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| “ | He's not some monster trying to evade you. He's just an animal. If you find what he wants, then he'll come to you. | „ |
| ~ Nick regarding Godzilla. |
Godzilla, also known as Gojira in Japanese, or simply Zilla, and dubbed as the 1998 Godzilla, is the titular secondary antagonist of the Godzilla franchise's ToraGoji Timeline.
Originally a normal iguana, he was mutated into a giant reptilian monster as a result of a nuclear test done in French Polynesia. Prior to his debut in Godzilla: Final Wars, he was originally intended to be a reimagined take on Godzilla. However, due to the critical failure of the 1998 film, he was later rebranded as a whole new character with an exception when he came to the original film and series. He serves as the father of his babies, and the arch-nemesis of Niko Tatopoulos.
He was portrayed by Kurt Carley in motion-capture, and his vocal effects were provided by Frank Welker.
Personality[]
In his appearances in Godzilla: Final Wars and Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, the 1998 Godzilla was shown to not run away nearly as much and tried to fight even when outmatched. In Godzilla: Final Wars, he faced Godzilla head-on, a move that was specifically dependable and brave, although this could be because he was under the Xiliens' authoritative control and was forced to fight Godzilla.
In Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, he retained many of the same abilities and characteristics of his 1998 counterpart, although he lost his cowardly and pusillanimous nature. He faced Godzilla head-on once again, evaded his attacks, and landed several attacks of his own. However, he retreated to the sea when Godzilla was close to killing him, and he had just barely escaped Godzilla's grip. When Zilla resurfaced for the final battle against the Trilopods, he attacked and brutally killed and wounded numerous Trilopods.
Overall, the 1998 Godzilla is just a big animal that wants to live and secure the survival of his species, he acts on instincts and emotion than logic, his main priority is only eating, breeding, feeding and protecting his babies and surviving, but he'd also be emotional in wanting to kill and eat Niko's crew for killing his babies. At best it doesn't have much ill will against humans, he was just defending himself and his babies from them, at worst he wants to eat them out of hunger, anger and to get revenge on Niko.
Appearance[]
Unlike most other Godzilla incarnations, the 1998 Godzilla himself physically resembles modern depictions of theropod dinosaurs, specifically dromaeosaurids such as Velociraptor and Deinonychus, with some inspiration from iguanas and crocodiles.
He displays a rough, square-shaped underbite, a pronounced chin, a long, thick, muscular neck with a small, spiky dewlap, a long whip-like tail and a slender, muscular physique with long, burly legs and arms. Unlike the original Godzilla's traditional maple leaf-shaped dorsal plates, he possesses large, fin-shaped scutes. His mouth is lipless with numerous small, pyramid-shaped razor-sharp teeth that are always visible, even when his mouth is closed while they stick out over both his upper and lower jaws, similar to crocodiles and alligators. For eye color, he has bright yellow-orange irises with black pupils (which glow a neon yellow whenever he has night-vision) and a bright orange sclera. Each of his 13.7-meter-long feet display three large, dinosaur-like primary digits on the front with a much smaller, seemingly vestigial, hallux on the back.
In Godzilla Final Wars, the 1998 Godzilla's appearance is similar to the previous design from the 1998 film, except the only differences in his physical appearance are his scutes, which point straight upward instead of curving forward while his skin is tan with blue on top of his body like in the 1998 film, although he appears almost entirely a brighter blue during daytime scenes. He also displays a dewlap, except it's not spiky like the one that was present on his neck in the 1998 film. In promotional materials, Zilla's mouth interior is shown to glow bioluminescent red.
In Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, his given the exact same design similar to the one from the 1998 film, complete with curved scutes and has the same coloration and details on his body.
Interestingly, this version of Zilla has a fifth finger on his hands.
Biography[]
Godzilla (1998)[]
Godzilla roaring.
The 1998 Godzilla is a giant mutated iguana originating from a nuclear test in French Polynesia. As the test was done in 1968, the creature (or perhaps species) grew over a period of approximately 30 years. Its irradiated genes caused it to achieve a height of about 180 feet (54 metres)
He swam from the islands across the Pacific, attacking a Japanese freighter, and then stomped across Panama. From there, he traveled up the American Eastern Seaboard, where he sank several American fishing boats. He then stomped through and invaded New York City, necessitating the evacuation of the entire city, and having some sort of mutual interest in one of the main characters. The military battled him extensively, and supposedly killed him in the East River. However, he had laid at least 200 eggs in Madison Square Garden (an arena in midtown Manhattan), which hatched and filled the Garden with hundreds of baby Zillas. The military bombed the Garden, killing most of the creatures. However, Zilla then revealed himself to have survived, and chased the heroes through New York across the Brooklyn Bridge, where he became entangled in the suspension cables.
