History Film / GodzillaVsMegalon

For everything its predecessor did wrong, ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'' did it that much worse. Stock footage abounded, the special effects were dodgy at their zenith, and much of the plot was contrived. However, this film did substantially better in international markets, especially in the United States, where it became a surprising success thanks to a marketing push by American International Pictures, which had its release timed to cash in on the success of ''Film/KingKong1976''.

For everything its predecessor did wrong, ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'' did it that much worse. Stock footage abounded, the special effects were dodgy at their zenith, and much of the plot was contrived. Nevertheless, the film was the subject of a heavy marketing push, and saw decent theatrical success in the United States, where it was released to cash in on the success of ''Film/KingKong1976''. As for the newcomers, Megalon and Jet Jaguar were received well by fans outside Japan, and a series of video games helped introduce the two to a new generation of fans and cement the positive opinion of them among those more familiar with the franchise. Thanks to him returning here, Gigan’s popularity among fans was also furthered by this film.

* TheSongRemainsTheSame: Foreign dubs usually end with the untranslated version of "Godzilla and Jet Jaguar: Punch! Punch! Punch!"[[note]]the Italian dub just uses the instrumental bed[[/note]]. The song's [[http://godzilla.wikia.com/wiki/Godzilla_and_Jet_Jaguar:_Punch!_Punch!_Punch! Japanese lyrics]] are only ''slightly'' less goofy than the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' GagSub.

* RecursiveTranslation: Robert Dunham, who played the Seatopian Leader, read his lines in English on set, was dubbed into Japanese (by Creator/GoroNaya), and then those lines were translated back into English. [[HongKongDub It shows]].

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: At the climax of the ending fight, [[spoiler:Gigan flies off after taking a couple of shots of Godzilla's atomic breath, while Megalon, after getting double-teamed by Godzilla and Jet Jaguar, flees to one of Seatopia's underground doorways, which Seatopia detonates immediately after.]]

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: About the UsefulNotes/EasterIsland statues in the InfoDump, one of the main characters states they are 3 million years old. On the contrary, they were built between the 13th-15th centuries.

* DumbMuscle: Megalon. Seriously. Removing Jet Jaguar as a guide reduced him to basically non-functionality.

For everything its predecessor did wrong, ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'' did it that much worse. Stock footage abounded, the special effects were dodgy at their zenith, and much of the plot was contrived. Nevertheless, the film was the subject of a heavy marketing push, and saw decent theatrical success in the United States, where it was released to cash in on the success of ''Film/KingKong1976''. As for the newcomers, Megalon and Jet Jaguar were received well by fans outside Japan, and a series of video games helped introduce the two to a new generation of fans and cement the positive opinion of them among those more familiar with the franchise.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: About the [[EenieMeenieMinyMoai Easter Island Statues]] in the InfoDump, one of the main characters states they are 3 million years old ([[FacePalm huh boy]]....).

''Godzilla vs. Megalon'' (''Gojira tai Megaro'') was the 13th entry in the Franchise/{{Godzilla}} series. It was the first film in the series to have someone other than veteran suit performer Creator/HaruoNakajima in the role of Big G, with Shinji Takagi taking over the rubber suit. Interestingly enough, this wasn't going to be a Godzilla film. To cash in on the [[Franchise/UltraSeries Kyodai Hero]] craze, Toho held a contest in 1972 to make a tokusatsu hero that would appear in its own film. The winning entry was from an elementary student, who called his creation "Red Arone". Toho changed the name to Jet Jaguar, and he was set to star in ''Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon'', but, unfortunately, was found not to be able to carry the film. Tomoyuki Tanaka suggested adding Godzilla and Gigan into the film. In order to make up for the lost time, the film was shot in three weeks and, all in all, production time lasted six months. The film bombed at the Japanese box office, and Jet Jaguar didn't get the intended series.

** The sequence of Gigan ducking for cover behind trees from ''Godzilla vs. Gigan'', which was already mostly made up of stock footage taken from ''Film/WarOfTheGargantuas'', is reenacted here by Megalon. Like in ''vs. Gigan'', it's plainly obvious that the creature moving behind the trees is a hairy Gargantua.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Godzilla's tail-sliding dropkick... ''thing'' defies all conventions of logic in however the hell it works.

Followed by ''Film/GodzillaVsMechagodzilla''.

* SizeShifter: Jet Jaguar, for no discernible reason!

* ItIsPronouncedTroPay: Jet Jaguar's name is always pronounced as the British "Jag-you-ar". Somewhat justified as it is closer the Japanese pronunciation ("jah-goo-ah").

* ItIsPronouncedTropay: Jet Jaguar's name is always pronounced as the British "Jag-you-ar". Somewhat justified as it is closer the Japanese pronunciation ("jah-goo-ah").

* {{Handwave}}: Jet Jaguar reprogrammed himself to change his size to fight giant monsters. As to how a change in software can make hardware violate the laws of physics... shut up and watch the monster fight.