Line #39 Film/SonOfGodzilla


1	[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/son_of_godzilla_1967_7952.jpg]]
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3	-> ''"Godzilla and his youngster, the Gimantises, and now a Spiga! Huh, it's an [[TitleDrop island of monsters]]!"''
4	-->-- '''Goro Maki''', in the Titan Productions dub of the Walter-Reade TV version.
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6	Titled ''Kaijū-tō no Kessen Gojira no Musuko'' (''Monster Island's Decisive Battle: Godzilla's Son'') in Japan, ''Son of Godzilla'' is the eighth film in the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' franchise, notable for the introduction of Minya and further Godzilla development into a hero.
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8	The testing of a weather control system on Sollgel Island is hampered by a nosy reporter and the discovery of large mantises. A strange cry from the island makes things go further awry, exploding the weather balloon and spreading radiation that mutates the mantises into Kamacuras which dig up an egg. They are about to make the baby Godzilla into their meal when the King of the Monsters himself shows up, offing the two Kamacuras and adopting the baby called Minya as his son. The first day of parenting starts off awkwardly, with Minya being a bit too cowardly and Godzilla not having the patience to deal with children. When Minya defends a woman living on the island from the last Kamacuras, the GiantSpider Kumonga is awakened and Godzilla must discover his PapaWolf nature before his son is dissected...
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10	Followed by ''Film/DestroyAllMonsters'' in terms of production whereas ''Film/GodzillaVsHedorah'' resumes Showa Godzilla's storyline.
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12	----
13	!! This film contains examples of:
14	* AbusiveParents: Godzilla isn't particularly thrilled about being Minilla's adoptive father at first, best shown when he is less than impressed with the newborn infant and reluctantly allows him to climb on to his tail to carry him to safety, not to mention Goji treats Minilla rather harshly as he decides to train him to be a decent fighter (Granted, this is more justified considering Minilla is living on an island full of bigger, nastier kaiju that want to make a meal out of him). Goji [[CharacterDevelopment starts to mellow]] when Minilla begins to prove his combat abilities and finally earns his respect by helping him beat Kumonga.
15	* BeamOWar: Minilla actually engages in one with Kumonga briefly, using his heat-ray to deflect the arachnid's webbing.
16	** Godzilla does as well. Impressively despite shooting spider webs but big, Kumonga manages to stalemate Godzilla's Atomic Breath years before Mechagodzilla's eye lasers would.
17	* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: Kumonga disposes of the final Kamakuras.
18	* BigCreepyCrawlies: The Kamacuras, two meters tall even before hit with a dose of radiation.
19	* BottleEpisode: Sans the prologue (which still takes place away from civilization), the entire film is shot on an island, All the monsters are operated with wires, and only two monsters require suitimation: Godzilla and Minilla.
20	* CabinFever: While the researchers are all a little flustered from being cooped up on Solgell for several months, Furukawa (played by Yoshio Tsuchiya) has it the worst. By the time the radioactive storm wrecks the island, he's so fed up with the place he begins threatening the others at gunpoint before literally trying to swim off the island. Godzilla showing up the moment he tries to doesn't make matters any better...
21	* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Three Kamakuras fighting Godzilla ends with two dying extremely quickly to one atomic blast apiece. The third one makes it all the way to the climax of the film and withstands multiple shots of Godzilla's breath.
22	* {{Determinator}}: Dr. Kusumi continues his research for the benefit of the world in spite of increasingly unfavorable odds. Two Godzillas stomping around are just a few of those. Goro is also pretty determined to get a story out of the personnel when he drops in, being the intrepid journalist and all.
23	* DistinguishedGentlemansPipe: Dr. Kusumi is often seen ambling around with one.
24	* DubNameChange: In the English dubbing script (also used as a basis for the Titan dub), Kamacuras and Kumonga were anglicized as Gimantis and Spiga, respectively. Saeko's name was also changed, to Reiko in the Frontier dub, and Riko in the Titan dub.
