Today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the premiere of Godzilla. The film is the twenty-third in the famed franchise and the first made by an American studio. The story serves as a remake of the 1954 original and follows a group of military-led scientists who must learn the secret behind a skyscraper-sized lizard that is destroying New York City.
An American adaptation of the beloved Japanese monster had been in development for years with numerous directors attached at some point including Jan de Bont, Clive Barker, and Tim Burton. The rights were eventually snatched up by Sony Pictures Entertainment and TriStar Pictures. The production eventually was handed off to director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin, who had just had major success with Independence Day. The two took the basic story outline and updated it for modern audiences. The look of the titular creature was drastically changed to an iguana-inspired version, while also taking advantage of recent developments in computer-generated imagery in order to avoid the bulky suit look that had come to define the character. The design received the blessing of the executives at Toho Studios. Godzilla was filmed using a combination of models, miniaturized animatronics, life-sized animatronics, and digital imagery. The look of Godzilla was withheld from marketing in order to keep the creature's reveal a surprise. Toho's last film before the American version, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, featured their Godzilla dying as a way to "pass the torch" to TriStar.
While the film was a financial success, it failed with critics and disappointed longtime fans of the Japanese films. The film nearly broke Memorial Day weekend records and was number one for its first two weekends. It was the ninth highest grossing film of the year domestically and third highest worldwide. Despite this, the film was considered a box office disappointment. Critics were disappointed in the story, though did praise the action scenes and special effects. Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, who were parodied in the film due to negative reviews of Emmerich's earlier movies, ranked it on their worst of the year lists. Emmerich and Devlin later admitted they did not truly understand the Japanese films and rushed development of the script. The design of the creature was particularly derided. Veteran Godzilla actors joined fans in claiming the film took the "God out of Godzilla". Many fans started calling him GINO, meaning Godzilla In Name Only. Despite having contracted not to make any further films, Toho put out another Japanese-made film with Godzilla 2000 just two years later. The American design eventually appeared in the Japanese film Godzilla: Final Wars, where it was quickly and easily defeated by the original Godzilla. Meanwhile, Toho has given the creature the official name of Zilla. It was nominated for several awards, including "winning" two Golden Raspberry Awards and two Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. The poor reception led to the cancellation of two planned films in an anticipated trilogy. The film did inspired an animated series released later that year, which was developed at the same time though separately and received a far better reception. Eventually TriStar lost the rights in 2003. Another American attempt wasn't made until Legendary Pictures released their film in 2014, which ignited their own cinematic universe. The film has become a minor cult classic with those who were first introduced to the character through the film.
The film features the talents of Hank Azaria as cameraman Victor "Animal" Palotti, Clyde Kusatsu as the Japanese tanker skipper, along with Gary A. Hecker and Frank Welker doing creature vocal effects. Peter Ramsey served as a storyboard artist. Carlos Alazraqui appeared in commercials for the film in his role as the Taco Bell chihuahua.