Welcome to watch Mojo.

And today we're looking back at the history of giant monsters in film.

Is it just me, or has he been working out kidding me?

Oh, well, that was interesting.

Thank you, Right Giant Monster movies are bigger than ever, and so are there monsters, whether you like watching monsters cause mayhem, battle it out among themselves or get their comeuppance, it's a good time to be a monster movie fan.

If you like what you're hearing, be sure to check out the full song at the link below.

I'm a man now I'm at It's always falling down.

Yeah, mhm.

The giant monster genre can be traced back to 1925.

In February of that year, First National Pictures released a silent monster movie called The Lost World, based on Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel.

Directed by Harry Oh Hoyt, the film follows an expedition to a remote plateau in the Amazon where dinosaurs still roam.

The movie was acclaimed for its groundbreaking special effects, which blended live action actors and stop motion animation.

Behind these effects was the now legendary Willis O'Brien.

The Lost World marked his first major feature, O'Brien's reputation would grow with the release of King Kong in 1933.

The film is widely regarded as one of the most iconic in movie history, right?

Mhm.

Yeah, The elaborate special effects were undertaken by O'Brien and his assistant animator, Buzz Gibson.

Filming proved so difficult that the T.

Rex fight alone took seven weeks to complete.

Like the Lost World, King Kong featured scenes in which live action actors interacted with stop motion animation, a feat accomplished using a myriad of different techniques, including rear projection and a matte creation technique called the Williams Process.

It's plans coming despite now being regarded as one of the finest achievements in visual effects history.

O'Brien's work was not recognized by the academy as a Category four.

Visual effects was only introduced in 1938.

Fortunately, O'Brien would later win an Academy Award in 1950 for his work on Mighty Joe Young.

He says he created the effects with his protege, Ray Harryhausen, who as a teenager had watched King Kong over and over again, looking up to O Brien as his idol Harry House, and went on to create some of the most iconic visual effects in movie history soon after Mighty Joe Young Harry House and worked on a movie called The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, about a giant monster that wreaks havoc after being awakened from atomic bomb testing.

Sound familiar?

Mhm.

Oh yeah.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms launched a creature feature craze with big bugs and mutated sea creatures rampaging across screens throughout the fifties.

Mhm Japanese producer Tomoyuki Tanaka also wanted a piece of the pie.

He conceived the idea for Godzilla, and the rest is monster movie history.

Okay, Yeah, Godzilla combined the trauma of nuclear Holocaust with, at the time convincing special effects overseen by a jujitsu poor area.

Godzilla became one of the most recognizable monsters in movie history and super areas.

Visual effects work revolutionised Japanese cinema, helping give rise to a popular form of effects.

Heavy Japanese film called Takamatsu Car Simplistic.

Yeah, the success of Godzilla spawned a wave of Kaiju films.

Countless Sequels and crossover events, including Toho, is King Kong versus Godzilla, released to great commercial success in 1962.

This era also spawned other popular Kaiju, including Mothra, Diadora and Gamarra.

Mhm.

The sixties and seventies could be considered the golden age of monster movies, with Japan pumping out some of the most iconic fictional monsters ever created.

Mhm thanks.

Mhm 1976 also saw the first remake of King Kong, starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange.

This version closely followed the original storyline while also changing a few key details.

Maybe we think of some nutty way of calling.

Giving away the bride.

The group travels to the island to tap oil, not to film a movie.

Kong never fights a T rex, and the climactic battle is set on the south tower of the World Trade Center, not the Empire State Building.

Where is Kong headed?

There is one place in Manhattan that looks exactly like a certain part of his native habitat.

Let him through to it, and you can trap them there.

Having climbed to the top of the World Trade Center despite being a commercial success, the movie received and continues to receive a mixed reception.

Things slowed somewhat throughout the eighties and nineties, with the era being populated by endless and increasingly silly Sequels of beloved franchises.

One more let's get one more Marine.

This includes the dreaded 1986 film King Kong Lives, which served as a direct sequel to the 1976 remake and received widespread condemnation from critics and fans.

Hey, good liquor, son.

This isn't to say that the period was without important landmarks.

As far as monster movies go in 1993 Jurassic Park revolutionized computer generated imagery and animatronic visual effects, opening the door to new ways of bringing giant monsters to life.

Mhm.

Mhm, Yeah.

Unfortunately, the payoff wasn't immediate.

At least as far as other monster movies go in 1998 TriStar Pictures released an American reboot of the Godzilla franchise starring Matthew Broderick with a drastic redesign of the titular monster, You looks angry.

Mm.

The film was derided by Kaiju fans, critics, Toho Studios and even the movie's producer and co writer, Dean Devlin.

This was in no small part, thanks to the drastic redesign of the titular monster.

It was a box office disappointment, and planned Sequels were quickly canceled.

It seemed like the Kaiju genre was dead.

I don't think we should exploit this could backfire.

Listen to me.

I do the thinking around here.

It's a magnificent idea.

You know what I think about you and your campaign.

Luckily, Peter Jackson was right around the corner.

Fresh off the Lord of the Rings, Jackson released a King Kong remake in 2000 and five to wide acclaim and box office success.

Yeah, yeah, While dragging on a bit at three hours, King Kong was nevertheless widely praised for its old school sense of adventure, spectacular visual effects and for updating the original in a fresh and satisfactory fashion, I give you calm.

The eighth Wonder of the world.

Yeah, it was followed in 2000 and eight by Matt Reeves.

Cloverfield, which incorporates the found footage Jara and evolved into its own franchise.

Yeah, yeah.

Today giant monster films seem more popular than ever.

Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim took in over $400 million worldwide, an impressive amount for an original monster movie based on old school Kaiju traditions.

Mhm.

Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos, you have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.

If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.

The following year.

In 2014, we got another Hollywood Godzilla remake, this one much more successful.

Legendary pictures followed this up in 2017 with Kong Skull Island.

Together, these films laid down the foundation for Legendary is wider monster verse anyway, say Once Congo's, Then the Big One comes up.

This includes King of the Monsters, a film that featured the classic Toho, Kaiju, Mothra, Rodan and Good Aura and Godzilla versus Kong.

We've also gotten a slew of other giant monster movies, including Toho Own Reboot, Shin Godzilla and 2000 eighteen's Rampage, starring Dwayne Johnson, as well as a sequel to Pacific Rim.

It seems as if we've entered another golden Age.

Mhm, Yes, yeah, Do you agree with our picks?

Let us know in the comments.

And hey, if you're a fan of the song playing right now, be sure to check out the music video for it right here.