An Infamous Box Office Flop Led To The Most Underrated Godzilla Show

When Godzilla hit theaters in 1998, it quickly became apparent that something had gone very wrong in Sony’s new blockbuster scheme. Its domestic gross fell below expectations, reviews were tepid, and the one aspect that was clearly built to be a hole-in-one — its titanic special effects — couldn’t avoid negative comparisons to what Steven Spielberg had done with his Jurassic Park flicks. The merchandising bonanza that was meant to come in its wake fell apart soon after, and so, too, did the hope of sequels. When the dust cleared, all that was really left behind was a cartoon spinoff, one that aired on Fox Kids with the title Godzilla: The Series.

But, 25 years after its last new episode appeared on TV, Godzilla: The Series is by far the best piece of this franchising puzzle. Reframing Sony’s failed effort into a global monster-battling adventure, it gave Godzilla a tale that the King of the Monsters deserved.

Nowadays, with Legendary Pictures/Warner Bros.’ MonsterVerse pumping out Godzilla vs Kong flicks with no sign of stopping, the ambition of the 1998 Godzilla has become a little clouded. But the mega-company behind it was absolutely certain of its success, so much so that the film ended with a scene of a Baby Godzilla exploding triumphantly out of its egg to tease a sequel. There’s no telling how a Godzilla 2 would’ve been treated (Sony would snuff out any hope for it), but Godzilla: The Series picks up immediately after that point. The first episode begins with an abridged, animated look at the original monster’s demise before taking us to the sewers where the film’s main character Nick Tatapoulos (played with clumsy nerdiness in the movie by Matthew Broderick, but he’s quite a bit more action-ready here) finds the infant.

The monster imprints a bit on Nick before escaping, and when he and his team of scientists meet up with Godzilla Junior again, it’s grown to become enormous. What follows is an international trip in which Godzilla has to protect the world from various monsters, while Nick’s group tries to protect Godzilla from the world. (As it turns out, “He’s not really such a bad guy!” is harder to get across when the guy is almost 20 stories tall.) Unlike the Godzilla of the film that just wanted to find a spot to lay its eggs, Godzilla: The Series has Godzilla in hero mode, while still retaining some of its animalistic qualities. It strikes a balance between unpredictability and empathy with the Big G.

While Godzilla taking on a revolving door of monsters and bad guys is nothing new in the long-running franchise, Godzilla: The Series enlivens the process by granting Godzilla’s enemies the same kind of frenetic wildness. These new beasts range from outsized takes on folklore (Godzilla grapples with both Nessie and Quetzalcoatl) to mutations like a giant, creepy worm in the third episode and an enormous King Cobra in the 15th. The human antagonists are, of course, less memorable, though there are a few cool exceptions, like Nick’s manipulative archnemesis Cameron Winter and Hank, Dale and Bill, a trio of wannabe monster hunters named after characters from Fox’s King of the Hill.

As such, when the series does make obvious nods toward the original Japanese films, it’s special. In a three-part story, a band of aliens revamp the deceased Godzilla’s body with metallic parts to create a MechaGodzilla-esque “Cyber-Godzilla,” and it feels a bit more momentous than if the series had just been checking off a list of classic kaiju like Rodan and Mothra.

Godzilla: The Series was not alone as a cartoon spinoff of a live action film — everything from Men In Black to Starship Troopers to Ghostbusters received one around the same time. It was a pillar of everyone’s franchising plan to pump out an animated series for maximum synergy and demographic reach. But none had to battle back against the reputation of the movie quite like Godzilla: The Series, which makes its quality all the more impressive. Unlike the belabored film, which undercuts the efficacy of Godzilla in an appeal to droll ‘90s cynicism, Godzilla: The Series realizes that the creature doesn’t need all that much tinkering to work. Embrace the spectacle with sincerity and you’ll find that, whether you aim for nuclear fear or slam-bang monster wrestling, Godzilla is quite adaptable.

Godzilla: The Series would last for two seasons and become the center of its own universe along the way. Two Game Boy titles based on the game were released, and while neither are classics, it's hard to complain, considering Godzilla video games tend to appear like an oasis in a cultural desert. Nowadays, the cartoon can be viewed entirely without the weight of the 1998 film attached, and it’s arguably better that way. It allows this version to hit the ground stomping, a confident rendition of a classic monster that understood that things are better when you just let Godzilla be Godzilla.