Godzilla: The Series



So the poorly translated Deanzilla movie got a noticeably more appreciated spinoff as Godzilla: The Series. In the first episode, one of the eggs that movie-Godzilla laid is found, it hatches and imprints on The Hero from the movie, Dr. Nick Tatopoulos. Naturally, he subsequently forms HEAT (the Humanitarian Environmental Analysis Team) with four other humans, Drs Elsie Chapman and Mendel Craven (both from the movie, as well), as well as Randy Hernandez and Monique Dupre. With Godzilla Junior loyal to Nick, they defend the world from various Kaiju that have abruptly sprung up, crazy and/or sinister humans and, eventually, invading psychic aliens.

Contrast the earlier The Godzilla Power Hour.

This series provides examples of:
"Monique: Indeed. It is almost as laughable a notion as one breathing atomic fire."
 * Action Girl: Monique.
 * Adaptation Distillation: Many fans of the Japanese Godzilla films consider know the series as superior to the American movie.
 * Many Japanese fans consider this series superior to some of their own films.
 * Aesop Amnesia: The Movie this spun off from had Audrey somewhat harshly learning the lesson that the big scoop isn't worth screwing over your friends and/or love interests. Most of the conflict involving her in the cartoon has her conveniently forgetting this.
 * Alien Invasion: "Monster Wars."
 * Animal Mecha: Cameron Winter's "Cyber flies."
 * Arbitrary Skepticism: Mocked in "Leviathan":

""AAARGH--"
 * Played straight in "Deadloch": Nick doesn't believe in the Loch Ness Monster despite being the adopted father of a giant fire-breathing lizard.
 * Area 51: And the rumors of aliens are.
 * Ascended Extra: Elsie and Craven actually appear in the 1998 movie, though you won't be blamed for not remembering them.
 * Asteroids Monster: The silver monster in "Shafted."
 * Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever: It's Godzilla.
 * Back From the Dead:
 * Bad Future: The episode "Future Shock" has the crew sent forward through time to one of these, where bio-engineered monstrosities have killed all the other Kaiju (Including Godzilla) and overrun the world.
 * Big Creepy Crawlies: Let's see -- the Megapede, Fire Monster, Giant Scorpion, Giant Spider, El Gusano Gigante, the Giant Bees, Giant Termites...
 * Body Horror: The Chameleon, as well as the Tachyons.
 * Brainwashed
 * Breath Weapon: They got it right this time, 'cept for how it's green.
 * Funnily enough, when Cyber-Zilla (i.e. GINO) attacks Tokyo, it's atomic breath is the traditional light blue.
 * Captain Ersatz: Reasonable facsimiles of Anguirus, Kumonga and many others.
 * Don't forget Mecha Cyber-Zilla.
 * The Chew Toy: Mendel's robot N.I.G.E.L. dies as often as Kenny.

"N.I.G.E.L., nooooo!""

""Would you still be cheering if there were people in those warehouses?""
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Cameron Winter.
 * Conveniently Empty Building: A remarkable amount of people manage to not be killed during various monster fights. Sure it's technically a kids show, but still.

"Mendel: We can generate a radiopathic feedback to overload the dampers--
 * Cryptid Episode: Godzilla fights the Loch Ness Monster.
 * Cutting the Knot: In "Monster Wars":

Monique blasts the console

Mendel: --or we could just blow it up."

