Godzilla in popular culture

(Learn how and when to remove this template message)

As an enduring and iconic symbol of post-World War II cinematic history,[1] the fictional giant monster Godzilla has been referenced and parodied numerous times in popular culture.[2] Godzilla and other atomic monsters have appeared in a variety of mediums, including cartoons,[3] film, literature, television, and video games.

Name usage

"-zilla" is a well-known slang suffix, used to imply some form of excess to a person, object or theme;[4] some examples being the reality show Bridezillas and the Netscape-derived web browser Mozilla Firefox. "-Zilla" is rumored to mean "reptilian" as shown in the kaiju name, "Zilla". It has no word before its meaning, therefore it is not purely a suffix. This puts into question whether or not the shows/browser above are abusing the term.

The Mesozoic dinosaur Gojirasaurus quayi is a coelophysid named in Godzilla's honor. Over five meters in length, it was originally considered one of the largest theropods of the Late Triassic period.[5] The species was discovered in New Mexico by paleontologist Kenneth Carpenter, who is an admitted Godzilla fan.[6]

Dakosaurus andiniensis is a marine reptile of the Jurassic Period. It had a uniquely defined head similar to that of theropod dinosaurs, which has led to researchers nicknaming the species "Godzilla".[7]

On at least two occasions, the name Godzilla has been used as a nickname for athletes. Former Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Olaf Kolzig went by the nickname "Godzilla" (sometimes shortened to "'Zilla") and had a depiction of the monster painted on his goalie mask. Japanese former baseball player Hideki Matsui also had the nickname "Godzilla" which represents his powerful hitting. Matsui had a cameo in the film Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla.

The Nissan GT-R sports car was famously nicknamed "Godzilla" by the Australian motoring publication Wheels in its July 1989 edition – a name that has stuck to this day. This became one of the subjects of the car games.

Film and television

Godzilla has been featured in 38 films from 1954 to the present. The Godzilla films have carved out an enduring and resonant place for themselves in cinematic history.[8] In the United States, Godzilla films from Toho had been airing on television every week since 1960 up until the 1990s.[9]

Motifs from the series have been echoed, parodied or paid tribute to in numerous later films. Godzilla movies were frequently a target for commentary by the Mystery Science Theater 3000 television series, which parodied B-movies.

Bambi Meets Godzilla is the title of a humorous 1969 Canadian cartoon created entirely by Marv Newland. In 1994 it was voted #38 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. Only two minutes long, this cartoon is considered a classic by many animation fans.[citation needed]

Hanna-Barbera created an animated TV series about Godzilla in 1978. The series only lasted for two seasons.[10] Tri-Star and Sony created another animated TV series in 1998 that was a sequel to the first American remake. This series also only lasted for two seasons.[11]

Godzilla has appeared in many Robot Chicken parodies. In one, for instance, Godzilla and his wife are lying in bed and his wife says "I don't know, maybe if we use some toys?", then Mechagodzilla walks into frame cheering with a dildo coming out of his chest.[12]

Godzilla made a cameo appearance (in a clip from Godzilla vs. Biollante) in the 1996 comedy, Mars Attacks!. Godzilla also made an appearance in the Happy Tree Friends episode, 'Wingin' It' when he attacks (and presumably devours) Flaky. A Godzilla action figure was present all throughout the sitcom Roseanne from the series premiere to the series finale.

Steven Spielberg cited Godzilla as an inspiration for Jurassic Park (1993), specifically Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), which he grew up watching.[13] During its production, Spielberg described Godzilla as "the most masterful of all the dinosaur movies because it made you believe it was really happening."[14] Godzilla also influenced the Spielberg film Jaws (1975),[15][16] and he also included Mechagodzilla in his 2018 film Ready Player One and Godzilla and Rodan frequently in the cartoon series Animaniacs, which Spielberg produced.

Godzilla has been cited as an inspiration by actor Tim Allen and filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton.[17]

The 2007 film Always: Sunset on Third Street 2 featured a cameo appearance from Godzilla.[18]

A snowed up version of Godzilla known as Snow Godzilla makes a couple surprise appearances in the 2019 Japanese anime film Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion the Movie: The Marvelous Fast ALFA-X That Comes From the Future. Godzilla also made a guest appearance in the show Crayon Shin-chan as an antagonist.[19]

In 1991, two Godzilla films, Godzilla vs. Megalon and Godzilla versus the Sea Monster, were shown on the movie-mocking TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000.