Zilla lies defeated.
He was then killed by F-18 missiles (although later on, in the sequel TV series, he was resurrected as a cyborg by the Tachyons, this cyborg variant appeared during the Monster Wars story arc which was very similar to the general plot of Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla: Final Wars). However, one of his offspring survived, and imprinted upon Dr. Niko Tatopoulos. From there, it accompanied Tatopoulos and his team, H.E.A.T., on their missions against various monsters mutated by nuclear experiments in Godzilla: The Series.
Godzilla: The Series[]
Zilla's death in Godzilla: The Series.
Zilla appears in the beginning of New Family: Part 1, the first episode of the TV-series, which was a recap on the ending of the film. He later returns in the episodes, Monster Wars: Part 2 and Monster Wars: Part 3 as Cyber-Zilla.
Godzilla: Final Wars[]
The 1998 Godzilla, as he appears in Godzilla: Final Wars.
In Godzilla: Final Wars, Zilla is one of the monsters controlled by the Xiliens, and under their control, he attacks Sydney, Australia. Zilla is taken away by the Xiliens to give mankind the illusion that they stopped him, and is later unleashed by X to battle Godzilla. Zilla is defeated rather quickly by Godzilla himself, who sends him flying into the Sydney Opera House and finishes him off with his powerful atomic breath. X throws a tantrum over Zilla's failure then complains he always doubted that "Tuna-Eating Monster" was any use to him.
Zilla's appearance in the film was mainly as a take that to the 1998 film, as he's intentionally rendered using bad CGI, and the fight between him and Godzilla lasts thirteen seconds, as the shortest battle in the entire series.
Godzilla: Rulers of Earth[]
The 1998 Godzilla as he appears in Rulers of Earth.
Zilla is a major antagonist in the first two issues of the comic Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, where he comes ashore and attacks the city of Honolulu. Godzilla appears and does battle with Zilla, forcing the monster to retreat.
Zilla later reappears swimming in the waters around the Monster Islands in the thirteenth issue.
In the last issue, Zilla returns to join Godzilla and the other monsters in the battle against the Trilopods. It kills many of them, however it stands no chance against Magita. After Godzilla managed to destroy the Trilopod Queen, Zilla follows him into the sea along with the other monsters.
Godzilla: Oblivion[]
At the end of Issue 4 of the comic Godzilla: Oblivion, Zilla makes a brief appearance alongside Anguirus, Rodan, Biollante, King Caesar and Mothra.
Powers and Abilities[]
Kaiju physiology: As a result of 1968 French nuclear tests in Moruroa Atoll of French Polynesia, a saltwater iguana's egg was dangerously irradiated, causing him to mutate into a 180-foot-tall gigantic theropod-like monster over the course of three decades. While Zilla's genesis may vary depending on adaptations, being depicted as Godzilla's subspecies in Godzilla: Monster Apocalypse or another ancient giant monster awakened by nuclear tests in IDW Publishing, the character's trademark abilities include:
- Parthenogenesis: Otherwise known as asexual reproduction; much like some species of real-life reptiles, Zilla is capable of laying eggs without need for a partner in order to rapidly generate a population on a previously uninhabited area. In his debut film, Zilla could lay about 200 unfertilized eggs from which Baby Zillas were hatched. As speculated by Niko Tatopoulos in the film and demonstrated in Monster Apocalypse novel, each of his offspring retained this ability would easily overrun the planet within short period of time, as even one missed egg meant a potential return of the monster. However, Zilla Junior seems to lack this ability.
- High intelligence: Zilla is highly intelligent and strategic, being able to outsmart and evade U.S. military forces and Godzilla alike when not mind-controlled. He was shown to intentionally dodge torpedoes underwater and even guided one towards a submarine, causing the military to shoot down his own ally.
- Amphibious physiology: Zilla can swim underwater at high speeds and thanks to mutating gills on his neck, he can breathe underwater just as well as on land, to the point where Zilla Junior could sleep underwater. When submerged, Zilla keeps his limbs close to his body, swaying his tail sideways much like most reptiles swimming.
- Immense strength: Despite being below-average for a kaiju, Zilla nonetheless possesses immense strength, being able to dig ginormous tunnels in solid concrete with his claws, chomp down helicopters, bite through submarines and smash through buildings with little effort. Zilla's roar is also strong enough to send cars flying and cause them to explode.
- Immense jumping: Zilla can jump at immense heights, such as when he dodged Godzilla's atomic breath.
- Immense endurance: Zilla can withstand grievous injuries to his body without dying, such as having its flesh punctured by bullets from machine guns, survive being hit with torpedoes at point-blank, take blows and bites to the neck from Godzilla, even appearing to have survived initial atomic breath in Rulers of Earth at the start of their fight.
- Immense speed: On land, Zilla can accelerate to speeds of 300-500 miles per hour (482.76-804.6 kilometers per hour), allowing him to outrun modern helicopters and dodge missiles with ease, especially underwater.
- Immense agility: Despite his size, Zilla can easily maneuver between skyscrapers in a densely built metropolis. Underwater, he has no issues dodging torpedoes for the majority of his fight with the military.
- Sharp dorsal plates: Zilla's dorsal spines are sharp/strong enough to cut through the submarine, flooding his with water shortly afterwards.
- Infrared invisibility: Like Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Biollante, Zilla possesses low body temperature, making him hard for military to track him through heat-seeking technology.
Reception[]
The design and characterization of TriStar's Godzilla was negatively received. Film critic Richard Pusateri of G-Fan Magazine coined the acronym G.I.N.O. ("Godzilla In Name Only") to distinguish him from the original Godzilla created by Toho, while some fans referred to him as the "American Godzilla". The major points of criticism were centered around the character's radical departure from the traditional Godzilla design, how he was portrayed fleeing from the military instead of confronting them, how he did not breathe traditional nuclear fire, how he laid eggs, and was easily killed by missiles during the film's climax whereas Godzilla can withstand a torrent of missiles that he shrugged them off as annoyance.
These sentiments were echoed by the veteran Godzilla suit actors, Kenpachiro Satsuma and the late Haruo Nakajima, and by Shusuke Kaneko, director of the 90s Gamera films. Nakajima ridiculed the character design, stating: "His face looks like an iguana and his body and limbs look like a frog". Satsuma walked out of the film, saying "it's not Godzilla, it doesn't have his spirit". Kaneko opined "[Americans] seem unable to accept a creature that cannot be put down by their arms", and later alluded to the character in his film Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack as a monster that Americans mistook for Godzilla.
The backlash on the character alluded further in Godzilla: Final Wars when this character confronted by Godzilla: Out of Xilliens' brainwashed monsters Godzilla tricked to face by the Gotengo crew, Godzilla only needs a single medium-calibre blast of his atomic breath to destroy the monster and the fight lasts for thirteen seconds.
Ironically, the animated version of the character was more positively received than its live-action predecessor, due to being closer in line with the spirit of Toho's Godzilla, possessing the ability to breathe atomic fire, battle other monsters, and withstand attacks. However, the negative response to both Roland Emmerich's Godzilla as well as Disney's remake of Mighty Joe Young being released that same year, had caused giant monster movies to fall out of vogue for several years after, with films such as Peter Jackson's King Kong remake being postponed until 2005. Poor merchandise sales for the film led to a cancellation of a toyline based on Godzilla: The Series, and resulted in significant financial losses for toy manufacturer Trendmasters, which went out of business soon after.
These negative receptions are what caused the filmmakers who worked for the MonsterVerse series to decide to work together with Toho to create their series' incarnation of Godzilla whose character well-received to the point of considered as the real "Hollywood Godzilla" to avoid this mistake by creating a more faithful version of the character.
Over the years, fans have generally accepted Zilla as being a completely different monster and have warmed up to the character, with the animated series portrayal noted as being a more faithful version of Godzilla (albeit this was Zilla's son, who was dubbed by fans as Zilla Jr.). Zilla's debut into Rulers of Earth was also praised for its overall appearance and its performance in his fight against Godzilla.
Trivia[]
- The characters use "he", "his" and "him", when referring Zilla as a male.
- Shogo Tomiyama and Ryuhei Kitamura did not originally intend to include Zilla in Godzilla: Final Wars, but upon learning that they could use the TriStar Godzilla in the film, they decided to feature it as the new monster Zilla. Zilla's late addition may be responsible for the monster's lack of appearances in merchandise and promotional materials for the film.
- Strangely the suit created for the TriStar Godzilla bore a small vestigial fifth digit on its hands, a trait was later passed on to its Rulers Of Earth design with the main difference being that is fully developed and usable.
- To make Zilla's vocalizations in the film, the filmmakers used a mix of the original Godzilla, animals and inanimate objects by recording sounds of the original Godzilla's roars, trumpets, metal slides, elephants, cougars and walruses to create the character's vocal effects. The filmmakers even recorded sounds of humpback whales to create Zilla's vocal effects when he is swimming underwater.
- Despite Zilla's quick demise in Godzilla: Final Wars, Patrick Tatopoulos was thrilled to learn that the Godzilla he designed would be appearing in a Toho film.
- While newer works featuring Zilla are copyrighted as such, Godzilla 1998 is still copyrighted as an iteration Godzilla as seen in the icon on the back of the DVD. This is still the case even to this day as Toho has not changed the copyright status maintaining this creature as Godzilla.
