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102-455: Godzilla ( / ɡ ɒ d ˈ z ɪ l ə / ɡod- ZIL -ə ) is a fictional monster, or kaiju , that debuted in the eponymous 1954 film , directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda . The character has since become an international pop culture icon , appearing in various media : 33 Japanese films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. , five American films , and numerous video games , novels, comic books , and television shows . Godzilla has been dubbed

204-414: A Stegosaurus and an alligator to form a sort of blended chimera , inspired by illustrations from an issue of Life magazine. To emphasize the monster's relationship with the atomic bomb, its skin texture was inspired by the keloid scars seen on the survivors of Hiroshima . The basic design has a reptilian visage, a robust build, an upright posture, a long tail and three rows of serrated plates along

306-413: A blend —also known as a blend word , lexical blend , or portmanteau —is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together. English examples include smog , coined by blending smoke and fog , as well as motel , from motor ( motorist ) and hotel . A blend is similar to a contraction . On the one hand, mainstream blends tend to be formed at

408-535: A portmanteau of the Japanese words gorira ( ゴリラ , "gorilla") and kujira ( 鯨 （ クジラ ） , "whale") due to his burly build to resemble a gorilla and his habit to favor whale meat . The account has been acknowledged by Toho themselves, director Ishirō Honda , producer Tanaka, special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya , producer Ichirō Satō  [ ja ] , and production head Iwao Mori  [ ja ] , with Satō and Mori recalling that

510-425: A body cavity made of thin wires and bamboo wrapped in chicken wire for support and covered in fabric and cushions, which were then coated in latex. It was held together by small hooks on the back, though subsequent Godzilla suits incorporated a zipper. Prior to 1984, most Godzilla suits were made from scratch, thus resulting in slight design changes in each film appearance. The most notable changes from 1962 to 1975 were

612-529: A distinctive disyllabic roar (transcribed in several comics as Skreeeonk! ), which was created by composer Akira Ifukube , who produced the sound by rubbing a pine tar-resin-coated glove along the string of a contrabass and then slowing down the playback. In the American version of Godzilla Raids Again (1955) titled Gigantis the Fire Monster (1959), Godzilla's roar was mostly substituted with that of

714-479: A fan of these films, he set out to make a new movie based on them and created Godzilla . Tanaka aimed to combine Hollywood giant monster movies with the re-emerged Japanese fears of atomic weapons that arose from the Daigo Fukuryū Maru fishing boat incident; and so he put a team together and created the concept of a giant radioactive creature emerging from the depths of the ocean, a creature that would become

816-486: A filmographic metaphor for the United States, as well as an allegory of nuclear weapons in general. The earlier Godzilla films, especially the original, portrayed Godzilla as a frightening nuclear-spawned monster. Godzilla represented the fears that many Japanese held about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the possibility of recurrence. As the series progressed, so did Godzilla, changing into

918-775: A fire-breathing monster in a commercial for the Honda Odyssey . The monster was never mentioned by name, being seen briefly on a video screen inside the minivan. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society christened a vessel the MV Gojira . Its purpose is to target and harass Japanese whalers in defense of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. The MV Gojira was renamed the MV ; Brigitte Bardot in May 2011, due to legal pressure from Toho . Gojira

1020-568: A form of puppetry interwoven between suitmation scenes for shots that were physically impossible for the suit actor to perform. From the 1998 release of Godzilla , American-produced kaiju films strayed from suitmation to computer-generated imagery (CGI). In Japan, CGI and stop-motion have been increasingly used for certain special sequences and monsters, but suitmation has been used for an overwhelming majority of kaiju films produced in Japan of all eras. Portmanteau In linguistics ,

1122-535: A form suitable for carrying on horseback; (now esp.) one in the form of a stiff leather case hinged at the back to open into two equal parts". According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language ( AHD ), the etymology of the word is the French porte-manteau , from porter , "to carry", and manteau , "cloak" (from Old French mantel , from Latin mantellum ). According to

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1224-449: A giant version of NBA player Charles Barkley . The commercial was subsequently adapted into a comic book illustrated by Jeff Butler . Godzilla has also appeared in a commercial for Snickers candy bars , which served as an indirect promo for the 2014 film. Godzilla's success inspired the creation of numerous other monster characters, such as Gamera , Reptilicus of Denmark, Yonggary of South Korea, Pulgasari of North Korea, Gorgo of

1326-400: A human ( suit actor ) to wear and act in. This was combined with the use of miniature models and scaled-down city sets to create the illusion of a giant creature in a city. Due to the extreme stiffness of the latex or rubber suits, filming would often be done at double speed, so that when the film was shown, the monster was smoother and slower than in the original shot. Kaiju films also used

1428-423: A human to create the movements of the computer-generated Godzilla, but it was said to have ended up looking too much like a man in a suit. Tatopoulos subsequently reimagined the creature as a lean, digitigrade bipedal, iguana-like creature that stood with its back and tail parallel to the ground, rendered via CGI . Several scenes had the monster portrayed by stuntmen in suits. The suits were similar to those used in

