Found this video the other night. Youtube has a plethora of these sort of things, but this one’s well-thought piece on the video-maker’s favorite giant movie monsters. He’s obviously partial to stop-motion monsters, and I can understand that. It was an intricate art, now lost on the CGI-spoiled crowd. But personally, my top ten list would probably consist almost entirely of Toho Productions monsters. I’m partial to the rubber suits.
I’d have to include a couple of CGI critters as well, including the Cloverfield monster (great movie!) and the Lord of the Rings’ Balrog. And if I was going to emphasize stop-motion monsters I’d have to include the Blob and the It Came from Beneath the Sea monster, particularly in its iconic scene tearing down the Golden Gate Bridge with its tentacles.
And I’d have to include Darryl Hannah’s version of the 50 Foot Woman.
But this guy’s list is good.
Alright. Have to get the kids’ dinner now.
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May 27, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Dave Kirby
Mothra was an introduction to another reality. I mean we’re talking huge catipillars and two little kids singing in a bird cage.
May 27, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Eric Kirk
They weren’t kids. They were pint sized adult female twins.
But it’s weird. The first time Mothra fought Godzilla, the latter killed the moth and then Mothra was reborn as two caterpillars. Sort of a Trinity, father is the son is the ghost – only the ghost and the son are the same expression.
Or the father and the ghost, because isn’t the son supposed to die?
May 28, 2010 at 7:08 am
"a"nonymous
The old series “UltraMan” had some good monsters as well.
May 28, 2010 at 8:34 am
Eric Kirk
Ultraman was my favorite show when I was five! You could see the zippers on some of the monster costumes.
May 28, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Mesan
My favorite are the giant ants in Them.
May 29, 2010 at 8:52 am
moviedad
Maybe not as gigantic, but remember “The Crawling Eye” Man, no wonder our society is so messed up. look at the what is called entertainment these days. I relented after years of no TV, and allowed my mother to hook us up to Directv. what a mistake, the subtle and not-so-subtle propaganda is constant. I notice every station that purports to be “reporting” on the gulf disaster, is loaded with the subtle idea that is was all an act of god, that no human being could have forseen. The stations are working overtime to push the company line. National Geographic showed a 3-second shot of the oil on the water at the beginning of a 2hour program and the end of a two hour program. all the rest was about people involved, what they did, their experiences. not one thing about negligence, or just plain ol greed. Nothing about the dispersant, the respirators. every station except LinkTV is working for the criminal corps. Don’t show the spill too much, focus on personalities. keep it off the company. We live under the boot of capitalists, they control our lives and the government doesn’t have the balls to do anything except use the power and might of the biggest empire in the world to kill women and children in some backwater village in Afghanistan. Take a good look at the vision of the future in the Terminator series; thats what the greed of the royal class is giving us. It doesn’t even occur to them that they might not have the right to empty the resources of the Earth so that one particular generation can be rich. Criminals, whose legal systems destroys the lives of addicts and the poor. Oh yeah, I’ve also discovered “Lockup” where the fat SS guards of America’s prison systems, commit crimes agains humanity for all to see. Imagine if we would have had this kind of evidence at Nuremberg. But there won’t be a Nuremberg for the American torturers.
Sorry, a bit off-topic. but everything is permeated by the destruction of our world and country. of course, people are too busy watching American Idol, to care.
May 29, 2010 at 11:02 am
Eric Kirk
There are also stations and programs bucking the line Moviedad. And people can watch American Idol and fight capitalist evil. You don’t necessarily have to choose. As my communist step-grandfather once told me, “Monday Night Football is the working man’s ballet.”
May 29, 2010 at 9:18 pm
moviedad
Targeted propaganda is all there is. The rest is just window dressing.
May 30, 2010 at 7:49 am
Dave Kirby
“Targeted propaganda” is redundant. All propaganda is targeted or it would not be propaganda. One monster that hasn’t been mentioned is the “monster from the id” in Forbidden Planet.
May 30, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Eric Kirk
The Forbidden Planet may be the best science fiction movie of all time on several levels. It was apparently Roddenberry’s inspiration for Star Trek. Didn’t really think of it as a monster, but I guess it qualifies.