Trivia / Mothra

• Duelling Movies: Almost certainly unintentional, especially considering they came out in the same year, but Mothra has essentially the same plot as Gorgo; both involve a greedy, Carl Denham type that kidnaps (relatively) helpless fantastical beings to be gawked at for paying audiences, only for a Mama Bear Kaiju to come to rescue them, doling out grievous property damage along the way.
• Fake Nationality: The natives of Infant Island are obviously Japanese actors decked in the Polynesian equivalent of Blackface.
• Playing Against Type: This is the first film in which Haruo Nakajima (yes, the guy who played Godzilla in Godzilla (1954)) plays a monster that's only destructive because it had to. His previous roles, being Godzilla and Rodan, are just destructive by nature.
• What Could Have Been: Originally, Nelson and his men were to have kidnapped Shinji and then flee with him as hostage to the mountains with the heroes in pursuit. However Mothra beats them to it trying to rescue the fairies, and winds up killing Nelson herself by knocking him off a cliff.
  • The original tile was called The Giant Monster Thing before setting on Giant Monster Mothra by Sekizawa, and there were three drafts written. First off, Mothra was a far more destructive monster who recently hatched from her egg, the Shobijin Fairies were the Pichi Fairies (and there were five), and Mothra would cocoon herself on the Diet Building, which would not be used until Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth.