suitmation | Monster Zone

This film is odd, okay? You've been warned! — This film is really odd, okay? You’ve been warned!

Directors: Toru Sotoyama and Tom Wyner. Writers: Masaki Tsuji, Ifumi Uchiyama and Tom Wyner. Voice cast: Tom Wyner, Dan Woren, Robin Levenson, Cam Clarke, Mike Reynolds and Joe Perry.

This distinctively-posed dinosaur illustration was used for the ATTACK OF THE SUPER MONSTERS VHS cover…

...when Godzilla posed in a similar fashion in GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (2019) — …and Godzilla posed in a very similar way in GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (2019) many years later

This film, released on VHS in the USA, is actually an edit of episodes from Japanese TV series DINOSAUR WAR IZENBORG, which was produced by Tsuburaya Productions, airing from 1977 to 1978 on TV Tokyo.

American voice actor Tom Wyner is the unhinged genius who decided to splice four of the 20-minute episodes together and dub them into English. He deserves a medal!

This is the story of dinosaurs returning to the Earth’s surface to attack mankind. These monster dinos are super-large, telepathic, can talk and breath fire! They can also turn normal Earth animals, such as dogs and rats, into monsters.

This talking Tyrannosaurus Rex can aim eye-beams at dogs... — This talking Tyrannosaurus Rex can aim eye-beams at dogs…

...and turn them into red, slavering killers! — …and turn them into red, slavering killers!

ATTACK OF THE SUPER MONSTERS is a super-weird production: a mix of live action, anime and some stop-motion!

Two harpoons are fired into this dinosaur's mouth... and he just eats them! — Two harpoons are fired into this dinosaur’s mouth… and he just eats them!

The red-eyed brute breaths-out radioactive dust

The human characters are portrayed via cartoon animation, whilst the monsters are a mixture of suitmation, some stop-motion (for the underground ‘normal’ dinosaurs) and props. The Earth animals that go mad are either anime (the dogs, rats) or props (rubber bats on wires.)

There’s a lot of scale model work used too, for the buildings, vehicles and landscapes.

These cave-dwelling stop-motion dinosaurs are rather crudely animated

The world is defended by Gemini Force, which is led by the semi-android brother and sister duo of Jim and Gem Starbuck… who can ‘combine’ in a ‘Gemini transfer’ that joins their ‘life essences’ together so that they can beat the monsters.

"Gem.. Gem... Gemini!" — “Gem.. Gem… Gemini!”

One of the super monsters is a glowing-eyed stegosaurus that can vibrate its back-plates to turn cartoon rats into killers! Gemini Force uses its drill-nosed flying Gemini Ship to slice off some of the dinosaur’s back-plates… and then our heroes bore their vehicle straight through the stegosaurus’ belly! The dino then blows up, of course.

This stegosaurus can talk and control hordes of cartoon rats!

A super-styracosaurus can emit yellow beams from its mouth! — A super-styracosaurus can emit a yellow beam from its mouth…

...and it can also breath fire! — …and it can also breath fire!

The styracosaurus teams-up another super monster, who has had one of its arms sawn off by Gemini Force!

Another dino-kaiju that attacks the surface world is a huge pteranodon that commands a flock of killer bats! This beaked beast pecks at a skyscraper at one point.