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Jimmy’s Notes on Episode 56: The Omni Viewer vs. ‘The Lost World’ (1925)

Published January 20, 2022

Did I ever tell you about the time I visited the fabled dinosaur plateau Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about in his novel The Lost World? And how there was a “hot girl” involved? No? Good, because I’m saving that for my autobiography. Regardless, despite some sidekick shenanigans from that wannabe Muppet, Snazzy Chapeau, when Omni Viewer visited for MIFV’s season three premiere (episode 56), I managed to take a few good notes for my first Jimmy’s Notes blog of 2022. I may not be contractually obligated to do follow-ups for Nate, but someone has to fact-check this goofball. So, here you go:

  • William Rutherford wasn’t the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes; only Prof. Challenger. According to Wikipedia,

Conan Doyle repeatedly said that Holmes was inspired by the real-life figure of Joseph Bell, a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, whom Conan Doyle met in 1877 and had worked for as a clerk. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing broad conclusions from minute observations. However, he later wrote to Conan Doyle: “You are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it”.[14] Sir Henry Littlejohn, Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, is also cited as an inspiration for Holmes. Littlejohn, who was also Police Surgeon and Medical Officer of Health in Edinburgh, provided Conan Doyle with a link between medical investigation and the detection of crime.

  • The Lost City of Z was a 2009 nonfiction book by David Gran. It was made into a movie starring Charlie Hunnam in 2016. As for whether it was found or not, Wikipedia says,

Researchers believe that Fawcett may have been influenced in his thinking by information obtained from indigenous people about the archaeological site of Kuhikugu, near the headwaters of the Xingu River. After Fawcett’s presumed death in the jungle, Kuhikugu was discovered by Westerners in 1925. The site contains the ruins of an estimated twenty towns and villages in which as many as 50,000 people might once have lived. The discovery of other large geometrical earthworks in interfluvial settings of southern Amazonia has since been recognised as supporting Fawcett’s theory.

  • I’m not sure this was the only time Willis O’Brien used a football bladder to simulate breathing in his creatures. Wikipedia claims this was also done in King Kong (1933), but a citation is needed.
  • I found the opening theme of the Lost World TV series mentioned by Omni, and Nate said he remembered seeing a bit of it when I show it to him.
  • All this prequel talk…I’m having flashbacks to sand…I can’t go to the beach now…and I live on an Island!
  • Mammoths and mastodons are, in fact, not the same. Similar, but not the same. Read more here.
  • I checked the film during the city rampage, and there wasn’t a full-sized head. However, there were some excellent close-ups of the stopmotion puppet.
  • I always do internet searches with safe mode turned off. It’s more…exciting that way.
  • “Jimmygon” has a nice ring to it. I’ll get the Island’s geneticists on that right now!
  • Actually, there are studies that show people with bigger brains are smarter. No wonder Nate is a genius: he has a big head. 😛
  • I am 110% behind a boxing Cope and Marsh skeletons sculpture. I’ll petition Winter and the Board immediately!

Now for the ever-important—and increasingly large—leftover notes from Nate’s research with my riffs commentary.

THE FILM

  •  “Jocko” played by himself.
  • The plot moves briskly compared to novel. Characters introduced very quickly. Skips to lecture to introduce Challenger.
  • Gotta love the “overacting” and funny jump cuts mid-scene. (Reminds me of the show’s host. 😛 –Jimmy)
  • “Cock-and-bull story.” Ha! (Is this the “rule 34” version? –Jimmy)
  • In the Amazon. Just South America in novel?
  • Dead for 10 million years. More than that!
  • There wasn’t a Miss White in the novel, either. Not gonna lie: she’s pretty. Maple White’s daughter. Of course she’s the beautiful assistant. (No complaining here. –Jimmy)
  • Wait…is that Sherlock!? Or someone cosplaying him? (The first in-film Easter egg? –Jimmy)
  • Jocko the monkey wasn’t in the novel, either. Added for comic relief. (At least he isn’t a Gungan. –Jimmy)
  • I think Malone’s letters are text from the novel.
  • They’re introducing the ape-men already?! Proto-Chewbacca. (Does he rip arms out of socket? –Jimmy)
  • Pterodactyl was first in novel.
  • Okay, don’t tell us that Malone saved the bug.
  • The tree bridge. Another forerunner to Kong.
  • Really? Stop to catch the insect in middle of bridge? (I did that once…but I don’t want to talk about it. –Jimmy)
  • Brontosaurus takes out bridge—and squishes some spiders. (Ah. A spider pit joke. Hilarious. –Jimmy)
  • PSYCHO MONKEY?! WTF?!
  • The allosaurus vs. other dino fight is impressive if inferior to Kong. He picks his teeth? Arms too long.
  • Yes, he wiped out the last of a wood-tick species.
  • The trees have eyes.
  • Is that a torch or a giant cigarette? And it’s in color?! (That’s what wiped out the dinosaurs: smoking. –Jimmy)
  • The allosaurus vs. triceratops fight is one of the more famous scenes—and it’s gory! Trike wins. But then another allosaurus gets revenge for its mate. (“Dino Vengeance” is a B-movie waiting to happen. –Jimmy)
  • No one is paying attention to the dinosaur fights! The proto-kaiju fights!
  • The ape-man is very drooly.
  • Challenger is taking up pole dancing, and he sucks at it. 😛 (This is the “rule 34” version. –Jimmy)
  • They never call this place “Maple White Land.”
  • They play drums when he shoots the gun. Clever. “Mickey Mouse-ing.”
  • “Dam liar”? A liar about dams?
  • The colors fit the moods of the scenes very well. Red for eruption.
  • Does the allosaurus want to eat the bronto or hitch a ride during the eruption?!(“Rule 34” version…again? –Jimmy)
  • “Rock climbing monkey, Joel.” You just better hope he doesn’t fill and hang himself.
  • Jocko carried a rope ladder?!
  • I was waiting for the ape-man with the Joker smile to kidnap Paula. Because Kong.
  • Oh my gosh! Paula looks like Ann Darrow at the end! It’s very Kong.
  • Ten feet long? That’s WAY bigger!

