It’s not often Nate has actors from kaiju films on the show, let alone two of his buddies! Yes, believe it or not, his friends Daniel DiManna (Godzilla Novelization Project) and Elijah Thomas (Kaiju Conversation) both “starred” and “co-directed” the independent schlock-fest ZillaFoot from SRS Cinema. In this episode, which is more of an interview than a review/discussion, Daniel and Elijah talk about how they got involved with this movie and what they did in it. They also try to explain its convoluted history and divulge some juicy insider info! It’s the definitive podcast episode on ZillaFoot! (Worst bragging rights ever…?)
We’d like to give a shout-out to our MIFV MAX patrons Travis Alexander; Danny DiManna (author/creator of the Godzilla Novelization Project); Eli Harris (elizilla13); Chris Cooke (host of One Cross Radio); Bex from Redeemed Otaku; Damon Noyes, The Cel Cast, TofuFury, Eric Anderson of Nerd Chapel, Ted Williams, Wynja the Ninja, Brad “Batman” Eddleman, Christopher Riner, The Indiscrite One, Jake Hambrick, Edwin Gonzalez, and Matthew Walsh! Thanks for your support!
Today’s special bonus episode is long, but can you blame us? It’s for MIFV’s first anniversary! Nathan makes a rare OOC (out of character) appearance and is joined by Patron and former guest Danny DiManna, author/creator of the Godzilla Novelization Project, to party like 2020 is finally over. In the first half, they present a “George Lucas extended version” of their Kaiju Con-Line presentation, which was titled “The Original MCU: Connecting Showa Era Continuity.” Essentially, they weave 26 of Toho’s tokusatsu movies (and one TV series) into a Marvel-style shared universe. Then for the second half, they play, read, and discuss feedback from listeners who shared their favorite episodes and moments from the podcast’s first year—including two messages from the other side of the fourth wall! Two words: multiversal madness! This is followed by several big announcements, including the theme for season two of MIFV coming in 2021. You don’t want to miss it!
MARK YOUR CALENDARS, MONSTER KIDS! ON THE WEEKEND OF JULY 11 & 12, THE MONSTERS ARE IN REVOLT AS KAIJU CON-LINE TAKES OVER THE INTERNET!
WHAT IS KAIJU CON-LINE? WITH THE CANCELATION OF THE ANNUAL GATHERING OF KAIJU FANS, A FEW MOTIVATED MONSTER MANIACS ARE REPLICATING A SMALL PORTION OF THE FUN WITH THEIR FELLOW FANS ON THAT SAME WEEKEND, LIKE A VIRTUAL CONVENTION.
OVER THE WEEKEND, A MYRIAD OF ONLINE ACTIVITIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR KAIJU FANS AROUND THE GLOBE TO ENJOY – ALL FOR FREE.
YES, KAIJU CON-LINE IS A FREE EVENT! WE ARE DOING WHAT WE CAN TO MAKE THIS SHOW AS AWESOME AS POSSIBLE AND REACHING OUT TO MEMBERS OF OUR KAIJU COMMUNITY TO HELP IN A NUMBER OF WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE. WE HOPE YOU HAVE A MONSTROUS TIME AT KAIJU CON-LINE FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME!
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Join Nathan Marchand and Danny DiManna (author and creator of the Godzilla Novelization Project) for their panel, “The Original MCU: Connecting Showa Era Continuity” Sunday at 2pm EST. They will connect the dots in the often loose continuity of Toho’s Showa era tokusatsu films.
This is all only some of the great programming being offered this weekend! Check it out!
It’s an epic episode for
an epic movie! No, not that stupid
parody film. Nathan is joined by Daniel DiManna, the creator and author of The Godzilla
Novelization Project, to discuss Peter Jackson HUGE 2005 remake of King Kong. (Although, Danny had to
survive a harrowing trip to Monster Island with the podcast’s intrepid
producer, Jimmy From NASA, and a
certain robot dinosaur to do so). Only Peter Jackson, who was fresh off of The Lord of the Rings, could’ve made a
three hour film about a giant monkey, er, ape. Nathan and Danny do a deep dive
into the film’s characters, themes, and story while struggling not to get Jack
Driscoll and Jack Black confused. They freely admit this is the one giant
monster movie that makes them cry. They also learn that the young man named
Jimmy in this film may or may not be the podcast’s producer. (Confused? Join
the club). The Toku Topic is vaudeville since Ann Darrow in this film is a
vaudeville performer before getting work on Carl Denham’s movie.
