Sci-Fi Creature Classics - 4-Movie Set - 20 Million Miles to Earth - The Giant Claw - It Came From Beneath The Sea - Mothra

"Mothra"Near an atomic test area a Japanese ship is run aground during a typhoon. After the storm a rescue party finds four sailors alive and strangely unaffected by radiation sickness. Their health is attributed to a juice given to them by island natives.A scientific expedition is sent to the island led by capitalist Clark Nelson (Jerry Ito). Also on the expedition are radiation specialist Dr. Harada (Ken Uehara), linguist and anthropologist Shin'ichi Chujo (Hiroshi Koizumi), and stowaway reporter Fukuda (Frankie Sakai). Chujo is saved from a man-eating plant by two girls that are only twelve inches tall (Emi and Yumi Ito). Chujo studies some hieroglyphics from the island. He translates one as Mothra.Nelson returns to the island and kidnaps the girls. He puts them on display. The girls and the natives back on the island call to their deity Mothra. Back on the island a giant egg hatches. Inside is a giant caterpillar. It swims the Pacific Ocean toward Japan and the girls. On the way it destroys a cruise ship. It is attacked with napalm but it keeps coming. When Mothra arrives it is attacked by the Japanese forces. Mothra appears to be impervious. It builds a cocoon. When the cocoon hatches the adult Mothra begins destroying Japan."Mothra" is a TOHO production. It was released in 1961 and was directed by Ishiro Honda. The English dubbed version was released in 1962. Mothra is the third TOHO monster after Godzilla and Rodan. She is the first female monster by TOHO. Although she is most referred to as a Moth, many note that her appearance is more like a Peacock Butterfly. And she has mandibles instead of a proboscis. Although most moths have proboscis there are a few that have mandibles. Since Mothra is an ancient god, I suppose she can look any way she wants to. Besides her real name is Mosura, which means “Giver of Life”. Mothra's adult form is a wire-operated mechanical puppet. The larva Mothra was a puppet suit operated by six stuntmen crawling in single file. There are lots of wonderful miniatures destroyed which is a TOHO trademark.Mothra is supposedly a benevolent monster. If so, I would hate to see her pissed off. Her aim is to get her Shobijin back to the island where they belong. In doing so she has devastated most of Japan. This results in billions of dollars in damages. On top of that thousand of people were killed. All except the bad guy that stole them in the beginning. He gets shot by police.Originally there were suppose to be four “fairies” or Shobijin (little beauties) however it was reduced to two and twins were used as twins are relatively rare in Japan. Thus the use of twins added more of a mystique to the Mothra story. The twins used in the movie, Yumi and Emi Ito, were a singing group known as “The Peanuts”. They appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1966 singing “Lover Come Back To Me”. They were in three Mothra movies, Mothra, Mothra vs. Godzilla, and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.Mothra Song: Mothra oh Mothra, if we were to call for help, over time, over sea, like a wave. You’d come, our guardian angel.When I first saw Mothra I was a kid, and it was a black and white TV. I never knew that she was as colorful as she really is. She seemed a lot more sinister in black and white. Even so “Mothra” is not a horror movie. It’s a fantasy/science fiction movie. Mothra may be listed as the monster, but it’s people that are really the bad guys.

Let's start off by saying that I am not a Mothra fan, so for me the set is for the other three movies. The four stars has nothing to do with Mothra being a part of the set, I knew what was on it, when I purchased it.20 Millions Miles to Earth was better than I remembered, though as pointed out,the image on the box states that it is in color. The movie is in Black and White. So, I only gave the set 4 stars due to the misleading cover. The story is well done for the period it is from. I happen to enjoy those old sci-fi creature films. As an added bonus, this is a stop motion animation film by Ray Harryhausen. There is a great scene with the monster fighting an elephant all done with stop motion special effects, all Ray Harryhausen. This movie alone goes for around $12 and up on dvd, blu-ray is probably more. So, for the price of the set, you are getting this movie and 3 others. Not a bad deal. This movie as well as IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA can be found on the Ray Harryhausen gift set along with EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS! for around $30. The story opens with a spaceship crashing into the ocean and a boy finding a canister lost by the ship on a beach. The story then becomes about what is in that canister and what it becomes. The havoc it creates, and more. A very entertaining movie. This movie alone is worth the price of the set.The Giant Claw was a good sci-fi throw back to those old 50's films with a monster and a lot of panic. It's not as good as the Ray Harryhausen films but it is good non the less. The story is solid and the acting is solid as well. The giant claw belongs to a giant creature who as you guessed wrecks havoc and threatens the world.My only disappointment with this set is that all 4 movies are stuffed onto one dvd. The visual and audio quality of the movies is great, which I have to admit I did not expect with so much crammed onto one disc. But, I feel that they could have been placed on 4 or even two dvds. The Ray Harryhausen set that goes for $30 uses separate dvds' for each movie. Funnily the quality is the same.IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA is a sci-fi movie about a giant octopus and the havoc it creates, also Ray Harryhausen special effects. Well written, well acted, and well done in general. There is romance, Science Fiction, action and drama.Mothra, was the final entry in this set, this is the first appearance of Mothra. The movie is watchable, the story is solid, though most of the movie Mothra is in the larval stage he only turns into a moth during the last half hour of the movie. Like I said, I am not a Mothra fan, but the movie was better than most Mothra films that followed.Do, I recommend this set? Yes, definitely, I believe it is a great addition to any collection if you don't already own the movies in one form or another, or if you just want to see one movie on this set that you don't already own.Ralph.

