The Adventures of Galgameth — also released as The Legend of Galgameth or simply Galgameth — is a 1996 American fantasy-comedy kaiju movie directed by Sean McNamara, distributed by Trimark Pictures and Galaxy International Releasing, and loosely adapted from the 1985 North Korean film Pulgasari.
In the kingdom of Donnegold, Prince Davin (Devin Oatway)'s father King Henryk (Sean McNamara) is poisoned by the evil knight El El (Stephen Macht) but gives his son a small statuette he says is Galgameth, a legendary creature sworn to protect their family. When El El names himself regent and usurps the throne following the king's death, Davin's tears unwittingly bring the statue to life. Escaping the castle, Davin and the metal-eating "Galgy" soon find themselves at the heart of a civil war to dethrone El El and bring peace back to Donnegold, while El El works to build a superweapon that will cement his reign.
The film contains the following tropes:
- Bittersweet Ending: In the end, El El is killed, with Davin becoming the rightful King and marrying Julia, but Galgameth dies by wading into the ocean. However, Davin finds the statuette on the beach, meaning that Galgameth could someday return.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: El El managed to defeat Galgameth by luring him out to sea, but while he was doing that, his army was defeated, his ultimate weapon was destroyed, his dragon has had enough of him, and he's about to be on the receiving end of a royal ass whooping, courtesy of Prince Davin.
- Bullet Seed: Galgameth catches a cannon ball in his teeth, chews it up, and spits the shrapnel back at El El's soldiers.
- Butt Biter: Just as the headsman is about to decapitate Julia, Galgameth chomps down on his butt.
- Card-Carrying Villain: When Davin confronts El El about his abuses of power, El El happily admits to oppressing the commoners — and more to the point doing so in Davin's name — and gloats to Davin's face about having murdered the king.
- Fallen Princess: Gender-flipped with Davin, who escapes from El El with Galgameth's help and disguises himself as a peasant, falling in with La Résistance.
- Foreign Remake: Galgameth is a loose remake of the North Korean kaiju film Pulgasari, following many of the same narrative beats but setting the action in a fictional low-fantasy Medieval European Fantasy kingdom instead of feudal Korea.
- Guardian Entity: Galgameth is said to be the mystical guardian of the royal bloodline of Donnegold, and goes out of his way to protect Davin.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Taking Davin captive, El El forces Galgameth to sacrifice himself by wading out into the ocean to rescue the prince.
- Kick the Dog: Besides ruling the country with an iron fist under the pretense of acting as Davin's proxy, El El's first batch of new laws includes one banishing all dogs from the country.
- Kill It with Fire: Assuming that having thrown the statuette into the fireplace was what brought Galgameth to life, El El lures Galgameth into a building and sets it ablaze. All this does is give Galgameth a fiery Super Mode that lets him lay waste to El El's troops.
- Kill It with Water: Because Prince Davin's tears are what brought Galgameth to life only salt water can hurt him. After El El realizes that is Galgameth's weakness he captures David and drags him onto a boat, to lure the monster out to sea.
- Kryptonite Factor: Galgameth can only be destroyed by the same thing that brings him to life.
- La Résistance: The tavern where Davin and Galgy seek shelter happens to be a meeting place for peasants and mercenaries who resent El El's tyrannical rule — though they believe Davin himself to be responsible. Galgameth turns out to be the budding rebellion's ace in the hole, enabling them to overthrow El El despite lacking numbers and equipment.
- Love at First Sight: Davin is immediately smitten with the barmaid Julia — who also happens to be a skilled swordswoman.
- Metal Muncher: Galgameth eats metal, growing larger and stronger with each meal. He going from being able to fit in the palm of Davin's hand to a colossal draconic beast by devouring farming implements, weapons, and armor.
- Miracle-Gro Monster: Galgameth starts out small enough to fit in Prince Davin's hand and looking like a gold-painted Minya, but the more metal he eats the larger and spikier he becomes.
- Misplaced Retribution: Due to El El's tyranny being perpetuated in Prince Davin's name, the peasants believe Davin to be a ruthless tyrant — leading to him having to disguise his identity as "John".
- Now That's Using Your Teeth!: While saving Julia from being beheaded, Galgameth catches the executioner's axe between his teeth and eats it.
- Storming the Castle: With Galgameth at full size, the rebel army storms the casle and takes it from El El's troops despite El El attempting to use his prized giant cannon on them.
- Surrounded by Idiots: After losing a jousting match, El El bemoans the incompetence of his henchmen to Zhidao.
- Tombstone Teeth: In his smaller form, Galgameth has short but flat teeth nonetheless capable of chewing through metal, though in his larger form they become fangs.
- Took a Level in Badass: Galgameth starts out cute and tiny, but as he grows larger he becomes increasingly monstrous and powerful.
- The Usurper: El El starts off as a knight in service to King Henryk, but his ambitions lead him to assassinate the king, name himself regent, and rule the kingdom of Donnegold with an iron fist.
- Virtue Is Weakness: After using Galgameth's loyalty to Davin against him, El El proudly declares that his own beloved cat, Angel Eyes, would never have done something like that for him.