1530-427: A kind of bath), the attributive blends of English are mostly head-final and mostly endocentric . As an example of an exocentric attributive blend, Fruitopia may metaphorically take the buyer to a fruity utopia (and not a utopian fruit); however, it is not a utopia but a drink. Coordinate blends (also called associative or portmanteau blends) combine two words having equal status, and have two heads. Thus brunch

1632-413: A laser-like high velocity projectile and unleashes it from its jaws in the form of a blue or red radioactive beam. Toho's special effects department has used various techniques to render the beam, from physical gas-powered flames to hand-drawn or computer-generated fire. Godzilla is shown to possess immense physical strength and muscularity. Haruo Nakajima, the actor who played Godzilla in the original films,

1734-539: A less destructive and more heroic character. Ghidorah (1964) was the turning point in Godzilla's transformation from villain to hero, by pitting him against a greater threat to humanity, King Ghidorah . Godzilla has since been viewed as an anti-hero . Roger Ebert cited Godzilla as a notable example of a villain-turned-hero, along with King Kong, Jaws ( James Bond ) , the Terminator and John Rambo . Godzilla

1836-622: A mere splinter or leftover word fragment. For instance, starfish is a compound, not a blend, of star and fish , as it includes both words in full. However, if it were called a " stish " or a " starsh ", it would be a blend. Furthermore, when blends are formed by shortening established compounds or phrases, they can be considered clipped compounds , such as romcom for romantic comedy . Blends of two or more words may be classified from each of three viewpoints: morphotactic, morphonological, and morphosemantic. Blends may be classified morphotactically into two kinds: total and partial . In

1938-514: A new splinter of the term, which quickly propagated through the popularity of superhero programs produced from the 1970s, forward. These kaijin possess rational thought and the power of speech, as do human beings. A successive kaijin menagerie, in diverse iterations, appeared over numerous series, most notably the Super Sentai programs premiering in 1975 (later carried over into Super Sentai ' s English iteration as Power Rangers in

2040-401: A particular historical moment followed by a rapid rise in popularity. Contractions, on the other hand, are formed by the gradual drifting together of words over time due to them commonly appearing together in sequence, such as do not naturally becoming don't (phonologically, / d uː n ɒ t / becoming / d oʊ n t / ). A blend also differs from a compound , which fully preserves

2142-409: A pivotal precursor in the evolution of the genre. During its formative years, kaiju movies were generally neglected by Japanese critics, who regarded them as "juvenile gimmick", according to authors Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski. Kaiju are often somewhat metaphorical in nature; Godzilla , for example, serves as a metaphor for nuclear weapons , reflecting the fears of post-war Japan following

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2244-426: A short period when the organ recycles. Various films, non-canonical television shows, comics, and games have depicted Godzilla with additional powers, such as an atomic pulse, magnetism, precognition, fireballs, convert electromagnetic energy into intensive body heat, converting shed blood into temporary tentacle limbs, an electric bite, superhuman speed, laser beams emitted from its eyes and even flight. Godzilla has

2346-486: A total blend, each of the words creating the blend is reduced to a mere splinter. Some linguists limit blends to these (perhaps with additional conditions): for example, Ingo Plag considers "proper blends" to be total blends that semantically are coordinate, the remainder being "shortened compounds". Commonly for English blends, the beginning of one word is followed by the end of another: Much less commonly in English,

2448-486: A whim. It is generally not motivated to attack by predatory instinct; it does not usually eat people and instead sustains itself on nuclear radiation and an omnivorous or piscivorian diet consisting especially of cetaceans and large fish. When inquired if Godzilla was "good or bad", producer Shōgo Tomiyama likened it to a Shinto "God of Destruction" which lacks moral agency and cannot be held to human standards of good and evil. "He totally destroys everything and then there

2550-477: Is a Japanese blend that has entered the English language. The Vietnamese language also encourages blend words formed from Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary . For example, the term Việt Cộng is derived from the first syllables of "Việt Nam" (Vietnam) and "Cộng sản" (communist). Many corporate brand names , trademarks, and initiatives, as well as names of corporations and organizations themselves, are blends. For example, Wiktionary , one of Misplaced Pages 's sister projects,

2652-496: Is a blend of wiki and dictionary . The word portmanteau was introduced in this sense by Lewis Carroll in the book Through the Looking-Glass (1871), where Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of unusual words used in " Jabberwocky ". Slithy means "slimy and lithe" and mimsy means "miserable and flimsy". Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the practice of combining words in various ways, comparing it to

2754-428: Is a rebirth. Something new and fresh can begin." Tomoyuki Tanaka noted in his book that Godzilla and humanity can become temporal allies against greater threats, however they are essentially enemies due to the difficulty to co-exist. Godzilla's signature weapon is its "atomic heat beam" (also known as "atomic breath"), nuclear energy that it generates inside of its body, uses electromagnetic force to concentrate it into

