Editorials
Go, Go, Notzilla! 6 of the Most Memorable ‘Godzilla’ Knock-Offs in TV History
No matter how much the corporate rights holders might try to keep a story or a character to themselves, once an idea reaches critical mass, it ultimately belongs to the people. From parodies to legally distinct alternatives, truly universal ideas will resurface again and again in the hands of other creators, regardless of any legal limitations. If you need a concrete example of this, look no further than Godzilla!
Our favorite atomic dinosaur has stomped his way into the hearts and minds of millions of people despite the fact that only a relatively small fraction of fans have actually gone out of their way to experience official Gojira-related media, with a lot of folks actually becoming aware of the monster through cultural osmosis.
In celebration of Godzilla making another official appearance on TV courtesy of the latest season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, today we’d like to highlight six of the most memorable Notzillas in television history. After all, while these loving knock-offs may not be official representations of Toho’s iconic creation – they’ll always be a part of the monster’s massive cultural footprint.
As usual, this list is purely based on personal opinion, but don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite Godzilla knock-offs if you think we missed a particularly fun one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Gatorella – The A-Team
The A-Team was never meant to be a serious show, but some moments in the long-running series are definitely wackier than others. Case in point: Season 4’s Where is the Monster When You Need Him? – an hour-long parody of overseas filmmaking where Hannibal is set to star in a monster movie as the titular “Gatorella”.
Presented to viewers as a mutant alligator hybrid (albeit with surprisingly complex character motivations), it’s clear from the get-go that Gatorella is supposed to be an off-brand Godzilla despite its cyclopean face. Of course, the only reason this lovable knock-off ranks so low on this list is the fact that the episode appears to be borrowing just as much from Universal Horror pictures like The Creature From the Black Lagoon as it is from Japanese Kaiju movies!
5. Lizardo – The Real Ghostbusters
From Samhain to Cthulhu himself, The Real Ghostbusters had more than their fair share of memorable villains. However, one stand-out episode had the group face off against a trio of fictional Kaijus from the 1960s who had been brought to life (or is it unlife?) by a freak accident involving VHS tapes.
While the episode is an obvious love letter to Godzilla, with the reptilian Lizardo being said to have been featured in over 12 monster movies and serving as a mascot of sorts for Japan, his design is actually unique enough for the monster to continue showing up in the background of future Ghostbusters media for years to come.
4. Shagzilla – What’s New, Scooby Doo?
This might sound a little blasphemous, but I actually have more nostalgia for Cartoon Network’s 2002 reboot, What’s New, Scooby Doo? than I have for the original show. I was at the perfect age to enjoy this slightly less spooky spin on the Scooby Gang back when it was first coming out, and that Barenaked Ladies theme song will live on in my head until the end of time.
However, being generally less horror-centric doesn’t necessarily mean that the revamped show skimped on the monsters, and one memorable creature that was inevitably revealed to just be a scam artist in disguise was none other than Shagzilla! A kaiju-sized reptilian monster meant to look like Shaggy after ingesting a cursed pizza, the villain was later unmasked as a vengeful professor piloting a giant robot.
3. Empty Tank Zilla – PTT Performa Gold Commercial
This bizarre gas station commercial from Thailand takes the same approach as UltraQ/Gomess by simply gluing horns onto an obvious Godzilla suit and calling it a legally distinct monster, but the absurdist humor on display here makes it clear that the creators knew exactly what they were doing with this hilarious example of a Notzilla.
While many fans originally saw this strange ad as an online meme usually shared without context, over the years, it’s become popular enough among Kaiju enthusiasts that I’d argue it’s just as iconic as the official (but no less bizarre) commercials where Godzilla promotes everything from Snickers to Nike shoes.
2. Jirahs – Ultraman
Bringing over-the-top Kaiju battles to the small screen is no small feat, so I’ve always admired the ingenuity behind the Ultraman team when it came to designing new threats for the show. Of course, the low budget and rushed schedules meant that not every monster could be completely unique, and one of the most iconic creatures on this list is precisely the result of the showrunners attempting to recycle an old Godzilla suit.
A repainted Toho suit featuring a hastily-glued-on frill, Jirahs looks like Godzilla wearing a cheap disguise – and that’s precisely why he remains one of the most beloved monsters in Tokusatsu history, though UltraQ’s equally absurd Gomess also deserves a shout-out!
1. Reptar – Rugrats
Hands-down the most recognizable Notzilla on this list, Nickelodeon’s Reptar is so iconic that he was actually the subject of a lawsuit between Toho and the creators of the show. In fact, this legal drama is the main reason why the fan-favorite dinosaur has since taken a backseat in the Rugrats franchise, with the producers not wanting to step on the actual Godzilla’s gigantic toes with their cartoony antics.
Nevertheless, Reptar remains one of the channel’s most beloved creations, and watching the Rugrats babies freak out whenever they see their favorite monster is an undeniably relatable memory for all of us kaiju fans who got hooked on the genre early on!
Hollywood tends to learn all of the wrong lessons when confronted with an indie success story that doesn’t follow the established rules of the industry. For instance, instead of accepting that the massive success of Backrooms has more to do with Kane Parsons’ individual talent as an established artist who has been producing high-quality videos since the pandemic (combined with the popularity of liminal horror among younger audiences), producers are now trudging through old Reddit posts looking for the next viral meme that studios think might have the potential to be turned into a cash cow.
