After years of pressuring, film producer and distributor Henry G. Saperstein managed to convince Toho Co., Ltd. to
allow him to pitch a new Godzilla film to Hollywood. Saperstein had been
involved with co-producing and releasing the Japanese films in the United
States. He brought up the availability of the Godzilla rights to Sony Pictures producers Cary Woods and Robert Fried, and, while they were interested, both Columbia and TriStar turned the idea down. Woods decided to go to the top
and presented the idea to then-Chairman of the Board and CEO of Sony Pictures
Entertainment Peter Guber. Guber was enthusiastic about the possibility of acquiring
an international brand and set the film up at TriStar.
 |
| The de Bont version of Godzilla. |
TriStar secured the rights to produce a trilogy of films in late 1992. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio wrote the script for the first film in 1994,
and Jan de Bont was named the film’s director. Pre-production was
well underway for a 1996 release, but de Bont left the film when TriStar
refused to approve his $100-120 million budget. Director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin were brought on after having previously turned it
down, believing it was a silly idea. Their only stipulation: they could do the
movie their own way. Although they liked the original script, they promptly
discarded it and ignored the four-page list of rules Toho provided for the
handling of the Godzilla franchise.
 |
| Maquette of the Tatopoulos version. |
Emmerich and Devlin decided to make Godzilla more of a creature fighting for
survival. Patrick
Tatopoulos was tapped to design the new
Godzilla with the only instruction being “Make him able to run incredibly
fast.” Tatopoulos designed Godzilla as a learn, iguana-like creature that stood
with its back and tail parallel to the ground. His color scheme was meant to
help Godzilla blend into the urban environment the movie would be taking place
in. Tatopoulos created concept art and a 2-foot tall maquette to present at a
meeting with Toho to pitch their idea. Toho chairman Isao Matsuoka, Godzilla producer Shogo Tomiyama, and special effects director Koichi Kawakita attended the meeting, and after Tomiyama met with
Godzilla’s creator Tomoyuki Tanaka (whose failing health prevented his attending the
meeting), they approved the project.
Emmerich and Devlin wrote the script for the film and made several changes to
the character to fit their vision. After discovering that certain lizards could
burrow, they gave him that ability. Deeming the trademarked “atomic breath” too
unbelievable, they exchanged it for “power breath”, which would have Godzilla
simply blow things away (the atomic breath was restored in some fashion when
word of the change was leaked and fan backlash was negative). They also made
him able to lay hundreds of eggs via parthenogenesis,
leading to offspring that could rapidly have their own and soon overrun the
planet. Also, Emmerich didn’t like the concept of two monsters fighting and
chose to make the primary opposition the military.
The film centered on Godzilla (vocal effects provided by Frank Welker) being
created after nuclear tests in French
Polynesia in the 1940s and 50s. Biologist Dr. Niko “Nick” Tatopoulos (named
after Patrick, played by Matthew
Broderick) was recruited by the United States
military to study the creature and tell them more about it as it made its way
to Manhattan Island. There, Nick learned that Godzilla had come to lay eggs and
encouraged the military to find his nest, but they decided to ignore his theory
when his ex-girlfriend, struggling reporter Audrey Timmonds (Maria
Pitillo), revealed classified information she
stole from him. However, French secret service (DGSE) agent Phillippe Roche (Jean
Reno), assigned to clean-up his country’s mess,
believed in Nick’s idea and brought him on board to find and destroy the nest.
 |
| Godzilla on the hunt. |
Godzilla was
released on May 20, 1998 to lackluster reviews. Members of the Japanese film
productions who were supportive of the possibility of new ideas and a new life
for the franchise were soured by the final result. Fans, annoyed by the changes
and the lack of connection to previous iterations of Godzilla, coined the
phrase GINO (Godzilla In Name Only) when talking about the movie. In later
years, Devlin would admit they made a mistake in their depiction of Godzilla
and how they handled the human characters in the film, and Emmerich for the
lack of test-screening to find and fix problems as well as a rushed shooting
schedule. Broderick, while liking the movie, felt that he might have been
miscast. Ultimately, while the movie was a box office success, it had performed
under TriStar’s expectations and the rest of their planned trilogy was
cancelled.
