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Considered by many fans and critics to be one of the weakest Godzilla film entries, Godzilla’s Revenge, also known as All Monsters Attack (1969), is the tenth installment of the Godzilla franchise. Ishiro Honda, the director, attempted to make this version of Godzilla appealing to children and as a result, its plot is overambitious by design. Godzilla’s son Minilla is befriended by a young boy named Ichiro in his dreams. In it, he escapes from his bully Sanko and everything on the outside world and sets off to Monster Island. Ichiro witnesses famous battles where Godzilla defeats countless monsters only to be bossed around by Gabara, a New York styled brute. Their worlds collide when Ichiro is kidnapped and has to pretend to be a superhero and drive away bank robbers while being chased by Minilla. At the end where Ichiro reconciles with Sanko who has been bullying him for the entirety of the film, we see Sanko’s adults thinking about the struggles of parenting. It’s a movie that, on one hand, seems like a weird dream result and a half-baked attempt at merging childhood fantasies and monsters.
Although All Monsters Attack has slowly built a dedicated following, no one can deny that the movie has faced criticism and stigma. A quick look at the film critic blogs, forum comments, and even comedic reviews demonstrates a level of ridiculing hostility towards this film. As a pop culture critic, James Rolfe puts it in one of his reviews, There is nothing more sad than a grown man all alone wallowing in his sorrows watching Godzilla’s Revenge! Truly nowhere else has this phenomenon been better encapsulated. The Godzilla fanbase has, quite unforgivingly, managed to immortalize All Monsters Attack as a punching bag while simultaneously using it as a source of shame. Everything from GIFs to memes has been created, mocking every bit of this movie.
Unlike earlier Godzilla films that were focused on adult stories, All Monsters Attack is the first ever Godzilla media that focuses a narrative around children. It’s about a schoolboy Ichiro and Godzilla’s son Minilla. Furthermore, Gabara, the primary monster antagonist in the film, has very minimal power against Godzilla and is meant to be a rival for Minilla instead. Moreover, when pitted against the overall alien invasion, world hunger, and monster rampaging, the stakes are comparatively lower. Neither does the film culminate with its epic fight of Minilla and Godzilla against Gabara. Rather, the last fifteen minutes of the fight are void of Godzilla in general. So far, it has been the only Godzilla film where the climax of the battle does not involve god-like monsters, but focuses on the ordinary human experience. To make it even more of an oddball, it is widely accepted that All Monsters Attack does not share any continuity with other Showa-Era Godzilla movies. It seems that in the Japan of All Monsters Attack, Godzilla is simply a character that Ichiro adores. As a result, the movie might be considered as not significantly important by some.
The movie All Monsters Attack is also subject to certain ethical criticism for its supposed message to kids that it is acceptable to ‘fight your own battles and beat your bullies’. After the Godzilla encounter, Ichiro gets into an altercation with a schoolmate who had been bullying him, quite unlike what most people would expect a peaceful resolution. I recall reading somewhere that, in addition to contradicting the moral nature of fight your own battles and beat your bullies, it makes him look worse because of how he behaved to endure bullying. It also must be understood how this particular scene compares to other anime of this era, but to many audiences, the image of Ichiro attacking his bully is not the most compelling aspect about the anime. Rather, it borders on being unconvincing or outright distasteful.
It doesn’t help that to this day, Gabara, the new monster from the film, has yet to appear in any of the important Godzilla media since its introduction. Apart from Gabara’s influence on the design of the monster Sarunga in the anime series, Godzilla Singular Point, it seems that Gabara has simply been ignored. The extended Godzilla universe contains few references to this monster, as he is rarely seen in video games, comics and even toys. Gabara is not exactly a well-known Godzilla villain like King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla and even Hedorah. Frankly, with Gabara being a pathetic bully, it is easy to understand why the monster is not winning any popularity contests. Gabara is not pretty to look at as he has warty skin, bulging eyes, and a puffy snout.
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