603 - The Dead Talk Back

A radio... to communicate with the departed.

 

Pictured: Me as I write these reviews.

An episode of MST3K can live or die on the SOL crew’s reaction to the movie being riffed. Ideally, the movie has a lot of badness going on to give them a lot to riff on, like in Carnival Magic. But, even a dull, dreary movie can result in a great episode, like Manos: The Hands of Fate. But, “die” is the appropriate word here, because The Dead Talk Back is as listless as a corpse. And though they have some fun, Mike and the Bots don’t bring much spark of life to it.

Sorry, I'm from Texas, all I have are gun jokes, not crossbow ones.

“C’mon pal, if you’re gonna murder somebody, seize the moment!” Tom says during the movie’s beginning as a mysterious man stalks a woman before killing her with a crossbow. Seizing the moment could really apply to this movie, as even with a short before it, it drags its slow run time out like a zombie lumbering out of a grave. We meet psychic researcher Henry Krasker, a man with dramatic line delivery and fantastic hair who calls himself, “A bit of a private investigator”, to which Crow adds, “I sell parts of my record collection to make ends meet. I also manage a bowling alley. Oh, well, look I’m kind of between projects at the moment… Please help me.” Krasker claims to have made, “A radio... to communicate with the departed.” “Gasp!” exclaims Tom with absolute sincerity. We then meet the rest of the people at the boarding house Krasker lives in, characters who should be interesting but just come across as either bland or overacted, like a single mother, a jazz musician, a religious fanatic, and an aspiring model, who Krasker’s voice over tells us will be dead in an hour and a half. It feels like it takes the entire time getting there. “Renee now had 39.5 minutes to live… She now had 39 minutes to live. She now had 38.75 minutes to live…” Crow counts down as the movie kills time while Renee lays around her room. After her death, the movie basically becomes a slog of a police procedural as the cops bludgeon viewers with narration and interview every member of the household, badly. “And another brutal interrogation scene peters out,” Crow says. Eventually, the movie remembers, “Hey, this is about a guy with a radio that can communicate with the dead! Let’s try that!” So, with 30 minutes left, we get an excruciatingly long séance scene. “These poor people are gonna confess just so they can get outta here,” Mike figures. Eventually it turns out… the jazz musician did it! Also, there was no radio that could talk to the dead, they just had the victim’s friend dress up as her ghost to lure out the guilty party. The End.

Time killing tension!

While they have a fun good riffs at the movie’s expense, this is one of those movies that just drags, with enough plot for a short but dragged out to feature length. They could’ve dug deeper into the movie, such as having more fun with Krasker, who is on the edge of being an eccentric and memorable character. They try with making the old lady a food addict, and they do have some fun with the cop voices and their narration, but in the way of Wizards of the Lost Kingdom, where it felt like they were making more out of the movie than it was giving them, here the movie doesn’t give them a lot, is pretty dry, and they don’t built much on it. Like when Renea retreats to her room, and Crow says, “She’s sneaking into her own lingerie drawer,” or when the jazz musician talks about putting on some dillies with Renea, and says he doesn’t want his parents to know, Mike says, “They’re anti dilly.” Still, their professional riffer attitude does shine through, so we get some good lines like, when Renea talks to someone on the phone and says she’s not supposed to call someone there, Mike says, “You being Amish and all,” or when one of the cops enters the room to talk to another, Crow says, “Kiss me, hard.” The quantity of jokes is fine, but the quality just felt lacking to me.

Hogwarts' cooking instructor.

But, the episode is saved from the doldrums by two things. One is the short. The Selling Wizard is about display freezers for grocery stores made by Anheiser-Busch. The Wizard herself is an attractive woman in a semi-ridiculous outfit. Huzzah. It falls in the lower-middle of their shorts, not giving them a lot to work with, but being just kinda silly in that “internal industrial corporate video” way that they can breeze right through it. “Ah, the pizza dominatrix!” Tom cries when the Selling Wizard herself shows up. And as the short winds down, Mike calls it, “Leni Reifenstahl’s most powerful film.” It doesn’t quite give them as much to work on as something like Design for Dreaming, but this is the kind of short they can breeze right through. It’s just that that attitude would’ve benefited the movie itself more.

I heard a guy wearing weird sunglasses tell me all the boxes actually said, "We are your only God."