TriStar, believing the film couldn’t succeed without an aggressive marketing
campaign, lined up license agreements with over 300 companies. TriStar also
looked ahead to the future and worked on some media tie-ins to the franchise;
one of those being an animated series. The series began production with
Sony’s Adelaide
Productions eight months before the film’s
release, and was developed by Jeff Kline and Richard Raynis. Kline worked with Emmerich and Devlin to devise the
series’ bible and had initial monster designs drawn up in order to try and sell
it to a network. FOX agreed to order 40 episodes of the series for
their Fox Kids block.
Godzilla:
The Series picked up almost immediately from where the film left off,
although with a slight change to the ending. While one of Godzilla’s eggs did
survive, this time Nick (Ian Ziering, replacing Jason Priestley who couldn’t commit beyond the first five episodes he
recorded) was present when the baby Godzilla (Welker) hatched. The baby
imprinted on Nick, and Nick decided to save him from destruction and study him.
Nick formed a team called H.E.A.T., or Humanitarian Environmental (once
Ecological) Analysis Team, which dealt with monsters created from ecological
pollution. Joining Nick from the film was snarky behavioral expert Dr. Elsie
Chapman (Charity James, replacing Vicki
Lewis from the film) and cowardly engineer and chemist Dr. Mendel Craven
(Malcolm Danare, reprising the role). Newly created for the show was intern and
hacker Randy Hernandez (Rino Romano) and DGSE agent Monique Dupre (Brigitte Bako), who was sent to
destroy Godzilla initially but was assigned to monitor him as part of the team
indefinitely. N.I.G.E.L. (Tom Kenney), or Next-millennium Intelligence
Gathering Electronic Liaison, was a robot created by Mendel and Randy that
accompanied the team on their missions. Godzilla would be called upon to help
deal with threats the team encountered, but ultimately the production decided
to make it seem more like he was protecting his turf (Earth) rather than have
him at the beck and call of the team as with the earlier Hanna-Barbera
effort.
 |
| Godzilla, Mendel, Elise, Nick, Randy and Monique. |
In keeping with the immense secrecy surrounding the marketing of the film
(Godzilla was never fully shown before the movie hit theaters), the series was
produced under the name Heat Seekers (after the team’s boat in the show)
and phony concept art of fire-based superheroes with a sheep dog made of pure
fire was created to complete the illusion. Further conversations with Emmerich
and Devlin were had to find out what elements and characters could be
incorporated into the series, as well as general information on the film still
in production. Fil
Barlow designed the characters, basing their
looks on their personalities with only a passing resemblance to their movie
counterparts (mostly to avoid likeness rights issues). He also designed the
overall appearance of the show before turning his focus on the various monsters
that would appear. Because every aspect of the production had to be sent to
Japan for approval, and certain monsters from the Godzilla series were tied up
in legal issues, they couldn’t visit Godzilla’s rogues gallery and had to create
new ones from scratch. Tim
Perkins handled additional designs for the
human characters on the show following Barlow’s lead.
