Up from the depths, 30 stories high, breathing fire, his head in the sky! Godzilla! Godzilla! Godzilla... and Godzooky.
The giant radioactive dinosaur from the Japanese films headlined this animated Action Series, co-produced by Hanna-Barbera and Toho for NBC in United States in 1978, and TV Tokyo in Japan. It is an animated adaptation of the Japanese Godzilla films produced by Toho. The show continued to air until 1981, for a time airing in its own half-hour timeslot until its cancellation. It's now available to watch on the official Godzilla YouTube channel hosted by Toho here
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Here, Godzilla had four human friends and a mischievous nephew, Godzooky. The series follows the adventures of a team of scientists on the research vessel called the Calico, which is headed by Captain Carl Majors. The rest of the crew include scientist Dr. Quinn Darien, her nephew Pete, and her research assistant/the ship's first mate, Brock. The group often call upon Godzilla by using a special communicator when in peril, such as attacks by other giant monsters or impending natural disasters. Godzooky is also able to howl to summon Godzilla.
The supporting segment, Jana of the Jungle, has its own entry.
See Godzilla: The Series for The '90s' Godzilla cartoon.
The Godzilla Power Hour provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: Unlike his film counterpart, Godzilla doesn't attack humans nor bear any ill will to them. In fact, humans see him as a hero without a hint of reluctance.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: Godzilla's atomic breath is changed into a more standard fire breath and he's also (rather jarringly) given Eye Beams as an additional power.
- Aliens Are Bastards: The Frios Aliens in "The Deadly Asteroid".
- Aliens Speaking English: Often.
- All There in the Manual: Exactly how did Godzilla & Godzooky first meet the Calico and its crew, anyway? Only the original production notes for the show ever divulged that information: the Calico saved Godzooky from being entangled in some seaweed.
- Alternate Universe: The world where the Power Dragon and the people of The City in the Clouds came from. Godzilla got trapped there for a while until Quinn used the thought amplifier to make a portal for him.
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: There would be a brief exposition on a scientific instrument or phenomenon in each episode, thus providing an educational segment for the show.
- Animated Adaptation: The first one starring Godzilla, but the second Godzilla production made solely in the US, as Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1977) was released a year prior.
- Possibly the third if you count the Godzilla recorded stories by Wonderland Records.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: What Godzilla sometimes regards Godzooky as, and will roar at him to silence him.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: "The Time Dragons" is rife with them. The Calico crew is threatened by a fang-toothed diplodocus, which is a real-life species that's one of the most famous herbivorous dinosaurs in the world. Only later when we meet nearby cavemen do we learn that the crew has traveled back in time only seventy thousand years!
- Atlantis: It appears in the episode The Colossus of Atlantis. It is a technologically advanced society which sank thousands of years ago due to an earthquake but now has risen again due to another. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that the city is an alien spaceship.note
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Godzilla himself, natch, as well as most of the creatures he was pitted against. Godzooky probably also counts, as he's so big his head is larger than most doorways and he tends to tower over his human companions. It's shown in the episode The Firebird that the main reason the Calico rarely uses what appears to be a set of optional hydrofoils to reach fairly impressive speeds is that he's so damn heavy he puts a lot of strain on the ship. Yet in the episode The Ghost Ship the Calico was able to use them while Godzooky was aboard.
- Badass and Baby: Godzilla and Godzooky.
- Behemoth Battle: Often Godzilla is called to fight other giant monsters.
- Beneficial Disease: What Godzooky gives to Pete, thereby making him Immune to Mind Control from Axor.
- Big Damn Heroes. Godzilla owns this trope, but even Godzuki has his moments when not trying to help Godzilla, by coming to people's rescue. He's often saved humans fallen overboard from death by drowning/hypothermia.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The Watchuki tribe.
- Blob Monster: The Breeder Beast, a protoplasmic blob that could metabolize any matter to grow bigger... and bigger...
- Brainy Brunette: Dr. Quinn Darien.
- Breath Weapon: Some of the giant monsters have this.
- Godzilla himself can breathe fire instead of having an Atomic Breath. Said fire can reach temperatures that can melt rock as seen in certain episodes such as The Sub-Zero Terror, The Beast of Storm Island and Valley of the Giants.
- Godzuki's attempts often result in smoke rings. He can use his smoke breath as a Smoke Out. He was able to breathe fire in the episode The Beast of Storm Island thanks to a temporary power-up.
- The Captain: Capt. Carl Majors, although he really shares the leader position with Quinn.
- Chekhov's Gun: One episode had Dr. Darien inventing a new automated-microscope that can orient itself and home in on a small target to visualize within a room. As it happens, Godzilla is later shrunken to microscopic size and accidentally was released from his Petrie dish into the same room as that microscope and that device proves invaluable to locating the shrunken monster and delivering the cure to get him back to normal size.
- Classical Chimera: A chimera, depicted as a dragon-like beast with the head of a lion and horns of a goat, is one of the monsters in the episode "Island of Lost Ships". It spends most of the episode trapped inside a cage, being too powerful for the sirens to control. It is eventually released in the climax were it is mind-controlled (and merged with) by the fused sirens in order to fight Godzilla. It is defeated by being tricked to run over the edge of a cliff, where it falls into the water and is destroyed.
- Clone Army: Dr. Voltrang has one of these, using his daughter as the template. When he tries to escape Godzilla after his giant squid is defeated, his escape boat is filled with at least a dozen of them.
- Colony Drop: In "The Deadly Asteroid", the Frios Aliens tried to use a large asteroid (which is their homeworld) to hit the Earth.
- Continuity Nod: The penultimate episode "Island of Doom" plays the closest to the original Godzilla film, as Godzilla is attacked by the island's defense forces and has to rampage his way across to save the Calico's crew.
- Convection, Schmonvection: Episode one. The team brazenly walks right into the lava tubes of a recently-erupted volcano.
- Cool Ship: The Calico, much like Jacques Cousteau's Calypso, but it has a swift hydrofoil mode.
- Cousin Oliver: Godzooky. Technically averted as the character is there from the start, but definitely, a Cousin Oliver when the franchise as a whole is taken into consideration. And, yes, that includes the Son of Godzilla.
- Cryptid Episode: "The Sub-Zero Terror" has the heroes encounter a race of yetis known as the Watchuki, along with their Godzilla-sized guardians, the Great Watchuka.
- Crossover: With The Flintstones.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Godzilla effortlessly takes down a paramilitary organization known as 'COBRA'. No not that COBRA; besides, this show's COBRA came first.
- Destructive Saviour: Subverted. Godzilla tries not to demolish anything.
- Does Not Know How to Say "Thanks": The entire reason why Godzilla's helping mankind. After the crew of the Calico came to Godzooky's aid, the giant Kaiju is grateful and repays them with his continued protection.
- Then again, from Godzilla's viewpoint, he's forcing the humans to look after Godzooky so he doesn't have to constantly deal with him, so coming to their aid at precisely the right moment at least once an episode is probably the absolute least he could do in return.
- Energy Absorption: A few examples -
- The Energy Beast fed on power from a hydroelectric dam to grow bigger and stronger.
- Also, in a different episode, a turtle can feed on magnetic fields in order to increase in size and power.
- The Megavolt Monsters needed to absorb energy from an electrical source near their home to use their powers. Without that energy to recharge, they shrank and were rendered powerless.
- Eternal English: Despite traveling back to the time of the dinosaurs, the Calico's crew has no problems communicating with the local cavemen.
- Evil Twin: In one episode, a Mad Scientist makes clones of the crew. In another episode, an alien shapeshifter, the Energy Beast, impersonates Godzilla.
- Expy: Many episodes' monsters and human characters are homages to classic monster and fantasy films, several of them being more or less comparable to Toho's own kaiju(at least the Showa era ones):
- Godzooky resembled Minya from the actual Godzilla movies and has often been confused for the same character by casual viewers. He also has a resemblance to Varan being a triphibian (a creature that can operate on land, sea, and air).
- The Magnetic Monster, a giant turtle arising from arctic ice, is a Shout-Out to Gamera.
- The Fire Bird is a stand-in for Rodan.
- The Eartheater is a stand-in for Baragon.
- The Stone Creatures are a possible stand-in for Larva Mothra.
- The Breeder Beast is a stand-in for Hedorah.