Other Sources

Byrd (in LeMay)

  • As a teenage drifter, O’Brien was a guide for a fossil excavation for the University of Southern California.
  • The origins of the film are a complex feud between O’Brien and a fellow animator named Herbert Dawley. They were constantly fighting over the credit to O’Brien’s work in short films, particularly The Ghost of Slumber Mountain, and the legal shenanigans led to O’Brien working with producer Watterson Rothacker on this film. Dawley sued O’Brien over the animation process, citing patent violation, but this was settled out of court. There’s still debate over how much of Slumber Mountain was animated by either of them.
  • Over 50 dinosaurs were made for the film, and they included bladders to simulate breathing, saliva made with shellac and rubber cement, chocolate syrup to simulate blood.

Commentary by Nicolas Ciccone

  • The credits in this restoration was made for it.
  • There’s a missing scene that explains why the paper sends Malone to cover the story despite his clumsiness: basically, to get lawsuit money.
  • Wallace Beery (who played Challenger) was just like his character.
  • Many scholars theorize that Malone’s coming-of-age story arc was inspired by Doyle himself.
  • Bessie Love, who plays Paula, hated all the close-ups of her. (I didn’t. –Jimmy)
  • The attack by the cannibals explains why Zambo’s arm is broken later. Only stills remain of these scenes.
  • A 15-foot pterodactyl fossil was found in Brazil in the 1990s and named after Doyle.
  • Gomez, a “half-breed” character cut from the film, caused the tree bridge disaster. He’s a traitor.
  • The film doesn’t say how Maple White died, but the script has Roxton find a rifle bent in half. The implication was it was the ape-man.
  • The plateau is a bit too easy to find in the film.
  • The cast didn’t like working with Jocko. He bit and peed on everyone.
  • The romance is trite, but it could serve as a metaphor for the plateau: it’s a place of adventure and wonder we all wish we could visit.
  • A scene unfilmed from the script has Challenger and company on a ship with a caged bronto.
  • The end of the drunk’s scene, while not in the script, was described in a review as returning with a bottle of milk for a cat that grew huge.
  • Missed opportunity: Make Paula more adventurous.

“The Lost World: Secrets of the Restoration” by Serge Bromberg (and other essays in the booklet)

  • Many film historians link the decision to destroy prints of this film with the production of King Kong a few months later.
  • The first restoration by George Eastman House, used surviving 35mm Kodak nitrate negatives and a 35mm print found in the National Film Archive of the Czech Republic in 1992. It was an export copy that didn’t use the best angles (it was filmed with a second camera). The restoration was made for $80,000 given by the National Endowment for the Arts—and classic film buff Hugh Heffner(!).
    • The animated map sequence was in the trailer, and no one knows if it was a concept for the film or only the trailer.
    • It’s 76 minutes long and was published as an unlisted bonus feature on the DVD of the 1960 version.
  • David Shepherd Restoration (2000)
    • This used the same materials plus a few more. This big difference was the use of digital technology to upgrade the picture quality to standard-definition TV.  
    • The promotional footage found by Doyle was found at this time in the Robert Youngson collection.
    • The original footage of Doyle at his writing table was lost but was replaced with footage of him sitting on a bench addressing the audience from a 1927 Movietone film.
    • This was edited at the Lobster Films studio in Paris.
    • Two scores were commissioned for the film, including one by Robert Israel that harkened back to ‘20s-era films. The other was more modern.
    • 93 minutes long.
  • 2016 Restoration
    • Several months after the release of the previous restoration, David Adamitis contacted Lobster Films and gave them several cans of film, including some A negatives for The Lost World. These included color tints and missing scenes.
    • This was put together frame-by-frame by a three-man team over the course of six months using 2k technology and several other newly-discovered elements. Robert Israel composed another score for this one.
  • The music Israel composed included a Brazilian lullaby about a bogeyman called “Tutu Maramba,” which is sung by mothers to children to ward off evil so they may sleep. He adapted it to strings for the native girl playing guitar.

