Saturday, August 29, 2009

Now Playing: Gamera vs. Guiron (MST3K edition)


Gamera vs. Guiron is so lovably goofy that it hardly needs embellishment. The guys from the Satellite of Love give it the MST treatment anyway, and the results are consistently amusing.
Poking fun at the monster action is virtually unnecessary, since it is so "over the top" to begin with; the real humor is found when Joel and the robots goof on some of Guiron's most perplexing elements, such as Akiyo's continued inclusion of "traffic accidents" in his list of the world's greatest problems; Akiyo and Tom's mothers' stilted "Hello...Thank you" conversation; and the deep Midwestern twang of the aliens' voices.
But what really captures the MSTies imagination is Gamera's theme song. Their version, which includes the lines "Gamera is really neat/he is filled with turtle meat/we are eating Gamera!" stands as one of the most inspired moments in MST history. The gag is taken to a different level at the end of the show, when "Michael Feinstein" (Michael J. Nelson, series writer and eventual host) reminisces about the composition of "The Gamera Song" before crooning "Gamera's the latest thing/he fills the world with Spring, Spring, Spring..." Postmodern and absurd (and at times extremely obscure), MST3K finds a perfect foil in Gamera vs. Guiron, providing fun-loving kaiju fans with a whole new way to enjoy the kooky classic.

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