Battle of Terrible Monsters: Daigoro vs. Goliath The famous Eiji Tsuburaya had a contract with Toho to produce a film about Godzilla in his studio, however, even after receiving the green light, the project did not budge. The studio too successfully shot “Ultraman”, the sequels of which still appear, and Eiji himself died of a heart attack in 1970 at the age of 68.
A year later, in honor of the decade of Tsuburaya Productions and in memory of the creator of Godzilla, Toho agreed to the release of Daigoro vs. Goliath, a family comedy film about the battle of two funny monsters. The picture is fun, childish and quite “puppet” in terms of its special effects. Although they made a lot of things for the film - large models of individual body parts such as tail, horns and other things, as well as a separate model of baby Daigoro in flashback.
After the explosion of a nuclear submarine awakened an unnamed terrible monster that attacked people. After killing the creature, the people discovered that it was a female with a young child left behind. Little Daigoro was sent to the island to be fed until he swung into a real daikaiju. His costume is made of elements of the Red King, one of Ultraman’s known enemies.
At the center of the plot is the problem of sponsoring the monster with food, given its size. The state budget does not allow itself to do this, and people do not want their taxes to go to feed the monster, so they refuse voluntary donations. But the monster is very loved by children and some adults attached to it.
The main characters are a zoo worker, a failed inventor and a cheerful guy with a passion for alcohol, who promised to quit to save money for food Daigoro. The latter, just the same, is the main comedy engine of the plot, constantly doing something.
Daigoro is all fun and plush. With a large tummy, a small ponytail, antennae sticking out in different directions, too childish for a real kaiju monster, but he made not only his own costume, but also life-size models of Head and Hands for some scenes of interaction with people.
From Daigoro, they hope to make an attraction for tourists, so that there is at least some business that brings income for its supply. For example, they offer to teach him to dance, only the monster is not so gifted with intelligence, which, however, is even better for a film about the battle of Kaiju.
The rest of the monsters look better, but are also suitable only for the youngest spectators. Toshihiru Iijima himself, who directed the film, had previously shot Ultra Q and Ultraman, not forgetting to make them a couple of homages. In addition to Daigoro, there are two more monsters, one of which, however, show nothing in flashbacks.
This is Mother Daigoro - a gray shaggy creature, spewing fire and destroying the houses of Japanese metropolises. Episodes of destruction are well shot, but still inferior in terms of realism to most of their counterparts from the Toho Universe. But a lot of explosions and fire, although the film focuses mainly on the coast.
It is even strange why the mother of the main monster is shown so rarely - the costume was made full, so that could use much more scenes flashbacks. The timing of the film is still quite small, another 5-10 minutes would fit without harm to the dynamics, and even the children’s audience would clearly not lose interest because of the action taking place in the frame.
The inventor tries to win 2 million in the competition, but repeatedly fails. At this time, a meteorite falls to Earth, causing weather anomalies such as snowfall, which the main character plays very well. But the meteorite brings with it a terrible lizard.
The creation is equipped with a horn that takes energy from the air, by cooling, and also sparkles with electric sparks. The lizard is called Goliath, apparently, because it will be larger than Daigoro - but he has not yet reached the size of an adult, so it is pointless to compare here.
Goliath makes several forays into human lands, enters into battle with the baby, almost killing him, and then sleeps peacefully on the islands in anticipation of the next attack of rage, while people come to their senses, try to figure out what to do with him and at the same time try to bring Daigoro into shape.
Now the monster is already receiving food support from the state and the promise of lifetime funding. However, he needs to destroy a creepy creature that turns hot days into frosty winters. In this Daigoro and help the desperate protagonists.
The film is regularly accompanied by all sorts of funny songs and there are a lot of humorous situations, some of which are really quite funny. Musical themes are appropriate, and the constant abundance of children in the frame, even when the two monsters will face a deadly fight.
The actors are trying, although the characters are very conventional. But Akiji Kobayashi played in “Ultra Q”, “Ultraman”, and “Moon Rider”, and in addition to series with Kaiju played in such genre cartons as “Godzilla vs. King Gidora”, “Godzilla vs. Motra: Battle for Earth” and “Hamera 2: Invasion of the Space Legion”.
But there is simply no development of characters here: the inventor remains a loser, the cheerful alcoholic continues to drink, in general, everything returns to its usual places, and only the city budget cracks at the seams because of the appetite of the happy monster. But the kids are happy.
Kaiju battles are also quite fresh, despite some original finds, such as Daigoro climbing on his head to Goliath. Goliath’s invasion of the city has so many effects of burning flames and explosions that we almost do not see the monster among the buildings in most of the scenes shown in the frame.
In general, it turned out quite average, plush, cheap, fresh and disposable even for a family film. The film is funny, in many ways not bad. In some places he sharply raises the issue of atomic bombing and environmental protection - a topic so acute that in the same 1971 Toho released "Godzilla vs. Hedora".
“Daigoro and Goliath” is forgotten even by most fans of the Kaiju genre, who prefer tapes more serious, more spectacular and with more outstanding effects. Young audiences will probably prefer something with superheroes like the same “Ultraman” and “Ryder’s Stone”. But within the framework of the Toho Monsters, it is still a sin not to remember this project, which stands quite apart from Godzilla paintings and related genre paintings.
5 out of 10
Original