This is by no means a new phenomenon, and I think one of the most pertinent examples of Hollywood misunderstanding what makes a movie work has to be the aftermath of The Blair Witch Project. While Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez’s genre-defining movie proved that POV camerawork and lo-fi aesthetics can captivate mainstream audiences when backed by a genuinely compelling story, there was a sudden trend of filmmakers attempting to appear hip by incorporating found footage into their films as if the occasional presence of diegetic recordings was enough to make a movie seem “hip”.
That’s why the 2000s were such a frustrating period for found footage fans, as the genre was still mostly relegated to obscure indie productions while studios only teased us with the format’s narrative potential. And yet, talented filmmakers can tell compelling stories under any circumstances, and this is how we get to the weird world of found footage bonus features produced alongside traditional movies.
Diegetic filmmaking may not necessarily be easier than conventional camerawork (it’s a lot harder to simulate reality without the added toolbox of cinematic editing), but it’s certainly a hell of a lot cheaper. That’s why it makes sense that plenty of high profile projects invested in found footage bonus content in order to add value to their home video releases – a once profitable industry that is sorely missed in the current media landscape.
The irony here is that many of these found footage extras were a little too good when compared to their promotional origins. With that in mind, I’d like to take a closer look at three examples of found footage bonus features that were better than the movie they were meant to enhance!
3. Halloween: Resurrection (2002): WebCam Special
I might lose some of my horror cred for admitting this, but Halloween: Resurrection was actually the first Halloween film I ever saw. Thankfully, this misguided entry didn’t scare me off from watching the other movies in the series, but even as a teenager I recognized that the flick’s premise of an online streaming show gone wrong had some merit to it – it’s just too bad that these ideas were never fully realized in the feature itself.
It was only years later that I discovered the fabled WebCam Special on Resurrection’s physical media release and got the film I had always wanted. This 41-minute cut of the film is by no means a masterpiece, but excluding everything except for the found footage elements of the production somehow transforms this ill-advised sequel into a deeply unsettling exercise in voyeuristic cinema.
In fact, I’d argue that the long takes of Michael simply moving through the house without calling attention to himself are much closer to John Carpenter’s original vision of the bogeyman than any of the exaggerated sequels that depict The Shape as something more akin to a superpowered Jason Voorhees. It’s just a shame that the franchise would never explore this format again.
2. Believers (2007): The Quanta Group Videos
Daniel Myrick’s Believers is by no means a bad movie, with this direct-to-video thriller following a duo of paramedics who find themselves captured by a deranged death cult inspired by all the worst aspects of Jonestown and Heaven’s Gate. Unfortunately, the Blair Witch alumni’s low-budget exploration of religious madness was quickly forgotten simply because most people didn’t bother to engage with the other half of the experience by exploring the DVD menu.
Within the disc’s extras, Myrick actually included in-universe interviews and orientation videos meant to expand the Quanta Group’s backstory and beliefs. These found footage recordings greatly enhance The Believers by providing much-needed context for some of the film’s scariest moments. There’s even a wonderfully creepy epilogue sequence here as another group explores the cult’s dilapidated compound after the events of the film.
While it’s baffling that this material didn’t make it into the movie itself through in-universe cutaways (especially IO’s darkly humorous interview), watching it alongside Myrick’s film turns the whole thing into a highly compelling multi-media experience.
1. Dawn of the Dead (2004): The Lost Tape & Special Report: Zombie Invasion
I’ve always considered 2004’s Dawn of the Dead remake to be Zack Snyder’s best film (though most of the flick’s qualities are the result of James Gunn’s excellent script) even if it fails to capture the social anxieties of Romero’s 1978 original. However, this apocalyptic production is also the perfect example of an expensive project being overshadowed by the low-budget bonus features on its own home video release.
You see, the Dawn of the Dead DVD actually boasts two separate found footage short films that I find much scarier than the movie they’re marketing. The Lost Tape: Andy’s Terrifying Last Days Revealed is a somber video diary written by Gunn and starring Bruce Bohne as the ill-fated Andy – a minor character in the main film who becomes trapped in his own gun store when the zombies attack. Then there’s my personal favorite, Special Report: Zombie Invasion, a fully simulated news program starring Babylon 5’s Richard Biggs (as well as Bruce Boxleitner) that chronicles the spread of the undead virus.
Not only do these bonus features add context to Snyder’s film, but I’d argue that they make for a better standalone viewing experience than the so-called “main attraction”. Special Report honestly feels like a charming low-budget adaptation of Max Brooks’ World War Z novel (despite coming out a couple of years before that book was published), and I adore how The Lost Tapes turns Andy into a genuinely tragic figure.
These obviously aren’t the only found footage extras worth revisiting (for instance, I adore that Skull Island mockumentary that accompanied the special edition of Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake), but I figured that the three aforementioned projects could provide us with a snapshot of a curious moment in popular culture where found footage could still impress viewers despite not being quite as respected by the studio system.
That being said, don’t forget to sound off in the comments below if you can think of any other found footage bonus features that deserve a shout-out! After all, I’d love to see this trend of diegetic extras make a comeback in modern times – especially where found footage-heavy movies like Backrooms are concerned.
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