Godzilla, of course, is a Japanese creation, but he's far from unknown on this side of the Pacific. The concept of Godzilla has nearly universal appeal. Godzilla's career has exceeded 45 years, he has appeared in 23 films. And once upon a time, he had a shot at American stardom...

SIZE BARELY MATTERS - In 1998, when an American version of the legendary screen monster Godzilla was made by the creators of Independence Day, millions of people went to the theaters to see it. $125 million had been spent to bring the most famous creation in the history of Japanese popular culture to life in an American style. Although that money was eventually made back in the film's American box office grosses, it was a close call. A strong opening weekend fizzled into a long, slow haul as Godzilla limped toward profitability, collapsing at a domestic total of almost $137 million. Not a bad take for any movie, but surely Godzilla's most expensive outing to date could have grossed more than a measly $12 million over its budget. Right?

Steve Ryfle, author of Japan's Favorite MonStar: The Unauthorized Biography of the Big G, thinks he knows what went wrong.

"People go to a Godzilla movie expecting to see Godzilla come up out of the water, trash a city, get beat up by the military, and meet another giant monster. And then they want to see Godzilla kick that monster's ass. When you deviate from that, you're messing with people's hopes and expectations and they feel betrayed." Betrayed is a kind word for what Godzilla fans felt towards the TriStar film. Some took to calling the American version "TriZilla," "Deanzilla" (a dig at screenwriter Dean Devlin) or "GINO," for "Godzilla In Name Only." Countless messages were exchanged on Internet newsgroups like alt.movies.monster as fans expressed their near-unanimous displeasure at the way their beloved creature had been treated. Robbed of his radioactive breath, given an iguana-like makeover by the American production design crew, and brought down by the likes of Matthew Broderick and Hank Azaria? Some indignities were just too much to bear. American viewers saw the film once and never came back.

"It made $137 million on the curiosity factor alone," says Ryfle. "If it had been good, the thing

would have made $250 million. But it ain't a Godzilla movie and that's all there is to it." Japanese fans weren't particularly impressed either, and so Toho Company Ltd., the guardians of the Godzilla trust, went back to the drawing board to make yet another home-grown Godzilla movie, which makes its way to American shores this weekend. No one knows better than Toho what immense shoes the latest incarnation of a legend has to fill.

IN THE BEGINNING - Godzilla's first film was released in Japan in 1954, though Americans didn't see it until two years later. The film, produced by Toho studios and named simply Gojira in Japanese, was made in the mold of numerous monster-on-the-loose films that had been popular in the U. S. for the last couple of years, most notably The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. It was a time, as Ryfle says, "when big monsters were big business." But while most of those films were upbeat epics where science, usually with the help of a couple of plucky teenagers, conquers any monster the universe can dream up, Godzilla took a more sober path.

The movie opens with ships in the Pacific Ocean being destroyed by some mysterious force. A scientific expedition led by Dr. Yamane (played by Takashi Shimura) travels to remote Ohto Island to investigate the phenomenon. What Yamane finds is a 150-foot tall dinosaur with a propensity for stomping buildings into kindling and then igniting that kindling with his radioactive fire breath. The semi-aquatic monster then heads for Japan, where it sets up shop in Tokyo Bay and begins making nightly excursions into the city.

The Japanese military tries to kill the beast, but to no avail. There's only one person who can save Tokyo: Dr. Serizawa, who has invented the "oxygen destroyer," a device that kills all life in seawater. Serizawa is reluctant to go public with his invention, because he is afraid it will be used as a weapon. Of course, a device that does nothing but kill stuff in the ocean wouldn't seem to have any non-evil applications, but who can guess at the reasoning of movie scientists? In any case, Serizawa is convinced that only the oxygen destroyer will be able to save all the people in danger from Godzilla. Serizawa, in a diving suit, places the device on the bottom of Tokyo Bay and sets it off, reducing Godzilla to a skeleton. But then Serizawa cuts his own air hose, guaranteeing that the secret of the oxygen destroyer's manufacture dies with him. It came as no surprise to anybody that the Godzilla monster was realized by putting some horribly underpaid guy into a dinosaur suit and having him stomp around a miniature city set. Still, the suit was shot from low angles and in slow motion, heightening the realism. The film, particularly the original Japanese, has a palpable sense of dread that builds throughout.

