Project 2014 - Godzilla vs. Koopzilla review

Hello, everyone. November 3rd was the 60th anniversary of Godzilla. Everyone celebrated it in their own way. To see what I did, visit my page. However, YouTube/Deviantart user King Asylus released his fan film, "Project 2014 - Godzilla vs. Koopzilla" in 7 parts. Just a fair warning, there will be SPOILERS, so please watch the film before reading this. But since it's been up for a few days, I don't think there's too many of you who haven't seen it.

Obviously, Koopzilla comes from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show episode "Mario Meets Koopzilla". The show itself is a bit hit and miss among fans, but I think it falls into the "it's so bad it's good" category. It's so bad that you can't help but laugh at it. But there are fans who enjoyed the episode, myself included.

Actually, ever since I saw the episode, I actually wanted to see this idea. But when I googled it, nothing came up. It seemed a bit odd that no one thought of this idea, given where Koopzilla's namesake comes from. But, years later, here we are, and it's out. It's about time someone did it, and it was worth the wait.  

Now, for the story. Godzilla, through a Portalgeist, enters the Mushroom Kingdom and begins to destroy the Mushroom City. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad and Yoshi just happen to witness the first attack on their way to see Professor E. Gadd, who has a new weapon called Super Sushi. Upon visiting the scientist, they discover that E. Gadd's weapon is destroyed, and that he feels responsible for Godzilla's attack. Meanwhile, Bowser discovers this, and, not allowing another reptilian monster destroy Mushroom Kingdom, decides to attack Godzilla, which ends with his ships getting destroyed. The group decides on Bowser eating a new batch of Super Sushi so he can combat Godzilla hand to hand. This leads into a battle that no one will soon forget.

Obviously, there a lot of nods and references to the episode and the show in the film, besides the idea of Koopzilla. Some include the Mario Bros. leading Godzilla into the net trap, which fails, the old scientist creating the Super Sushi, and even some of the dialogue is present. Koopzilla's line before he tackles Godzilla is from the episode, and others include Mario calling out Godzilla to lure him into the net, Bowser's line before eating the Super Sushi, E. Gadd's line about his ceiling and so on. Even some of King Koopa's line from the show made it in, which, while a bit distracting, doesn't take away from brilliant voice acting or the story.

Speaking of voice acting, the voices here are fantastic. In fact, King Asylus did a good majority of the voices himself, which isn't easy, given everything else he had to do. In fact, he voices  Bowser, Luigi, Hal, Jeff, Steve and Professor E. Gadd. Two of his friends also provide voices as well, with Hurricane360 voicing Mario and MissLink8908 voices Peach and Blue Toad. All do an excellent job, and I hope to see more of them in the future in their respective roles.

Now for the tone. It's actually pretty serious, but not to the extent that the first Godzilla film had. This one's tone is about similar to most of the Hesiei or Millennium films. Now, given that this has inspiration from the show, so it has some funny moments in it as well. Jeff, Hal and Steve provide most of the humor, mostly from their interactions. Since Koopa's dialogue from the show is in here, you get humor from that too. Also, Yoshi's absolutely hilarious surprised face is priceless. The opening has some humor filled moments, as do a few cameos from Wario and Waluigi. So don't expect a 100% drama fest.

But it has a lot of dramatic moments as well. Some notable ones are the overall destruction of the city, the fight between the two, the final moments of that fight, and when it seems Godzilla destroyed Peach, Yoshi and Toad, but they're fine just to name a few. Probably my favorite is the "conversation" between Koopzilla and Godzilla. It gives a reason for what the two do what they normally do, and they even seem to understand each other on that. At least, that's what I got out of it.

In addition to some nods from the SMBSS, and the Mario games, such as music, there are a few nods to the Godzilla series as well. The opening is pretty much a scene from any of the Godzilla films where he first attacks a city in Japan, his origin is explained by Peach (which explains how she knew of him to begin with, something that I'm glad is explained), various roars and music pieces from the films, including the 2014 ones, and more. My personal favorite is the Oppenheimer speech that was heard in the concept teaser for the 2014 film. Another is that the story acknowledges that Godzilla isn't out to destroy just for the sake of it, but he's a force of nature getting back at mankind.

Now for the fight. It actually starts out when Bowser's in his normal size, when he uses his ships to attack Godzilla, which results in them being destroyed. Bowser, despite being in his normal size, is actually pretty strong. He actually manages to punch Godzilla in the face, and sends him into a building. Much like the characters, I was surprised by this. When he's in his Koopzilla form is when the odds are more even. It starts out in the fiery remains of the Mushroom City, leading into a rain storm that clears the fire, only to have it set back when Godzilla grows into his burning form and Koopzilla into his Giga Koopzilla form. Yes, that's a fan name, and I think it fits.

The end result of the fight may surprise people in that Giga Koopzilla wins by blasting his spiral ray into Burning Godzilla's chest, ending the battle. To those who are upset about this, please understand a few things. One, the way the story is structured, Godzilla is the antagonist, and Bowser is the anti hero, so it makes since he'd win. And two, Godzilla's lost before, so it's not new, though I can see how some would be a bit miffed that Godzilla lost to someone who's physically weaker than himself, no matter the form. Heck, he died in the first film, which brings me to my next point.

Godzilla did not die. At the end, when he's sent back to his dimension, before the credits role, his eye opens, indicating that this is not the last time Mario and his friends have seen the last of him, nor will Bowser keep the title, king of the monsters. In fact, King Asylus is already planning a sequel titled: "Project 2016 - Godzilla vs. Koopzilla II: Invasion of the  Invasion of Reptilens", which I'm really looking forward to. By the way, King Asylus, if by some chance you do read this review, I have a suggestion on a design for some of the reptilens, which would be the unused alien concepts from 2014's TMNT. They're good designs on their own, and I feel you could put them to better use than the film studios involved in that film's making.

Overall, I highly recommend this film. It's animation is fantastic, and given that it's King Asylus animating it, that shouldn't be a surprise. He actually used more than just sprites. He also used art drawings and MMD models, which, given the project, would be very helpful, since sprites alone wouldn't have done the job as well. As stated, the voices and references are all great and fit really well here. That being said, though, I only have two, minor nitpicks. One is that Bowser's mouth, as well as a few of the other characters, doesn't always move when he speaks. It's understandable for most of the characters, since most of their mouths aren't visible, but his is out in the open. Now, if he was speaking in his mind, or somehow used telepathy, which is a cool concept, then that's perfectly alright. The other is that, in some scenes, Godzilla's spines light up when he uses his atomic breath and in others, they don't. But those are only nitpicks, and they don't take away from an otherwise amazing fan film.

As for the sequel, I can only guess as to what it's going to involve. It involves the Reptilens' invasion, and includes Godzilla's old rival, King Ghidorah and the most famed lost project kaiju, Bagan. Some assume that Godzilla and Bowser will team up to fight the new threats, but we shall see. For the third, since it is going to be a trilogy, I wouldn't mind if Red and Solomon from the NES Godzilla creepypasta are the main focus of it. Or it could include Mecha Bowser and Mechagodzilla. Or all four, but those are just suggestions. In fact, this has inspired me to write a short story, with six chapters total, that involves Godzilla meeting up with another monster that has his namesake, Edzilla from Ed, Edd n Eddy. For the plot, visit my deviantart page and tell me what you think of it.

As Godzilla fans, I think we're lucky enough to get three good Godzilla movies this year. This one, the 2014 one and Godzilla: Battle Royal. Like I said, if you're a fan of Godzilla, Mario, or both, you'll enjoy this one. Well, that's it for this review. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the film.