2856-440: Is both phonological and orthographic, but with no other shortening: The overlap may be both phonological and orthographic, and with some additional shortening to at least one of the ingredients: Such an overlap may be discontinuous: These are also termed imperfect blends. It can occur with three components: The phonological overlap need not also be orthographic: If the phonological but non-orthographic overlap encompasses

2958-556: Is considered "the original radioactive superhero " due to his accidental radioactive origin story predating Spider-Man (1962 debut), though Godzilla did not become a hero until Ghidorah in 1964. By the 1970s, Godzilla came to be viewed as a superhero, with the magazine King of the Monsters in 1977 describing Godzilla as "Superhero of the '70s." Godzilla had surpassed Superman and Batman to become "the most universally popular superhero of 1977" according to Donald F. Glut. Godzilla

3060-699: Is neither a breakfasty lunch nor a lunchtime breakfast but instead some hybrid of breakfast and lunch; Oxbridge is equally Oxford and Cambridge universities. This too parallels (conventional, non-blend) compounds: an actor–director is equally an actor and a director. Two kinds of coordinate blends are particularly conspicuous: those that combine (near‑) synonyms: and those that combine (near‑) opposites: Blending can also apply to roots rather than words, for instance in Israeli Hebrew : "There are two possible etymological analyses for Israeli Hebrew כספר kaspár 'bank clerk, teller'. The first

3162-400: Is shown to have great vitality: it is immune to conventional weaponry thanks to its rugged hide and ability to regenerate , and as a result of surviving a nuclear explosion, it cannot be destroyed by anything less powerful. One incarnation possesses an electromagnetic pulse-producing organ in its body which generates an asymmetrical permeable shield, making it impervious to all damage except for

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3264-405: Is that it consists of (Hebrew>) Israeli כסף késef 'money' and the ( International /Hebrew>) Israeli agentive suffix ר- -ár . The second is that it is a quasi- portmanteau word which blends כסף késef 'money' and (Hebrew>) Israeli ספר √spr 'count'. Israeli Hebrew כספר kaspár started as a brand name but soon entered the common language. Even if the second analysis is the correct one,

3366-513: Is the name of a French death metal band, formerly known as Godzilla; legal problems forced the band to change their name. In May 2015, Toho launched a lawsuit against Voltage Pictures over a planned picture starring Anne Hathaway . Promotional material released at the Cannes Film Festival used images of Godzilla. Steven Spielberg cited Godzilla as an inspiration for Jurassic Park (1993), specifically Godzilla, King of

3468-544: The yōkai of Japanese folklore , although it is possible to find megafauna in their mythology (e.g., Japanese dragons ). After sakoku ended and Japan was opened to foreign relations in the mid-19th century, the term kaijū came to be used to express concepts from paleontology and legendary creatures from around the world. For example, the extinct Ceratosaurus -like cryptid featured in The Monster of "Partridge Creek" (1908) by French writer Georges Dupuy

3570-854: The Fantastic Four , and the Avengers , as well as DC Comics characters such as the Justice League , the Legion of Doom and the Green Lantern Corps . First appearing in 1954, Godzilla has starred in a total of 38 films: 33 Japanese films produced and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd. and five American films, one produced by TriStar Pictures and four produced by Legendary Pictures . He has also appeared in countless other entertainment mediums, which include comic book lines, novelizations , and video games; each appearance expands upon

3672-530: The King of the Monsters , an epithet first used in Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), the American localization of the 1954 film. Originally and in most iterations of the creature, Godzilla is a colossal prehistoric reptilian or dinosaurian monster that is amphibious or resides partially in the ocean, awakened and empowered after many years by exposure to nuclear radiation and nuclear testing . With

3774-533: The OED Online , the etymology of the word is the "officer who carries the mantle of a person in a high position (1507 in Middle French), case or bag for carrying clothing (1547), clothes rack (1640)". In modern French, a porte-manteau is a clothes valet , a coat-tree or similar article of furniture for hanging up jackets, hats, umbrellas and the like. An occasional synonym for "portmanteau word"

3876-489: The Shinjuku ward of Tokyo named Godzilla a special resident and official tourism ambassador to encourage tourism. During an unveiling of a giant Godzilla bust at Toho headquarters, Shinjuku mayor Kenichi Yoshizumi stated, "Godzilla is a character that is the pride of Japan." The mayor extended a residency certificate to an actor in a rubber suit representing Godzilla, but as the suit's hands were not designed for grasping, it

3978-581: The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Lucky Dragon 5 incident. Other notable examples of kaiju characters include King Kong , Rodan , Mothra , King Ghidorah , and Gamera . The Japanese word kaijū originally referred to monsters and creatures from ancient Japanese legends; it earlier appeared in the Chinese Classic of Mountains and Seas . There are no traditional depictions of kaijū or kaijū -like creatures among