Nathan promises to not
make a habit of producing episodes that cross what Danny calls “the Kurosawa
threshold.” 😛
Timestamps: Intro: 0:00-6:08
Entertaining Info Dump: 6:08-15:29
Toku Talk: 15:29-1:55:52
Toku Topic: 1:55:52-2:29:43
Outro: 2:29:43-end
King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray
to Peter Jackson by Ray Morton
“King Kong’s
Melancholy: A Reading of Peter Jackson’s King
Kong” by Cynthia Erb (from Tracking
King Kong: A Hollywood Icon in World Culture, 2nd Edition)
Kong Unmade: The Lost Films of Skull Island by John LeMay
A Night in Vaudeville (King Kong Blu-Ray)
Recreating the Eighth Wonder: The Making of King Kong (King
Kong Blu-Ray)
I’m delighted to say that
G-Fest XXVI was the best one I’ve attended yet. While I’m still a bit of a noob
to this convention (this was my third year), I was once again impressed with
the con-goers’ friendliness and family-like atmosphere. The best part was the
sheer amount of support and recognition I received. A few people recognized me
from my time on Kaijuvision
Radio (which, contrary to some reports, I am the co-creator of that show).
I seem to have made an impression on this fan community. I never expected that
to happen. I like a lot of things besides Godzilla and kaiju, but it’s here
that I’ve made some of my biggest strides of late.
But you didn’t come here
to hear me gush. You want to know what happened that weekend.
My brother Jarod and I
left early Thursday morning and drove three hours from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to
Rosemont, Illinois. We listened to the audiobook of Jurassic Park (a long overdue read for both of us, and an appropriate
one for this con) on YouTube as we went. Sadly, we were at a slight disadvantage
because we had to stay in the Comfort Inn and not the Crowne Plaza (where the
con was held), but there was a shuttle service to G-Fest, and we got a free
breakfast every morning. Can’t go wrong there.
Our first order of business
after unpacking my 2003 Subaru Legacy (which I named Tatsumaki) was the
film screenings at the Pickwick Theatre. It was there we met up with my
friend/fellow writer/co-panelist Danny DiManna, author/creator of the Godzilla Novelization
Project, and his entourage of family and friends and went to the first of
two double features at 1pm: Godzilla’s
Revenge and Ghidrah, the Three-Headed
Monster. We were a bit late to the first one, but our RiffTrax-style
commentary entertained everyone around us. Ghidrah
was fantastic on the big screen. Every time I see an older film—even those from
as recent as the 1980s—I see how much better their old-fashioned special
effects look because this was how they were meant to be seen. It was the dubbed
version, but the print was gorgeous.
After that, Jarod and I
partook of my G-Fest tradition: Thursday dinner at Giodano’s, a chain of pizzerias
that serves true Chicago-style pizza. We split a small deep-dish, which I
finished first because Jarod was still learning how to attack such thick pizza.
This was followed by the
second double-feature: The X from Outer
Space and Godzilla, Mothra, and King
Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. I’d never seen the former, so I
was unprepared for how (unintentionally?) hilarious it was. For one thing, it
had the worst dub I’ve ever heard. Me and another guy riffed it the entire
time. He had one joke that made me double over in my chair. In one of the worst
hull breach in space scenes I’ve ever seen, a character gets sucked butt-first
into the hole and gets stuck. In defiance of physics, his comrades pull him out
and patch the hole. My fellow riffer said, “‘You saved the ship!’ ‘You bet your
@$$!’” GMK was, thankfully, subtitled, but the subtitles weren’t entirely
accurate.