- The Great Watchuka is a possible homage to King Kong.
- The Cyclops is probably based on Ray Harryhausen's Cyclops from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
- The lightning-breathing Power Dragon from "The City in the Clouds" could be considered a one-headed stand-in for King Ghidorah. The plot for that episode even borrows heavily from Godzilla vs. Monster Zero.
- The glowing gas cloud that shrinks Godzilla and enlarges a fly is a shout-out to the ocean-going radioactive cloud in The Incredible Shrinking Man.
- The mad biologist Dr. Votrang strongly resembles Charles Laughton as Dr. Moreau in Island of Lost Souls.
- Judging by both her M.O. and her hairstyle, Morphea is likely based on Magaera from Hammer Horror's The Gorgon.
- COBRA is most likely based on the "Red Bamboo" from Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.
- A more obscure source: the Cyborg Whale, built to rake the ocean for resources, was likely inspired by Rorqual Maru the Godwhale from T.J. Bass's science fiction novel The Godwhale, which was created for the same purpose.
- And the Calico and her crew are obviously based on Jacques Cousteau and his ship the Calypso.
- Eye Beams: Godzilla has laser vision in addition to fire breath in this version (probably because lasers are easier to animate).
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: A show where giant monsters, living statues, aliens, mythological beasts, and frozen U-boats are regular occurences for the crew of the Calico.
- Flaw Exploitation: Why Godzilla cannot use his full power against the Cyborg Whale, for fear of harming Brock and Pete, who are trapped inside.
- For Science!: Captain Majors sometimes chides Dr. Darien for letting her curiosity lead her into danger. However, her scientific skills end up saving the day more often than not.
- Fusion Dance: The three sirens can fuse into one larger being who then fused with the Chimera to fight Godzilla.
- Genius Bruiser: There are times when Godzilla himself employs ingenuity, without instruction, and figures out the most practical way to deal with a problem, such as averting a nuclear reactor meltdown.
- Giant Flyer: The Fire Bird, as well as several giant insects.
- One can conclude that this is what Godzooky would become when he grows up.
- Gigantic Adults, Tiny Babies: What the show implies Godzooky will eventually become. Given time, he will become as large and as powerful as Godzilla.
- A God Am I: Axor, a mutant cobra-eque kaiju, uniquely demands to be worshiped by humans as a god. By shooting mind-control rays over them (or any creature for that matter) will become his slave.
- Godzilla Threshold: Crossed once an episode.
- Good Is Not Soft: Godzilla may be benign in this incarnation, but the human cast are never complacent around him, sometimes nervous, knowing full well the monster can crush them out of existence at any given moment, even if he didn't mean to. This is curious because Godzilla behaves more like a Bruiser with a Soft Center. Such as plucking up a construction worker from certain death. For comparison - ever tried to pick up a tiny bug without killing it? Its not that easy... Still, given that Godzilla shows absolutely no hesitation with killing his foes, it's probably wise to give the big guy some space.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Carl and Brock (who, with the ship, have been Swallowed Whole along with a lot of other random objects) are prepared to sacrifice themselves to save the world from the Magnetic Monster. They make it through okay, though.
- Hollywood Prehistory: "The Time Dragons" has humans living side-by-side with dinosaurs.
- Human Popsicle: The frozen German submarine. Interestingly, since these Germans are from the First World War (and therefore not Nazis), they turn out to be perfectly decent folks once they finally realize they're in the future and the war is long over. Then a giant octopus attacks after being roused by the German's heat-seeking torpedo!
- Also the Atlanteans.
- Humongous Mecha: The Colossus of Atlantis.
- Hypno Ray: Axor, the Monster of Storm Island, mind controls with rays.
- Ignored Expert: In a double shout-out, the one Atlantean scientist who tried to warn his people their city would sink was named Kara-El.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: He even gets small enough in "MicroGodzilla" that bacteria in a petri dish become potential foes.
- When the crew finds a cure for him, he starts to quickly rebound back to his normal size, while he's still on board the ship.
- In Harm's Way: Godzooky often does this trying to prove how courageous he is.
