1967 was a banner year for Japanese giant monsters, producing more such fare than any other year. It was about this time that several other studios tried their hand at the genre that had really solidified Toho through their Godzilla franchise. MONSTER FROM A PREHISTORIC PLANET was an ambitious project which required the construction of numerous miniature sets. In the film, employees of Playmate magazine are scouting a small Pacific island for a planned luxury amusement park/resort. What they find is a prehistoric egg out of which hatches a bird-like dinosaur the natives know as Gappa. Gappa is carted back to Japan to become a media sensation, much to the annoyance of Junior's still-living -and quite gigantic- parents. Mr. and Mrs. Gappa are soon taking in the sights and lowering real estate values across the island nation! The plot itself is a bit of a mixture of KING KONG, MOTHRA, and GORGO. MONSTER FROM A PREHISTORIC PLANET remains a respected entry in the genre, and was for decades a staple on UHF stations and then scored in video rentals. Like many of these films during this period, it was released directly to US television by AIP-TV. A nice scope transfer was finally issued on DVD, though the disk layered a new title sequence over the original one. The actual AIP-TV print is also making the rounds on several discount multi-packs, but those prints tend to be very, very dark. Titles aside, I'll have to go with the scope disk, although it goes under the international title: "Gappa, the Triphibian Monster."
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