The other thing saving the episode is Crow’s Jerry Garcia impression. In host segment three, Mike and the Bots dress up like the Grateful Dead (“Mike, remember, the name of the movie is The Dead Talk Back, we’re The Dead, get it?” Tom explains). This leads to them singing a Grateful Dead style song, only for Crow to upstage them all with an extremelyyyyyyyy looooooooooong wah-wah-ing guitar solo. Like, it carries over into the fourth host segment, and plays over the end credits and even the Rhino DVD menu. Jokes that wear out their welcome, only to come around the bend and be funny again always kill me. Add in Crow’s ridiculous Garcia wig and beard and you’ve got comedy gold.

At least their Ben & Jerry's flavor is good.

Maybe the largely inert movie just sat on me during my viewing of this, but I’m sad to say I didn’t have that great a time with this one. It’s got a lot of riffs in it, a good short, and a fun running gag in the host segments, but this felt like one where the movie, either by being boring or even not interestingly bad enough, let them down and they couldn’t quite lift it up. If it had been worse, it would’ve engaged them more and even gotten the audience to root for Mike and the Bots to rip into it harder. As it stands, it’s an episode that, while having all the goodness of MST3K, doesn’t reach near the greatness it usually does.

 

Short in a Riff:

Meanwhile, the Soviets were launching Sputnik. -Mike

Movie in a Riff:

To talk to the dead, press 1. If you’d like the Ethere um, the Imperium, or the Emerald Beyond, please hold. -Mike

Random Asides:
-The main memory I had of this episode was the main guy having weird facial hair and that’s it.

-I like how the Mads’ evil invention of pinpoint marketing is basically how online marketing works now. Why do I feel a chill all of a sudden?

 

I think they invented the algorithm for this, too, the evil maniacs!

-I like what the Sol-Mates have to say about the riffing on this episode: there aren’t a lot of memorable riffs because most of the riffing is Mike and the Bots reacting to the narration, so we don’t get some big comical riffs like on other episodes, they’re just little reacitonary riffs, and they just kind of blend together and you end up just watching the movie. A good explanation for why I didn’t really like this one. That said, the Sol-Mates really did! So maybe it’s a taste thing. 

-the SoL-Mates also did their own seance with their review for the movie. Check it out here! 

-”Mike, it’s you, and you’re cool!”

“But I don’t smoke!”

“Isn’t it time you started?”

-The movie says it’s based on true events, but I’d bet good money it’s not based on anything real, like events or imagination or talent.

-The guy playing Krasker does an okay job, but if this had been a role that Donald Pleasance or John Carradine had said yes to, it would’ve made this movie a lot more fun.

-The main guy Krasker being a weirdo in a boarding house is the most believable thing in the movie.

-This movie may have terrible narration, but at least it’s not The Creeping Terror.

-The movie almost achieves a documentary-like feel through its ineptness.

-There’s a decent gag about the violence on the news at the 60 minute mark. Even Mike and the Bots have to admit it’s a good gag.

-I actually like the shots of the characters running during the chase scene. Not bad! But I like the dweeby noises Mike and the Bots make as they run even more.

-hoo boy, does Paul Chaplin have a lot to say about this movie and this episode in the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide. My favorite bits:

-“There’s a loser named Henry Krasker working on ways to talk to people after they’re dead, probably because no one will talk to him while they’re alive (Whoo! Good one!)"

-"So the dead never do talk. It’s just a real dumb movie"

-"There actually is detail in the film, but each detail exists in perfect isolation, unconnected to any other detail." (Very accurate to how it feels to watch the movie)

-"What I’m saying is it’s a bad movie. It’s a bold statement, and I’ll stand by it."

-"There was a time in my life when I had long, stringy hair and I believed that any song the Grateful Dead had ever done was better than any song any other band had ever done. Now I realize that’s not strictly true"

-So the movie was produced in 57 and went unreleased until 93. I. CAN’T. IMAGINE. WHY.

 

Additional Links

Satellite News Review

MST3K Fandom Entry

SoL-Mates Podcast

1110 - Wizards of the Lost Kingdom

It was an age of magic. An age of sorcery. An age of chaos.

 

The grocery store toy aisle-versions of Chewy, Atreyu, and Conan.

One of the great things about the renewed seasons of MST3K is seeing how they apply what’s been learned and perfected in the art of riffing since season 10 to different genres. This has led to new favorites of mine, such as kaiju episode Yonggary, as well as okay ones, like swords-and-sandals epic The Loves of Hercules. Family fantasy film Wizards of the Lost Kingdom falls somewhere in between: it’s hilarious, thanks to the crew’s refined riffing skills, but, oddly, feels held back from greatness by the movie not being worse than it is.