The symbolism of the film was obvious. Godzilla's rampage through Tokyo left wreckage that greatly resembles what was left behind after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Godzilla also attacks with no warning and can not be stopped, which recalls the suddenness of the bombings. However, there was another inspiration at the time that is less well-known today. In March of 1954, just before Godzilla went into production, the Japanese papers were full of stories about the Dai-go Fukuryu Maru, a Japanese tuna fishing boat that was unexpectedly caught in the fallout from the first H-Bomb test on Bikini island. This unpleasant episode inspired the opening scenes of Godzilla in which Japanese ships are menaced by an unknown enemy, its appearance heralded by a bright flash. Japanese audiences, already feeling fragile from the crushing defeat of World War II, were suddenly presented with the more insidious threat of radiation. Godzilla tapped directly into those fears.

Two years after being released in Japan, Godzilla was exported to the U. S. The American version was titled Godzilla, King of the Monsters, and included new footage that inserted Raymond Burr into the story, as intrepid reporter Steve Martin. Burr scowls from the corners of meeting rooms and Tokyo streets, spouting lines like, "That will never stop Godzilla," but his presence must have reassured American distributors, and he does lend a certain air of authority to the film.

The American version cuts a good 40 minutes from the Japanese film, replacing it with about 20 minutes of Raymond Burr. Most of the omissions have to do with the relationship between Yamane's daughter Emiko and a naval officer named Ogata. Because Emiko used to be involved with Serizawa, this set up a love triangle that drove much of the non-monster drama. With most of these scenes gone, Serizawa's connection to the plot is almost gone, so the American edition includes some dialogue that indicates that Serizawa is an old college acquaintance of Steve Martin's! This is a bit amusing, because they never share a scene, even though Steve says that visiting Serizawa is the whole reason he's in Japan. It should also be noted that Steve doesn't seem to be that broken up when the scientist dies.

Also dropped from the U. S. version are many references to Godzilla being connected to the H-bomb. That's not to say that the nuclear theme is gone completely, but it less prominent. The American version, much to its detriment, loses some of the more chilling examples of personalized destruction, and a memorial service that serves as the film's dramatic climax. The result is to change the film from a very sober sci-fi drama to a much more straightforward monster movie in the American mold.

The movie did extremely well in the States, if not quite as well as in Japan, and Toho rushed a sequel into production immediately. That sequel, Godzilla's Counterattack (a. k. a. Gigantis, the Fire Monster) opened in 1955. Another Godzilla is found on another remote island, but this one is engaged in a battle with another huge dinosaur, Angilas. Surprisingly, the two monsters make their way to Osaka and trash a few landmarks, until Godzilla kills his quadruped opponent and returns to his island. There Godzilla is buried under tons of ice. The special effects this time around weren't nearly as good, and most of the plot is concerned with a melodramatic love triangle between people who work for a commercial fishing company. The idea of one giant monster fighting another would serve this series well, but this is one of the poorest executions.

Toho would wait seven years before reviving Godzilla from his icy slumber. Figuring that putting two of the world's most popular monsters in one film couldn't go too wrong, Toho secured the rights to King Kong and made him Godzilla's new grappling partner. The film was loosely based on an idea Willis O'Brien (the master stop-motion animator) had for a second King Kong sequel.

King Kong vs. Godzilla was a huge hit in 1962, and at that point the floodgates opened (see timeline). The merchandising side of Toho's business also exploded. In the 38 years since King Kong and Godzilla went toe-to-toe, Godzilla's visage has appeared on everything from lunchboxes to toothbrush holders. Animated versions of Godzilla have graced American television twice, most notoriously when Hannah-Barbara created the kid-friendly "Godzilla Power Hour" in the late '70's. As the demand for Godzilla-themed products grew and the word 'Godzilla' worked its way into the fabric of several languages as a synonym for unstoppable power, Toho soon found they had a very valuable property to exploit-and protect.

