Kaiju Chronology: Rebirth of Mothra

It only took a couple Decades for you to get another film.  Today's film is Rebirth of Mothra, the cute little guy's return to Theaters.  Well, solo return, that is.  He/she got a film back in 1961 and a Co-Starring role with Godzilla in 1964.  His next big break was also a Co-Starring role with Big G in 1992's Godzilla and Mothra: Battle for Earth.  The cute little guy DEMANDED his own film again, so Toho caved and gave him a Trilogy.  That last explanation may not be true, but it sure is funnier to picture Mothra yelling at Japanese Executives, right?  This leads us to 1996's Rebirth of Mothra aka the one that the Sci-Fi Channel used to play all the time.  In this one, a mysterious threat is released and Mothra sends his/her Fairies out to stop it before it can come to power.  When that fails, the cute creature rushes into action!  Can it dust its way to victory?  Can the bickering family come to terms and help out?  Can there be anything more awesome than a 3-headed Dragon?  To find out, read on...

The film begins with some very subtle imagery of people logging and chopping up the Forest.  I'm going to guess that this movie is...pro-logging?

I could be wrong about that.

During the work, they uncover this weird-looking artifact, which the Boss just takes home with him.  Oh man- Indiana Jones is going to be pissed!

Naturally, this turns out to be super-important.

In a cave somewhere, Mothra sits over his/her egg and learns of what happens.  He/she will take action in the cutest way...

By summoning a smaller version of itself called Fairy for his/her two little people to ride!  That's...so damn cute!!!

However, there is an evil for every good.  In this case, it is a little lady riding a dragon and trying to revive the villainous monster.

This leads to a long and surreal aerial duel between good and evil...in the Living Room.  Weird fun.

Desghidorah arises and lays waste to the land.  I'm sort of cheating by showing it with wings already, but it is too bad-ass not to show!

Mothra rushes into action and does well, but is not enough to stop the creature.  Who can save the day?

The answer lies in Mothra's egg, which sprouts its larva (which is contrary to nature, right?).  It tries to help out as it is, but must go to the the Island to become...

New Mothra!  This one can get the job done.

In the aftermath, the famous Kojida Forest is destroyed...but Mothra fixes that too.  The End.

It is a bit cheesy, but still quite good.  The film's message is simple: respect the environment.  Is that so wrong?  To be fair to Japan, if you lived so close to China, wouldn't you be concerned about stuff like air quality?  The thing about Mothra is that is just so darn cute!  I know I said that alot, but can you blame me?  It is tricky to make a serious film with something so adorable, which is why the other monsters have to be so dramatic.  With Desghidorah, they definitely achieved that!  It is a darker and scalier version of the classic King Ghidorah model and I really like it.  If you tried to turn Ghidorah into Smaug, that's kind of what it looks like.  One of the big things to note here are the Special Effects.  While most of what you see is still practical, you get digital stuff for the attacks like the dust, Desghidorah's fire blast and Mothra's antennae lasers.  The one you see more often is the integration of the little people (and their mounts) and the normal footage.  It is not always realistic-looking, but it still looks pretty damn good for 1996.  If you want a Kaiju film with a lighter tone (without sacrificing some Drama, of course) and a nice message, this is the one for you.  I will leave you with a statement that I highly-question...

Next up, another dose of Mothra.  This time, the environment is in trouble again and he/she is on the case (since Captain Planet was busy).  Stay tuned...