Entertainment
 

Gamera vs Barugon

From MST3K

304-Gamera vs Barugon
Air Date June 22, 1991
AKA War of the Monsters
Movie Director Shigeo Tanaka
Year 1966
Cast Kojiro Hongo, Kyôko Enami, Koji Fujiyama, Akira Natsuki
Preceded by 303-Pod People
Followed by 305-Stranded in Space

Contents

The Movie

Synopsis

Gamera is back, having been released from the “Plan Z” spaceship by an errant meteor. Meanwhile, three treasure hunters travel to a remote island in the South Pacific in search of what they believe to be a huge opal. Of course, they ignore the natives' warnings about the perils inherent in seeking treasure, and one of the guys schemes to let his comrades 'accidentally' die so he can have the treasure all for himself. On his voyage back home, the evil guy inadvertantly exposes the opal to infrared rays, causing the 'opal' (which turns out is really a monster egg) to hatch. Just as the ship reaches port, Barugon, a lizard-dog monster, emerges and quickly grows to giant size. The monster immediately causes widespread destruction, trampling people and buildings, attacking with his battering-ram tongue - spitting frozen liquid nitrogen - and his deathly energy ray. Meanwhile, the evil guy goes on a bit a of killing spree, though almost no one notices because of all the monster-caused chaos. Gamera soon appears, attracted by the heat of Barugon's ray. Barugon freezes Gamera and resumes his spree of devastation. Meanwhile, a nice treasure hunter guy (who was left for dead) and an island native girl show up, battle the evil guy, and work with the military on ideas to destroy Barugon. They use a giant diamond from the girl’s homeland in an attempt to lure Barugon into Lake Biwa. The plan is only partially successful - Barugon is merely stunned on the lakeshore. (On the plus side, he does kill the evil dude - with his tongue!) All seems lost, until Gamera miraculously thaws. The flying turtle hero tosses Barugon into the lake, killing him. In the end, has Gamera decided to befriend mankind, or did he simply feel Japan wasn’t big enough for two giant monsters?

Information

Daiei Studios based their monster Barugon on rival Toho’s Baragon, which appeared in “Frankenstein Conquers the World,” released just a year earlier. The two monsters are somewhat similar looking, with similar names, but they are not supposed to be the same monster.

Gamera vs. Barugon is the only Gamera movie that doesn’t feature annoying Japanese children with level 5 security clearance gadding about in tiny short pants.

See also Episode K04

The Episode

Host Segments

Prologue: The Bots continue the age-old debate: PC or Mac?

Segment One (Invention Exchange): Joel presents an animatronic soda can for public service announcements, while the Mads boogie down with the Disco Cumber-Bubble-Bund (quite similar to their experiment from episode 107 - Robot Monster )

Segment Two: Joel and the Bots have a blast with the 5000-piece fightin' men & monster set!

Segment Three: Crow and Tom are midwestern monster women having dinner at T.G.I. Tokyo's.

Segment Four: Joel talks about going to the Drive-In, identifies the "famous" faces in Gamera vs Barugon and vapor locks yet again.

Segment Five: The Bots lament the lack of Gamera, Joel informs them of the behind-the-scenes books on the film, and a letter is read.

Stinger: The doomed treasure seeker freaks out big time, at first with joy, then with pain and terror, as he is bitten by a deadly poisonous scorpion

Obscure References

  • Crow can be seen reading Byte magazine in the opening host segment.
  • "Has anyone seen the mouse for my Amiga?"

Amiga was a line of computers made by the now-defunct Commodore company, which still have a devoted following to this day despite never being as popular as PCs or Macs.

  • "Shaken not stirred, please." -Tom Servo.

Servo quotes the fictional character James Bond, who often orders a martini in this manner.

  • "Saigon... I can't believe I'm still in Saigon..." -Crow T. Robot.

Crow quotes a line from Apocalypse Now.

  • "Hey! Jake and Elwood!" -Joel.

Joel mistakes two of the characters in the film for Jake and Elwood Blues from the Blues Brothers (due to their matching hats and glasses).

  • "Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit..."

A line sung by Elmer Fudd in the 1957 cartoon What's Opera, Doc?.

  • "You mean like Chuck Mangione?"

Chuck Mangione is a flugelhorn player best known for his 1978 jazz-pop single "Feels So Good".

  • "Get the KC Masterpiece sauce!"

KC Masterpiece is a brand of barbecue sauce.

  • "I can't believe Gamera ate the whole thing."

Joel is parodying "I can't believe I ate the whole thing", a quote from a 1970s Alka-Seltzer commercial.

  • "He had a contract with Wham-O."

The Wham-O toy company is best known for manufacturing Frisbees.

  • "And now, back to our film: 'Sky King: The Motion Picture'."

A reference to the radio and TV show Sky King.

  • "Come on, play it like you feel it, Mister Eddie's Father!"

Joel is imitating Mrs. Livingston, the Japanese housekeeper from The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

  • "And now, it's Pink Lady Unplugged!"

Pink Lady was a Japanese pop music duo from the late 1970s and early '80s.

  • "Don't mention the war!"

Servo is quoting John Cleese's observation about German tourists from his mid-1970s sitcom Fawlty Towers.

  • "With Crutch Cargo!"

A reference to the low-budget 1960s animated series Clutch Cargo.

  • "For God's sake, don't bungle!" "In the jungle!"

A reference to the Jethro Tull song "Bungle in the Jungle".

  • "Be careful of the scorpions!" "And Whitesnake!"

Scorpions and Whitesnake are heavy metal bands.

  • "What, did somebody drop a Coke bottle all of a sudden?"

A reference to the 1981 movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, in which a primitive African tribe is thrown into chaos as the result of a Coca-Cola bottle being dropped from an airplane.

  • "Pat Morita, Denture Wearer!"

Actor Pat Morita is best known for his roles as Arnold on Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid movies.

  • "Marion! Don't look at the light, Marion! Look away!" -Tom Servo.

Servo references Indiana Jones' instructions to Marion Ravenwood when the Ark of the Covenant is opened from the film Raiders of the Lost Ark.


References

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