"Kid: Go go go!
 * Deadpan Snarker: Elsie's the most prodigious team snarker, Monique being a close second.
 * Destructive Savior: To be fair, Godzilla's the size of a building, and his main abilities involves tunneling through the ground and breathing atomic fire. It's kind of unavoidable. An early episode has Godzilla causing so much damage to New York while trying to hunt down an infestation of giant mutated rats that the military believes he's simply on the attack.
 * "Underground Movement" had the city of Miami suing HEAT for damage caused not by Godzilla but by their own weapons..
 * Energy Absorption: Several of the monsters had this type of ability, whether it be against fire or some other form of energy.
 * Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Monique.
 * Family Friendly Firearms: A rare case of the shift to family-friendly lasers actually being part of the story. Real guns are used at first, but after "Monster Wars," where the invaders left some of their weapons behind on Earth, lasers start appearing in the military's hands.
 * Fantastic Voyage: Of course, since they're going inside Godzilla, no shrinking is required.
 * Big Guy had some massive blood vessels, though.
 * Feed It With Fire: Several times had Zilla fire his plasma breath at both a fire monster and a monster manifested from dreams("What Dreams May Come"), each time causing them to grow bigger and more powerful as a result. "D.O.A." had a military force use a biological weapon against a massive worm creature, but it turned out to be derived from its natural food, so it fed on the weapon to grow bigger, stronger and pointier.
 * Five Man Band
 * The Hero: Nick.
 * The Lancer: Monique.
 * The Big Guy: Godzilla Junior, even nicknamed as such.
 * The Smart Guy: The whole team to some extent but mainly Mendel and Randy.
 * The Chick: Elsie.
 * Team Pet: N.I.G.E.L.
 * Fungus Humongous: "Underground Movement."
 * Fun With Acronyms: Randy originally intended "HEAT" to mean "High-performance Environmental Attack Team".
 * Future Badass: in "Future Shock."
 * Also N.I.G.E.L. and Hicks.
 * Gaias Vengeance
 * Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: How the Chameleon is created.
 * As well as the D.R.A.G.M.A.'s in "Future Shock."
 * Giant Equals Invincible: Unlike the film, this is played straight. The only time a monster would die in this series is by fighting each other or a specialized weapon by the main character. Even when it's specially meant to kill, it could have the possibility to hurt Godzilla himself, as Nick had to be careful when the DNA creature turns into Godzilla and Elise says it could kill him.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: Most notably, Big G Junior himself.
 * Godzilla Threshold: Somewhat the trope namer. While Godzilla comes to the human's aid by himself, H.E.A.T decides to use his computerized voice to summon him when there's a kaiju that gives them trouble.
 * Happily Adopted: Interestingly enough, it was Godzilla that technically adopted Nick as his father since the giant lizard imprinted him (Nick was the first thing he saw). Since then, the two have formed a bizarre father/son bond and protect one another from danger.
 * Hive Mind: The aliens.
 * Hive Queen: Queen Bee (or rather, giant radioactive volcano bee) and Termite Queen.
 * Humongous Mecha: Robo-Yeti; the "Lizard Slayer" machines.
 * Hunter of His Own Kind: Many of the mutations were caused by radiation like in Godzilla's origin story. Not quite so tragic as most examples as many of them would just as soon as kill Godzilla as look at him.
 * Hypocritical Humor: In "Future Shock":

Nick: Kid's kind of bossy, isn't he?"

"Randy: "Wouldn't that be 'Nmigel?'""
 * I Love Nuclear Power: Quite a few mutations are the result of radiation.
 * Intrepid Reporter: Nick's girlfriend Audrey. Godzilla being the biggest scoop of all, they clash often.
 * Irony: "What would Gojira be doing in Japan?"
 * Which also doubles as a Mythology Gag.
 * Just a Stupid Accent: See previous.
 * Kaiju
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: There's only been a handful of episodes officially released to video/DVD, including the oft-mentioned "Monster Wars."
 * While still not available on DVD, the full series is streamed on Netflix.
 * Legion of Doom: "Monster Wars."
 * Mad Scientist: Dr. Insley in "Future Shock."
 * Manipulative Bastard: Cameron Winter.
 * Mega Manning: Skeetera, the giant mosquito whom could drain other monster's powers with their blood. Including Godzilla's fire.
 * Monster of the Week: Although many of the most notable creatures would return in the "Monster Wars" three-parter.
 * The series was known for odd yet real-looking kaiju designs, so it was part of the fun to see the latest monster, and whether it was a bird or a fungus.
 * Nanomachines: The Nanotech creature was originally designed to bio-degrade plastic. Naturally, it grows out-of-control and eats all the petroleum-based things it can find.
 * No Guy Wants an Amazon: Averted with Monique and Randy.
 * Non Action Guy: Craven wants so badly to be one of these. Unfortunately, circumstances just won't let him.
 * No One Could Survive That: Almost constantly; usually, Godzilla. And of course, many a Monster of the Week turned out to be Not Quite Dead come "Monster Wars."
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In "D.O.A.," Randy and Monique break into a facility to obtain samples of the poison affecting Godzilla. Randy is made to stand guard and ends up surrounded by three armed guards. Monique steps out of the supply room, appraises the situation, and the scene cuts to a shot of the outside of the facility with the sounds of the fight cut over it. It moves back to show the three guards tied up.
 * In the Bad Future featured in "Future Shock," Hicks says that, to combat the Dragmas, he released all the monsters from Monster Island (which included, at least, C-Rex, King Cobra and the Giant Bat), but that they all fell in battle. None of this conflict is shown at all.
 * Also a moment of Fridge Logic here: Where the hell was Cyber-Zilla? They had the cyborg's corpse and it could be piloted or at least remotely controlled. Despite this, it wasn't ever referenced as having been involved in this whole thing.
 * Out of Order: The original airdates put King Cobra's debut in "Monster Wars," when it should have not-quite died in the episode aired right after that, "Competition."
 * Pair the Spares: In the last ten seconds of the series, Monique finally admits an attraction to Randy, thus pairing off all the (human) members of HEAT.
 * Not really an example. There had been romantic tension between those two (or least, on Randy's end, anyway) since the moment Monique was introduced as a character.
 * Papa Wolf: Inverted. Godzilla Jr. goes to crazy lengths to protect his adoptive father, which is often pointed out.
 * It is played straight fairly often too, if you are human and you do something that can harm Godzilla, Nick will cut a bitch.
 * Playful Hacker: Randy.
 * Raised By Humans: Godzilla imprinted on Nick Tatapolous as his adopted father.
 * Recurring Monsters: In "Monster Wars," Crustaceous Rex, King Cobra, El Gusano, Queen Bee and Cryptocleidus all made return appearances. In the later episode "S.C.A.L.E.," Crustaceous Rex and King Cobra (as well as the Giant Bat introduced in "Monster Wars"') appeared again, this time as captives on Monster Island.
 * Recycled the Series
 * Red Eyes Take Warning
 * Ridiculous Future Sequelisation: A movie marquee in "Future Shock" displays "Ghostbusters 10"
 * Robot Names: Next-Millennium Intelligence Gathering Electronic Liaison, or N.I.G.E.L.