- Isle of Giant Horrors: This happens several times throughout the series:
- In one episode, appropriately titled "The Horror of Forgotten Island", the crew of the Calico found themselves on an island surrounded by a force field which imprisoned a mutant cyclops that could turn invisible.
- There's also "Island of Lost Ships", where Godzilla fights a giant Chimera, and "The Beast of Storm Island", where a giant cobra monster with a god complex enslaved the entire human population of the island. Along with " The Colossus of Atlantis", where Godzilla faces the the titular Humongous Mecha that has gone out of control. Given that the series follows the adventures of a scientific research vessel and thus spends a lot of time at sea, the writers certainly got a lot of mileage out of this trope.
- Just in Time: Practically a Catchphrase on the show.
- Kaiju: Naturally, given Godzilla is the main character.
- Kid-Appeal Character: Pete and Godzooky.
- The Kid with the Remote Control: Though the real signal device belonged to Captain Majors, Godzooky (Pete's pet super-lizard) could substitute when required.
- King Kong Copy: As noted under Expy, the Great Watchuka is for all intents and purposes a stand-in for Kong. He even briefly abducts Quinn at one point then sets her atop a tall ledge to fight Godzilla unencumbered, not unlike how Kong treats Ann when he defends her from the Meat-Eater in the '33 film.
- Life Drain: The alien Energy Beast sucked some energy straight from Godzilla and used this to mimic his appearance.
- Lighter and Softer: Unlike the main series of films, Godzilla is a heroic entity here.
- According to
Word of God, It was due to a general opinion of the standards board of the time that the title character shouldn't be depicted demolishing large portions of the landscape and breathing radioactive breath, with any large amounts of damage being done by his enemies, instead of him.
- According to
- Living Statue: The Golden Guardians
- Loyal Animal Companion: Godzooky is very attached to Pete, and as such, follows him around everywhere.
- Making a Splash: How Godzilla makes his big entrance.
- Monster of the Week: Trope Codifier, perhaps? Even if it had little to do with the plot, there was always an appropriately scaled Kaiju for Godzilla to throw down with, with "Island of Doom" the sole exception (where it's Godzilla vs a more traditional military).
- Monumental Damage: The United States Capitol loses its dome in The Breeder Beast when the titular monster ripped it off and chucked it at Godzilla who then destroyed it with his laser vision.
- Mood Whiplash: Starts out with a kick-ass theme song until "...and Godzoookeeee..." turns it into a kiddie tune but after that ends, it is back to triumphantly saying "Godzilla".
- Morality Chain: Godzuki to Godzilla. Otherwise, you'd be dealing with a more traditional representation of the character.
- Mr. Exposition: Ms. Exposition in this case, as Dr. Darien would often explain scientific principles related to the episode or how the monsters could do what they were doing. Justified by her being the scientific expert of the Calico.
- Nebulous Evil Organisation: COBRA is one. It's never said what their goals are, but Captain Majors immediately recognizes their logo as bad news.
- Nephewism: A double dose — Godzooky, nephew of Godzilla, as well as Pete, Dr. Darien's nephew.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: In addition to shooting laser beams from his eyes much like Superman's heat vision, Godzilla's trademark atomic breath is altered so he breathes simple fire.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Godzilla for the most part. No matter what the threat, he always triumphs no matter what. Admittedly, even the Toho version of Godzilla is depicted as being a nigh-unstoppable force of nature.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Godzilla tends to brush off Godzooky's poor attempts at helping, even wagging his finger disapprovingly at him at one point.
- Oh, Cisco!: Godzuki often does something silly at the end of the episode with a member of the Calico crew commenting on it.
- Oh, Crap!: COBRA's leaders pretty much have this reaction when Godzilla starts stomping towards their main complex in "Island of Doom""He's coming after us!" (cue everyone running out of the building as fast as their legs will take them)
- Papa Wolf: Attacking Godzooky when Godzilla looms overhead is the last thing you will ever do.
- Precursors: Some of the threats would come in the form of abandoned giant robots the ancient Atlanteans and Egyptians left behind and have since gone rogue.
- Professional Wrestling: Godzilla's fights with other monsters turn into a wrestling match more often than not. Godzuki tries to turn it into a Tag Team, but fails because he's Godzuki.
