Godzilla (franchise)

Godzilla is a Japanese media franchise created by Tomoyuki Tanaka, which features the fictitious Japanese homonymous monster, more specifically a daikaijū (大怪獣 great monster), who has starred in numerous films and has become one of the best known monster characters in cinematic history worldwide. It appeared on screen for the first time in 1954 in the movie Godzilla produced by Toho Studios. Godzilla has appeared in 29 Japanese films to date and foreign adaptations including animated series and films; in an American film adaptation in 1998 by Roland Emmerich (produced by TriStar Pictures and Centropolis Entertainment) and another remake in 2014 by Gareth Edwards (Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures).

Synopsis
Godzilla is typically depicted as a giant prehistoric creature awakened or mutated by the advent of the nuclear age. For the early part of the Showa series of films, Godzilla was depicted as a villainous and destructive force of nature, punishing humankind for its use of nuclear weapons, which disturbed and burned him. Over the remainder of the series, Godzilla gradually developed into a heroic character, defending Japan by fending off other more malevolent creatures such as King Ghidorah, many of them extraterrestrial or controlled by extraterrestrials. When Toho revived the franchise in 1984 with The Return of Godzilla, ignoring every film in the series except the original, Godzilla became a menace to Japan and the world once more. The Heisei series saw Godzilla battle some of his foes from the Showa era, such as Mothra and Mechagodzilla, as well as new monsters like Biollante and Destoroyah. Despite his destructive tendencies, this Godzilla incidentally saved humanity from greater evils on occasion. The Heisei series was followed by the Millennium series, an anthology in which nearly every film took place in its own continuity, often connected in some way only to the original 1954 film. Godzilla was often the villain in these films, though in some he was instead an anti-hero similar to the Heisei series. 12 years after the end of the Millennium series, Toho rebooted the franchise again with Shin Godzilla, a completely standalone film in which Godzilla appeared for the first time in modern-day Japan. This Godzilla was a bizarre new species spawned by the dumping of nuclear waste in Tokyo Bay in the 1950's, with the capacity to adapt to any situation by spontaneously mutating his own DNA.

Dubbing in English
The first film was first released in the United States in 1955 in Japanese-American communities only. In 1956, it was adapted by the American company Jewell Enterprises into Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, edited and with added principal scenes featuring actor Raymond Burr. This version became an international success and gave rise to Godzilla's popularity outside of Japan.

The following films would be dubbed in the United States, most often by Los Angeles' Ryder Sound Services or New York's Titra Studios. Each film would inevitably be edited for content or timing constraints, and often have the titles changed, in some cases changing Godzilla's name as well (most infamously Godzilla Raids Again being retitled Gigantis the Fire Monster). The general quality of Godzilla's English dubs has become a pop culture cliché, known for the cartoonish voices, out of sync lip movements, and sub-thespian dialogue. Ever since first appearing in the United States, Godzilla has become synonymous with "bad dubbing" among critics.

Starting in 1966, Toho began commissioning dubs created for the International Market which would be created to market in English speaking countries. These dubs were initially done locally in Tokyo, Japan by William Ross' Frontier Enterprises, which provided the English dubs for three of the films between 1966 and 1969. Starting in 1971, likely to cut costs, Toho began shipping the films out for dubbing to Hong Kong by Axis International. Compared to the work by Titra and even Frontier, the Hong Kong dubs are noticeably inferior, with the dialogue often being poorly scripted and the voice actors speaking in an array of mis-matched English dialects.

Likely due to the perceived poor quality of the International dubs, distributor American International Pictures would often opt to create their own English dubs. However, as the Godzilla films had become almost strictly matinee and drive-in fare in the United States, by 1972; American distributors spared themselves the expense of recording new dialogue tracks and simply used the International dubs.

Toho would continue to contract Hong Kong dubbing companies such as Omni Productions to produce the English tracks for the Heisei-era films. The Return of Godzilla would be dubbed and heavily re-edited by New World Pictures as Godzilla 1985 and featured newly filmed scenes with Raymond Burr returning as Steve Martin from the origingal film. TriStar would also opt to create their own English dub of Godzilla 2000: Millennium, citing the poor quality of the International dub.