I finally got to watch the '90s Mothra trilogy! About six months later than I expected to, but better late than never, I guess. Here are my thoughts and impressions. Hope you enjoy the review!
For being a kids’ series this trilogy had some of the best Ghidorah designs as well. Des, Cretaceous, and Grand Ghidorah don’t get discussed enough and I’d love to see them come into the modern Godzillaverse
I *love* the choreography in the third movie where they were summoning Mothra!!! 😍 It actually felt like a sacred ritual where they were calling upon a powerful being, with the way they were synchronized but also doing the exact opposite of each other
To me the Mothra Trilogy is very imaginative and entertaining, even though it's aimed at children. By the way, I must compliment you on your Japanese. It's quite good.
I like the Mothra trilogy specially because in some of the other Godzilla movies I feel they don't give her as much screen time as I would like, and I really liked the different designs (they really wanted a lot of them) I always enjoy new interpretations of her. The last 2 are the best in my opinion, one thing I would say against these movies is the use of Ghidorah in two films, and some of the children's humour.
I enjoyed the series, mainly because they were fun and not bogged down with ultra serious stuff. Well...I mean besides Mothra dying. I cant explain it..but the 2nd is my favorite. There is some fantastic musical scores in there. And I though Dagarla worked as a bio engineered monster from a lost civilization. And the battles are literally all over the place lol.
I'm sorry, I lost it somewhere between "mutant starfish" and the "cross between a Furby, a Tribble, and Gizmo from Gremlins." 😂 And..."large supply of weapons" (cut to footage of sea monster shooting rockets from it's shoulders like it's Arnold Schwarzenegger from Commando...)😂
Nice to see more kaiju movie reviews! The Mothra trilogy is a very mixed bag in terms of quality for me, even if the series overall is cohesive. I think the third one is the best, but honestly prefer the first one. The second one is just to silly for me.
OK, you've given me some homework. It's been a couple of years or so since I've seen these. Since I own these, that won't be the trouble - finding time will be. I bought these movies without knowing a lot about them, but was hoping for the best since they came after my favorite G series and one of my favorite G movies - Destroyah. Short cap brats are the bane of Kaiju movies and these are littered with kids. The Gamera 90's trilogy are the only movies that did kids well. You'll be in for a treat eventually. I do remember liking the character arc of the three sisters. I'm sure they didn't use twins because they were main characters and they didn't want the twin factor to hamper casting. However, I need to watch these again before I can really give a fair review. Even though it may not seem like it, I always want to give an intelligent and thought out review. Take care.
My favorite form of Morthra Leo was his first form kinda reminds me of the Lion King sort of and at first I didn't like the way Rainbow Mothra looked like in the 3rd movie, but after reading the story, I kinda see why they made Leo like this to make him feel old.
The Rebirth of Mothra trilogy looks bonkers, the images from the first film especially reminded me of a strange Japanese show called Monkey that aired in the UK and Ireland in the late 80's I believe, it was my older sisters childhood show and she bought it on DVD, it had a character fly around on a cloud laughing a little bit like Belvera on her Dragon, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qi7Dga-vRKM.html . Mothra's colours also reminded me of a film I watched because it starred the Phantom himself Michael Crawford, Condorman, it's not great but kinda great, really really terrible but amazing at the same time. His costume colours and wings look very Mothra lol. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-n9AI7Y772ic.html the theme songs for both the film and TV show are kinda catchy. The idea of Mothra being male does seem off to me although I do like the red and green colouring. The little Furby character looks a bit like an ancient Peruvian tribe decapitated Dr Zaius from Planet of the Apes and shrunk his head, a little unsettling lol. Of all the Godzilla related Kaiju I've seen including Godzilla himself I'd say Mothra was my favourite so I guess I should see these films, I really need to see more of these Kaiju films and Godzilla spinoffs, need to see more Godzilla films in general as I'm severely slacking especially being a monster film fan. Great and interesting as always. ~ Thank you Ms Weiselberry ~ (🌀 \,,/ 🌀) ( ／\/＼ )
"Really really terrible but amazing at the same time"--funny how that is the perfect way to describe certain things! LOL, sure, throw Dr. Zaius onto the list of things it resembles. I definitely think that if Mothra is a favorite (or a favourite!) kaiju, it's worth checking out the trilogy. It's not a guarantee that you'll like it, but you'll be more disposed to enjoy some of it at least than someone who doesn't care much for Mothra to begin with. :)
