"GODZILLA" ON SONY BLU-RAYS REVEALED! Full Specs On All Four May 6, 2014 Releases

平成とミレニアムのゴジラ映画は米国Blu-rayに来る!


Blu-ray jacket art courtesy Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Following up on my breaking news of February 28th concerning the details on Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's upcoming Blu-ray releases of their Heisei and Millennium Godzilla titles, which went through several updates over following days and weeks, SPHE has finally issued their specs and cover art via their press release site. As you can see, SPHE is still sticking to their English titles, first issued on VHS and DVD back in the 1990s and early 2000s. Click on the links to go to the Amazon listings:

GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH (1991)
GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA (1992)
2 Discs, MFT (Blu-ray/UltraViolet, ST) • Closed Captioned • Screen Format(s): Anamorphic • Languages: English (US) 5.1/Japanese 5.1, English (US) DS • Subtitles: English (US), French (Parisian) • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1


Blu-ray jacket art courtesy Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA (1993)
GODZILLA VS. SPACE GODZILLA (1994)
2 Discs, MFT (Blu-ray/UltraViolet, ST) • Closed Captioned • Screen Format(s): Anamorphic • Languages: English (US) 5.1/Japanese 5.1, English (US) DS • Subtitles: English (US), French (Parisian) • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1


Blu-ray jacket art courtesy Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

GODZILLA VS. DESTROYAH (1995)
GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS (2000)
2 Discs, MFT (Blu-ray/UltraViolet, ST) • Closed Captioned • Screen Format(s): Anamorphic • Languages: English (US) 5.1/Japanese 5.1, English (US) DS • Subtitles: English (US), French (Parisian) • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Destroyah) & 2.35:1 (Megaguirus)


Blu-ray jacket art courtesy Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

GODZILLA: TOKYO SOS (2003)
GODZILLA FINAL WARS (2004)
2 Discs, MFT (Blu-ray/UltraViolet, ST) • Closed Captioned • Screen Format(s): Anamorphic • Languages: English (US) 5.1/Japanese 5.1, English (US) DS • Subtitles: English (US), French (Parisian) • Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

These specs do not mention any special features content, so one shouldn't have any expectations of such. Meanwhile, keen cinephiles and kaiju fans alike will notice the conspicuous absence of previous Sony releases of Takao Okawara's GODZILLA 2000 (1999), Shusuke Kaneko's GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK (2001), and Masaaki Tezuka's GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA (2002) from this set of releases. Curious, as Sony Pictures created a US theatrical version of GODZILLA 2000, while GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA is the first of the two-part "Kiryu Saga" which concludes in GODZILLA: TOKYO SOS. And of course, GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK is arguably the best of these latter films in both depth and execution.

Did Sony's rights elapse on some of these errant titles? Or do they have something else planned for them? Only time, and Sony, will tell. For now, stay tuned to this blog as this story develops...

Special thanks to Shawn Francis!

SONY UNLEASHING HEISEI & MILLENNIUM BIG Gs! Double Feature Blu-rays Are "Go" for May 6th

平成とミレニアムのゴジラ映画は米国Blu-rayに来る!


Original theatrical poster for GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH (1991).

UPDATED (Tuesday, March 4th): The "rumor" I posted on Friday, February 28th, that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will be issuing four double-feature Blu-ray releases of their Heisei and Millennium Godzilla titles on May 6th is spot-on! All of the titles, below, have now appeared on Amazon.com on March 1st. SPHE is taking advantage of the frenzy created by the release of the upcoming Gareth Edwards re-imagining of the original creature feature opening on May 16th.

On Monday, March 3rd, the first Amazon.com listings were changed from DVD (as reported on March 1st), to Blu-ray — as per the original story I posted on February 28th, according to an industry insider. Also intimated by an insider at SHPE that these will be a significant upgrade from previous, barebones DVD releases (Amazon, as of today, is currently listing specs as "AC-3, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen"). No doubt that these will be subject to change.

And now, they have:

On Tuesday, March 4th, these specs appeared on the listing for the double feature of GODZILLA FINAL WARS & GODZILLA: TOKYO SOS at Movies Unlimited, indicating (as per my original informant) that this will be a two-disc set. The specs listed include Widescreen, Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital 5.1, English (SDH) and French Subtitles. All of the details originally leaked to me have now been confirmed, so I am now posting it (but we'll have to wait and see if the originally-reported UltraViolent Digital Copies also materialize).

The unchanging MSRP for each of these double features is $19.95. According to an anonymous source this past Friday, these are the titles dropping, which are all still currently listed on Amazon:

GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH (1991) & GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA (1992), GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA II (1993) & GODZILLA VS. SPACE GODZILLA (1994), GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH (1995) & GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS (2000), GODZILLA FINAL WARS (2004) & GODZILLA: TOKYO SOS (2003).