Season three of my always-essential blogs is off to a great start. This is going to be fun.

Next time YouTuber and up-and-coming filmmaker Kaiju Kim returns to continue the “Godzilla Redux” subseries by discussing Rodan (1956), which was the only non-Godzilla kaiju she watched a lot as a child. Then we get back to “Ameri-kaiju” with (hopefully) the original Tourist crew (Nick Hayden, Timothy Deal, Joe and Joy Metter) for King Kong (1933)’s spiritual sequel, Mighty Joe Young (1949). Exciting times for patriotic Kaiju Lovers ahead!

Social media:

#JimmyFromNASALives       #WeShallOvercome

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Episode 56: The Omni Viewer vs. ‘The Lost World’ (1925)

Published January 12, 2022

Hello, Kaiju Lovers! And welcome to season three of The Monster Island Film Vault! We begin 2022 with a brand new series focusing on giant monster films from the U.S.A., “Ameri-kaiju.” To launch this special occasion, Nate is joined by returning guest/YouTuber/author Ryan “The Omni Viewer” Collins (and his kaiju-muppet-thing sidekick, Snazzy, who butts heads with Nate’s sidekick, the intrepid producer Jimmy From NASA) to discuss the prototypical kaiju film, The Lost World (1925). You’re about to hear one of the most MIFV of MIFV episodes: literary analysis, film appreciation, witty banter, hilarious puns, and wild history. What more could you want?

Before the broadcast, Nate meets Dr. Nick Tatopoulos, the leader of H.E.A.T., in the KIJU breakroom (and pronounces the man’s name correctly) while fighting with the coffeemaker. Nick talks about his hostile history with the Island’s new boss, Cameron Winter—and then the crooked tycoon calls them on Nate’s phone!

The Omni Viewer’s YouTube channel.

This episode’s prologue, “Dr. Tatopoulos, I Presume,” was written by Nathan Marchand.

Read Jimmy’s Notes on this episode.

Guest stars:

  • J.R. Villers as Nick Tatopoulos
  • Jack “GMan” Hudgens as Cameron Winter

Additional music:

  • “Stomp the World” by Jim Latham
  • “Pacific Rim” by Niall Stenson

Sound effects sourced from Freesound.org.

Check out Nathan’s spinoff podcasts, The Henshin Men and The Power Trip.

We’d like to give a shout-out to our MIFV MAX patrons Travis Alexander and Michael Hamilton (co-hosts of Kaiju Weekly); 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, and Ted Williams! Thanks for your support!

You, too, can join MIFV MAX on Patreon to get this and other perks starting at only $3 a month!

Buy official MIFV merch on TeePublic!

Timestamps:

  • Prologue: 0:00-6:21
  • Intro: 6:21-16:19
  • Entertaining Info Dump: 16:19-24:53
  • Toku Talk: 24:53-1:40:30
  • Promo: 1:40:30-1:41:56
  • Toku Topic: 1:41:56-2:13:06
  • Housekeeping & Outro: 2:13:06-end

This episode is approved by Cameron Winter and the Monster Island Board of Directors.

Podcast Social Media:

www.MonsterIslandFilmVault.com

#JimmyFromNASALives       #MonsterIslandFilmVault       #Amerikaiju

© 2022 Moonlighting Ninjas Media

Bibliography/Further Reading:

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Jimmy’s Notes on Episode 55: ‘Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century’ (feat. Travis Alexander and Daniel DiManna)

Published January 10, 2022

So, you might be wondering what I was doing after that Scottish scallywag George Three tased me during Episode 55 (Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century). It’s actually quite simple, you see. I was conscious the entire time, of course, just biding my time. I would’ve probably “Kirk chopped” him sooner, but I got a little distracted playing Candy Crush on my phone. Then my battery died, and I thought, “Well, I should probably kill this bastard.” So, there I was, sitting in the room, fearing for my life. And then I rose up behind him, you see. It’s a good thing I’m a Star Trek fan or else I wouldn’t have thought of this, but I snuck up behind him and raised my arm to exact right degree (I spent a lot of time staring at William Shatner—I realize that might’ve sounded strange), and brought it right down in the perfect spot on his trapezius muscle to temporarily stop the blood flow to his booze-addled brain and knock him out. (If you, too, would like to learn to fight like Captain James T. Kirk and yours truly, check out the Kirk Fu Manual. I got it for Nate as a Christmas gift, and he’s working toward his blackbelt).

