Godzilla Movie Directors Agree That Godzilla Is Basically A Giant Cat
BY BILL BRIA/MARCH 18, 2024 8:00 AM EST
Ever since his introduction in 1954, Godzilla has been described in various ways. There's Showa-era Godzilla, Heisei-era Godzilla and Millennium Godzilla as well as Sexy Sporty Godzilla from 1998 Roland Emmerich Godzilla being called that term), King of Monsters or MonsterVerse Godzilla/Big G. While comparisons to various species throughout his 70-year career exist for this monster; generally they refer to it either as being giant dinosaur or overgrown lizard-like.
Godzilla was previously not frequently associated with cat-like characteristics. Thanks to the directors of "Godzilla Minus One" and its sequel "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire," that's no longer the case. Special effects technology has advanced exponentially during his 25-plus year lifespan; at one time Godzilla would be performed by humans wearing suits such as Haruo Nakajima in Showa-era films but now comes alive via computer generated imagery with much greater physicality that includes animalistic movements and animal-esque qualities than before!
Directors Takashi Yamazaki ("Godzilla Minus One") and Adam Wingard ("Godzilla x Kong") took great advantage of being able to model the characters after their cats; doing this allowed for far more feline behaviors from Godzilla than before!
Wingard's cat is responsible for one of the coolest visuals in Godzilla x Kong
Recently I had the privilege of viewing an early screening of "Godzilla x Kong" at IMAX headquarters in California; during which Wingard gave an in-depth introduction and tour through his "war room", with concept art, preliminary mockups and other materials related to film making. "Godzilla x Kong" marks an evolution within the MonsterVerse from 2014's "Godzilla", in which Godzilla was deliberately kept at bay visually, towards becoming an Americanized version of classic Showa-era kaiju films. That is to say that "Godzilla x Kong" showcases monsters or Titans as its stars; making it both visually striking with such variety among its designs for these Titans as well as impressively dialogue-free with monsters communicating via nonverbal communication methods such as using body language instead of spoken dialogue.
Wingard explained at the event that many of his decisions regarding Godzilla's demeanor in the movie came from his pet cat:
Between cat-Godzilla taking a nap in the Colosseum, Kong going ape inside Hollow Earth, and the other Titans bringing a variety of new nature-inspired movements to the film, "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" often feels like attending the nature preserve of your wildest fantasies.
You can check out the menagerie for yourself when the film opens on March 29, 2024.