 |
| Godzilla likes calamari. |
With the main characters assembled, the production decided they didn’t need to
bring back as many established characters that would only serve to clutter the
cast. That’s not to say several didn’t make occasional appearances, including a
decidedly more confident Audrey (Paget Brewster) and her cameraman, Victor “Animal” Palotti (Joe Pantoliano); Phillipe (Keith Szarabajka), who assigned Monique to the team and popped up from time
to time to provide them with valuable information; Major Anthony Hicks (who apparently was demoted from the Colonel rank he
had in the film, but still played by Kevin Dunn), who was placed in charge of the military’s anti-mutation
unit and often came at odds with H.E.A.T.; and Mayor Ebert (Michael Lerner, also reprising), the mayor of New York City (and part of
Emmerich’s jab at the critic team of Siskel & Ebert over their negative reviews for Independence Day, basing the character on the latter critic). New
characters included recurring villain Cameron Winter (David Newsom), an old college rival of Nick’s; Maximillian Spiel (Clancy Brown),
a billionaire who sought to make a profit from monster fights; and redneck
hunters Dale (Ronny Cox), Hank (Bob Joles) and Bill looking to bag themselves Godzilla. The series attracted a
number of notable guest-stars, both who have previously or not often dabbled in
animation. Amongst them were Robert
Forster as Elsie’s father; Linda Blair as
monster rights activist Alexandra Springer; Estelle Harris as an old lady; Ron Perlman as one of the Leviathan aliens that
sought to use monsters to conquer Earth; Doug Savant, who appeared as Sergeant O’Neal in the film, as a
trespasser; and Roddy
McDowall, in what would be his final role before
his death, as Dr.
Hugh Trevor.
 |
| Crustaceous Rex. |
Kline wrote a 20-page treatment for the series outlining the characters, their
interactions, the type of stories to be written and the overall tone for the
show. From that, story editors Marty Isenberg and Bob Skir wrote
the full series bible. Two teams of story editors were used and overseen by
Kline and producer/head director Audu Paden: Isenberg and Skir managed the team for one half of the
series, while Marsha
Griffin and Glen Wiseman handled the other.
Since the writers wouldn’t get to see any of the episodes as they were writing
their scripts, the story editors were in charge of infusing their scripts with
phraseology and characteristics featured in the show and maintaining
continuity. The series employed a mixture of writers who had worked on previous
Sony series, as well as comic book professionals used to tight deadlines and
telling a story with limited space. Amongst the series’ writers were Isenberg,
Skir, Griffin, Richard
Mueller, Michael Reaves, Steve
Perry, Neil Ruttenberg, Steve Hayes, Barry Hawkins, Brooks Wachtel, Steven
Melching, Harry “Doc” Kloor, Steve
Cuden, Carl Ellswoth, Janna
King, Tom Pugsley, Lara
Runnels, Craig Miller, Tom Pugsley, Greg Klein, Greg Pincus, Andrew Deutsch, Mark Hoffmeier, George Melrod, Jeff Wynne, Robin Russin, William Stout, Rodney Gibbs, Angel Dean Lopez
and Patti Carr, and comic creators Len Wien, Marv Wolfman and Scott Lobdell. The episodes were largely self-contained stories, and
were done so as not to be too affected continuity-wise if the network should
(and did) air them out of order.
 |
| No monster is an island. |
Kline would approve the premise for each episode and assign it to a writer,
while Paden would start working on casting, character designs, backgrounds and
settings. After Paden and Barlow devised the appearance of an episode’s
monster, it would be sent to Raynis, a talented artist himself, for touch-ups
and finalization. After working out the details of an episode, it would be
turned over to the storyboard artists to draw out within a two-week period.
Early on in the production, no one on the crew was allowed to know what
Godzilla looked like, so basic shapes and other elements (such as a sock
puppet) were used to approximate him. He would later be incorporated into
scenes when his appearance was finally revealed. Tatopoulos worked with the crew
to help transition Godzilla into animation, defining how he would move and act.
 |
| The rats of NY. Yeesh. |
The series was animated by Anima Sam Won, DR Movie, Dong Woo Animation Co., Kiko Enterprises Company, Lotto Animation and New
Millennium Animation. The backgrounds used on the show were a
heavily-involved process. Rather than being painted on a white background like
most shows were at the time, they were painted on animation cels in sections
and layered over each other. It created the distinct look prominent in Sony
cartoons in that period. Each episode would take an average of 12 weeks to
animate before returning back to the United States for review, editing and
touch-ups.