- Reality Warper: The Dream Stone, although it really only gets used to repeatedly bring the Golden Guardians to life. It gets smashed before we learn if it could do anything else.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The preserved World War 1 U-Boat captain is initially disbelieving that he'd been frozen for decades and the Great War had been long over, but he lets Captain Majors and Doctor Quinn show him the technology and recent news reports aboard the Calico. While shocked, he accepts they were telling the truth, apologizes for the misunderstanding, and tells them about what had happened to his crew.
- Reckless Sidekick: Godzooky.
- The Remnant: The Calico discovers a perfectly preserved WW1 era U-Boat trapped in Arctic ice. The crew, upon exiting suspended animation sometime after the ship is freed, still think the Great War is still happening and fire upon the marked American vessel. The usually villainous aspect of the trope is averted soon after however, after the U-Boat captain and first-mate board the surrendering Calico and are shown future technology. While shocked, they realize the Calico crew is telling the truth, immediately call off hostilities and apologize for the misunderstanding. The ending of the episode has them looking forward to returning to a new peaceful Germany.
- Science Hero: The whole crew, but mostly Dr. Darien.
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Due to a translation error in the American version of the first G-film, most Americans incorrectly believed that Godzilla was a LOT bigger than his actual canonical size at the time. Therefore the writers depicted him as being "30 stories high", which puts him in the region of a whopping 300-400ft in height. The Showa Era Kaiju King of monsters was actually topped at 160 feet. Its not until Heisei Era does the monster reach that size and scale. And even then, this Godzilla is bigger and yet is dwarfed in the franchise by both the MonsterVerse version and Godzilla Earth of the anime movie trilogy. As well as making errors in translation over Showa-era Godzilla's size, the writing staff by describing the King of monsters as "thirty stories high", went even further and made erroneous assumptions over Artistic License – Engineering as well. A storey is not ever a measure of height, because there is no standard definition of how high a building storey should be. Because of this, Godzilla could be towering anywhere between 300 to 400 feet tall.
- Sea Monster: The king of monsters himself can create whirlpools to drag his opponents down by simply swimming in a circle.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Cyclops
- Simple, yet Awesome: Who would have thought that Godzilla's clenched fist makes an improvised submersible for us humans?
- Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: Godzooky can understand English, but he only makes Scooby Doo-esque grunts and yelps that Pete understands. Godzilla also seems to understand English and even occasionally says a single word amidst his various growls and roars: "Yeah". He even laughs like a human after sending a UFO back up into space in one episode.
- Solid Clouds: The city in the clouds in The City in the Clouds has and is made of these.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Averted. Although Pete and Godzooky seem to communicate this way, Pete explains to a scientist they just rescued that it's less understanding Godzooky's grumbles and wails and more just knowing what he's thinking. The scientist catches on quick, noticing that Godzooky is about to take off from the Calico (against Pete's words) while Pete's back is turned.
- Spell My Name With An S: Godzooky is frequently spelled as "Godzooki" and "Godzuki".
- Spot the Imposter: The fight between Godzilla and his evil energy-absorbing twin descends into a Mirror Match, Godzuki determined to know who's his, gets too close. Then one of the Godzillas stops to pick him up, the one and the original.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Calling for Godzilla.
- Square-Cube Law: Godzooky should not be able to fly with those tiny wings.
- Tagalong Kid: Pete.
- Token Minority: Dr. Darien's assistant Brock.
- Time Travel: Happens a few times in the show.
- Unstoppable Rage: Often happens when a particular threat has really angered Godzilla, the humans and Godzooky may sometimes struggle to communicate with him, or keep him calm.
- Waist-Deep Ocean: No matter where the Calico was when they called Godzilla, the Kaiju king would come crashing out of the water, standing completely erect, the water swirling around his ankles.
- Weirdness Magnet: The Calico clearly is one.
- The Walls Are Closing In: In the episode The Colossus of Atlantis the Calico was destroyed this way.
- Your Size May Vary: And vary it certainly does. Godzilla's size (and to a lesser extent Godzooky) shifts radically, sometimes within a single episode or even one scene. For instance, Godzilla's claw can wrap around a large ship, and only minutes later the team of scientists fits rather neatly on Godzilla's palm.
