The Monster Island Film Vault

Hello Kaiju Lovers! Because Matt Walsh (no, not that Matt Walsh) is a crazy man who just happened to be on the Island to play Super Mario at a kids party, he jumped to the joke tier on our Patreon called “Jimmy’s Intern” (again). This time, it’s to discuss a 1979 movie directed by John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate, 1962) that has a pseudo-kaiju bear voiced by Megatron and played by the Predator and stars Rocky Balboa’s girlfriend. (For SEO purposes, that’s Frank Welker, Kevin Peter Hall, and Talia Shire). Jimmy has the day off for this one, which may or may not have been a good idea. Matt argues the movie is better than its reputation. Meanwhile, Nate adds three moments—including a cult status-worthy scene of “peak cinema”—to his “not on my bingo card” list. Also, John was drunk.

Hello, Kaiju Lovers! Nate (technically) reaches the Heisei Era of ”Godzilla Redux” with The Return of Godzilla (aka ”Godzilla 1984”). He’s joined by kaiju author Neil Riebe (who saw it in the theatre!) and the ”unapologetic apologist” for the Heisei series, Andrew Wynja ”The Ninja.” They get into how this is the only true ”Cold War” G-film and offers a uniquely Japanese perspective that was almost completely lost in Roger Corman’s heavily re-edited Americanized version, Godzilla 1985. If history isn’t your thing, they also discuss the amazing special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano, Kenpachiro Satsuma’s first performance as Big G, and the incredible score by Reijiro Koroku, among other things. Strap in!

Hello, Kaiju Lovers! You’re not only getting a double feature in this episode of “The Ultra Journey” but also the long-awaited return of one of MIFV’s first guests, Nick Hayden. Nate also returns to one of MIFV’s original conceits: showing a kaiju/tokusatsu movie to someone who hasn’t seen it. This time, it’s the Ultraman Zearth duology. These quirky parodies feature an Ultraman trying to conquer his own trauma and phobias more than the deliciously evil alien supervillains. No, Zearth’s true archenemies are mud and a volleyball. Strap in for Nate having too much fun with his new equipment and for discussions of strangely ”NSFW” scenes in kids’ superhero movies. The Toku Topics are mysophobia (aka “germophobia”) and hypochondria, because the former plagues poor Zearth in his first cinematic outing.

Hello, Kaiju Lovers! “Godzilla Redux” kicks off with not one but two “gatekeepers” in the kaiju fandom: Jack “GMan” Hudgens and Elijah Thomas (Kaiju Conversation). They along with Nate spend nearly four hours(!) talking about why they effing love the final Showa series film, Terror of Mechagodzilla. It was Nate and Elijah’s first G-film and is one of Jack’s perennial favorites. While many regard it as Ishiro Honda’s weakest Godzilla film and barely give it more credit than the rest of the 1970s G-films, your hosts unpack a laundry list of deep themes and potent symbols. They sing the praises of the wonderful script by Yukiko Takayama (the only woman to write a full Godzilla screenplay), the exciting explosions of Teruyoshi Nakano (who considered this some of his best work), the grossly underrated kaiju Titanosaurus, and the nuanced performance of Akihiko Hirata as Dr. Mafune, among many other things. No stone is left unturned in this epic discussion! Then in the most entertaining Patreon shout-outs segment ever of all time, a certain Mr. Trump (by way of Elijah) appears….

The Ultra Series is celebrating its 60th anniversary, and MIFV is throwing a year-long own party! Join Nate Marchand as he gives on friends new and old to discuss the greatest cinematic outings of Japan’s favorite superhero, Ultraman. Not only that, you get more “Godzilla Redux” and an amazing assortment of Patreon-sponsored episodes! Now, if only Nate can figure out what’s giving him such a headache….

Rebecca Reynolds is living the life, as far as I care: she gets to write middle grade books about Japan’s favorite superhero, Ultraman. Book 1 of The Ultra Academy, entitled Beware the Baleful Baltan, was published last fall by Sky Turtle Press as part of Tsuburaya Productions push to make the Ultra Series an international brand. I discuss the writing process and why Ultraman is more important than ever with Rebecca and her publisher, the Eisner Award-winning Steve Smith.

Nathan sits down with Dr. Jeffrey Angles for conversation on his next upcoming kaiju novel translation: The Luminous Fairies and Mothra. This short three-part book was the world’s introduction to the ”Queen of the Monsters,” and it has a potent place in Japanese history and literary tradition. Learn about this and more in this interview!

Susan Murphy is dragged by her anthropologist parents to the Arctic so they can study the Eskimo tribe who introduced the world to Gamera. Susan is angry she will miss her last two years of high school while her younger twin siblings, Shawn and Sharon, love that they live closer to the North Pole and Santa Claus. But Susan won’t have any of this “baby stuff” and berates the twins, who run away. Susan is forced by her father to search for them, and she wrecks her snowmobile in a blizzard. When she awakes, she finds herself in the North Pole, which has the twins, Elves, a talking polar bear, and, yes, Santa Claus. If that wasn’t enough, she and her siblings get caught up with an invasion by Santa’s evil brother, Krampus, who commands an army of Goblins and a kaiju reindeer. Gamera intervenes, but he’s left-for-dead by the monstrous reindeer. Now, Susan and her new friends race against time to revive the Friend to All Children with Santa’s magic Wreath crown. But is the teenage girl’s faith strong enough to save the mighty turtle?

Hello, Kaiju Lovers! Nate and company reach the end of their world tour with a jump across ”the Pond” to Mexico, where they cover Gareth Edwards’ cult classic indie film, Monsters (2010). Mitch and Hayden from Entertain This! join him for the first time on MIFV to discuss the little-movie-that-could that got Hollywood’s attention and led to Edwards later directing movies for not one, not two, but three franchises. Those being Godzilla (2014), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and most recently, Jurassic World: Rebirth. Edwards is hands on in this film, ”writing,” directing, and even creating the special effects. His secret was using a story that’s set ”after the Spielberg movie,” as he said. The Toku Topic veers into potentially controversial territory (and forces Nate to, for the first time ever, mention President Trump on the air) with a brief history of the U.S.-Mexico border wall. Such a wall is a key facet of Monsters’ world, and it’s a much older issue than you might know.

Happy Halloween, Monster Children! Your host, Vinnie Kami, returns to introduce another classic monster tale--but not his disgruntled butler, Kappa Joe! No, Joe gave himself the night off and sent his carnivorous Gen Z slang-speaking plant, ”Violet,” to fill in for him. It’s apropos, because this episode’s story is ”Green Thoughts” by John Collier, which inspired 1960’s The Little Shop of Horrors, which led to an off-Broadway musical in the early 1980s, and finaly to a 1986 film adaptation of the musical directed by Frank Oz and starring Rick Moranis. The reader is the Monster Island Legal Action Team’s very own Gary Steward, who bears a striking resemblance to Seymour from the musical. But this is assuming Mr. Kami can decipher what “Vi” is saying without an ancient tome to translate.

Nate is confronted by his longtime nemesis WHG3—who just wants to treat him to dinner...with his snooty friends. Nate reluctantly agrees. They meet in one of London’s poshest pubs, the Britannia, and Nate quickly finds himself the target of many insults amid a furious debate over what is England’s greatest kaiju movie.

In the first of not one but two interviews Nathan has conducted in the last month, he sits down to with James Santana (again), but this time to discuss James’s first full-length tokusatsu-inspired comic book, Nebulon: Knight of Justice #1. If you love Power Rangers, Ultraman, and/or Kamen Rider, this comic is for you!