4080-712: The human condition . Godzilla has been featured alongside many supporting characters and, over the decades, has faced off against various human opponents, such as the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), in addition to other gargantuan monsters, including Gigan , King Ghidorah , and Mechagodzilla . Godzilla has fought alongside allies such as Anguirus , Mothra , and Rodan and has had offspring, including Godzilla Junior and Minilla . Godzilla has also battled characters and creatures from other franchises in crossover media —such as King Kong — as well as various Marvel Comics characters, like S.H.I.E.L.D. ,

4182-651: The nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Lucky Dragon 5 incident still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a metaphor for nuclear weapons . Others have suggested that Godzilla is a metaphor for the United States, a "giant beast" woken from its "slumber" that then takes terrible vengeance on Japan. As the film series expanded, some storylines took on less serious undertones, portraying Godzilla as an antihero or lesser threat who defends humanity. Later films address disparate themes and commentary, including Japan's apathy, neglect, and ignorance of its imperial past , natural disasters , and

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4284-432: The stems of the original words. The British lecturer Valerie Adams's 1973 Introduction to Modern English Word-Formation explains that "In words such as motel ..., hotel is represented by various shorter substitutes – ‑otel ... – which I shall call splinters. Words containing splinters I shall call blends". Thus, at least one of the parts of a blend, strictly speaking, is not a complete morpheme , but instead

4386-485: The 1933 film King Kong . The enormous success of King Kong can be seen as the definitive breakthrough of monster movies . This influential achievement of King Kong paved the way for the emergence of the giant monster genre, serving as a blueprint for future kaiju productions. Its success reverberated in the film industry, leaving a lasting impact and solidifying the figure of the giant monster as an essential component in genre cinematography. RKO Pictures later licensed

4488-462: The 1990s). This created yet another splinter, as the kaijin of Super Sentai have since evolved to feature unique forms and attributes (e.g., gigantism ), existing somewhere between kaijin and kaiju . Daikaijū ( 大怪獣 ) literally translates as "giant kaiju " or "great kaiju ". This hyperbolic term was used to denote greatness of the subject kaiju , the prefix dai- emphasizing great size, power, and/or status. The first known appearance of

4590-402: The American film Godzilla (2014) from Legendary Pictures , Godzilla was scaled to be 108.2 m (355 ft) and weighing 90,000 short tons (81,650 metric tons), making it the largest film version at that time. Director Gareth Edwards wanted Godzilla "to be so big as to be seen from anywhere in the city, but not too big that he couldn't be obscured". For Shin Godzilla (2016), Godzilla

4692-510: The King Kong character to the Japanese studio Toho , resulting in the co-productions King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) and King Kong Escapes (1967), both directed by Ishirō Honda . Yoshirō Edamasa directed The Great Buddha Arrival in 1934. Although the original film is now lost, stills of the film have survived, and it is one of the earliest examples of a kaiju film in Japanese cinematic history. The 1934 film presumably influenced

4794-473: The Monsters , portraying the character through performance capture . In Shin Godzilla , a majority of the character was portrayed via CGI, with Mansai Nomura portraying Godzilla through motion capture. In 2024, Godzilla Minus One was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects , becoming the first Godzilla film nominated for an Oscar . At the 96th Academy Awards ceremony, it won

4896-568: The Monsters! (1956), which he grew up watching. Spielberg described Godzilla as "the most masterful of all the dinosaur movies because it made you believe it was really happening." Godzilla also influenced the Spielberg film Jaws (1975). Godzilla has also been cited as an inspiration by filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton . A carnivorous dinosaur from the Triassic period

4998-627: The Rarebit Fiend . The 1925 film The Lost World (adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle 's 1912 novel of the same name ), featured many dinosaurs, including a brontosaurus that breaks loose in London and destroys Tower Bridge . The dinosaurs of The Lost World were animated by pioneering stop motion techniques by Willis H. O'Brien , who would some years later animate the giant gorilla-like creature breaking loose in New York City in

5100-653: The Toho films, with the actors' heads being located in the monster's neck region and the facial movements controlled via animatronics. However, because of the creature's horizontal posture, the stuntmen had to wear metal leg extenders, which allowed them to stand two metres (six feet) off the ground with their feet bent forward. The film's special effects crew also built a 1 ⁄ 6 scale animatronic Godzilla for close-up scenes, whose size outmatched that of Stan Winston 's T. rex in Jurassic Park . Kurt Carley performed

5202-763: The United Kingdom and the Cloverfield monster of the United States. Dakosaurus is an extinct sea crocodile of the Jurassic Period , which researchers informally nicknamed "Godzilla". Paleontologists have written tongue-in-cheek speculative articles about Godzilla's biology, with Kenneth Carpenter tentatively classifying it as a ceratosaur based on its skull shape, four-fingered hands, and dorsal scutes and paleontologist Darren Naish expressing skepticism, while commenting on Godzilla's unusual morphology. Godzilla's ubiquity in pop culture has led to

