The 1990s Godzilla movie by director Roland Emmerich was a nice tribute to old low budget monster movies from the 1950s. As a Godzilla movie, it was a terrible adaptation, and there’s some debate if the movie itself is good overall. I liked it for what it was, but it is NOT Godzilla at all. This led fans back in the day to label him GINO (Godzilla In Name Only) while Toho dubbed him Zilla (Godzilla without the “God”) in Final Wars, which has become its official name. Personally I’d combine the two and call him Ginozilla, but that’s me.
While the movie got a lot wrong, it was still popular enough that Fox Kids greenlit Godzilla: The Series, a show that sort of redeems Zilla as a cool monster. Produced by the same people who gave us Extreme Ghostbusters and Men In Black: The Series, the show follows a more action-oriented Nick Tatapolius than the Matthew Broderick interpretation (Ian Ziering is actually a good voice actor), returns Malcolm Danare and Kevin Dunn as their characters from the movie, was my introduction to Rino Romano, who became my favorite Spider-Man, and continued where the movie left off.
It turns out the explosion that created this Godzilla also birthed other mutations (though later episodes also gave us a mad scientist and space aliens to liven up the causes). Tatapoulis brings Elsa and Mendell into his HEAT Team (Humanitarian Environmental Analysis Team) along with his show-only research assistant, Randy, to track these new mutations. Meanwhile, the French government sends a new operative to join the group, probably to balance out the female cast as Elsa and Audrey are the only women among a cast of five dudes, if you include Audrey’s cameraman, Animal, and of course Godzilla. Tonight we drop in during the climax of the movie, so spoilers, as Godzilla is defeated but one baby survives. What was probably a hook for a sequel that never happened is instead used to make the series happen. These are the first two episodes, “A New Family” parts one and two, as the concept for the series and the full cast are revealed. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtWZRF4Xxwg
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