Next week, October 19th, Sony Home Video will be re-releasing two volumes of their Godzilla library on DVD. So what's the big deal? Well, there really isn't a big deal.
Although the DVD sets were stumbled on by fans back in early September (particularly from Monster Zero), very little has been learned about these discs since then. That's probably because it's not hard to figure out.
The Toho Godzilla Collection Vol. 1 consists of Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, The Rebirth of Mothra and The Rebirth of Mothra II.
Amazon.com lists this volume as a 3-disc set. For those with a short memory, Sony originally gave all of these films half-baked releases on flipper discs. None of these movies were released with their Japanese language track on DVD. The Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah/Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth flipper included an awful full screen transfer. While Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla/Godzilla vs. Destoroyah DVD was presented in non-anamorphic widescreen.
In other words these are the exact same. The only difference? They're not flipper discs anymore.
The Toho Godzilla Collection Vol. 2 includes Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II (Why include a Heisei film on a Millennium series set?), Godzilla 2000, Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla against MechaGodzilla, Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. and Godzilla: Final Wars.
This set is more perplexing because Amazon lists it as a 4-disc set. None of these films were released as flippers and it seems strange that Sony would go out of their way to print new discs. If they did create new discs for this set at least one of them includes just one film. With the exception of Godzilla 2000 all of these films were released with Japanese audio and anamorphic widescreen.
I think it's safe to assume these releases will be identical to their DVD counterparts rather than the recent Blu-ray releases. Sony's track record for surprising fans with quality releases isn't stellar and this release doesn't exactly scream something meant for hardcore fans.
Both sets look like they lack the presentation serious collectors look for in Godzilla releases. (Widescreen, Japanese versions, complete end titles, etc.) And the lack of Rebirth of Mothra III seems to indicate Sony is simply re-releasing their retail ready DVD materials—Of which there is none for the aforementioned movie. (Rebirth of Mothra III is currently only available on Blu-ray.)
For the casual fans who don't have these movies and can forgive [awful] dub tracks and lazy presentations, go for it! Six-to-seven movies for $29.99 a set isn't terrible, but if you have a Blu-ray player I highly, highly recommend going for Sony's HD Godzilla releases instead.
You can read reviews for a few of the Blu-ray below:
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah/Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah/Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S./Godzilla: Final Wars
The Toho Godzilla Collection Vol. 1 & 2 will be available next week. For those interested you can order them off Amazon here:
Toho Godzilla Collection Vol. 1
Toho Godzilla Collection Vol. 2
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