A parody creature resembling Godzilla, alongside another parody character resembling what appears to be a hybrid between Ultraman and Kamen Rider, appears in the television special Olive, the Other Reindeer during the song "Merry Christmas After All", during part of which Olive, Santa and the other reindeer are shown passing through Tokyo delivering gifts. The two characters are shown to be friendly and taking part in the song and dance routine shown to include numerous figures, both real and fictional, in the show in various locations visited by the team as they make Santa's annual trip around the world.

Godzilla has been referenced multiple times in the American animated TV sitcom The Simpsons. Godzilla first appeared in the episode "Lisa on Ice" when Lisa imagines herself on Monster Island and is chased by various kaiju, including Godzilla. It has also been referenced in "Treehouse of Horror VI", "Mayored to the Mob" (where Godzilla can be seen signing autographs at the Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con), "Thirty Minutes over Tokyo" (in which the plane carrying the Simpson family is being attacked by Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra and Gamera), "Simpsons Tall Tales", "Treehouse of Horror XVI", "Homerazzi", "Wedding for Disaster", "The Real Housewives of Fat Tony", "Treehouse of Horror XXIV" and "Treehouse of Horror XXVI".

Godzilla appeared in the Family Guy episode "The Peanut Butter Kid". In a cutaway gag Godzilla arrives to attack Haiti only to discover that it is already in shambles and return to the ocean.

Godzilla's roar in non-Toho media

Literature

Many books have been released pertaining to Godzilla and the Godzilla series, including various collection books and manga.[citation needed]

Gojiro is the 1991 debut novel by former Esquire columnist Mark Jacobson. It reinterprets the Godzilla film series from the perspective of the daikaiju—not a fictional creature depicted on-screen via suitmation, but an irradiated varanid–turned–B-movie star named Gojiro (an homage to Gojira, the Japanese name for Godzilla).

Random House Publishing produced four novels for teens and young adults by Marc Cerasini based on Godzilla, respectively entitled Godzilla Returns (1996), Godzilla 2000 (1997) (which had no relation to the film that would later use that name), Godzilla at World's End (1998) and Godzilla vs. the Robot Monsters (1999). A fifth novel, also by Cerasini, Godzilla and the Lost Continent, which would have finished the series, was completed and planned for a release in 1999, but never published (it remains so to this day). These books, as well as four novels aimed at juvenile readers in their late childhood and early teenage years by Scott Ciencin, respectively entitled Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1996), no relation to the 1956 film of the same name, Godzilla Invades America (1997), Godzilla: Journey to Monster Island (1998) and Godzilla vs. the Space Monster (1998), and several picture books aimed at younger readers ages four and up, were produced during the late 1990s and the first half of 2000. Some of the novels written by Marc Cerasini present Godzilla as a force of nature much like in the Heisei series, neither truly good nor evil, with Mothra appearing in two of the books as a benevolent, supernatural and sentient creature who occasionally made a point to help people when other monsters threatened the Earth.

Comic book adaptations

Godzilla has appeared in Marvel and Dark Horse Comics, both times under the title Godzilla, King of the Monsters. Marvel's run of Godzilla, King of the Monsters was produced in the late 1970s and lasted 24 issues, while Dark Horse had the license for the creature's American appearances since the late 1980s onward and produced a 17-issue run, along with various other appearances and special issues. Dark Horse also produced a six-issue miniseries which was a translated version of a manga adaptation of the Japanese version of the 16th Godzilla film, The Return of Godzilla (a.k.a. Godzilla 1985 in its American release), under the title Godzilla and it was later collected into a trade paperback under the same title.