25	* EvilerThanThou: Kumonga kills the last Kamakuras, immediately showing it is a bigger threat.
26	* EyeScream: Godzilla gets a drop of Kumonga/Spiga's venom shot into his right eye after letting his guard down for a moment, resulting in a lot of agony and the first ever Godzilla FacePalm.
27	* GiantSpider: Kumonga. At 45 meters tall, he's easily one of the biggest in fiction.
28	* GoneHorriblyWrong: The first radioactive sonde climate experiment goes awry after the mysterious radio waves from the center of the island jam the frequencies sending commands to the apparatus, and Kusumi and the others aren't able to detonate it in time, resulting in the opposite of the intended freezing effect: A fucking hot radioactive thunderstorm. Keep in mind that this is all Minilla's fault.
29	* HongKongDub: The listenable but unpolished Frontier dub easily qualifies, though it was in fact dubbed in Tokyo.
30	* ImpairmentShot: There's an out of focus glimpse of Kumonga seen through Godzilla's eye in the final brawl.
31	* IntrepidReporter: Goro Maki, who parachutes onto the island and refuses to leave until he finds out what's going on with the scientists.
32	* KillItWithFire: Godzilla catches on pretty quick that the Kamakuras are extremely flammable.
33	** Godzilla and Minilla finally set their dreadful arachnid adversary aflame by [[WonderTwinPowers firing their heat-rays together simultaneously]]. Either this Kumonga [[Film/DestroyAllMonsters got better or another of its kind showed up]], with the massive blizzard raging around its flaming "carcass" and whatnot.
34	* {{Leitmotif}}: This being a Masaru Sato scored picture, the soundtrack is a bit more of a ThemeAndVariationsSoundtrack-type score than the usual Ostinato stuff, with several memorable motifs, like Minilla's theme, Riko's theme, Godzilla and the Gimantises' jazzy dirges, and the whimsical experiment preparation march.
35	* [[HumanPopsicle Monster Popsicle]]: Godzilla and Minilla are forced to go into hibernation by the final and successful test, which covers the entire island, both monsters included, in snow.
36	* MinimalistCast: There are even fewer players in the U.S. TV version, which cuts the prologue.
37	* MythologyGag: Minilla accidentally swipes a boulder at a Kamakuras with his tail, but it deflects it with its foreleg, hitting Minilla in the face. The Kamakuras then [[Film/KingKongVsGodzilla claps in amusement]].
38	* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Kumonga seems at first glance like your generic GiantSpider monster... except he spits a highly resistent type of silk which can restrain larger, stronger kaiju like Godzilla and Minilla. He uses this to his advantage in his fight with Godzilla and would have likely devoured the Big G had it not been for Minilla's intervention.
39	* PapaWolf: Godzilla. He immediately decides to defend hatchling Minilla from the Kamakuras, and later intervenes to save him from Kumonga.
40	* SnowMeansDeath: If used as a weapon, the WeatherControlMachine is described as being a more dangerous weapon than the atomic bomb because of this. When they decide to do it in order to bury the island in snow and ice in the ending, however, Godzilla and Minilla undergo HarmlessFreezing until the island becomes tropical again.
41	* VileVillainSaccharineShow: While most of the film is LighterAndSofter, with Minya providing cute antics and Godzilla's violence limited to an isolated island, [[GiantSpider Kumonga]] is a genuinely frightening creature, not to mention he comes dangerously close to making a meal out of Godzilla and Minilla at the end.
42	* WeatherControlMachine: A rare instance of this being used for benevolent purposes.
43	* TheWorfEffect: Narratively, the Kamakuras mainly exist so stronger monsters can kill them. Godzilla kills two effortlessly, then later Kumonga gets the last one, demonstrating to the audience how dangerous he is.
44	* YouHaveToBurnTheWeb: The only real effective way of escaping Spiga/Kumonga's threads.

Context Film / SonOfGodzilla