But I was still doing my due diligence as MIFV’s intrepid producer. I took some notes right under WHG3’s drunk nose. So, without further ado, here’s my final Jimmy’s Notes of season two.

  • For the record, gentlemen, this…movie was 118 minutes long when released in Italy, 105 minutes when released in the U.S., and is 101 minutes on blu-ray (and, I assume, on streaming). Not sure why.
  • The Night of the Lepus episode, Travis. That was the Kaiju Weekly episode you were thinking of when discussing how you don’t like intentionally bad movies.
  • I’m not 100% sure what “moose kaiju” movie that drunk was talking about, but I think it might be Moose: The Movie.
  • Here’s a gif of “disco yeti.” Read more about him here.
  • Travis was kind enough to provide me with the “Georgia Bigfoot” story he brought up.
  • If you think WHG3’s drunk profanities are bad, you should hear me after I pound down a few bottles of Jack Daniels. I make sailors blush.

Now, for the last time in season two, Nate’s leftover notes. (Actually, they’re the notes provided by that Scottish booze hound, but who’s keeping track?)

Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century Notes

THE MOVIE

  • Opening shot: the polar icecaps are melting. What does this have to do with anything? (Answer: everything. Don’t you pay attention to Greta Thunberg? –Jimmy)
  • Title’s in two completely different fonts. (So? –Jimmy)
  • Is the opening music a classic opera theme we hear in everything?
  • Why are they thawing this thing in the wild? (Best not to ask this movie questions. It might strangle you with its toes. –Jimmy)
  • The crowd can be seen through some objects in the effects.
  • I’M AN ELEPHANT! And King Kong! That roar gets reused.
  • Watch it! He’s got a tree! (He stole that move from Kong –Jimmy)
  • They’re not in a well, Lassie!
  • What do you know about cannibals?! (That they are what they eat. 😛 –Jimmy)
  • Did he catch a mama fish with a baby fish?!
  • Freaking yeti is horny after sleeping for a million years.
  • Those little tufts of “fur” reminded the yeti of his mate and family?
  • How? Just…how could he mistake the tiny humans for his “family”? At least with Kong the implication is he’s lonely.
  • Did this thing inspire the Yeti brand tumblers? (No. –Jimmy)
  • “Slavery”? That’s for people! Not yetis! (You species-ist bastard! 😛  –Jimmy)
  • Niagara Falls, you say? I’ve been there. Insert stock footage?
  • Remind me what those shady dealings have to do with anything?
  • Good grief, this wants SO MUCH to be King Kong. (We all have dreams –Jimmy)
  • The windows are TV screens! (Sounds like my apartment. –Jimmy)
  • Oh yeah, he’s totally hiding. In plain daylight when he’s 50-feet tall!
  • Oh yeah, a lamb who smashes builds, rips up elevators like weeds, and nearly kills a 100 people! (A sheep kaiju? –Jimmy)
  • Hulk van to the rescue?
  • How’d they get a breathing apparatus that big? (Again, don’t ask questions. It’s dangerous. –Jimmy)
  • How did Yeti know which one didn’t have Herbie?
  • The matte lines are very prominent at points on Yeti.
  • Why are you rolling and not running? (The questions! –Jimmy)
  • It’s a yeti miracle, I guess.

Other Sources

LeMay – Kong Unmade (1st and 2nd editions)

  • Yeti takes a paternal interest in Jane’s brother. He’s angered by flashbulbs (very Kong-esque).
  • A healthy number of extras in some scenes.
  • Says it’d make for a great double feature with The Mighty Peking Man.

Research on Yeti Cryptid

  • Radford:
    • “In March 1986, Anthony Wooldridge, a hiker in the Himalayas, saw what he thought was a Yeti standing in the snow near a ridge about 500 feet (152 meters) away. It didn’t move or make noise, but Wooldridge saw odd tracks in the snow that seemed to lead toward the figure. He took two photographs of the creature, which were later analyzed and proven genuine.”
    • “Many in the Bigfoot community seized upon the photos as clear evidence of a Yeti, including John Napier, an anatomist and anthropologist who had served as the Smithsonian Institution’s director of primate biology. Many considered it unlikely Wooldridge could have made a mistake because of his extensive hiking experience in the region. The following year, researchers returned to where Wooldridge had taken the photos and discovered that he had simply seen a dark rock outcropping that looked vertical from his position. It was all a mistake — much to the embarrassment of some Yeti believers.”
  • Cryptid Wiki
    • “The Yeti was even mentioned in pre-Buddhist cultures, such as the Lecha people, who worshiped a “Glacier Giant.” Tibetan and Nepalese monasteries have collected several skulls and bones of the yetis, some which preside in the Smithsonian Museum today. Although one of their specimens was proven to be a human bone, others contained the museum are still in question.”
    • “In 1832, James Prinsep’s Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal published an account by B.H. Hodgson, a trekker in Northern Nepal, in which he describes spotting a large bipedal creature covered in long dark hair. Hodgson believed it was an orangutan.”
  • Wikipedia
    • Reports of footprints started in 1899.
    • The famous Eric Shipton footprint photos of 1950 and the 1972 Cronin-McNeely footprint photo were deemed to be bear tracks by Daniel C. Taylor in 2017.