FRIENDS TO ALL CHILDREN - If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Toho must have been humbled by the flattery hurled their way as other studios began producing their own giant monster movies. The most enduring of these is Gamera, a giant fire-breathing turtle. Daiei studios produced Giant Monster Gamera (a. k. a. Gammera the Invincible) in 1965, just as Toho was proving that fun, fantasy-based giant monster movies could make big bucks. Giant Monster Gamera spawned six sequels between 1966 and 1971, all of which followed the monster vs. monster formula, and the latter films all included children as the main characters (See "Who's Kenny?" at left). This latter trend, making the giant turtle a "friend to all children," would dog even the Godzilla films in later years.

Other studios around the world also got into the act, but none of them were particularly successful. (Sound like a big ape you know?) Britain's King Brothers unleashed Gorgo on the world in 1961. Gorgo featured a juvenile Godzilla-like monster being captured by a promoter and put on display in London. Then mom shows up and goes on a tear through the city to free junior. The movie was made on quite a high budget, with impressive models and even a couple of large-scale mock-ups, but is slackly paced.

That same year American producer Sid Pink inflicted Reptilicus on the world, a film could have more honestly been titled The Muppet That Ate Copenhagen. The monster this time around was a sort of a dragon, with a snakelike body and short, non-functional legs and wings. The monster only flies in European cuts of the film, while in the American cut it spits green goo (which was rather hastily added in post-production). It's tough to say which special effect is more embarrassing.

Back in Asia, the Godzilla rip-offs continued with Gappa, the Triphibian Monster (1967), and the Korean-Japanese co-production Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967). There is nothing very revolutionary about either of these films, which seemed to be inspired by Gorgo and Gammera the Invincible respectively, but they were indicators that everyone was trying to get in on the action.

This new competition began to cut into Toho's piece of the pie. In later films, budget considerations called for simpler settings, so the next few Godzilla films would feature South Seas island locales. No complicated cityscapes to build and destroy for those stories! The first of these films was Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966), in which Godzilla takes on a giant shrimp (how oxymoronic!) and a fascist terrorist organization. That film was followed by Son of Godzilla (1967), during which fans watched Godzilla hatch a bizarre little creature who resembled nothing so much as Pillsbury Doughboy gone moldy.

For their next film, Toho pulled out the all the stops with Destroy All Monsters (1968), a huge extravaganza that included practically every monster that had appeared in any Godzilla film, and a few from other Toho films that hadn't yet been connected to the Godzilla mythos. Destroy All Monsters was probably the last time that the "aliens use giants monsters to conquer Earth" story line would seem fresh, simply because of the sheer spectacle. The final battle- in which ten monsters, led by Godzilla, take on the three-headed dragon Ghidorah- ranks as the most awe-inspiring scene in the entire Godzilla canon. FROM TERRORIST TO BABYSITTER - The monster films were popular and accessible on many levels: the monsters themselves had simple motivations and there was always at least one "good" monster with whom audiences could identify. Meanwhile, there was usually human drama unfolding beneath the monster action that kept the movies from consisting solely of the clashes between gargantuan beasts. The better films engaged viewers at both ends of the story. Audiences could be grateful that the people were escaping the deadly island at the end of Son of Godzilla, but they could be equally sympathetic towards Godzilla and his offspring, who huddle miserably in the ruins of their island home (destroyed by human weather experiments). As usual in the moviemaking business, telling a good story was the key to success.

After Destroy All Monsters, the Godzilla series began a decline that would continue until the series' first hiatus. The next film was Godzilla's Revenge (1969), probably the cheapest Godzilla movie ever made. Most of the monster footage in the film is from earlier films, notably Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster and Son of Godzilla. The plot involves a lonely but deluded young child who dreams he can go to Monster Island and hang out with Godzilla's son Minya.

Next up for Godzilla was 1971's Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (named Godzilla vs. Hedorah in Japan). Toho was making some sort of half-assed attempt to make the Godzilla films relevant again, but rather than Godzilla standing as a warning of dangers of nuclear power, he became an environmentally-minded guardian of Earth. Hedorah was a monster that was spawned by some alien substance that came in contact with industrial waste. The creature starts small but grows rapidly, spreading deadly gasses and toxic sludge in its wake. When Hedorah menaces a city, Godzilla shows up for no reason to do battle.

Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster has a reputation for being weird (there is an LSD-influenced hallucination scene and the environmental bent of the film is pretty bizarre), but it looked like a classic compared to the Big G's next two films. By this point the law of diminishing returns had reduced the budgets of the films to the bare bones, and the monsters were beginning to act insufferably silly. Both films were about aliens' abortive attempts to use giant monsters to conquer the Earth.

Many Godzilla watchers credit the Big G's mutation from menace to super-hero as the key to his longevity. While hard-core fans may "bemoan the fact that he changed," Ryfle admits, "the reality is that if he'd stayed the same he wouldn't have lasted as long, because the audiences changed." By the late '60's, the drive-in monster movie phenomenon was fading, and the teenagers who went to those films were being replaced by younger fans, many of whom became acquainted with Godzilla in the movies recycled on weekend television.

Barry Goldberg is the curator of Barry's Temple of Godzilla (www. godzillatemple. com) website, which is one of the oldest and largest archives of Godzilla information online. Goldberg reflects upon the fact that "the target audience changed over time from the original film, which was very somber. [Godzilla movies] became more and more for children." Toho's giant monsters continued to entertain the kids for two more movies, both of which featured alien invasions hinging on a giant robot duplicate of Godzilla. After 1975, the Godzilla series was put on hiatus.

WHO WAS KENNY? The child with a connection to the giant monster originated in the Gamera films, but would later infect the whole of monsterdom. Giant monster fans call the child characters "Kennys," probably because Sandy Frank Syndication, Inc.'s dubs of the Gamera films always renamed the main child characters Kenny. All Kennys share certain characteristics. They all have annoying high-pitched voices when dubbed, and they are all know-it-alls. Kennys seem to have access to all levels of scientific, military and government authority. As soon as a monster attacks Japan, 10-year olds are apparently allowed to declare martial law. Kennys are so widespread that one wonders if it's an elected or appointed position in Asian society. Most importantly, all Kennys wore disturbing little shorts. Really short shorts. Carmen Electra would be embarrassed to wear so little fabric over her lower body. And yet movie after movie, no matter the weather or the social situation, Kenny never puts on any damned pants! KENNY SIGHTINGS 1965 -Gamera the Invincible features the first known sighting of a Kenny, in the personage of Toshio, a little boy who loves turtles and hates slacks. Toshio has a turtle that he wrongly thinks turned into Gamera, and then Gamera saves Toshio's life after he's stupid enough to climb a lighthouse that Gamera needs to knock over. Toshio spends the rest of the movie trying to convince people Gamera has a good heart, while in the background Gamera destroys a power plant, an airport, a city, and a train yard, killing thousands. 1967 - Kenny goes international with the South Korean movie Yongary, Monster from the Deep. A little kid named Ilo aims an untested "itching ray" at his sister and her new husband as a joke, causing them to scratch themselves nearly to death. When the giant monster Yongary shows up, Ilo follows it around the city, at one point shooting it with the itching beam. This causes the monster to dance to surf rock and then develop the power to shoot a devastating ray from its nose horn. Nice going, Kenny! 1969 -Godzilla's Revenge brings the Kenny phenomenon to the Big G. Little Ichiro wears even littler shorts while transporting himself to Monster Island with his make-believe radio. 1971 -Little Ken writes poetry about how much Godzilla hates pollution in Godzilla vs. Hedorah. 1973 -Godzilla vs. Megalon features a little kid named Rokuro who is sucked into a whirlpool at the beginning of the film. Sadly, he is saved.

TIME TO START OVER - Godzilla's hibernation was interrupted yet again by the 30th anniversary of the original film in 1984. A new film was made, simply called Godzilla in Japan and Godzilla 1985 in the U. S. It was a straightforward monster movie, restarting the Godzilla time-line by ignoring all of the sequels that followed the original film. In the movie, Godzilla returns after 30 years to his old stomping grounds of Tokyo, and as usual, the military can't stop him. His defeat comes at the hands of a nearby volcano. Compared to the psychedelic adventures of 23 colorful, enormous beasts duking it out over the years, Godzilla 1985 was hellaciously boring.

Like the original Godzilla, this movie was released in the U. S. with footage added, again featuring Raymond Burr as Steve Martin, although that name was never used, lest the image of a certain wild and crazy comedian be invoked. The re-edited American version also created some anti-Soviet themes that weren't present in the original and added some heinous product placements for Dr. Pepper. The soda's marketing gurus even created two commercials revolving around Godzilla's love of the sugary drink.

