Rebirth of Mothra (1996)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

One of the best films i have seen

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

And, of course, hard-core daikaiju fans. "Rebirth of Mothra" is an unsubtle morality-play in which evil loggers remove a sacred seal, releasing an ancient monster ('Desghidorah') who threatens to suck the life out of the Earth. This attracts the attention of a tiny 'witch' flying a miniature dragon, who torments the family of the man who took the seal until Mothra's fairy acolytes show up riding a cloying-sweet mini-Mothra to defend the kids. Meanwhile, 'Desghidorah' continues to ravage the environment until an aging Mothra appears, later followed by her larval offspring. Needless to say, most of the second half of the film is a kaiju battle, featuring pyrotechnics, inexplicable coloured lights, and, since this is a new-age Mothra movie, lots of sparkles. In the end, the environment is saved (at least for now), the forests are miraculously reborn, and the power of love reaffirmed. Even compared to some of the more 'child-friendly' Showa-era Godzilla films (e.g. Son of Godzilla, 1967), this film is strictly for the kids. The 'witch' character (her dubbed voice sounding like the "Wicked Witch of the West") is especially puerile and, like the later Showa-era Gamera films, the human 'heroes' are a couple of irritating kids. All could be forgiven (or at least tolerated) if the movie was a good kaiju epic, but it is not. Mothra has reverted to the furry puppet version seen in 1992's "Godzilla vs. Mothra", although now has a wide array of 'energy-weapons' and convenient supernatural abilities. The new incarnation of Ghidorah is now fatter with front legs, and has lost all of the sinuous grace of the original monster. The original Mothra song is briefly heard (the current fairies lack the charm of the original pair), but in general the film's score is trite and derivative, especially in the action scenes. The special effects are of mixed effectiveness, some of the flying shots of Mothra, Desghidorah, and the fairies/witch are terrible while some of scenes with the larval Mothra are excellent (especially towards the transformation scene, the cocooning is especially imaginative). There are none of the classic (and costly) cityscapes to be destroyed, as most all of the 'battles' are aerial or in forests or mountains (although there is an OK 'dam buster' sequence), and the JDF is never mobilised, so the usual scenes of tanks, missiles, carnage and collateral damage that are core to the canon are absent. As I was watching a dubbed version, I can't really comment on the acting but none of the human characters were interesting or engaging. The biggest problem with the film is the direction: scenes just go on toooo long. The 'dog fight' between flying fairies and the witch in the kids' house is endless, as are the repetitious scenes of Desghidorah emerging from the fire, and the ending of the film is an interminable series of good-byes and reminders of what the 'message' is (in the unlikely event that you missed it). Mothra is a unique and iconic part of Japanese kaiju culture. Her first appearance in 1961 and her battle with Godzilla in 1964 are among the best the genre has to offer. Too bad she's now reduced to being a flying green guilt-trip. I admit that the giant moth has a long history of being a 'guardian' of the Earth, but the heavy-handed 'eco' message in this film is a bit hard to take considering Japan uses about 24 billion disposable chopsticks every year (the equivalent of about 1.6 million trees).

The TOHO stable goes the Disney way. There are many reasons to say so: a) the story lacks its goriest moments. There is (for example) no smashing of cartonbox cities and -first time since in a movie supposedly taking place in Japan- no "army" subplot whatsoever. b) the main characters are children. c) there is a "miniature witch" riding a "miniature dragon" ( spoof from other genre US movies ) playing the villain. d) the "singing part" increases very much & the miniature girls (riding some mini-mothra named Terry/Fairy ) sing at least 3/4 different songs (while typically you got only the Mothra & bachara Mothra songs to summon Mosura ). e) even the serious bits (Eg the home chase at the beginning ) are handled in a Disney-ish way.This time Mosura goes solo against King Gidorah freed from its stone grave when an incautious foreman removes a sacred seal of atlantean origin. There are other typical subplots mixed in from the less fortunate TOHO movies: a couple with hard times in parenting because say the husband must work long hours; two children who can't get along. All in all, a nice relaxing movie: of course do NOT expect any "final wars", "tokyo sos" or "battle for earth" kind of fights. The plot twists abound and in the end we learn the miniature girls & the miniature witch are siblings. There is the "mosura larva" subplot, but this time the larva got new powers & turns into some super-mothra. Infant island is no longer the atomic wasteland as originally portrayed, but some virgin rain forest paradise.

I've seen that movie last week on TV and was quite disappointed.The story: The bad sister of the sweet little ELIAS ( known from every other movie including Mothra ) wants to steal the "Seal of the Elias", which was found by a family father at a mountain. So she takes her little dragon and flies to the family's house, where the seal is kept. But the Elias can't let that be, take the mini-version of mothra, called "Fee" and also fly there. In the house, a fight between them starts - which is made absolutely ridiculous! It looks like an old ATARI-Game, when Fee and the little Dragon fly through the house and shoot at each other!However, the bad sister is victorious in stealing the seal and uses it to free a three-headed monster: Desghidorah. But wait a moment: three headed monster? (Des)ghidorah? Oh, yes, the style of this monster was inspired by the famous King Ghidorah. But not more! This monster has got no personality and seems not to register it's surrounding-the heads just go up and down, up and down...But what's so cruel about Desghidorah? Well, it absorbes energy from earth, trees and air - which are dead afterwards. Unfortunately, this absorbing isn't visualized - Desghidorah just stamps his feet... To stop Desghidorah from killing all life on earth, the Elias decide to call Mothra - what's done with a song. Yeah, okay, we know the girls like to sing - but they do it three times in that movie! And the songs are awfully kitschy. A funny things about it is the background, which starts to get coloured and coloured flowers flow around - looks like a seventies-music-video!Mothra arrives to fight Desghidorah, but is to weak and old for the strong-growen monster! So the Elias call Mothra's child - with a song, of course. I don't want to tell the whole story here, some people reading this may not have seen the movie yet...So I start with my final judgement: The story of the film is weak - but that's not important in a monster movie. What is important is that the special effects are absolutely ridiculous for a 90's movie! Mothra and Desghidorah have nearly no moveable parts, the flying scenes are bad as hell ( there are better ones in some 70's movies! ). Every scene is clearly visible made in front of a blue screen - and the intaken pictures have another contrast than the foregrund... Through all the movie it's very clear that money was a problem in the making of it. None of the monsters ever gets to a city, all fights are shown in woods - that's cheaper than a miniature city. But it's boring! Not a single building gets crushed! And Desghidorah doesn't radiate enough threat to build somewhat like tension...So the movie gets along boring and tensionless and you get angry about the bad special effects, supporting the bad impressions. According to that, it is far too kitschy and has too much annoing characters!

I was surprised how well designed this film was compared to the concurrent Gojira series. In fact I found it to be better then most of the recent Gojira series. It resembles the Kaiju films of the sixties in spirit. Mothra still looks like a flying Beanie Baby but the rest of the special effects are very good, especially the explosions and light beam effects. There are some strange plot errors but overall the film should be highly enjoyable for Kaiju fans.