![]() ![]() To emphasise the monster's relationship with the atomic bomb, its skin texture was inspired by the keloid scars seen on the survivors of Hiroshima. Īrt director Akira Watanabe combined attributes of a Tyrannosaurus, an Iguanodon, a Stegosaurus and an alligator to form a sort of blended chimera, inspired by illustrations from an issue of Life magazine. Inspired by the fictional Rhedosaurus created by animator Ray Harryhausen for the film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Godzilla's character design was conceived as that of an amphibious reptilian monster based around the loose concept of a dinosaur with an erect standing posture, scaly skin, an anthropomorphic torso with muscular arms, lobed bony plates along its back and tail, and a furrowed brow. Although the specific details of Godzilla's appearance have varied slightly over the years, the overall impression has remained consistent. Within the context of the Japanese films, Godzilla's exact origins vary, but it is generally depicted as an enormous, violent, prehistoric sea monster awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation. The Japanese pronunciation of the name is ( listen) the Anglicized form is / ɡ ɒ d ˈ z ɪ l ə/ god- ZIL-ə, with the first syllable pronounced like the word "god" and the rest rhyming with "gorilla".ĭuring the development of the American version of Godzilla Raids Again (1955), Godzilla's name was changed to "Gigantis" by producer Paul Schreibman, who wanted to create a character distinct from Godzilla. Godzilla's name was written in ateji as Gojira ( 呉爾羅), where the kanji are used for phonetic value and not meaning. In a 1998 BBC documentary on Godzilla, Kimi Honda, the widow of the 1954 film's director Ishirō Honda, dismissed the employee-name story as a tall tale, believing that Honda, Tanaka, and Tsuburaya gave "considerable thought" to the name of the monster, stating, "the backstage boys at Toho loved to joke around with tall stories, but I don't believe that one". According to an episode of the Japanese television documentary series Project X entitled "The Birth of Godzilla", special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya met Toho contract actor Shiro Amikura in the Toho Studios cafeteria and nicknamed him "Gojira," combining the Japanese words for gorilla (since he thought Amikura looked like a Gorilla) and whale (since Amikura told Tsuburaya that whale meat was his favorite food). Gojira ( ゴジラ) is a portmanteau of the Japanese words gorira ( ゴリラ, " gorilla") and kujira ( 鯨 ( クジラ ), " whale"), owing to the fact that in one planning stage, Godzilla was described as "a cross between a gorilla and a whale", due to its size, power and aquatic origin. Godzilla has also fought characters from other franchises in crossover media, such as King Kong, as well as various Marvel Comics characters, including S.H.I.E.L.D., the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. Godzilla sometimes has allies, such as Rodan, Mothra and Anguirus, and offspring, such as Minilla and Godzilla Junior. It has faced human opponents such as the JSDF, or other monsters, including King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla and Gigan. Godzilla has been featured alongside many supporting characters. ![]() Later films address disparate themes and commentary including Japan's apathy and neglect of its imperial past, natural disasters, and the human condition. As the film series expanded, some stories took on less serious undertones, portraying Godzilla as an antihero, or a lesser threat who defends humanity. Others have suggested that Godzilla is a metaphor for the United States, a giant beast woken from its slumber which then takes terrible vengeance on Japan. With the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Lucky Dragon 5 incident still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a metaphor for nuclear weapons. Godzilla is a prehistoric reptilian monster awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation. Godzilla has been dubbed the " King of the Monsters", an epithet first used in Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), the American localization of the 1954 film. The character debuted in the self-titled 1954 film, directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda the character had become an international pop culture icon since, appearing in various media: 33 Japanese films produced by Toho, five American films and numerous video games, novels, comic books and television shows. Godzilla ( / ɡ ɒ d ˈ z ɪ l ə/ god- ZIL-ə Japanese: ゴジラ, romanized: Gojira, pronounced ( listen)) is a fictional monster, or kaiju, in Toho Co., Ltd.'s eponymous media franchise. Minilla and Godzilla Junior (adopted sons) ![]()
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