Destroy All Monsters

DEMAND THE ORIGINAL AIP VERSION
I know this is a great movie and a pretty good DVD as well. But one thing is still wrong. THE DUBBING. This version has the lame (but admittadly not awful) international dub track done in Japan.
The American International version from 1969 had far superior
dubbing done in New York by Titra/Titan sound and featured
the voices of Peter (SPEED RACER) Fernandes, Jack Curtis and
Hal Linden amoung others. This is a tragic loss. The dialogue and
acting were so much better. What a shame.

KEEPING SCORE: The Monsters and where they came from.
Destroy All Monsters has a line-up of eleven giant monsters. Here are lists of the classic eleven, the ones who didn't make it into DAM and the ones who came later in the original series.
1) GODZILLA the king of all monsters from GODZILLA (1954-56)
2) MOTHRA giant telepathic caterpillar from the movie MOTHRA (1962)
3) RODAN flying pteranodon type creature from RODAN (1957)
4) ANGUIRUS armored...

Great movie...but not with the original AIP voice-tracks.
This is one of the greatest Godzilla movies ever produced, but this DVD version is far from perfect. Unfortunately, this is just a re-issue of the same DVD released a few years ago. The film transfer is exactly the same as the one previously released by ADV films, which has a recently re-dubbed mono soundtrack. The ADV soundtrack is much inferior to the one originally produced for American International Pictures in 1968, which featured an excellent voice-cast and a different script. Apparently the AIP version can't be published because the ownership rights are in limbo. Based on the cover notes, I bought this DVD believing it had the original AIP voice-tracks. No such luck. The folks at ADV deliberately stretch the truth. The cover art claims it's the "50th Anniversary Special Edition", but Destroy All Monsters was made in 1968, which makes this DVD issue the 36th anniversary for the film (in 2004). The 50th year, is a reference to the first Godzilla movie "Gojira" made in 1954, but...

A Review of the ACTUAL product
Unlike many of the currently posted reviews, I'm going to be reviewing the actual release, rather than speculating or complaining about the cover EDIT-Amazon now lists the proper cover shot as to what was used on the release).

I received my Blu Ray of Destroy All Monsters today and promptly dropped it into the Blu Ray player.

I commend Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock for releasing this one.

From a story perspective, all the giant monsters are collected on a single island (Monster Island) for research purposes. Contact is lost with the control facility and what is discovered is that a race of aliens has taken control of the giant monsters. The giant monsters are sent to many different cities across the world and the human race must then wrestle control of the giant monsters back from the aliens. Fun stuff!

Video:

I'm torn here. I really, really wanted to love this release. What is there is 1080p HD in name, but the detail quality seems...

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