With this, my long-overdue final Jimmy’s Notes for season two of the show is complete. It’s just as surreal for me to write that as it is for Nate to say it on the air. 2021 was a crazy year, and while I’m not completely sold on the new boss, it can only go up from here. Right?

Did I ever tell you about the one time I infiltrated Solstice Technologies HQ with Monique Dupre? No, because that story is reserved for my autobiography.

On to season three! We launch “Ameri-kaiju” with what’s sure to be a deep literary discussion between Nate and YouTube personality Ryan “The Omni Viewer” Collins and his sidekick, Snazzy, on The Lost World (1925). That…whatever-he-is keeps trying to compete with me for best sidekick. He doesn’t know who he’s dealing with, obviously. Then “Godzilla Redux” continues with a small diversion: Rodan (1956). We’ll be joined by another YouTuber and returning guest: Kaiju Kim.

AMERICA…@#$% YEAH!

Social media:

#JimmyFromNASALives       #WeShallOvercome

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Episode 55 – ‘Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century’ (feat. Travis Alexander and Daniel DiManna)

Published December 23, 2021

Welcome to MIFV’s season finale, kaiju lovers—it wasn’t what it was supposed to be! No, after the Board’s envoy, William H. George III, stunguns the ever-intrepid Jimmy From NASA, he takes over as producer and forces Nate, Travis Alexander (co-host of Kaiju Weekly and Henshin Men), and Daniel DiManna (author/creator of the Godzilla Novelization Project) to watch the infamous 1977 Canadian-but-actually-Italian kaiju movie, Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century. Though Nate survived watching it during Kaiju Quarantine, he’s still unprepared for inflatable abominable snowman nipples and deadly “toe-fu.” The riffs and jokes abound amidst actual research as WHG3 gets drunker—and more Scottish?!—as the episode progresses. God(zilla) help Nate!

This episode’s prologue, “The Board’s Revenge,” was written by Nathan Marchand with Travis Alexander, Michael Hamilton, and Daniel DiManna.

Guest stars:

  • Michael Hamilton as William H. George III

Additional music:

  • “Opening the Way” by Pablo Coma

Sound effects sourced from Freesound.org and Toho foley.

Listen to Nathan Marchand and Travis Alexander’s spinoff podcast, The Henshin Men, on Redcircle.

We’d like to give a shout-out to our MIFV MAX patrons Travis Alexander and Michael Hamilton (co-hosts of Kaiju Weekly); 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, Elijah Thomas, and Eric Anderson! Thanks for your support!

You, too, can join MIFV MAX on Patreon to get this and other perks starting at only $3 a month!

Buy official MIFV merch on TeePublic!

This episode is approved by the Monster Island Board of Directors…maybe.

Timestamps:

  • Prologue: 0:00-5:15
  • Intro: 5:15-11:28
  • Main Discussion: 11:28-1:39:36
  • Housekeeping & Outro: 1:39:36-1:52:25
  • Epilogue: 1:52:25-end

Podcast Social Media:

www.MonsterIslandFilmVault.com

#JimmyFromNASALives       #MonsterIslandFilmVault

© 2021 Moonlighting Ninjas Media

Bibliography/Further Reading:

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MIFV MAX #5: “Ask Me Anything” 2nd Anniversary Special

Published October 27, 2021

No, this isn’t episode 51. In light of falling behind on episode 50, catching up with my new job, and life in general, I’ve had to delay episode 51. I should hopefully have it done in a week or less. But in the meantime, as I get the podcast back on schedule, please enjoy this audio version of MIFV MAX #5, which was a livestream I did on the podcast’s YouTube channel on it’s actual second anniversary.

You can watch the video version here.

From YouTube:

“To celebrate the podcast’s actual second anniversary (which was September 25, 2019), I’ll be holding an “Ask Me Anything” session. Got questions about the podcast? Ask away in the chat (or beforehand)!”

We’d like to give a shout-out to our MIFV MAX patrons Travis Alexander and Michael Hamilton (co-hosts of Kaiju Weekly); 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, and Elijah Thomas! Thanks for your support!

You, too, can join MIFV MAX on Patreon to get this and other perks starting at only $3 a month!

