Zilla (Godzilla)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 108.214.32.91 (talk) at 22:14, 23 October 2013 (You can just die, Swe. You're not going to plaster your bias all over this place again. YOU WERE BLOCKED FOREVER.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Godzilla film series character
Zilla
File:Zilla98 01.jpg
Alias Godzilla - USA[1]
First appearance Godzilla
Latest appearance Godzilla: Final Wars
Created by Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich and Patrick Tatopoulos

Zilla (ジラ Jira), formerly known as Godzilla,[2][3][4] is a movie monster that first appeared as the title character in the 1998 Roland Emmerich film, Godzilla. It was created as a reimagining of the original Godzilla character, but has since been given its own identity by Toho, who own the character's trademark.

Name

For its appearance in Godzilla: Final Wars producer Shōgo Tomiyama (who took charge of the franchise following the death of Godzilla's creator Tomoyuki Tanaka) and Final Wars director Ryuhei Kitamura renamed the creature "Zilla."[5] At the film's Hollywood premiere, they stated their reason for changing the character's name was because they'd felt that the Hollywood remake had taken the "God" out of "Godzilla" by portraying the monster as a mere animal. The "Zilla" name and design has since been trademarked by Toho Co. Ltd[4][6][7] and this name change has been reflected in subsequent official products, though the name "Godzilla" continues to be used on products that predate the name change.

Character overview and development

Zilla's character design draws inspiration from iguanas.

Special effects artist Patrick Tatopoulos was contacted by director Roland Emmerich and asked to create a new design for Godzilla. According to Tatopoulos, the only specific instructions Emmerich gave him was that it should be able to run incredibly fast.[8] Godzilla was originally conceived by Toho special effects directors Eiji Tsubaraya and Akira Watanabe as a robust, erect-standing, plantigrade reptilian sea monster and played by an actor in a monster costume; Tatopoulos reimagined it as a lean, digitigrade bipedal iguana that stood with its back and tail parallel to the ground and rendered via computer animation.[9] The monster’s distinctive facial features include a prominent lantern jaw, inspired by the fictional tiger Shere Khan from Disney’s animated adaptation of The Jungle Book.[10] Zilla’s color scheme was designed to reflect and blend in with the urban environment.[8] At one point, it was planned to use motion capture to create the movements of the computer-generated monster, but it ended up looking too much like a man in a suit.[11] Upon pending approval for the design, at the time, Shogo Tomiyama commented on Zilla's look, "It was so different we realized we couldn't make small adjustments. That left the major question of whether to approve it or not."[12]

Zilla is portrayed in the films as a territorial, piscivorous, 60[13]-90[14] m (197–295 ft) tall, 500 ton mutated lizard. Atypical of Toho’s giant monster characters, Zilla is not immune to conventional weaponry, and instead relies on its cunning and athleticism to outflank its enemies. It can travel long distances over land and sea, burrow underground, and reproduce via parthenogenesis. It used a flammable sonic "power breath" in the film, but could breathe a green atomic flame in the animated series, in which it was pitted against a rogues gallery of original monsters such as "El Gusano" and "the Crackler", after the producers were unable to secure the rights to adapt Toho's classic monsters.[15] It was also featured in advertisements alongside the Taco Bell chihuahua.[16]

Appearances

Reception

The design and characterization of the Zilla monster has largely been negatively received.[17] Prior to the official name change, fans of the Japanese Godzilla distinguished it from the original character by the acronym GINO, which was coined by critic Richard Pusateri in G-Fan Magazine and stood for “Godzilla In Name Only.”[18] Major points of criticism were of its lack of resemblance to the original character, and of how it ran from the military and was killed by missiles.[19] Haruo Nakajima, the actor who played Godzilla in the 1950s-70s, ridiculed the character design, stating “its face looks like an iguana and its body and limbs look like a frog.”[20] Kenpachiro Satsuma, the actor who played Godzilla in the 80s-90s, walked out of the film, saying “it’s not Godzilla, it doesn’t have his spirit.”[21] Shusuke Kaneko, director of the 90s Gamera films, opined “[Americans] seem unable to accept a creature that cannot be put down by their arms.”[22] Kaneko would later reference the character in his film Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, alluding to it as a monster that attacked the East Coast which Americans misidentified as Godzilla.[23] The negative response to both Emmerich's Godzilla and the 1998 remake of Mighty Joe Young caused giant monster movies to fall out of vogue for several years after, with films such as Peter Jackson's King Kong remake being postponed until 2005.[24]

References

  1. ^ Godzilla Generations 1998 Sega Dreamcast game
  2. ^ "Official Documentation showing "GODZILLA" TradeMark from 1998 is cancelled". Legal Force. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  3. ^ "Official Documentation showing the "GODZILLA" Logo TradeMark from 1998 to be abandoned". Legal Force. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  4. ^ a b "Official Documentation showing "ZILLA" to be active, registered, and in effect". Legal Force. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  5. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20050203181104/http://www.pennyblood.com/godzilla2.html
  6. ^ "ZILLA - Trademark Details". Justia Trademarks. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  7. ^ "Trade Mark Serial No. 76669021". Acute IP. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  8. ^ a b Rickitt, Richard (2006). Designing Movie Creatures and Characters: Behind the Scenes With the Movie Masters. Focal Press. pp. 74–76. ISBN 0-240-80846-0.
  9. ^ http://www.theasc.com/magazine/jun98/godzilla/art1/pg1.htm
  10. ^ http://blogs.amctv.com/movie-blog/2013/04/story-notes-trivia-godzilla.php
  11. ^ Rickitt, Richard (2000). Special Effects: The History and Technique. Billboard Books. p. 174. ISBN 0-8230-7733-0.
  12. ^ http://articles.latimes.com/1998/jul/13/entertainment/ca-3197
  13. ^ "GODZILLA [1998]". Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  14. ^ "Zilla". Toho Kingdom. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  15. ^ http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2006/03/28/godzilla-the-series/
  16. ^ http://www.tvacres.com/adanimals_tacobell.htm
  17. ^ http://www.nuketown.com/movies/reviews/cloverfield
  18. ^ http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/staff-contributors/#RichardPusateri
  19. ^ ”It Came from Japan!” Animal Planet documentary, 2005
  20. ^ http://www.historyvortex.org/GCon98Interview.html
  21. ^ Japan's Favorite Mon-star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G” – Steve Ryfle, page 344
  22. ^ http://expressindia.indianexpress.com/news/ie/daily/19980711/19250874.html
  23. ^ http://www.godzillatemple.com/movie25.htm
  24. ^ http://www.sonic-cinema.com/film_reviews_individual/133/king-kong
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zilla_(Godzilla)&oldid=578465398"