 * Running Gag: You can count on N.I.G.E.L. being smashed to pieces by the Monster of the Week or Junior at least once per episode.
 * Science Hero: A whole team of them, really. Even Monique has Hidden Depths like translating ancient Arabian glyphs.
 * Screwed By the Network: Particularly by our friends the Fox Network and 4KidsEntertainment: between being bounced around the schedule, having the episodes aired out of order, and frequently being pre-empted (ironically by Digimon in most cases), it's no surprise the show couldn't find an audience (because the audience couldn't find the show). The arrival of the Fox Box block was almost a mercy killing.
 * Shout Out: Several pop culture references an episode is the norm.
 * Slap Slap Kiss: Randy and Monique.
 * Spike Shooter: There's an episode about giant bees that can shoot their poison stinger.
 * Spot the Impostor: The shapeshifting DNA Mimic began mimicking Godzilla Junior at the climax, and Nick had to tell them apart.
 * Which is actually an Homage to the classic sci-fi movie The Thing.
 * They Killed Kenny: The previously-mentioned N.I.G.E.L.-smashing.
 * This led to a perceived rivalry with said trope namesake.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Purposefully done with "Zilla Jr." He's much tougher than his daddy and much closer to the Power Levels of the Japanese Godzilla.
 * Also, Nick is much more active than he used to be when Matthew Broderick portrayed him in the movie.
 * Tunnel King: Godzilla, like his daddy, but even better at it than he was.
 * Turtle Power: The giant turtle in "End of the Line."
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Craven and Randy.
 * Western Terrorists: SCALE (Servants of Creatures Arriving Late to Earth), the Animal Wrongs Group who frees imprisoned Kaiju to purge humanity.
 * Whole Plot Reference: The "Monster Wars" three-parter was based on the Godzilla movie Destroy All Monsters.
 * "Trust No One" is basically a PG-version of the The Thing.
 * "Future Shock" is pretty much Reign of Fire, which is impressive considering it came out three years before the movie.
 * We Can Rebuild Him: Zilla Senior is brought back as Cyber-Godzilla by aliens to fight the star of the show.
 * White Haired Pretty Boy: Cameron Winter
 * Whos Laughing Now: "What Dreams May Come." A rather literal case there, as the Crackler monster has this weird chuckle-growl when active.
 * Why Isn't It Attacking: The reason why Junior didn't eat Nick in the first episode on their second encounter? Because he imprinted on Nick not long after hatching and sees Nick as his "dad".