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5304-436: The award. Godzilla is one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese popular culture worldwide and remains an important facet of Japanese films, embodying the kaiju subset of the tokusatsu genre. Godzilla's vaguely humanoid appearance and strained, lumbering movements endeared it to Japanese audiences, who could relate to Godzilla as a sympathetic character, despite its wrathful nature. Audiences respond positively to

5406-405: The back. In the original film, the plates were added for purely aesthetic purposes, in order to further differentiate Godzilla from any other living or extinct creature. Godzilla is sometimes depicted as green in comics, cartoons, and movie posters, but the costumes used in the movies were usually painted charcoal gray with bone-white dorsal plates up until the film Godzilla 2000: Millennium . In

5508-502: The beginning of one word may be followed by the beginning of another: Some linguists do not regard beginning+beginning concatenations as blends, instead calling them complex clippings, clipping compounds or clipped compounds . Unusually in English, the end of one word may be followed by the end of another: A splinter of one word may replace part of another, as in three coined by Lewis Carroll in " Jabberwocky ": They are sometimes termed intercalative blends; these words are among

5610-538: The best known Seijin in the genre can be found in the Ultra Series , such as Alien Baltan from Ultraman , a race of cicada-like aliens who have gone on to become one of the franchise's most enduring and recurring characters other than the Ultras themselves. Toho has produced a variety of kaiju films over the years (many of which feature Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra), but other Japanese studios contributed to

5712-573: The character because it acts out of rage and self-preservation and shows where science and technology can go wrong. In 1967, the Keukdong Entertainment Company of South Korea, with production assistance from Toei Company , produced Yongary, Monster from the Deep , a reptilian monster who invades South Korea to consume oil. The film and character has often been branded as an imitation of Godzilla. Godzilla has been considered

5814-552: The character, eventually making Godzilla as tall as 100 m (328 ft). This was done so that it would not be dwarfed by the newer, bigger buildings in Tokyo's skyline, such as the 243-metre-tall (797 ft) Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building which Godzilla destroyed in the film Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991). Supplementary information, such as character profiles, would also depict Godzilla as weighing between 20,000 and 60,000 metric tons (22,050 and 66,140 short tons). In

5916-447: The collective subcategory Ultra-Kaiju (Urutora-Kaijū) is a separate strata of kaijū that specifically originates in the long-running Ultra Series franchise but can also be referred to simply by kaijū . As a noun , kaijū is an invariant , as both the singular and the plural expressions are identical. ( 怪人 lit. "Strange person") refers to distorted human beings or humanoid-like creatures. The origin of kaijin goes back to

6018-412: The context of the Japanese films, Godzilla's exact origins vary, but it is generally depicted as an enormous, violent, prehistoric sea monster awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation. Although the specific details of Godzilla's appearance have varied slightly over the years, the overall impression has remained consistent. Inspired by the fictional Rhedosaurus created by animator Ray Harryhausen for

6120-400: The creation of numerous parodies and tributes, as seen in media such as Bambi Meets Godzilla , which was ranked as one of the "50 greatest cartoons", two episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and the song " Godzilla " by Blue Öyster Cult . Godzilla has also been used in advertisements, such as in a commercial for Nike , where Godzilla lost an oversized one-on-one game of basketball to

6222-430: The creature's head. The Cybot Godzilla consisted of a hydraulically powered mechanical endoskeleton covered in urethane skin containing 3,000 computer operated parts which permitted it to tilt its head and move its lips and arms. In Godzilla (1998), special effects artist Patrick Tatopoulos was instructed to redesign Godzilla as an incredibly fast runner. At one point, it was planned to use motion capture from

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6324-484: The early 20th Century Japanese literature, starting with Edogawa Rampo 's 1936 novel, The Fiend with Twenty Faces . The story introduced Edogawa's master detective, Kogoro Akechi 's arch-nemesis, the eponymous "Fiend", a mysterious master of disguise, whose real face was unknown; the Moriarty to Akechi's Sherlock . Catching the public's imagination, many such literary and movie (and later television) villains took on

6426-549: The employee was Amikura. However, Honda's widow Kimi dismissed the employee-name story as a tall tale in a 1998 BBC documentary on Godzilla, believing that Honda, Tanaka, and Tsuburaya gave "considerable thought" to the name of the monster, stating, "the backstage boys at Toho loved to joke around with tall stories, but I don't believe that one". Honda's longtime assistant director Kōji Kajita  [ ja ] added: "Those of us who were closest to them don't even know how and why they came up with Gojira ." Toho later translated