Pictured: one charismatic and cheesy villain; one crabby hat.

A Roger Corman produced quickie from the 80s, Wizards is… oh my God do I really have to try to recount the plot? Sigh, fine. After an opening comprised of footage from other Corman-produced fantasy flicks of the 80s, we meet young wizard-in-training Simon, son of court wizard Wulfrick, and his betrothed, Princess Aura. Their kingdom of Axeholme is quickly invaded by evil wizard Shurka, and Simon is tasked with saving the day. How is Simon supposed to save the day? By retrieving his father’s magic ring. What happened to the ring? It was given to him before his father teleported Simon and his giant white carpet monster friend Gulfax to safety away from Shurka’s invading army. Only, Simon literally drops the ring right after being handed it, and now he must make a perilous journey back to the castle before Shurka and his men locate the ring. Way. To. Go. Simon. They soon meet loutish warrior Kor the Conqueror, who accompanies them as a bodyguard on their leisurely stroll I mean fantastic adventure back. They’ll face dangers such as bands of warriors, seductive spider-women, and puppets of varying degree of craftsmanship. It ends with the time-honored fantasy tradition of Simon and Shurka shooting magical colors at one another until Shurka is dead, the kingdom is freed, and Kor sets off to feed his crippling alcoholism. 

 

Kor conquering sobriety. Also, Tom Bombadil looks terrible in this adaptation.

So, you’ve got a bunch of random occurrences amounting to a plot, charmingly chintzy 80s special effects, and characters including a bratty teen wizard, a drunken warrior, and an overacting villain. If this sounds like the magical concoction to a great MST3K episode, it is. The only thing missing? A truly terrible movie. Because, as inane and inept as Wizards of the Long Kingdom is, it isn’t that awful, at least by MST standards. While there isn’t much for a story, a lot does happen, and it’s pretty well paced. But, there are no truly terrible performances or really aggravating characters to really fire up the SOL crew. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty for them to chew on. There’s the effects, like when Jonah wonders during the final magical fight, “Are they still fighting, or just sharing Spirograph drawings?” Oh, and then there’s one of my favorite staples of these movies, the castle sets, so when the evil army invades, Crow says, “Hurry up! We’ve got to take over this papier-mâché castle before it rains!” They even make fun of the stock footage from other movies, like when Simon wakes up from a dream sequence with parts lifted from Sorceress, Jonah asks, “Can I stay in the other movie please?” Then there’s the characters. Kor joins the ranks of oafs purporting to be heroes MST3K has made mincemeat of countless times. When he finds out a magic hobgoblin he’s just saved has wine, Tom says, “And Kor’s story arc is complete.” Then there’s Simon, our plucky boy wizard, which means he fails at the first task he’s given and relies on others to solve his problems for him. When he says, “I’ll try,” before attempting a magic spell, Jonah adds, “Even though trying goes against my millennial code.” 

 

Not pictured: a scene shot for the movie Wizards of the Lost Kingdom.

But, Kor’s not as memorable as Mitchell or Rowsdower, and Bo Svenson even imbues him with some affable charm, far more than Deathstalker had. So, Jonah and the Bots’ rips at him being a drunken loser, while hilarious, don’t come across quite as strongly as they could if he were lamer or more pathetic figure. And Simon is not as memorably wimpy as Troy or as engagingly aggravating as a Kenny, so Jonah and the Bots’ zings about him being a whiny loser feel a little inauthentic, even if they are funny. And Thom Christopher is just plain scenery-chewing fun as Shurka. Like I said, there is a lot going on riff-wise. It just feels as if the movie was remarkably worse it would’ve really pulled the best out of them and led to an even funnier episode. But despite the “let’s put on a show!” atmosphere MST3K provides, it’s run by professionals, and they’re determined to mine this movie for every ounce of comedy gold they can, from cracks at Kor and Simon, to the episode’s long running gag of Jonah and the Bots naming Shurka’s hat Crabby the Crab hat and giving it the voice of a Looney Tunes’ wiseguy. “You sure throw a swell shindig, boss!” Jonah growls when Shurka throws a celebratory dinner. There’s even a part where Jonah as Crabby and Tom as Shurka discuss suspension of disbelief regarding the movie’s plot!

"Remember, really cool kids wait until they're ready and mature before practicing necromancy."

