“The arrogance of man is thinking nature is in their control, and not the other way around.” —Dr. Ichiro Serizawa, “Godzilla” (2014)
Although Godzilla has come to be associated with campy cinematic exuberance, the granddaddy of all giant-creatures-running-amok films somehow remains infused with a certain degree of humanity. Yes, the king of monsters goes on to lose some dignity when he drop-kicks a foe in “Godzilla vs. Megalon.” And yes, that was a happy dance he performed after trouncing King Ghidorah in “Invasion of Astro-Monster,” but it’s hard to deny the poignancy of the big guy’s origins.
First appearing in Ishiro Honda’s 1954 film, “Godzilla,” the pop culture icon came of age when Japan was still reeling from nuclear attack and H-bomb testing in the Pacific. A prehistoric creature transformed into an unpredictable destructive force courtesy of atomic radiation, Godzilla stands tall as a symbol of man’s folly.
Since then, this poor marauding monster has starred in 28 Godzilla films produced by Toho Studios in Japan, not to mention video games, novels, comic books and television shows. As well, there have been several American productions, including the latest reboot courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, set to hit theaters in May 2014.
The franchise has had a long and wonderfully entertaining history, so in honor of 60 years of radioactive rampaging, we present some of our favorite facts.
1. All hail the gorilla-whale
The name Godzilla is a transliteration of “Gojira,” a combination of two Japanese words: "gorira," meaning gorilla; and "kujira," meaning whale.
2. Extinction shmextinction
As the story goes, before Godzilla suffered mutations spawned from atomic bomb testing at the island of Rongerik, he was just a plain old dinosaur – a Godzillasaurus, to be exact – that somehow managed to withstand what had killed off his prehistoric brethren. A lone surviving dinosaur species? That alone seems like nifty fodder for some good science fiction.