6528-422: The film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms , Godzilla's character design was conceived as that of an amphibious reptilian monster based around the loose concept of a dinosaur with an erect standing posture, scaly skin, an anthropomorphic torso with muscular arms, lobed bony plates along its back and tail, and a furrowed brow. Art director Akira Watanabe combined attributes of a Tyrannosaurus , an Iguanodon ,

6630-492: The films by an actor wearing a latex costume , though the character has also been rendered in animatronic , stop-motion and computer-generated form. Taking inspiration from King Kong , special effects artist Eiji Tsuburaya had initially wanted Godzilla to be portrayed via stop-motion, but prohibitive deadlines and a lack of experienced animators in Japan at the time made suitmation more practical. The first suit, weighing in excess of 100 kg (220 lb), consisted of

6732-599: The final syllable ר- -ár apparently facilitated nativization since it was regarded as the Hebrew suffix ר- -år (probably of Persian pedigree), which usually refers to craftsmen and professionals, for instance as in Mendele Mocher Sforim 's coinage סמרטוטר smartutár 'rag-dealer'." Blending may occur with an error in lexical selection , the process by which a speaker uses his semantic knowledge to choose words. Lewis Carroll's explanation, which gave rise to

6834-482: The genre by producing films and shows of their own: Daiei Film ( Kadokawa Pictures ), Tsuburaya Productions , and Shochiku and Nikkatsu Studios. Eiji Tsuburaya , who was in charge of the special effects for Godzilla , developed a technique to animate the kaiju that became known colloquially as " suitmation ". Where Western monster movies often used stop motion to animate the monsters, Tsubaraya decided to attempt to create suits, called " creature suits ", for

6936-427: The illusion of great size. In the original 1954 film , Godzilla was scaled to be 50 m (164 ft) tall. This was done so Godzilla could just peer over the largest buildings in Tokyo at the time. In the 1956 American version , Godzilla is estimated to be 121.9 m (400 ft) tall, because producer Joseph E. Levine felt that 50 m did not sound "powerful enough". As the series progressed, Toho would rescale

7038-403: The ingredients is the head and the other is attributive. A porta-light is a portable light, not a 'light-emitting' or light portability; light is the head. A snobject is a snobbery-satisfying object and not an objective or other kind of snob; object is the head. As is also true for (conventional, non-blend) attributive compounds (among which bathroom , for example, is a kind of room, not

7140-462: The initial 1954 entry in the Godzilla franchise , has manifested all of these aspects. Other examples of kaiju include Rodan , Mothra , King Ghidorah , Anguirus , King Kong , Gamera , Gappa , Guilala , and Yonggary . There are also subcategories including Mecha Kaiju (Meka-Kaijū), featuring mechanical or cybernetic characters, including Moguera , Mechani-Kong , Mechagodzilla , and Gigan , which are an offshoot of kaiju . Likewise,

7242-445: The legs from the suits' steel wire reinforcements wearing through the rubber padding. The ventilation problem was partially solved in the suit used in 1994's Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla , which was the first to include an air duct that allowed suit actors to last longer during performances. In The Return of Godzilla (1984), some scenes made use of a 16-foot high robotic Godzilla (dubbed the "Cybot Godzilla") for use in close-up shots of

7344-536: The mantle of kaijin . To be clear, kaijin is not an offshoot of kaiju . The first-ever kaijin that appeared on film was The Great Buddha Arrival a lost film, made in 1934. After the Pacific War , the term was modernized when it was adopted to describe the bizarre, genetically engineered and cybernetically enhanced evil humanoid spawn conceived for the Kamen Rider Series in 1971. This created

7446-454: The mistaken assumption that the character is in the public domain , resulting in litigation by Toho to protect their corporate asset from becoming a generic trademark . In April 2008, Subway depicted a giant monster in a commercial for their Five Dollar Footlongs sandwich promotion. Toho filed a lawsuit against Subway for using the character without permission, demanding $ 150,000 in compensation. In February 2011, Toho sued Honda for depicting

7548-437: The monster Anguirus . From The Return of Godzilla (1984) to Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991), Godzilla was given a deeper and more threatening-sounding roar than in previous films, though this change was reverted from Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) onward. For the 2014 American film, sound editors Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl refused to disclose the source of the sounds used for their Godzilla's roar. Aadahl described

7650-406: The monster Godzilla. Godzilla initially had commercial success in Japan, inspiring other kaiju movies. The term kaijū translates literally as "strange beast". Kaiju can be antagonistic , protagonistic , or a neutral force of nature , but are more specifically preternatural creatures of divine power. They are not merely "big animals". Godzilla , for example, from its first appearance in

7752-582: The monster is referred to as a male and is depicted laying eggs through parthenogenesis . In the Legendary Godzilla films, Godzilla is referred to as a male. Godzilla's allegiance and motivations, as well as its level of intelligence, have changed from film to film to suit the needs of the story. Although Godzilla does not like humans, it will fight alongside humanity against common threats. However, it makes no special effort to protect human life or property and will turn against its human allies on