Jerome Weiselberry I'd consider Mothra both a favourite and a ( ᴀᴛᴛᴇᴍᴘᴛs ᴀᴍᴇʀɪᴄᴀɴ ᴀᴄᴄᴇɴᴛ ʜᴏʀʀᴇɴᴅᴏᴜsʟʏ > favorite lol, being both a favourite and a favorite puts Mothra in a small group that includes the best film, television and book reviewer on RU-vid or anywhere lol. I will add the trilogy to my list. ~ Thank you again Ms Weiselberry ~
aww so glad you can get back to your local library J! this is wonderful news; and yay welcome back to the Zilla's series. I think I only saw one of these Mothra movies. I cannot stand the little kids when they make them integral to the stories....couldn't take it when American studios do this lollol, so why would I tolerate it when Asian ones do it? :). anyway, I felt that the evil sister is like Rita Repulsa from the Power Rangers haha. "Offspring from Loki and Wicked Witch" love it I think it was the first one I saw (Rebirth of Mothra), oh yeah! I remember Mothra became a son....so I briefly saw that one too
"Two days later!" After the first two I'd need a break too. I remember seeing this trilogy when I was younger and in the late 90s and early 2000s and thinking it was "very Power Rangers" It was so over the top, cheesy and kid-centric. I don't know how I feel about the trilogy. Being a kaiju movie fan I can't hate it but if I was asked to watch any of these movies again I'd probably hesitate. I guess it's because they are so kid friendly and when I first watch them I was in my early 20s and starting university and didn't have a taste for "kids movies". And that first impression has never worn off. But your review has at least opened my mind to giving them another shot and viewing with more matured judgment. So thanks for that
I tried to like these movies when I saw them the first time, but I just could not do it. I do like the third one better. I guess I prefer the darker story line.
I really enjoyed the Mothra Trilogy more than I expected. The 1st and 3rd are tied for my favorites in the trilogy. 2 isn't bad. Just not as good. And these incarnations of Ghidorah was my favorites until the Legendary version.
Homework complete. First the pet peeves: I have the subtitled Japanese version so I can hear that the name is not "Moll", but it is definitely a two-syllable word - "Molla". Not sure of the spelling, but it sounds like "MOLL-uh". The subtitles spell it "Mona" in the first movie and "Moll" in the next two. Don't know why they had to make the name "Moll" in the subtitles and the dubbing. Time travel is only good when it's done right. It's not done right here. There is much sloppy writing. The trip to the ancient temple was fun, but it was completely unnecessary. The Gorgo was the treasure and they had it all along. The temple made for a cool prop, but didn't add anything tp the plot other than to give the humans something to do. Why did the monster in part 2 waste all that time swimming to the temple when he could just fly there? It would have been easier and faster. Besides being improbable, the time travel was completely unnecessary other than to eat up screen time. It didn't accomplish anything other than to get a silly shot of the T-rex and triceratops glancing at each other when the tail burrows into the ground, seemingly saying, "WTF". Mothra itself looks good, but I don't like shape changing abilities in a monster with out an explanation. Rainbow Mothra was my favorite. Not sure of the sex - they said he in part 2, but she in part 3 in the subtitles - not defined in part 1. As Daffy Duck said, "pronoun trouble." The villains and monster fights we fine. Like you, I liked the story arc of the three sisters and that was the strongest part of the trilogy. If these weren't made for kids, they could have made them even more of the focus. They could have had some more development and some backstory would have been welcomed. No, they choose to focus on the bratty kids (and adults) too much. I thought the two parents were annoying in the last film. The woman was too much the damsel in distress and the father was kind of a meathead. The special effects were weak in many spots as you said. Some of that is because of Mothra. It's hard to make believable movements with a flying creature in most kaiju movies. Some effects were bad and unnecessary. The cigarette burning the cat and Belvera getting blown off of the soda can were two examples of bad and unnecessary. One other thing you didn't mention, Belvera did start her redemption in the first movie. She saved the humans when they were trying to exit the temple and the doors all came down and trapped them. She blasted the way out. I was disappointed with these movies when I first saw them a few years ago because the Heisei series is my favorite Godzilla series and I had hoped for good movies. I did enjoy them a little more the second time. Maybe I'll forget about the uselessness of the plots over future repeated viewings. I did enjoy the sisters and thought they were good. I think the second movie was the best, but it did warm my heart when Belvera teamed up with Lora.
"Moll" is the character's name in English. In Japanese, they call her "Moru" (モル), which is meant to be transliterated as "Moll" in English. Similarly, Desghidorah should properly be "Death Ghidorah" in English. "デス" is generally meant to be romanized as "death." Why Toho renamed the character "Desghidorah" is anyone's guess. They were originally calling him "Death Ghidora" in English at the time of the film's release.
