All Monsters Attack

All Monsters Attack (ゴジラ•ミニラ•ガバラ オール 怪獣大進撃, Gojira Minira Gabara: Ōru Kaijū Daishingeki, lit. Godzilla, Minilla, Gabara: All Monsters Attack) is a 1969 produced by Toho Company Ltd. and the tenth installment in the Godzilla series. The film was directed by Ishiro Honda, who also directed the special effects, assisted by Sadamasa Arikawa and Teruyoshi Nakano. Despite the credits in both versions, Eiji Tsuburaya had nothing to do with this film, aside from the featured stock footage.

In contrast to previous films in the series, this film is openly aimed at children. As such, most reviewers have distinctly negative impressions of the film. However even these reviewers sometimes concede that children-- the audience for whom the film was made-- have a more positive impression of the movie.

The film features Godzilla, Minilla and Gabara. Featured in stock footage from past Godzilla films are Kamacuras, Gorosaurus, Manda, Anguirus, Ebirah and Kumonga, and an unnamed Giant Condor. Rodan is also mentioned. This is the only Godzilla movie in which Godzilla does not actually exist in the physical world, and which reuses the most stock footage. The stock footage came from Ebirah, Horror of the Deep and Son of Godzilla. It also featured a bipedal carnivorous plant that grabbed Ichiro, representing him being kidnapped in the real world. This monster is known as Maneater.

Aside from Godzilla and Minilla, the only monster who didn't appear only through stock footage was Gabara. Most of the fans agree that this is the worst official Godzilla film of all time, despite being very popular with children for its message, saying that you must take the courage and stand up to things.

Plot Synopsis
Ichiro is a highly imaginative but lonely latchkey kid growing up in urban Tokyo. Every day he comes home to his family's empty apartment. His only friends are a toymaker named Shinpei Inami and a young girl named Sachiko. Every day after school, Ichiro is terrorized by a gang of bullies led by a child named Gabara. To escape his loneliness, Ichiro fantasizes about visiting Monster Island, where he befriends Minilla, the son of Godzilla, who has the inexplicable power to change his size and speak English. During these daydreams, Ichiro watches as Minilla deals with his own bully, a monster also named Gabara. It is through these fantasies that he learns how to face his fears and fight back. These lessons also grant him the courage to outwit two bumbling bank robbers, as well as have the guts to stand up to Gabara and his gang in a final confrontation.

Cast

 * Tomonori Yazaki as Ichiro
 * Eisei Amamoto as Shinpei Inami

Reception
All Monsters Attack has gained very negative reviews from Godzilla fans, considering it the weakest of all the Godzilla films.

U.S. Version
The film was released on December 8, 1971 by Maron Films as Godzilla's Revenge on a double bill with Island of the Burning Damned in North American theaters. There are some minor alterations:
 * Dialogue is dubbed to English.
 * The Japanese version featured a vocal song over the opening credits, while the American version features jazzy music.
 * In the American version, Minilla is renamed Minya, and is given a goofy male voice, very similar to Barney the Dinosaur's, while his voice is female in the Japanese prints.

Box Office
In Japan, the film sold 1,480,000 tickets. This was over a million tickets less than the previous Godzilla film, Destroy All Monsters (and it was the first Godzilla film to sell less than 2 million tickets).

DVD Release
Simitar Entertainment Sony Wonder (Classic Media) Classic Media
 * Released: May 6, 1998 (under the name Godzilla's Revenge)
 * Aspect Ratios: Widescreen (2.35:1) letterboxed; full frame (1.33:1)
 * Sound: English (Dolby Digital 1.0), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
 * Supplements: Godzilla trailer collection; Godzilla video art gallery; trivia game; DVD-ROM (screen savers, printable art galleries)
 * All regions
 * Release date: September 17, 2002
 * Aspect Ratio: Full frame (1.33:1)
 * Supplements: Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters video game preview
 * Released: November 2007.
 * Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (2.35:1)
 * Supplements: Commentary on English Version, Ishiro Honda documentary, Poster Slide Show, Image Gallery
 * Region 1

Trivia

 * All Monsters Attack is considered by many fans to be the worst official Godzilla film.
 * All Monsters Attack is similar to Gamera: Super Monster because both were made in the Showa era, have a large amount of stock footage, having a kid as the main protagonist, and are considered the worst in their respective series.
 * This is one of three films in which monsters speak. The other two are Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, but it was translated by the Shobijin, and Godzilla vs. Gigan.
 * In a number of promotional images both Anguirus and Gorosaurus are seen in occasion, even though they both made cameos. It's possible that they were originally supposed to have a bigger role within the film and possibly help Minilla against Gabara (as some of the images suggest).
 * Although Ichiro says Rodan lives on Monster Island, he does not make any kind of cameo in the entire movie.

Trailer
300px|left

Poll
Do you like All Monsters Attack? Yes! No. Kind of.