The character Warlock of the New Mutants took on the shape of Godzilla as he appeared in King Kong vs. Godzilla in Web of Spider-Man Annual #2 (1986). Marvel has recently re-released their series in book form as Essential Godzilla, King of the Monsters, which collects the entire 24-issue run in black-and-white. IDW Publishing has also produced various comics based on the Godzilla character since 2011; these include an ongoing mainstream storyline told in three series: Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters (12 issues), Godzilla (13 issues), and Godzilla: Rulers of Earth (25 issues). There were also seven five-issue miniseries, all with separate non-connected storylines: Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths, Godzilla: Legends (an anthology miniseries with five individual stories), Godzilla: The Half-Century War, Godzilla: Cataclysm, Godzilla in Hell, Godzilla: Oblivion, and Godzilla: Rage Across Time.

Games

Video games

The first Godzilla game was an unofficial game made by The Code Works for the Commodore 64 PC in 1983.[20] Godzilla would make his first official appearance three years later as one of the playable monsters in The Movie Monster Game by Epyx also for the Commodore 64 PC.[21] In 1983, a Godzilla knock-off called Goshzilla appeared in this game's predecessor, Crush, Crumble and Chomp![22] Godzilla would get his own games on the NES such as Godzilla: Monster of Monsters and Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters. He had his own game on the original Game Boy simply titled Godzilla. Godzilla would make an unauthorized appearance in early versions of the game Revenge Of Shinobi. Because of the copyright issues, he was removed from latter releases. For the newer consoles, he appeared in the game Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, the first of a trilogy of Godzilla games. It has since been followed by two sequels, Godzilla: Save the Earth and Godzilla: Unleashed. Godzilla has also appeared in Godzilla Generations and Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact! in Japan. A game for the Tristar Godzilla was released, based on the cartoon show Godzilla: The Series and shared the name of the series when it was released on Game Boy Color. A sequel to this game followed with Godzilla: The Series – Monster Wars (also for Game Boy Color). Godzilla also appears in the game Kyoei Toshi,[23][24] and a Godzilla costume was also added to Fall Guys.[25][26]

The "Monster" disaster in the computer game SimCity depicted an unnamed green monster that resembled Godzilla. A scenario in the game: Tokyo, Japan 1954 parodies the original movie. The depiction of the monster in-game and on the boxart led to legal issues with Toho, with Maxis changing the Monster's design in-game and swapping it on the packaging for the "Tornado" disaster instead.

The Rampage series of video games is heavily inspired by both the Godzilla and King Kong films. Players take control of gigantic monsters as they destroy all the buildings in a city and survive onslaughts of military forces. One of the monsters is a female lizard/dinosaur monster named Lizzie, who resembles and is clearly based on Godzilla. In an issue of Nintendo Power in an advertisement for the Rampage: World Tour game for the Game Boy Color, they give the reason why Lizzie is destructive. It is because she broke up with Godzilla and is taking her anger out on the world.

The Pokémon series features Tyranitar, a Pokémon directly influenced by Godzilla. Its powered-up form, "Mega Tyranitar", bears an even greater resemblance to the King of Monsters, with similar body proportions. In addition, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet introduced two Pokemon based on kaiju. The first is the Paldea region's pseudo-legendary Pokemon, Baxcalibur, which evolves from Frigibax at Level 54 as a reference to how the first Godzilla movie came out in 1954. The other is Iron Thorns, a version of Tyranitar that comes from the future via time travel. Its appearance is based on Kaiju, like Tyranitar, but it may also reference the kaiju movies in Pokemon Black and White 2 that you can film at an in-game location called Pokestar Studios.

Game designer Hideki Kamiya (known for games such as Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Ōkami, Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101) said he loved Godzilla and Ultraman as a child.[27]

In Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! "Iwajira", a boss in the game, gets his name from a combination of the word Iwa, which means "rock" in Japanese, and the end of the name Gojira, which is Godzilla's actual Japanese name.

Godzilla, alongside King Kong, were added to Call of Duty: Warzone as a part of the limited time "Operation Monarch" game mode. In both Warzone and Call of Duty: Vanguard, a Godzilla themed bundle was released, including a skin for operator Shigenori Ota.[28]

Other

Godzilla appears as an enemy in one of the final missions of the Williams pinball table Red & Ted's Road Show, in which the titular protagonists use a bulldozer to slow him down while he is attacking San Francisco.[citation needed]

The Magic the Gathering card game expansion set Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths has a crossover with the Godzilla series with a total of 19 promotional cards.[29]