Buy official MIFV merch on TeePublic!

This episode is NOT approved by the Monster Island Board of Directors.

Podcast Social Media:

www.MonsterIslandFilmVault.com

#JimmyFromNASALives       #MonsterIslandFilmVault

© 2021 Moonlighting Ninjas Media

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Bonus Episode #9: The Convoluted King Kong Copyright

Published October 13, 2021

“Hold on there, Nate!” you’re saying. “This isn’t Episode 50!” And you’re right. I underestimated how time-consuming a project Episode 50 would be, so…it’s being delayed one week. The bright side is, including this bonus episode, you’re getting content from me for three Wednesdays in a row!

What is this? Think of it as a “lost episode” that’s outside MIFV continuity. It was a project I did for a Writing for Multimedia class when I was in grad school back in 2019. I researched copyright law since I knew I’d be covering that on a future episode of the podcast (King Kong Lives with John LeMay), so I shared my research in a creative way with this. (I got an “A,” by the way). This was originally exclusive to Patreon, and I did intend to release it before episode 50, but that was supplanted by the Monster Island Gatekeepers episode. Regardless, consider this a small gift for being patient as I finish Episode 50. Thanks!

Sound effects sourced from Freesound.org.

We’d like to give a shout-out to our MIFV MAX patrons Travis Alexander and Michael Hamilton (co-hosts of Kaiju Weekly); 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, and Elijah Thomas! Thanks for your support!

You, too, can join MIFV MAX on Patreon to get this and other perks starting at only $3 a month!

Check out MIFV MAX #4 to learn how you can help make Episode 50—MIFV’s second anniversary special—possible!

Buy official MIFV merch on TeePublic!

Podcast Social Media:

www.MonsterIslandFilmVault.com

#JimmyFromNASALives       #MonsterIslandFilmVault

© 2021 Moonlighting Ninjas Media

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Jimmy’s Notes on Episode 38: Eric Anderson vs. ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’

Published April 21, 2021

Well, this is annoying.

Nate and I were transferring files between our respective laptops, and in the shuffle an older version of “Jimmy’s Notes” overwrote the newer version.

In other words, my notes on episode 38 (Godzilla vs. Kong) were lost.

Damnit, Marchand!

I can tell you that my notes included bullet points about:

  • Eric mispronouncing something.
  • H.E.A.T. being sent to the Hollow Earth to get Titanus Doug succeeded in finding him, and he was released on Monster Island today.
  • The fact that a kaiju version of Alcoholics Anonymous should probably be started in light of Kong’s latest antics. Speaking as someone who’s been known to drink a bit too much Jack Daniels on occasion (and get into bar fights), I know how Kong feels.
  • Realizing I’m 0-2 against Kong with Mechani-Kong Mk. 2. In my defense, I was trying to incapacitate and not kill him both times. If I ever went all out with Mechani-Kong Mk. 2, the results would’ve been much different. Regardless, my pride has recovered since then.
  • Nate needing to get his own tux! He asked me to loan him mine, but it wouldn’t fit. He owes it to himself to get his own, just like Eric said.
  • How getting Jet Jaguar fitted for a tux was … weird. Especially now with his Singular Point mods. I had to call in a favor with a special tailor.
  • How it wasn’t “Kongtainment,” Nate. It was just “Kong Containment.”

Here’s Nate’s leftover notes … which is a lot.

The Film

  • Someone should merchandise Jia’s Kong doll. (I’m sure the Board will get on that. –Jimmy)
  • I like the MV credits sequences. There are lots of throwbacks to past MV films in here. Like Randa talking about the many ecosystems. Then we get a rundown of Godzilla and Kong’s past exploits.
  • I heard some people say that Bernie was Alex Jones. That’s not far off. I didn’t mind him, but that might be because I know a few people like him. (Even Alex Jones is right sometimes. –Jimmy)
  • Like in K33, they just put Kong on a huge raft with no explanation of how. I prefer that. Given the big jump in technology in this, you just learn to accept it.
  • Some things get repeated a bit too much at first. “Ancient rivalry” is one.
  • Call me crazy, but the finger touch reminds me of the Da Vinci painting of God touching Adam. (I thought Kong was the “king” not the “god.” –Jimmy)
  • I love the van scene because it makes me think of Stranger Things with the ‘80s-sounding techno.
  • I heard someone complain about the Tide pod reference. It would’ve been a long time after that, but it makes sense that he’d be leery of internet challenges and would still be dealing with lawsuits. Maybe it was an adlib?
  • The score doesn’t have nostalgic tunes like KOTM, but it does have shades of them. It’s somewhere between G14 and KOTM.
  • I love how Kong is puzzled by snow. (Sometimes it puzzles me, too, so he’s in good company. –Jimmy)
  • Josh naming MG seems a bit odd. It really should’ve been Ren Serizawa. (Or me. –Jimmy)
  • I really did feel a bit sorry for the Skullcrawler MG kills. It does show how much of a threat MG is because those things were terrifying in Kong: Skull Island.
  • The Heisei Gamera trilogy is all over the MV G-films. This has Gamera 3 in it. Godzilla is protecting the Earth/nature and not humanity, which means he causes lots of collateral damage without regard to humans.
  • When Jia signs about Kong’s heartbeat, she beats her chest a bit like Kong. I like that. (It’s cute. Is it her sign for Kong? –Jimmy)