The workmanlike comedy comes though in the host segments: funny, but no real standouts. The best is Jonah as Kor singing a doo-wop style song to Tom as Simon that compares necromancy to puberty and waiting for the right time to raise the dead. It’s pretty fun and has good lyrics like “One day you’ll create your own zombies / They’ll do everything you tell them to / Once you’re finally ready to share the magic inside of you!” but won’t be in any top MST3K song lists. The Suicide Cave playset bit at the end is also fun, as the show’s special effects are about on par with the movie’s, and jokes about playing with giant pieces of plastic will ring true for a lot of kids who grew up in the 80s-90s.

You just know that inside there's just a ton of that neon green slime the best 80s toys had.

If it feels like I’m nitpicking a really funny episode of a show I love, it’s because I absolutely am. It’s like my MST drunk brain can almost see the ethereal line between a good episode and a great one, and this just doesn’t quite cross it. If anything, the movie fails to match their effort! But, when that’s the worst complaint to have about an episode, that means it’s only one of many well worth revisiting.

Episode in a Riff

Ah, it’s like The Lord of the Rings, without all the fancy, good stuff. -Crow

Random Asides:

-The Crabby the Crab Hat jokes may affect your feelings for the episode. I’m about half-love and half-hate with them, but you can’t deny they’re not skillfully making something from the smallest bit of movie.

-The episode starts not with the SOL crew, but with Max discovering a weird machine unlocked with a key he found. Weird.

-I like Max’s defense of wearing the giant key around his neck: “I’ve long been a fan of male jewelry”

-The Mads’ invention of a corporate sponsor-based clock feels especially evil.

-I should use verbal smoke bomb of “love to stay and chat but we’ve got movie signs!” in my daily life

-My note for when Simon drops the ring: “Way to go, Frodo.”

 -Another note I had about the movie: "At least Corman's other sword and sorcery flicks strung their flimsy plots together with gore and bewbs."

-Them characterizing Simon as a whiny trust fund millennial is a lot of fun.

-What on earth is Synthia doing at the end as Kinga and Max sign off?

-This is the first episode for me to review that has podcast episodes done by It’s Just a Show AND SoL-Mates! AND after I’ve discovered Gizmonic Institute Radio! My favorite moments from each one: It’s Just a Show calling Simon and Kor’s journey, “time killing adventures”; the SoL-Mates referring to Kor as “Rowzwarrior” and Gulfax as “Teddy Fuxin”; and GIR calling him “Gulfwax”.

Additional Links:

Satellite News Review

MST3K Fandom entry

SoL-Mates podcast

It's Just a Show podcast

Gizmonic Institute Radio podcast

MST3K Podcasts

In my throes of passionate fandom this year, I’ve been doing more than just watching lots of MST3K: I’ve been listening about it. I’ve been streaming not one, not two, but three podcasts all about MST3K! So, I wanted to give them some love and talk about them a little.

 

The first is It’s Just a Show. Hosted by Adam Clarke and Chris Piuma (who took over for Beth Martin after episode 57), It’s Just a Show dives deep into the movies featured on MST3K, going into their making, history, connections to other experiments, and anything else that the movie or episode makes them think of. This has lead to everything from the history of Tales From the Crypt based on a riff from Wizards of the Lost Kingdom, to the legacy of filmmaker Al Adamson, director of Carnival Magic, not to mention just how many actors have been in movies with Donald Pleasence. Features include the Shallow 13, where they unearth interesting tidbits, such as how Corey Allen, director of Avalanche, once met the Manson Family! This is the podcast for those who wand an informative and critical appraisal of the show and to learn more about the many strange movies featured on it.

Up next is SoL-Mates. Hosts, couples, and longtime friends Joe and Dr. Devori Kimbro and MiMi and Jeff Smith come together to passionately discuss MST3K, ostensibly using the show to discuss how to foster long term relationships, but really just letting their long term friendships and love for the show lead to jokes, some background on the movies, and their own personal thoughts on the episode. Features include Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda, where the hosts theorize on how to improve the movie based on it’s faults (such as, what if Quentin Tarantino had directed The Time Travelers?), the Rowsdower Cockatil hour, where they come up with a drink based on the featured movie (for instance, Horror at Party Beach leads to the “Toxic Sex on the Beach”), and finally, what the movie taught them about fostering a deeper relationship (from I Accuse My Parents: “Don’t marry a liar!.) Listening to the podcast is the next best thing to watching the SOL crew riff a movie: hanging out with fellow MSTies. They’re raucous and very raunchy and a ton of fun!

