Jan 03, 2023, 22:39 pm
(This post was last modified: Jan 04, 2023, 13:18 pm by billythefist. Edited 3 times in total.)
That's right, the gang's all here and they are in their proper aspect ratio! There's a lot of go over, so I'll start with the main points that apply to this project overall and then I will go into more specifics for each film under the respective releases below.
First off, video is from the Arrow releases. They look incredible compared to what we are used to, so bless them for that. The MST/Sandy Frank releases all featured fuck-awful Pan & Scan which ruined all of the cinematography and lots of the effects shots. You ever wonder why everyone stands half off the screen during important dialogue scenes, or why all the action seemed way too zoomed in? Well now you know.
Now, on to the audio which is a bit more complicated. We all know MST did the Gamera movies in both the KTMA season and again in season 3. I'll be honest, those early KTMA episodes are reeeeally hit or miss and sometimes didn't even have the bots so I didn't sync those. What i did instead was use the KTMA episodes to fill in the longer gaps left from the season 3 audio where possible. This results in a few moments where Joel sounds a little sleepier or maybe Josh shows up for a minute, but i think it works really well and isnt too distracting. Unfortunately the audio quality on all available sources for KTMA season's Gamera vs Barugon was just laughably bad so that one is just season 3 cut with the feature audio, and on top of that Barugon's quite a bit longer than the other movies which means there are some pretty long stretches without riffing. It is probably the best actual movie of them all imo, so it does even out a bit. I have also included English dubs (the ones we all know and love) as well as the original Japanese audio.
On top of that, I have created some special forced subs for these files since for some reason Arrow didn't. I recommend using the forced subs labeled "Text/Signs" for all the movies when watching with the MSTs or the dubs. I have flagged these subs in the mkv as default and forced so they should be easy to spot. Full subs for the Japanese audio are included as well and OCR'd by me, I did a pretty thorough check but they may have some minor errors. Some movies have very few instances of signs or text, but others have a lot. Some on-screen text wasn't translated in the official subs so thanks to google for the scanned translations. I now know way more about the 1970 Japan World Expo than I ever thought I would.
Gamera the Giant Monster (MST3K S03E02 "Gamera")
It all started here with this corny Godzilla rip-off that has a fun little take on the UFO hysteria that was all the rage back then. Thanks to GaryInMotion for getting the ball rolling on this one. Not sure what release of the movie he used (maybe Mill Creek?) but it was a decent fit for the most part. I assume he was not able to find the Anvil dub that MST was working off of so he had some portions of the movie still in Japanese. I spliced these sections out to replace with the KTMA audio, along with timing changes. I actually had a tough time tracking down the Anvil dub as well, but I did end up getting one from the Internet Archive that i synced and included for completeness.
https://mega.nz/file/1dViCRyD#JRoZslljoC...H2hOh8OSRo
Gamera vs Barugon (MST3K S03E04 "Gamera vs Barugon")
Not sure why the studio thought pivoting Gamera in a more serious direction was the way to make money, but anyway they did and this is the result. I think its probably the most well-made movie of the series, even if it is the least "fun" or entertaining. Again, no acceptable quality sources of this KTMA episode could be found so I simply could not use that audio here.
https://mega.nz/file/BYlwCIja#1gY1QIGW2T...dBXGoErCkQ
Gamera vs Gyaos (MST3K S03E08 "Gamera vs Gaos")
Itchy's the kid this time, and let me tell you he is no Kenny! The series is back on track for success and we have a well-designed monster this time. Sure he is no Ghidorah or something but Gyaos is pretty distinct at least. You may be wondering why the Construction Foreman in this movie looks so familiar, and thats because you just watched him as the protagonist of the last movie. He's also the Scout Master in the next one.
https://mega.nz/file/QA8WRCxL#a_g9G6qrJu...3qbLgopLow
Gamera vs Viras
No riffing here, obviously. I have included it for completeness, and for the fact that it is pretty watchable fun on its own. Its a bit goofy and the kid actors are really great, I think this is where the series started dabbling with slapstick and it really works for this one. Viras is wonderful so don't skip it on your Gamera watch party, you won't want to miss the ending! You probably will want to miss all the reused footage though. For some reason this dub was also tough to track down, basically I found a DVD copy of Destroy All Planets and had to re-edit the whole damn dub to get it to work on this release.
