Although it has never been held in the highest regard, GODZILLA VS MEGALON remains one of the biggest hits of the franchise, and one of the most visible entries. Spies from an underground kingdom launch an assault on the surface world via their living instrument of revenge, the giant insect Megalon. To guide the creature in it's invasion, they steal a robot from a Japanese toy inventor. The good guys manage to regain control of the robot and send him off to collect Godzilla. Meanwhile, the meanies from beneath the earth contract with spacemen to bring Gigan into the fray. US audiences first saw Gigan here, only to be re-introduced to the character when GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND finally came over the next year! Heavily influenced by the explosion of popular costumed superheroes on Japanese TV, the film focuses mainly on the humanoid robot Jet Jaguar. Godzilla basically functions as a guest star in his own movie! Cinema Shares imported the film in 1976, when it went head to head against the remake of KING KONG (one reason the US poster art features the recently-finished twin towers). The film, released in a couple of different cuts, was a smash hit and became a staple at kiddie matinees. When the film came to television, it was a ratings bonanza (in one event hosted by John Belushi wearing a Godzilla costume). Later, the film was a huge hit on home video. By that time, the dubbed version had fallen into public domain, so just about every video label had a release of the picture. Due to this status, the film became an experiment on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The episode was issued on disk, but by that time the rights had been restored and the disks were pulled. As result, they command a high price when you run across 'em. Recently, the film finally saw a widescreen release hit DVD, although for some idiotic reason, the titles remain in Japanese! The widescreen print featuring the English titles had already been floating around the Sci-Fi Channel for a few years!
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