Friday started bright and early. Jarod and I rode the shuttle there and collected our badges and programs. I met with Danny, and we wandered down to the Kennedy Room to prep for our panel, Sekizawa and Kimura: A Tale of Two Screenwriters, at noon. I took Jarod to the orientation at 11am and went back down at 11:30am. People kept pouring in, especially after the orientation. I don’t know if it was because of it being one of the first panels of the con, the subject matter, or the pre-con hype leading up to it (it was mentioned by at least two podcasts beforehand), but the room was packed. Danny’s girlfriend, Tori, had to be our usher to find seats for people. I’ve never seen that room get that full in all my time at G-Fest. It was thrilling. We weren’t able to go through all of our material, and I wasn’t able to play my podcast trailer for everyone, but it was a resounding success. We want to host another one next year.
If you missed our panel
or want to watch it again, here’s the video:
I spent the rest of the
day attending a few more panels, including G-pardy tryouts (didn’t make it
again), a paleontologist panel on Godzilla, and Kevin Derendorf presenting on
kaiju fans in media. That evening we attended the opening ceremony, where the
guests gave emotional, heartfelt speeches to the fans (especially Sonoe
Nakajima, the daughter of Haruo Nakajima); Akira Takarada picked a kid from the
audience to get an expensive Gigan toy; and the kids’ costume parade was held.
I then made a brief appearance at what I expect will be the final listener
party for Kaijucast, the premiere
Godzilla/kaiju podcast, where I collected my prize from their
#MemeoftheMonsters contest and educated one fella on the politics of Shin Godzilla.
At 10:30pm, Jarod and I
returned to the Pickwick to see Godzilla:
King of the Monsters with a theatre full of fans. It was my third time
seeing it and his first. G-Fest crowds are famously rowdy, but I’ve never heard
them like this. It was glorious! I even squeezed in a joke that got a groan.
When a bunch of dead fish floated up after the detonation of the Oxygen Destroyer,
I yelled, “That’s a lot
of fish!” (My apologies to everyone who was present). The best part was
when we all sang along with the new
cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Godzilla” during the credits. A video of that
was shared on Twitter, and both director Michael Dougherty and composer Bear
McCreary teared up, it seemed.
Saturday was a whirlwind.
As usual, G-Fest is remarkably busy for a con of its size. I never feel like I
partake in everything. Panels tend to eat up most of my time. A few highlights:
the Akira Takarada interview, where he talked about growing up in China and
being wounded by Soviet soldiers as a child; the Shusuke Kaneko interview; the
Dawn of the Monsters video game panel (wherein I suggested they add
Indianapolis as a location); the Heisei Gamera panel; and the panel on the
unmade film Nessie.
I participated in two
more panels that day. The first was the Godzilla:
King of the Monsters panel with the guys from the YouTube channel
DangerVille, among others. Here’s the video of that:
After that was The Art of
Kaiju Writing, which I’ve been on every year I’ve gone to G-Fest. (What’s crazy
is I got on it in 2017 five minutes before it started—but that’s a story for
another day). It was four writers doing a Q&A on the craft of writing and
the publishing process. I recorded that panel, too, but it hasn’t been edited
or posted yet. Stay tuned! It has a tremendous amount of info for beginning
writers.
The traditional evening
events followed: awards and the adult costume parade. A guy in an inflatable Godzilla
costume, which are a dime a dozen usually, surprised everyone when he turned on
some red lights inside the suit, making him Burning Godzilla from KOTM.
Well-played, sir!
The Kaiju
Crescendo concert was held that night. I wanted very much to go, but I
ended up not attending because I wanted to save money (my budget has been tight
this summer). I kinda regret it, honestly. But Jarod didn’t want to go and
wanted to see Monster Zero at the
Pickwick, and since I didn’t want to abandon him, so we went there. A good time
was had by all. I heard, though, that attendance was split so much, it was
somewhat low for all events that night.
I went to a few panels
the next day, but I tried to hit up the places I didn’t get to the rest of the con,
like the Mecha-G Arcade, artist room, and dealer hall. I also got autographs
from both Akira Takarada and Shusuke Kaneko. Much to my surprise, Takarada-san
gave me two signatures! I gave him the booklet to my Criterion copy of Godzilla (1954), which he signed, and
then he grabbed the box and signed that, too! What a wonderful man!
The day ended with Kaiju
Confessions, a hilarious sing-along to kaiju film songs.