https://mega.nz/file/dAsEXQKZ#Oj8w9CsGOU...bIFQLfMayQ
Gamera vs Guiron (MST3K S03E12 "Gamera vs Guiron")
This riff is probably the pinnacle of MST3K imo, not much else to say really. First appearance of Cornjob. Probably Richard Burton's finest performance too.
https://mega.nz/file/4RVyAZCY#I--AG9MNj8...YpO1RfLTgA
Gamera vs Jiger (MST3K S13E07 "Gamera vs Jiger")
A great riff by the Netflix crew. Not a huge difference in video quality here since they used what seems to be a slightly cropped version of the same print that Arrow did with hardly any edits. Huge thanks to bsg4you as this audio is sourced from his "corrected" audio release.
https://mega.nz/file/NM8RCAzC#R_mwr6EwGp...Sj_8mR63n0
Gamera vs Zigra (MST3K S03E16 "Gamera vs Zigra")
The final Gamera movie before the bankruptcy, and boy it shows. Its a stupid and goofy ride though, and the riffs really carry it.
https://mega.nz/file/UQVFmSaQ#niXyFaphxN...5sULK1rfMA
Gamera Super Monster
Not riffed, but I have included it here as the finale of the Showa era. It came much later than the other 7 movies so there is a marked difference in aesthetics and Japanese culture compared to the others. I'm not even going to tell you what to expect but please just go in blind and leave your expectations at the door, I promise you won't be disappointed. Or maybe you will, I don't even know you.
https://mega.nz/file/kINAQQYC#3UPtAKtUP3...Nw5M6dIjw4
Gammera the Invincible (Rifftrax 2018)
Yeah I bet you thought I forgot about this one. This little piece of shit is the re-cut and Americanized version of Gamera the Giant Monster, it strips away almost everything that makes the original semi-enjoyable and replaces it with a bunch of mothballed TV actors reading off of cue cards with sitcom cinematography. This version of the movie is so bad that I would never recommend experiencing Gamera this way... but my god the RIFFING on this movie! So good. Most of what Rifftrax cut from the feature (or what wasn't in their version) is absolute garbage so honestly you aren't missing much if you stick with the HD High version.
https://mega.nz/file/9JdVEayK#_U4sSyV5az...7rPnQpEGN0
First off, video is from the Arrow releases. They look incredible compared to what we are used to, so bless them for that. The MST/Sandy Frank releases all featured fuck-awful Pan & Scan which ruined all of the cinematography and lots of the effects shots. You ever wonder why everyone stands half off the screen during important dialogue scenes, or why all the action seemed way too zoomed in? Well now you know.
Now, on to the audio which is a bit more complicated. We all know MST did the Gamera movies in both the KTMA season and again in season 3. I'll be honest, those early KTMA episodes are reeeeally hit or miss and sometimes didn't even have the bots so I didn't sync those. What i did instead was use the KTMA episodes to fill in the longer gaps left from the season 3 audio where possible. This results in a few moments where Joel sounds a little sleepier or maybe Josh shows up for a minute, but i think it works really well and isnt too distracting. Unfortunately the audio quality on all available sources for KTMA season's Gamera vs Barugon was just laughably bad so that one is just season 3 cut with the feature audio, and on top of that Barugon's quite a bit longer than the other movies which means there are some pretty long stretches without riffing. It is probably the best actual movie of them all imo, so it does even out a bit. I have also included English dubs (the ones we all know and love) as well as the original Japanese audio.
On top of that, I have created some special forced subs for these files since for some reason Arrow didn't. I recommend using the forced subs labeled "Text/Signs" for all the movies when watching with the MSTs or the dubs. I have flagged these subs in the mkv as default and forced so they should be easy to spot. Full subs for the Japanese audio are included as well and OCR'd by me, I did a pretty thorough check but they may have some minor errors. Some movies have very few instances of signs or text, but others have a lot. Some on-screen text wasn't translated in the official subs so thanks to google for the scanned translations. I now know way more about the 1970 Japan World Expo than I ever thought I would.
