Good morning everyone! I hope all of you had a good night last night. I certainly did as there were lots of stuff revealed for Godzilla: King Of The Monsters at Tokyo Comic Con. There was music from the movie played at the beginning of the panel, there were the S.H. Monsterarts figures displayed revealing the full designs for Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah, there was concept art, there was a giant Godzilla statue, and there was a teaser trailer. I will be going through all of it starting with the the panel and go from there. There is just so much to get through in one day so I will be breaking this up into separate posts. So lets get started.
The panel started off with a piece of music from the movie right before director Michael Dougherty appeared on stage. The music playing has been recognized by fans as Godzilla's theme song or "The Godzilla March." That song is considered very classic in the franchise and this particular version just sounds so epic. It's like the music is building up to a finale and it could very well be what it is. It could be that this is where the epic finale of Godzilla's fight against King Ghidorah ends. There is a video of it below this paragraph if you wish to listen to have a listen.
The panel begins with Michael Dougherty coming on to the stage, greeting everyone, and saying that he has never been to Tokyo Comic Con. While talking about how he much he loves the Godzilla movies, we get our first look at the new S.H. Monsterarts Legendary Godzilla 2019. There are definite changes into his design and Michael Dougherty uses the figure to explain what part of the Godzilla was changed in his design compared to the 2014 version. He explained that he made everything bigger (hands, feet, dorsal fins, tail, and body). I do have to say that I am glad that he made a few changes in the design. I always felt certain parts of the 2014 version were odd like the feet being too stumpy and the dorsal fins being a tad too small. Dougherty even explains that the dorsal fins is Godzilla's crown which is why he made them bigger. It really makes Godzilla look like he just got an upgrade without doing too many changes to the original 2014 design.
Next, pieces of concept art were shown revealing the designs for Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah. At first, I thought looked more like a mosquito, but as you will see later as we cover the S.H. Monsterarts figures that she looks more like a wasp with butterfly wings. According to Michael Dougherty, he incorporated a part of her design where the two circles on her wings are Godzilla's eyes. Apparently, Godzilla and Mothra have a psychic link that allows Godzilla to see what Mothra sees from her wings. At least that is what I think Dougherty was saying. Otherwise, it could be more for the aesthetic look that her wings so happens to look like Godzilla's eyes. (UPDATE: Dougherty did say that the patterns on Mothra's wings are aesthetic to look like that of real moths. On some moths, they have patterns on their wings that look like eyes to make itself look more intimidating. This has nothing to do with Godzilla at all.) If you zoom in her main body, there is a stinger at the end of her abdomen. I say it is quite odd seeing Mothra with a stinger, but it isn't unusual since Mothra did have a stinger in one of her earlier incarnations in the movie GMK: Giant Monsters All Out Attack. However, her design just screams wasp more than a moth. Again, I will talk more about Mothra when we get to the S.H. Monsterarts figures.
In the next slide, we have Rodan emerging from a volcano. This is probably the scene where Rodan emerges from the volcano in Mexico. I really love how he looks like an eagle or vulture with his wings spread out and hunched over. The wings even look like he would have feathers or proto-feathers. Do you know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of that leaked sculpture of Rodan that everybody was saying was not the final design back in July. He is even in that same pose as the one in the official final design. So perhaps this is confirmation that the leaked sculpture is an actual leak of the design.
Last couple pieces of art are battle scenes between Godzilla and King Ghidorah. The first image does not show where the fight is taking place. It could be in Antarctica where King Ghidorah was frozen and they are having their first fight. However, the second image shows a fight taking place under water, which looks awesome. To see a fight scene under water is really going to show just how durable King Ghidorah can be. The water is not his turf for sure, but it will really be interesting to see how King Ghidorah handles himself against Godzilla when Godzilla has the advantage. A couple details that I did like that Dougherty mentioned was that each head has a different personality and different voices. The middle head is suppose to be the big brother or the leader of the other two heads while the other two act more like the little brothers. It makes me wonder if we will see a side to Ghidorah where all three heads bicker or try to bite each other and the middle head has to knock some sense into them. It would be pretty funny to see if he puts on a sort of three stooges kind of act where the middle head is Moe, the left head is Larry, and the right head is Curly. Apparently each head has it's own roar or chirp, but when all three combined it makes the original roar that Ghidorah uses. To me, as long as it is recognizable enough I am completely fine with this. There has been a few renditions of how Ghidorah sounds and the original has been my favorite.
Before the panel ended, there was a trailer that was shown. Yet, it was not the type of trailer that people expected. This was a teaser for the second trailer that was announced to appear next week. Even though it was not much at least there was something to show for it. Yet, not enough to do a full reaction other than to be excited for next week. Any video of the teaser has been taken down off of YouTube, so all I can give you is a description of what was in this teaser trailer for the trailer. The teaser starts off with Milly Bobby Brown as Madison Russel trying to contact Monarch over a radio. Next, it shows the camera panning over an ocean. Then, it cuts to we the head of one of the MUTOs that was killed in the last movie. It could possibly be the female MUTO's head since she was the one that head the nasty decapitation from Godzilla. The head looks to be on display in one of the Monarch containment facilities. At first, I thought it was on public display in San Fransisco because the background looked like it had buildings behind it. Afterwards, the next scene shows people in Mexico fleeing for their lives as Rodan flies over them leaving a trail of destruction behind. We are then inside a cockpit of... something. I am not sure if this is suppose to be in some sort of fighter jet, bomber, or helicopter, but this is an unusual looking cockpit. It looks like the inside of those ufos from Independence Day. Yet, we see them flying towards a completely obliterated Washington D.C. with a massive storm in front of them. Suddenly, we see Madison hearing Godzilla and King Ghidorah over the radio and begins to freak out. The teaser ends and it cuts to the title card. Like I said, there was not much to show, but Dougherty did announce that the full trailer will be released next week. I wish that I could find a video to show to all of you, but it just seems that they get taken down as soon as the videos are uploaded.
That is pretty much it for the panel. What are your thoughts so on the Godzilla panel? Did you think they showed more than enough or did you wish that they actually showed a trailer? What are your thoughts on Godzilla's new design? Leave a comment in the comment section of my Facebook page and stay tuned for pictures of the S.H. Monsterarts figures that show these monsters' full design in my next post. If you have not done so already, make sure to follow me on my Facebook page and Twitter to stay up to date for more Godzilla news, reviews, and discussions.
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