7854-475: The monster's Japanese name as "Godzilla" for overseas distribution. The first recorded foreign usage of "Godzilla" was printed in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald on November 20, 1955. During the development of the American version of Godzilla Raids Again (1955), Godzilla's name was changed to "Gigantis" by producer Paul Schreibman, who wanted to create a character distinct from Godzilla. Within

7956-439: The morphemes or phonemes stay in the same position within the syllable. Some languages, like Japanese , encourage the shortening and merging of borrowed foreign words (as in gairaigo ), because they are long or difficult to pronounce in the target language. For example, karaoke , a combination of the Japanese word kara (meaning empty ) and the clipped form oke of the English loanword "orchestra" (J. ōkesutora , オーケストラ ),

8058-495: The original "portmanteaus" for which this meaning of the word was created. In a partial blend, one entire word is concatenated with a splinter from another. Some linguists do not recognize these as blends. An entire word may be followed by a splinter: A splinter may be followed by an entire word: An entire word may replace part of another: These have also been called sandwich words, and classed among intercalative blends. (When two words are combined in their entirety,

8160-415: The original Japanese films, Godzilla and all the other monsters are referred to with gender-neutral pronouns equivalent to "it", while in the English dubbed versions, Godzilla is explicitly described as a male. In his book, Godzilla co-creator Tomoyuki Tanaka suggested that the monster was probably male; but also suggested that the original 1954 version could have been female. In the 1998 film Godzilla ,

8262-619: The production of the Ultraman franchise. Ray Bradbury 's short story published in the Saturday Evening Post, June 23, 1951 " The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms " served as the basis for the film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), featuring a fictional dinosaur (animated by Ray Harryhausen ), which is released from its frozen, hibernating state by an atomic bomb test within the Arctic Circle . The American movie

8364-497: The reduction in Godzilla's number of toes and the removal of the character's external ears and prominent fangs, features which would all later be reincorporated in the Godzilla designs from The Return of Godzilla (1984) onward. The most consistent Godzilla design was maintained from Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) to Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995), when the suit was given a cat-like face and double rows of teeth. Several suit actors had difficulties in performing as Godzilla due to

8466-453: The result is considered a compound word rather than a blend. For example, bagpipe is a compound, not a blend, of bag and pipe. ) Morphologically, blends fall into two kinds: overlapping and non-overlapping . Overlapping blends are those for which the ingredients' consonants, vowels or even syllables overlap to some extent. The overlap can be of different kinds. These are also called haplologic blends. There may be an overlap that

8568-610: The southernmost Japanese island, is named the Godzilla Megamullion . The Japan Coast Guard played a role in name, reaching an agreement with Toho. Toho's Chief Godzilla officer Keiji Ota stated that "I am truly honored that (the megamullion) bears Godzilla's name, the Earth's most powerful monster." In a 2007 interview, Japanese defense minister Shigeru Ishiba said that he would mobilize the Japan Self-Defense Forces in response to an appearance by Godzilla. In April 2015,

8670-567: The suitmation sequences for the adult Godzilla. In Godzilla (2014), the character was portrayed entirely via CGI. Godzilla's design in the reboot was intended to stay true to that of the original series, though the film's special effects team strove to make the monster "more dynamic than a guy in a big rubber suit." To create a CG version of Godzilla, the Moving Picture Company (MPC) studied various animals such as bears, Komodo dragons , lizards, lions and wolves , which helped

8772-411: The suits' weight, lack of ventilation and diminished visibility. Haruo Nakajima , who portrayed Godzilla from 1954 to 1972, said the materials used to make the 1954 suit (rubber, plastic, cotton, and latex) were hard to find after World War II . The suit weighed 100 kilograms after its completion and required two men to help Nakajima put it on. When he first put it on, he sweated so heavily that his shirt

8874-774: The term daikaiju in the 20th Century was in the publicity materials for the original 1954 release of Godzilla . Specifically, in the subtitle on the original movie poster, Suibaku Daikaiju Eiga ( 水爆大怪獣映画 ), lit. "H-Bomb Giant Monster Movie". Gamera, the Giant Monster , the first film of the Gamera franchise in 1965, also utilized the term where the Japanese title of the film is Daikaijū Gamera ( 大怪獣ガメラ ). Seijin ( 星人 lit. "star people"), appears within Japanese words for extraterrestrial aliens, such as Kaseijin ( 火星人 ), which means " Martian ". Aliens can also be called uchūjin ( 宇宙人 ) which means "spacemen". Among

8976-484: The then-common type of luggage , which opens into two equal parts: You see it's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word. In his introduction to his 1876 poem The Hunting of the Snark , Carroll again uses portmanteau when discussing lexical selection: Humpty Dumpty's theory, of two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all. For instance, take