Gamera the Giant Monster (MST3K S03E02 "Gamera")
It all started here with this corny Godzilla rip-off that has a fun little take on the UFO hysteria that was all the rage back then. Thanks to GaryInMotion for getting the ball rolling on this one. Not sure what release of the movie he used (maybe Mill Creek?) but it was a decent fit for the most part. I assume he was not able to find the Anvil dub that MST was working off of so he had some portions of the movie still in Japanese. I spliced these sections out to replace with the KTMA audio, along with timing changes. I actually had a tough time tracking down the Anvil dub as well, but I did end up getting one from the Internet Archive that i synced and included for completeness.
https://mega.nz/file/1dViCRyD#JRoZslljoC...H2hOh8OSRo
Gamera vs Barugon (MST3K S03E04 "Gamera vs Barugon")
Not sure why the studio thought pivoting Gamera in a more serious direction was the way to make money, but anyway they did and this is the result. I think its probably the most well-made movie of the series, even if it is the least "fun" or entertaining. Again, no acceptable quality sources of this KTMA episode could be found so I simply could not use that audio here.
https://mega.nz/file/BYlwCIja#1gY1QIGW2T...dBXGoErCkQ
Gamera vs Gyaos (MST3K S03E08 "Gamera vs Gaos")
Itchy's the kid this time, and let me tell you he is no Kenny! The series is back on track for success and we have a well-designed monster this time. Sure he is no Ghidorah or something but Gyaos is pretty distinct at least. You may be wondering why the Construction Foreman in this movie looks so familiar, and thats because you just watched him as the protagonist of the last movie. He's also the Scout Master in the next one.
https://mega.nz/file/QA8WRCxL#a_g9G6qrJu...3qbLgopLow
Gamera vs Viras
No riffing here, obviously. I have included it for completeness, and for the fact that it is pretty watchable fun on its own. Its a bit goofy and the kid actors are really great, I think this is where the series started dabbling with slapstick and it really works for this one. Viras is wonderful so don't skip it on your Gamera watch party, you won't want to miss the ending! You probably will want to miss all the reused footage though. For some reason this dub was also tough to track down, basically I found a DVD copy of Destroy All Planets and had to re-edit the whole damn dub to get it to work on this release.
https://mega.nz/file/dAsEXQKZ#Oj8w9CsGOU...bIFQLfMayQ
Gamera vs Guiron (MST3K S03E12 "Gamera vs Guiron")
This riff is probably the pinnacle of MST3K imo, not much else to say really. First appearance of Cornjob. Probably Richard Burton's finest performance too.
https://mega.nz/file/4RVyAZCY#I--AG9MNj8...YpO1RfLTgA
Gamera vs Jiger (MST3K S13E07 "Gamera vs Jiger")
A great riff by the Netflix crew. Not a huge difference in video quality here since they used what seems to be a slightly cropped version of the same print that Arrow did with hardly any edits. Huge thanks to bsg4you as this audio is sourced from his "corrected" audio release.
https://mega.nz/file/NM8RCAzC#R_mwr6EwGp...Sj_8mR63n0
Gamera vs Zigra (MST3K S03E16 "Gamera vs Zigra")
The final Gamera movie before the bankruptcy, and boy it shows. Its a stupid and goofy ride though, and the riffs really carry it.
https://mega.nz/file/UQVFmSaQ#niXyFaphxN...5sULK1rfMA
Gamera Super Monster
Not riffed, but I have included it here as the finale of the Showa era. It came much later than the other 7 movies so there is a marked difference in aesthetics and Japanese culture compared to the others. I'm not even going to tell you what to expect but please just go in blind and leave your expectations at the door, I promise you won't be disappointed. Or maybe you will, I don't even know you.
https://mega.nz/file/kINAQQYC#3UPtAKtUP3...Nw5M6dIjw4
Gammera the Invincible (Rifftrax 2018)
Yeah I bet you thought I forgot about this one. This little piece of shit is the re-cut and Americanized version of Gamera the Giant Monster, it strips away almost everything that makes the original semi-enjoyable and replaces it with a bunch of mothballed TV actors reading off of cue cards with sitcom cinematography. This version of the movie is so bad that I would never recommend experiencing Gamera this way... but my god the RIFFING on this movie! So good. Most of what Rifftrax cut from the feature (or what wasn't in their version) is absolute garbage so honestly you aren't missing much if you stick with the HD High version.
https://mega.nz/file/9JdVEayK#_U4sSyV5az...7rPnQpEGN0