Years ago I saw "The Giant Claw" and being a lover of creature features I had to have it. I was able to get it on VHS, but of course that era is long gone. Then I saw that it was available on dvd along with "It Came From Beneath the Sea," And "@0 Million Miles to Earth," both Ray Harryhausen masterpieces and "Mothra," which was more of the modern era. Who could pass up these 4 movies if they were a sci/fi fan?

Same quality as when I watched it as a kid

Note that this review is for the product itself, in other words the DVD. It is not about the writing, acting, filming or story line of the movies. There are places that specialize in discussing such things and my opinion about movies that were made before my time aren’t going to change anything – they are what they are.Unlike some others here I bought this set specifically to see Mothra. The movie came up in conversation with friends one day and I never got into the genre so I had a pretty distorted preconception of how cheesy it was going to be. I ended up enjoying it.I was concerned about buying one disc for about five bucks that contained four full movies. That sounded like more of a disaster than the movie could possibly be. I was very pleasantly surprised. I played it on my new Samsung 55 inch curved TV through my Denon sound system. On any factor that I can think of, such as sound quality, color consistency (for color movies), contrast range, print cleanness, etc. the print looks much better than I expected. My Blu-ray player claims to have upscaling and it’s hard to say if features like that actually work or not but the bottom line is I am very satisfied and I would advise not to let any concerns about such things to stand in your way if you are on the fence about buying this.

Region 1 so I had to play it on my laptop. But it had to be, because I collect 1950s sci fi dvds and needed the Giant Claw and Mothra. Haven't been able to find them on region 2 or 0. The other two titles here ARE easy to come by. Anyway. I settled down one afternoon to give The Giant Claw a whirl. The cinematography is good. The story is generally good, with a few nice touches such as flamboyant characterisation thrown in. Even the transfer to DVD is good. The tension ratchets up nicely. You soon work out that the antagonist is a giant bird from another dimension. Anti matter, no less! But when the space bird finally makes an appearance well: I literally fell off the sofa and dropped the laptop. It took some time to compose myself and restart the film and get back to the same place! Then damn me the exact same thing happened again! The problem is the puppet/special effects for the bird. It looks like a bug-eyed crazed eagle crossed with Bernie Clifton' s ride-on ostrich or whatever it was, crossed with some used ear buds and a walking stick. On reflection, the way it stared out the picture reminded me of Jack Elam. God rest his soul. The amateur animation of the space bird was under par. If it swooped down to chase people in real life they'd probably just stare at it scratching their heads. Nonetheless. I still love the film. And the closing shot, right as 'The End', came on screen, felt somewhat prophetic. To the degree that i took a photo off the laptop screen and sent it to my 21 year old son. He replied: "Yep. That's where we're all heading. Just a dirty great big clenched fist slipping beneath the waves. Wondering where it all went wrong!" I reccomend this film unreservedly.

Four creature features from the 1950s and 60s, the golden age of monster-rampage movies. The better ones are the two movies featuring the early works of Ray Harryhausen (one of the most talented people in movie history). "20 Million Miles To Earth" concerns a rocket which has just landed in the sea having returned from exploring space. The crew are rescued and a young boy finds a strange alien object and takes it away to sell to a local scientist. Before long the artefact has turned out to be an egg which hatches into a fast-growing sulphur-scoffing reptilian dinosaur/troll-type beast. A great film featuring fantastic stop-motion monster action. "It Came From Beneath the Sea" deals with a giant octopus which rises from the depths to attack humanity. Another strong film with good creature-on-the-rampage action. The other two films don't have such great effects but are still certainly worth a look. In "The Giant Claw", after several planes go missing, it transpires the world is facing a giant killer bird (think rubber turkey with punk haircut). Silly-looking monster but a well-made and entertaining movie. "Mothra" is a Japanese monster film featuring a creature who would go on to fight Godzilla and later become one of his pals (there's nothing like a no-holds-barred brawl to cement a friendship). Two tiny fairy-like beings are kidnapped from an island and put on display. This incurs the wrath of a giant insect larvae which is soon battling the military and crushing buildings Godzilla-style before turning into the multi-coloured beast of the title. Another good film with an interesting story.Four nice examples of old-fashioned undemanding monster mayhem. A treat for fans of creature features or sci-fi in general.

4 sci-fi films for a bargain price: It came from beneath the sea, 20 million miles to earth, The giant claw & Mothra. The first 2 are available to buy in the U.K. for region 2 players & frankly, the best here, but you would need a multi region DVD player to play this region 1 disc. For the 50's sci-fi fan, a must, though. Some points on the DVD: The quality of the transfer is superb, considering that all four films are on one side of the disc. It states on the front picture that 20 million miles to earth is the colourised version, whilst on the back says black & white. It is in fact in it's original b/w version. Finally, as an aside, many people may already know that the '8 legged giant octopus' seen in It came from beneath the sea, actually only has 6, primarily to keep it under budget, apparently.

I got this box set because I'd heard of the giant claw on a number of occasions and wanted to check out mothra after getting into all the old school godzilla films. And, I think this is well worth the money - all the films are very entertaining; but don't expect anything ground breaking, because they are all b-movies after all. They're ridiculous and outrageous, which is what makes them all so good to watch.This is a collection of big puppets eating toy planes, stop-motion against green screen and cardboard citys being torn apart. If you don't like old special effects then you won't like this in the slightest, but I thought all 4 films were absolutely fantastic - very happy with this dvd

For kids