Toku Topic: Theaters vs. Streaming

These are mostly quotations from the following sources:

  • https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/02/movie-theater-owners-are-frustrated-about-streaming-but-their-survival-depends-on-studios.html
  • “According to a study held in June 2020, just 14 percent of adults said that they strongly preferred seeing a movie for the first time in a theater, and 36 percent said that they would much rather stream the film at home than visit a cinema. Preferences for watching a new release in a cinema instead of via a streaming service in the United States changed significantly between 2018 and 2020, signaling a shift in consumer behavior and potentially a risk for movie theaters in the country. Also important to note is the effect of the coronavirus on consumer confidence. There was a drop in the share of movie fans willing to visit cinemas between March and June 2020, likely the result of consumers fearing the risk of infection and feeling more comfortable viewing movies in the safety of their own home.”
  • “Studios and exhibition have always had a lovely but contentious relationship,” one movie theater operator with locations in the southern part of the U.S. said on condition of anonymity. “Exhibition is basically a business that has blank screens and empty seats and we can’t do what we do without the studios.”
  • “These windows were created by studios decades ago in an effort ‘to get multiple bites out of the same apple,’ another movie theater operator said.”
  • “Netflix Inc has streamed original movies at the same time, or just a few weeks after, their debut in cinemas. Competitor Amazon Studios has said it would like some of its films to play for only two to eight weeks in theaters before hitting the Amazon Prime Video streaming service.”
  • “Director Steven Spielberg told Britain’s ITV News last year that movies seen primarily via streaming should compete for Emmys, not Oscars. A representative declined to comment on whether the director will urge the Academy to address the issue.”
  • Before the pandemic, there was talk of extending the theater duration times for big budget films and allowing smaller films to head to “direct-to-consumer” channels faster. But when cinemas were forced to close for six months (or more), cinemas were forced to adhere to much shorter releases. Many faced bankruptcy.
  • Theaters owners and other industry observers were quick to criticize Warner’s move. Chris Johnson, the CEO of Classic Cinemas, called Warner’s decision “ridiculous and short-sighted,” and Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC Theaters, argued that Warner would “sacrifice a considerable portion of the profitability” of movies that bypassed the traditional theatrical release. David Sims piled on in The Atlantic, saying of Warner’s decision, “Audiences will have little incentive to pay more to see these films in theaters.” His conclusion? “Theater chains are right to fear for their survival.”
  • You know who else hated it? Christopher Nolan. He spoke against it vehemently in defense of the theater-going experience (it might’ve been to promote Tenet, but who knows).
  • “PwC partner CJ Bangah told me her big consulting firm’s annual media and entertainment outlook is projecting a 65% drop in global revenues for the movie sector.”
  • “Worse, Bangah said, recovery for the film industry is a long ways away. As she delicately put it, it’s ‘within the realm of possibility’ that the industry will fight through an “uphill battle” to full recovery, but ‘we’re not forecasting a return to 2019 revenue levels in the five years of our forecast for cinema.’”
  • “Shorter windows would keep some customers at home, said Greg Marcus, chief executive of The Marcus Corporation, owner of the fourth-largest U.S. theater chain. ‘If you damage the business and take away 10 percent of our customers, we won’t be able to reinvest in the theatrical experience,” Marcus said. “That would ultimately hurt content providers.’”
  • “In the study, we analyzed what happened to theatrical revenue in Korea from 2015 through 2018 — a period during which Hollywood studios significantly shortened the exclusive theatrical windows for their releases, from three months to only one month. We found that, after controlling for differences between movies with early digital releases versus traditional release windows, early releases had a statistically and economically insignificant impact on theater sales, equivalent to around a 0.8% drop in total theatrical revenue during the first eight weeks of the movie’s theatrical run in Korea. Most theatergoers, it turned out, remained loyal to the theatrical experience even when they had the option of watching the movie at home while the movie was still showing in theaters.” Take this with caution.
  • “What we learned in our Korean study suggests that a similar effect may exist for movies, which in turn suggests that John Fithian, the president of the National Association of Theater Owners, was right when he argued that ‘theaters provide a beloved immersive, shared experience that cannot be replicated’ — but that Jason Kilar, the CEO of WarnerMedia, was also right when said that early digital releases provided an opportunity to give customers a choice ‘whether that choice is to enjoy a great new movie out at the cinema, to open up HBO Max, or to do both.’”
  • In 2019 (before the dark times—before the COVID), Christina Garnett wrote, “Maybe we’ve already chosen the user experience we want… instant, at our fingertips, and cheaper than the traditional alternative.”