9078-428: The two syllables of the roar as representing two different emotional reactions, with the first expressing fury and the second conveying the character's soul. Godzilla's size is inconsistent, changing from film to film and even from scene to scene for the sake of artistic license. The miniature sets and costumes were typically built at a 1 ⁄ 25 – 1 ⁄ 50 scale and filmed at 240 frames per second to create

9180-462: The two words "fuming" and "furious". Make up your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first … if you have the rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say "frumious". In then-contemporary English, a portmanteau was a suitcase that opened into two equal sections. According to the OED Online , a portmanteau is a "case or bag for carrying clothing and other belongings when travelling; (originally) one of

9282-429: The universe created by the films. Although the process of creating Godzilla's first film is comprehensively recorded, exactly how its name came to be remains unclear. The most widely accepted report of its origin is that producer Tomoyuki Tanaka named the monster after sturdy Toho worker Shirō Amikura, the later chief of the theater club of Toho, who was jokingly dubbed " Gujira " ( グジラ ) then " Gojira " ( ゴジラ ) ,

9384-406: The use of 'portmanteau' for such combinations, was: Humpty Dumpty's theory, of two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all. For instance, take the two words "fuming" and "furious." Make up your mind that you will say both words ... you will say "frumious." The errors are based on similarity of meanings, rather than phonological similarities, and

9486-466: The visual effects artists visualize Godzilla's body structure, like that of its underlying bone, fat and muscle structure, as well as the thickness and texture of its scales. Motion capture was also used for some of Godzilla's movements. T. J. Storm provided the performance capture for Godzilla by wearing sensors in front of a green screen. Storm reprised the role of Godzilla in Godzilla: King of

9588-542: The whole of the shorter ingredient, as in then the effect depends on orthography alone. (They are also called orthographic blends. ) An orthographic overlap need not also be phonological: For some linguists, an overlap is a condition for a blend. Non-overlapping blends (also called substitution blends) have no overlap, whether phonological or orthographic: Morphosemantically, blends fall into two kinds: attributive and coordinate . Attributive blends (also called syntactic or telescope blends) are those in which one of

9690-399: Was a black belt in judo and used his expertise to choreograph the battle sequences. Godzilla is amphibious : it has a preference for traversing Earth's hydrosphere when in hibernation or migration, can breathe underwater due to pore-shaped gills and is described in the original film by the character Dr. Yamane as a transitional form between a marine and a terrestrial reptile. Godzilla

9792-417: Was accepted on Godzilla's behalf by a Toho executive. Reporters noted that Shinjuku's ward has been flattened by Godzilla in three Toho movies. Kaiju Godzilla (1954) is often regarded as the first kaiju movie. When developing it, Honda and Tsuburaya drew inspiration from the character of King Kong , both in its influential 1933 film and in the conception of a giant monster, establishing it as

9894-1001: Was also voted the most popular movie monster in The Monster Times poll in 1973, beating Count Dracula , King Kong , the Wolf Man , the Mummy , the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Frankenstein Monster . In 1996, Godzilla received the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award , as well as being given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004 to celebrate the premiere of the character's 50th anniversary film, Godzilla: Final Wars . Godzilla's pop-cultural impact has led to

9996-487: Was made even taller than the Legendary version, at 118.5 m (389 ft). In Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017), Godzilla's height was increased further still to 300 m (984 ft). In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), Godzilla's height was increased to 119.8 m (393 ft) from the 2014 incarnation. Godzilla's appearance has traditionally been portrayed in

10098-558: Was named Gojirasaurus in 1997 . The main-belt asteroid 101781 Gojira , discovered by American astronomer Roy Tucker at the Goodricke-Pigott Observatory in 1999, was named in honor of the creature. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on July 11, 2018 ( M.P.C. 110635 ). The largest megamullion , located 600 kilometers to the south-east of Okinotorishima ,

10200-502: Was referred to as kaijū . It is worthy to note that in the Meiji era , Jules Verne ’s works were introduced to the Japanese public, achieving great success around 1890. Genre elements were present at the end of Winsor McCay 's 1921 animated short The Pet in which a mysterious giant animal starts destroying the city, until it is countered by a massive airstrike . It was based on a 1905 episode of McCay's comic strip series Dreams of

10302-567: Was released in Japan in 1954 under the title The Atomic Kaiju Appears , marking the first use of the genre's name in a film title. However, Godzilla , released in 1954, is commonly regarded as the first Japanese kaiju film. Tomoyuki Tanaka , a producer for Toho Studios in Tokyo, needed a film to release after his previous project was halted. Seeing how well the Hollywood giant monster movie genre films King Kong and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms had done in Japanese box offices, and himself

10404-407: Was soaked within seconds. Kenpachiro Satsuma in particular, who portrayed Godzilla from 1984 to 1995, described how the Godzilla suits he wore were even heavier and hotter than their predecessors because of the incorporation of animatronics. Satsuma himself suffered numerous medical issues during his tenure, including oxygen deprivation , near-drowning, concussions, electric shocks and lacerations to

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