Finally, we come to what might be the longest running MST-themed podcast, Gizmonic Institute Radio. Returning in May of 2021 from a three-year hiatus, the podcast has been running for almost a decade and is actually story focused, telling the tale of mad scientist Dr. Odd, who just can’t stand it when people talk during movies. So, in the name of mad science, he kidnaps and forces two random people to watch MST3K until they lose their minds (why does that sound familiar?) However, the people he kidnaps, Jeff Brown and Seth Macy, turn out to be huge MSTies and make the best of watching and reviewing every episode of their favorite show. Seth is later swapped out with cast member Renea Brown by Dr. Odd in a test subject swap with another mad scientist. So far, Jeff, Seth, and Renea have endured exploding nuclear reactors that are there just to look cool, evil plans based on cabbage patch dolls, and clam-flavored drinks, all while reviewing episodes of MST3K. The characters and skits are fun, and very much in the spirit of the show.

 

There you have it! Three very different takes on MST3K in three very unique, informative, and fun podcasts. Take a listen! Because if you’re like me, you’re already all but rotting your eyes by watching the show over and over, so why not rot your ears as well?

212 - Godzilla vs. Megalon

Jet Jaguar! Get Godzilla!

A friendship as enduring as... one movie.

What to say about Godzilla vs. Megalon? It’s one of the most infamous of Godzilla movies, made during the nadir of the series’ original run. Its main attraction is Jet Jaguar, an Ultraman-esque robot created by a child who entered a contest run by Toho, a lot of the destruction scenes are lifted from older movies, and Godzilla himself doesn’t really appear until the last half-hour. What’s to say about it? If you’re the crew of the SOL, you have a lot of hilarious things to say about it!

Megalon and Gigan: the Mac and Dennis of the kaiju world.

Because this is a Godzilla movie made in the 70s, calling the plot “batshit” would be generous, so I’ll just go over the highlights: Jet Jaguar, a robot made by humans, gets help from Godzilla to fight Megalon, a sort-of giant rhino beetle from the undersea kingdom of Seatopia, and Gigan, the cyborg-chainsaw-chicken monster from the previous movie whom the Seatopians literally just ask to borrow from his alien masters. Eventually, the bad guy monsters get beat up enough to leave, Godzilla and Jet Jaguar become friends, and then Jet Jaguar gets his own theme music to close out the movie. It’s fast paced, very goofy, and there’s an annoying kid character (the “Kenny”) in it for no reason other than to appeal to kids. It’s dang near the bottom in terms of Godzilla movies, but it still has some fun action and monster fights.

Somehow, still not the most ridiculous Godzilla moment.

So of course, Joel and the Bots have a ball with it. There’s jokes about the effects, when Megalon first appears, Tom says, “He awakes with the worst special effects of the morning.” Then there’s the Seatopian’s ridiculous outfits and togas, prompting Joel to say, “These Klan meetings have really lightened up. Very festive!” There’s even some historical references, like when the Japanese military fires tons of missiles at Megalon, and Joel says, “Who’s firing, Kissinger? You got him!” They also don’t make many bad Japanese-accent jokes, which didn’t do Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster any favors.

"I'm off to destroy happiness in a giant turtle movie!"

Then there’s the treatment they give the movie’s poor little shrill-voiced Kenny, Roku-chan. When somebody says his name, which sounds like “Roxanne”, Tom says, “You don’t have to wear that dress tonight!” They make fun of his dubbing, like when he shrieks, “It’s a pity we can’t sent Jet Jaguar to go and get Godzilla,” and Crow retorts, “Yeah, it’s a pity we can’t kill you and get away with it.” And when he goes riding off on his little scooter, Joel encourages him, “Don’t forget to ride towards traffic!”

How Godzilla deals with hostage takers.

They also make the most of the main monster battle royale, which the SOL crew joke through like they’re fight commentators. “So, gang, what does Godzilla bring into this fray?” Tom asks. “He brings the legend that is ‘Godzilla’,” Joel responds. And when Godzilla uses a tree on Megalon, Crow yells, “He’s got a tree! He’s got a tree! That’s not the Godzilla we know, he’s fighting dirty!” Sometimes too much monster action can reduce them to just bored spectators, but here they’re on radioactive fire.

I could watch them scream at one another like this for ten minutes.