Okay, it wasn’t as much as I expected.

Next week you’ll hear the return of another member of my ever-growing rogues gallery, and this time he brought a friend: Jack “GMan” Hudgens and J.R. Villers from The Drift Space podcast. They came to continue the “Year of Gamera” with a movie that dramatizes an exciting chapter of my life: Gamera vs. Viras. Yes, I have lasso skills and helped Gamera fight aliens. How do you think I got a job at NASA? Then poor Nate has to suffer through a second Gamera movie in a row with Gamera vs. Guiron, and he’ll be joined by Luke Jaconetti of the Earth Destruction Directive podcast and Greg Meyer, who hosts several podcasts.

Until then, remember: #WeShallOvercome

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Episode 38: Eric Anderson vs. ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’

Published April 14, 2021

Hello, kaiju lovers!

Finally, the “Kong Quest” comes to an end! After months of delays due to avoiding competition and COVID-19, Godzilla vs. Kong has been released. It’s not a fever dream—it’s real! Nate is joined by his friend, Nerd Chapel founder Eric Anderson, to discuss the epic rematch nearly 60 years in the making. They host a special premiere for the Legendary film at the newly opened Denham Theater, an event that’s been delayed and rescheduled as often as the film’s release. A cavalcade of special guests attends, including the little Iwi deaf girl Jia. She is the youngest of “Kong’s Queens,” all the surviving ladies who have captivated the Eighth Wonder over the years. Nate and Eric dive deep into the deceptively simple movie, discussing Kong’s “hero’s journey,” the Jules Verne-ian/Edgar Rice Burroughs-ian world-building, and its theme of mankind trying to control forces greater than themselves. You’ll also hear them compare the movie to Conan the Barbarian, Die Hard, and The Lord of the Rings.

The Toku Topic isn’t about the content of the movie itself but a debate raging around it: movie theaters vs. streaming services. Which do you prefer to see a movie for the first time?

Afterward, Nate and company hear that Kong had too much to drink at the after-party and has gone on a drunken rampage. MIFV’s intrepid producer, Jimmy From NASA, volunteers to handle the situation the best way he knows how: Mechani-Kong Mk. 2. That goes about as well as you’d expect, so Nate and Eric recruit one of “Kong’s Queens” for help so beauty can save the beast for once.

Prologue and Epilogue written by Nathan Marchand with Eric Anderson.

Music:
-“Here We Go” by Chris Classic
-“Pensacola, Florida (Godzilla Theme” by Junkie XL
-“Skull Island (Kong Theme)” by Junkie XL
-“A New Language” by Junkie XL
-“Main Title” by Moscow Symphony Orchestra, composed by Max Steiner

Sound effects sourced from Freesound.org (including some by InspectorJ).

We’d like to give a shout-out to our MIFV MAX patrons Travis Alexander and Michael Hamilton (co-hosts of Kaiju Weekly); Danny DiManna (author/creator of the Godzilla Novelization Project); Eli Harris (elizilla13); Chris Cooke (host of One Cross Radio); Bex from Redeemed Otaku; and Damon Noyes! Thanks for your support!

You, too, can join MIFV MAX on Patreon to get this and other perks starting at only $3 a month!

Check out Nerd Chapel and the 42 devotional books!

This episode is approved by the Monster Island Board of Directors.

Timestamps:
Intro/Prologue: 0:00-11:40
Entertaining Info Dump: 11:40-22:24
Toku Talk: 22:24-1:46:55
Ad: 1:46:55-1:47:47
Toku Topic: 1:47:47-2:14:12
Housekeeping & Outro: 2:14:12-2:23:16
Epilogue: 2:23:16-end

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Special Report #2: ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ (SPOILERS!)

Published April 1, 2021
Poster by Kyle Gilmore.

Greetings, kaiju lovers!

It’s the day after the BIGGEST kaiju film of the year—if not the decade—Godzilla vs. Kong has premiered across the world in theaters and on HBO Max, and Nate is diving headlong into a spoiler discussion! You won’t believe what you hear: surprise appearances from a famous henshin hero and the new so-called “king of the monsters.” Heck, apparently even Nate and his intrepid producer, Jimmy From NASA made cameos in the movie! That’s what happens when you need a podcaster and an engineer. And then a famous “final warrior” calls in to explain how he gave Godzilla a nose ring.

Whether you’ve seen the film or not, you’d be a fool not to listen to this special bonus episode!

Podcast Social Media:
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