Godzilla 1985 did marginally well at the American box office, but it was universally hated by critics and is generally considered a failure by Godzilla fans. Goldberg partially attributes the negative fan reaction to the use of an animatronic "robot" Godzilla, "which no one wanted and [which] didn't really work," but the lack of a strong script and the absence of a second giant monster for Godzilla to combat sealed the film's fate. As far as American moviegoers were concerned, Godzilla was once again on hiatus.

In Japan, however, things were just getting started. 1989 saw the release of Godzilla vs. Biollante, the first of a series of updated Godzilla films with their gigantic feet planted firmly in the '90's. Biollante involved the rescue of some of Godzilla's cells by a genetic research plant, where they were inadvertently combined with the DNA of a rose bush and a grieving scientist's deceased daughter. As silly as it was, this resurrection of Godzilla clicked with the Japanese populace, and the so-called Heisei series of films was born. (Heisei is a term for the era defined by the reign of Japan's Emperor Akihito. Movies produced during the reign of Japan's previous Emperor, Hirohito, are called Showa films.)

The Heisei films continued with Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) and another film followed every year until Godzilla's 'death' in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah in 1995. In general these movies were done in a breezy comic book style, often cramming as many different monsters as possible into each film. All were minor hits in Japan, though none of them threatened the record-setting attendance of King Kong vs. Godzilla 30 years before.

Bringing these new films to the U. S., unfortunately, was a bit of a fiasco. Originally, Miramax (the "artsy" face of Disney) tried to buy the rights to Godzilla vs. Biollante from Toho, but the deal went sour and Toho filed a lawsuit. Two years later some sort of compromise was reached, and Miramax (through HBO Video) did release Biollante on tape, but it would be a long time before any of the other Heisei films would be seen legitimately in the States. "The climate for these things became a little cloudy. I suspect that other distributors were wary of dealing with Toho after that," theorizes Ryfle.

After Sony-owned Columbia-Tristar was committed to the Dean Devlin/ Roland Emmerich-produced remake, however, they were also in a good position to bring the modern Godzilla films to America. So right around the time Godzilla (1998) opened in the U. S., American fans got their first chance to see English-dubbed versions of the Heisei series

This weekend, Columbia-Tristar will release the latest adventure of the Big G, entitled Godzilla 2000, to theaters in this country- the first time a Japanese Godzilla film has been seen in American theaters in 15 years. Ironically, the American version of Godzilla that upset so many fans may have cleared the way for this stateside release.

"For better or worse," explains Goldberg, "the one thing that changed was the American Godzilla movie, which had a huge amount of popularity [among non-Godzilla fans], and brought [Godzilla] a huge amount of exposure to the American public." Some might point to the popularity of other Japanese pop culture icons, like Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z, as an indicator that American audiences are once again ready for the invasion of a giant fire-breathing lizard from Japan.

Like Godzilla 1985 before it, the new movie ignores the existence of all the previous Godzilla films except the original. Godzilla is once again a force of nature with a proclivity for stomping Tokyo. But don't worry, Godzilla 2000 features plenty of city destruction and the appearance of another giant monster to do battle with the Big G. True to form, however, Sony has once again meddled with the original Japanese film, making changes and cutting scenes to make the movie more palatable to American audiences. While the late Raymond Burr is obviously absent from the proceedings, Sony is hoping its changes will make Godzilla 2000 as popular with modern American moviegoers as Godzilla, King of the Monsters was nearly 50 years ago.

"Regardless of how good the film is, I think it's a great sign," says Ryfle. "It shows that Toho is willing to give their version of Godzilla full exposure in the U. S. I think there's a younger regime at Toho now, and the people who are now in charge are more in touch with the American love of Godzilla." And so this weekend some of those Americans with a passing familiarity with Godzilla will go to see a towering lizard destroy Japan, and the Big G's hard-core fans will also be in attendance, hoping to see Godzilla kick another monster's ass, hoping not to feel betrayed.

One suspects that Godzilla would look down at this all and merely say: RRRRAAAAAHHHHRR!

After almost 50 years, we still don't know what Godzilla eats.