The sense of fun they have spreads into the host segments. Crow and Tom make up their own monsters in one segment, which quickly devolves into them childishly one-upping each other with new powers and how much stronger their monster is than the other’s. “Mine has a secret elf in his head!” Crow says. Tom replies, “Mine is a million, jillion times more powerful!”The “Orville Popcorn” sketch making fun of the old Orville Redenbacher commercials may not have anything to do with the movie, but it is a blast, as elderly popcorn magnet Crow chastises grandson Tom for wanting to ditch his dorky outfit and use their money to get chicks. It quickly devolves into screaming, threat-filled hysterics, and it’s wonderful. But it says a lot that this isn’t even the best skit. No, that goes to “Rex Dart: Eskimo Spy”, where the crew uses clips of main character Hiroshi and his escapades chasing bad guys in his little hatchback accompanied by jazzy keyboard music to pretend it’s a spy TV show. It’s simple and catchy and boy is it a hoot.

Yet another time the cast and crew of the show almost immolated themselves in the name of comedy.

The only things keeping this episode from being an all-time classic are the lack of anything truly, memorably bad about the movie (them watching Godzilla’s Revenge would’ve solved that. Woof) and… that’s about it. I don’t think Jet Jaguar gets mentioned in any future episodes, but I’m pretty sure Rex Dart gets a reference in a Jonah episode. Really, it’s a shame this one doesn’t get more callbacks, as Jet Jaguar, the eternally-smiling, size-changing robot, is a lot of fun, and there’s a ton to enjoy about this episode. It’s just that the Gamera movies overshadow the Godzilla ones in terms of badness, memorable silliness, and riffing quality. The only thing they don’t have is Godzilla. And it says a lot about this episode’s quality that the Big G isn’t the only reason to watch it.

Episode in a riff:

Godzilla’s back, and someone’s got to pay! -Servo

Random asides:

-I reviewed this not just so I could have a celebration to mark my 50^th review (God, I’m slow at writing these), but to celebrate the release of the new anime Godzilla: Singular Point. Let’s just say that, even with its high production quality and anime versions of Godzilla, Anguirus, and Jet Jaguar, I’d much rather watch the MSTied version of Godzilla vs. Megalon over it. Hell, maybe even the un-MSTied version of GvM over it.

-I love how Mike Nelson describes the writing of the Orville Popcorn sketch in the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide. It’s apparently one of his favorites, and it, “takes on a weak opponent and pummels him mercilessly… Our Show continues a tradition of tackling anemic opponents e.g. barbecue sauces, Mentos candies, bed and breakfasts. Sleep better, America, knowing that we don’t intend to stop.”

-My other favorite entry from the ACEG is Trace Beaulieu’s “MST3K Monster!” entry, calling Godzilla, “A.K.A. the Amazing Teddy Z” and that “Jet Jaguar also makes an appearance, but I don’t really consider him a monster so I’m not going to talk about him.” Gigan is not even mentioned at all. But true G-fans know he’s rad, so it’s okay.

-The crew, especially Tom, hurl a few “Fakey”s at the model work, a lot of which comes from stock footage from Destroy All Monsters, one of the series’ best. I’d take offense to that on Eiji Tsuburaya’s sake, but considering the movies the cast and crew of this show have had to endure, I’d say they’ve paid their penance for it.

- “Little problem getting the Rosie Greer head to take”. Oh, Dr. F.

-“If you’re like me, and I know I am...” Something random Joel says that I love.

-I adore the childish bickering between Crow and Tom about whose robot is more powerful

-Tom says, of Roku-chan’s dolphin ride, “They can make high-definition TV but theycan’t make decent water toys.” Hey, I thought those were neat as a kid!

-Tom says of Jet Jaguar, “What a stupid name!” A group of kids say exactly the same thing in Godzilla: Singular Point.

-Even after seeing this movie a dozen times, I still don’t know why they needed the model plane to distract the Seatopians.

-All shots of Megalon destroying panes are of Gigan from previous movie.

-Why would Jet Jaguar’s creators build it so it could give itself free will? Haven’t they seen what that’s lead to for poor Joel Robinson?!

-In the previous movie Gigan had King Ghidorah as a sort-of sidekick. Here, he’s the sidekick

-Joel, as the commercial producer, after the Bots have been screaming at each other for about ten straight seconds: “It’s a 30 second spot, try to mention the product more.”

-I love the crew’s translation of Jet Jaguar’s fight song, especially the lyric, “His mother never really love him,” which has been in my head for years.

-Wow, the cast and crew really put themselves at risk with that flame thrower on Tom’s arm in the final host segment.

-Gotta love the Mads playing Mario at the end.

-The stinger for this episode, of Godzilla jumping into the ocean, is actually a clip from a previous Godzilla movie, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, which, yep, would be the next episode!

 

It's true.

 

Additional Links

Satellite News review

MST3K Fandom entry

Annotations