Conspicuously missing are GODZILLA 2000 (1999), GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK (2001), and GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA (2002). It's unknown at this time if these will follow — I'll keep checking on sources... Stay tuned! But for now, in the words of the immortal Henry Silva, "NOT bullshit!"


Henry Silva says, "I can safely say that this story is NOT bullshit!"

H-MEN, MOTHRAS & SPACE BATTLES, OH MY! Sony Home Video issuing Toho classics to DVD

Should you shelve your Toho Video R2 DVDs or keep them? Read on.

To quote Dr. Immelman from THE MYSTERIANS, "Good news! Good news!" The intrepid Ian Freidman of the HK Film News DVD blog has scored another exclusive interview with Michael Schlesinger of Sony Home Pictures Entertainment, called Return of the Classics. And while they discuss a lot of exciting news about upcoming releases (please check out the site for the complete interview), there is some exciting official news regarding the Columbia-held titles, THE H-MAN (1958), BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE (1959) and MOTHRA (1961). Here are some excerpts:

IF: "So what is the word on releases of dual US/Japanese versions of MOTHRA, THE H-MAN, and the BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE? The grey market has been filled with wide and subbed copies of the Japanese versions, but the English language version has only appeared on badly duped copies from 16MM, making them a desired inclusion."

MS: "The set is penciled in for ’09. It will contain those three plus REBIRTH OF MOTHRA 3 (1998), which somehow got overlooked for DVD. The intent is to have the uncut versions with Japanese tracks as well as the English dubs. MOTHRA and BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE are done; THE H-MAN is proving to be a bit trickier, but it should be completed in time."

IF: "Many fans have hoped that the actual US versions (in terms of credits and US version has opposed to the dub being placed over the Japanese version) will be released; do you think this will be possible?"

MS: "Probably not, since it would require twice as many discs. Besides, why would anyone want the cut-up versions? You don’t see people buying ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA and then saying, “Aw, crap, I wanted the version that was 90 minutes shorter and re-edited in chronological order by some studio hack.” That’s a rather extreme analogy, but you get my point."

IF: "The reason I ask about the US versions is that Classic Media, put both the US and Japanese versions on one disc, if that's not possible, will the US credit sequences be included perhaps as an extra."

MS: "I'm sure some method will be worked out. We certainly don't expect people to try and read Japanese credits!"

IF: "Since some of the US versions were sequenced different and had different music, how will the dubs sync up with the Japanese tracks (do you have separate music, sound effects, and dialog tracks?"

MS: "That is an issue, and one that's holding up THE H-MAN. Again, much of the Toho business might be better posed to Grover [Crisp Head of Sony’s Restoration]."

While this is really exciting news, and it's about time that these films received a DVD release in North America, I'm a bit hesitant about making "hybrid" versions of the films. If Sony's Godzilla releases are any indication, we are not going to get the original Japanese credit sequences. For example, the original Japanese credit sequence for THE H-MAN is far superior than the US version — and longer — with the credits over a montage of a derelict fishing trawler, ending on the ship's wheel, which eerily seems to be steering without a pilot...

Additionally, again going by their earlier Godzilla releases, we will also not see the original Japanese Toho Scope logos at the start of each film — which will be replaced by a modern English version of the logo. This would be akin to cutting out the Shaw Brothers logo and replacing it with one in CGI. No one complained that the Classic Media DVDs contained the Toho logos or the original Japanese credit sequences (although the did drop the pre-logo "Thanks to the Maritime Safety Agency" card from GODZILLA) — nor has anyone complained of such for any other Toho releases by Media Blasters, Animeigo, Criterion, etc.

Actually, we want to have the original Japanese versions. Complete and uncut. Including logos and credits. Personally, I don't understand the need for creating these hybrids (except for possible television airings). While it may be too early to call foul at this point, we've been waiting for a decent release of these films for so long, that perhaps we're being a a little too nitpicky. For now, we're just going to have to wait and see if this is the case, or it's all much to do about nothing.

In meantime, keep checking back when more news breaks on either this blog or HK Film News DVD. Ian says that he's working on a follow-up interview with the man in charge of these restorations.

Thanks go out to Ian Freidman and Brad Thompson for passing this along to me, and Michael Schlesinger for pushing these releases through — salute!

UPDATE 07/09/08: When the major differences in the U.S. and the Japanese versions were brought to his attention, Michael Schlesinger responded thusly: "After the interview was published, I was informed that THE H-MAN and MOTHRA were not merely shortened but had scenes rearranged and some alternate footage. So yes, it would be best if both versions were included on those two. I'll be bringing this up when the time comes."