 |
| Breath mint! |
Godzilla:
The Series debuted on FOX on September 12, 1998. Because the people
behind the show didn’t get full exposure to the film, the series took on a
markedly different tone. As many of those involved with its production were, at
one point, fans of the original Japanese movies, the series was closer to those
representations; with Godzilla fighting other giant monsters and the use of his
atomic breath. The series was also more serious, especially in regards to
Nick’s character being less aloof than he was in the film. The largest source
of comedy relief came from N.I.G.E.L. and his constant destruction in every
episode (a running gag inspired by the deaths of Kenny McCormick on South
Park). The series’ theme was composed
by Jim Latham while Brain Garland and Craig
Sharmat composed the series’ music. Raynis
directed the series’ title sequence featuring early monster designs that never
appeared in episodes.
 |
| Godzilla fighting for his time slot. |
The series was better received than the film on which it was based, and was one
of FOX’s highest rated cartoons and number one show of 1998. FOX would air it
in small mini-marathons on its weekday schedule as well as on Saturday
mornings. During the second season, however, the show fell victim to the “Pokémon Wars”
between FOX and The
WB. WB’s acquisition of the anime Pokémon had
proved a boon for the network and led to them consistently outperforming FOX in
the ratings. To combat this, FOX acquired the similar show Digimon:
Digital Monsters and would air it in mini-marathons, forcing Godzilla to
be moved about the schedule or not shown at all. With all of the constant
interruptions, two episodes were left unaired in the United States by the time
the show was taken off the schedule for new mid-season programs. Despite the
fact that it maintained high ratings with all the constant changes, FOX opted
not to order additional episodes and the series ran its course.
Trendmasters, who had been producing Godzilla-based
toys for years, was set to continue that
tradition with a line
of toys based on the series. Unfortunately, as
the Godzilla film
toys sold poorly, retailers were unwilling
to take another hit for the franchise. The line was ultimately cancelled before
production. The only toys
specific to the cartoon were released
in Carl’s Jr. kids meals in 2000. Two video games based on the show
were released for the Nintendo Game Boy Color: 1999’s Godzilla: The Series and 2000’s Godzilla: The Series –
Monster Wars. Discovery Zone also featured various creatures from the show as part
of an interactive
shooting gallery.
Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment released two VHS collections
in 1999: Trouble
Hatches containing both parts of the
pilot, and Monster
Wars featuring the trilogy of episodes
of the same name. The trilogy was released again on the DVD The
Monster Wars Trilogy, as were the episodes
“What Dreams May Come”, “Bird of Paradise”, and “DeadLoch” on Monster
Mayhem and “S.C.A.L.E.”, “The Twister” and “Where Is Thy Sting?”
on Mutant
Madness. The 2006 Monster
Edition release of the film contained the episodes “What Dreams May
Come”, “Monster Wars, Part 1” and “Where Is They Sting?” In 2008, minisodes of
the series were released on the Sony-owned Crackle, and Kabillion syndicated
the show on Comcast’s On Demand service and online. In 2014, Mill Creek Entertainment released the complete
series on DVD, which had the episodes in
production order and included the two unaired episodes. The following year,
Mill Creek released 10 episodes on a DVD entitled The
H.E.A.T. Is On as part of their Retro TV Toons budget disc series.
Although Sony maintains the rights to the animated series, the movie rights had
long since reverted to Toho. In 2004, they began copyrighting Sony’s version of
Godzilla as “Zilla” for future appearances in the Godzilla franchise. The name
was a satirical take on the counterfeit Godzilla merchandise that was often
released under that name. It was also a jab at Sony, Toho feeling they took the
“God” out of “Godzilla”. Zilla made his first appearance in the film Godzilla:
Final Wars. It ended up being the last Godzilla film made for a decade
until Legendary Pictures acquired the rights and produced the second, and so
far more successful, American attempt with Godzilla in 2014.
Originally posted in 2017. Updated in 2019.
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