As it seems a few of the Zehvor wanted to know more about the Mogwai species after I first introduced mine, I will continue to explain them.

The Mogwai were originally created to be ambassadors on other planets. Mogturmen, the creator of the Mogwai, made a series of genetic miscalculations and fewer than one in a thousand came out with the charitable aims built into them. These miscalculations also resulted in their aversion to light and inability to communicate with species other than their own. As said before, the Majority of the Mogwai are best described by the word evil. A Gremlin at heart, a Majority will stop at nothing to pull a few hijinks, become more powerful in the form of a Gremlin, and have a good laugh afterwards. The Minority are gentle and charitable, wish no one any ill, and only want to be loved and cared for responsibly. They will also try to keep less knowledgeable species out of trouble with the Gremlins and are the most wonderful creatures to have for pets, if one abides by the three rules. As also said before, the Minority are eternal for all intents and purposes. If a Minority ate after midnight and became a Gremlin, it would become of the Majority and a typical Gremlin and lose its longevity. There are only three Minority Mogwai (other than Gizmo) on earth, hinting that they were once plentiful.

One strange thing about these creatures is the fact that they cannot kill each other. Any hostile thoughts towards another Mogwai are quickly eradicated before the Mogwai can make sense of them. A Mogwai can hate the other all it wishes, but it cannot lay a hostile hand on it or even wish it harm. This extends to Gremlins as well. (Though in the first film Stripe shoots a Gremlin that was cheating at poker and in the second film the Brain Gremlin shoots a gremlin that was annoying him. As these two are higher-thinking Gremlins, they are able to believe that, I am not killing it, the bullet is actually killing it.) As Mogturmen wanted his creations to be distributed to all worlds, Mogwai are able to adapt to any location with the obvious exceptions such as dead space. Mogwai are also far more intelligent than humans (as they have gain a lot of knowledge over the centuries) and can entertain themselves for hours just by daydreaming. I'll stop here for now and add more if I get any questions. Also, Kpik has asked me if it is possible to tame a Mogwai. Assuming he means the Majority, it may very well be possible as the opposite was done with Earl (a nice Mogwai that was somewhat like Gizmo) when he became mean due to blood tests done on him and lack of love and attention given to him. (It is also implied that the first batch tricked Billy into feeding them after midnight because they were not given nearly the amount of attention Gizzmo was.)

Anyways here are the Mogwai that have appeared in Almost There so far:

Gizmo

Mohawk

Lenny and George

Daffy

Ask me any questions about the Mogwai/Gremlins you may have and I'll be happy to answer them.

-Zehvor Brenmac

O_o someone had a lot of free time on their hands....

Anyways, even with the Gremlin-type creatures, try to keep it in good Aftermath canon(that means no blowing up cities).

-MT

Oh, thanks for telling me Brenmac, , I know that it should be impossible to tame a Gremlin, could it be tried? In Almost There I mean.

Kpik out.

O_o someone had a lot of free time on their hands....

 

Anyways, even with the Gremlin-type creatures, try to keep it in good Aftermath canon(that means no blowing up cities).

 

-MT

Yes, I have a lot of free time on my hands. (Try two months!) I don't know what you mean by "blowing up cites" though.

Oh, thanks for telling me Brenmac, , I know that it should be impossible to tame a Gremlin, could it be tried? In Almost There I mean.

 

Kpik out.

No problem. It could be tried, as it would be interesting to have a Gremlin as an ally.

-Zehvor Brenmac

Thanks. Okay this place has become smiley-vill, but who cares.

Kpik out.

Again, no problem. I'm still looking for some good pictures of the Mogwai in Almost There.

-Zehvor Brenmac

Don't think you'll find many on the internet...lol...

-MT

Thanks for reviving this MT. There are a lot more things I'd like to discuss with you guys. For now let's break away from the Mogwai/Gremlins for I want to review something. A DVD, to be specific. In this case it is the Shout! Factory release of Gamera vs. Barugon (1966).

I'm just going to assume I'm the only Zehvor member that's ever been a fan of Godzilla (or any giant monster, for that matter). While he is a monster loved by many, others, when they think of Godzilla, see fat men in rubber suits either beating each other up or desroying cardborad structures. While the name is known the world over, his serious side and what he originally started out as (a metaphor for the atomic bomb) is not. While I will not deny that can be rather ridiculous at times (Godzilla flying in Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971), for example.), Gamera, to me, is even more so. From outlandish-looking monsters to monsters with even more outlandish powers (Barugon's ability to shoot a rather destructive rainbow out of his back). Add in the fact that children are the main characters most of the time and you've got yourself a rather cringe-worthy film series.

So why do I like Gamera so much? I don't know. I guess I just think of him as another Godzilla. Which, if you haven't guessed already, he sort of is. Released in 1965 by Daiei (A Japanese film company that went into bankruptcy in the early 1980's) to compete with Toho's Godzilla series (by which time already had six films) the original Gamera, The Giant Monster was a hit and so a big-budgeted sequel went straight into production.

And so here we are. When I first saw this film years ago in a DVD boxset titled "Japanese Monster Movies Vol. 1" (With it was the original Gamera, The Giant Monster, Gamera vs Viras (1968), and Gamera vs. Guiron (1969).) I remember the audio and video quality being pretty bad. (For example, until now I didn't know that Gamera was attacking a dam at the beginning of Gamera vs. Barugon!) I watched all four films in one night and never watched them again (so my memories of them are fragmentary at best.). The original Gamera was only one I really liked. However, after seeing it on a new HD transfer on this new release, I can say that Gamera vs. Barugon is my favorite Gamera sequel (before you ask, no, I do not base movies on video/audio quality. I just like it a lot more than I did before.). I plan on reviewing the film at a later time, as this is solely for the recent DVD. Like most DVD reviewers that I've seen, I'll break it down into a few parts: Video, Audio, Extras, and Overall.

Before I begin, here is the synopsis from the DVD back cover(Note: The Z Plan was a plan that involved trapping Gamera in a rocket and sending him off to Mars. It failed, however, when a meteorite crashed into the rocket and released Gamera.):

Freed from the Z Plan capsule, Gamera attacks a dam upon his return to Earth. Meanwhile, a private expedition to retirieve a rare opal in New Guinea unwittingly unleashes the malevolent Barugon. Virtually unstoppable and able to freeze anything in its path, the monstrous lizard turns modern cities into glaciers- until Gamera arrives to challenge the marauder! But even the fire-spitting terrapin becomes trapped in the creature's frozen grip. Can one of the explorers, Keisuke Hirata (Kojiro Hongo, Satan's Sword) and a New Guinea native, Karen (Kyoko Enami, The Woman Gambler) help to defeat Barugon before Japan is plunged into a new Ice Age?

 

Gamera Vs. Barugon, the second entry in Daiei Studios' monster series, was directed by Shigeo Tanaka (The Great Wall) and is more lavish than the original in terms of scale and scope-and shot in spectactular color! Noriki Yuasa (Gamera, The Giant Monster) was charged with helming the visual effects for this outing, and the results are fantastic! For the first time, Shout! Factory presents Gamera vs. Barugon in an all-new HD anamorphic widescreen transfer, in Japanese with English subtitles!

Anyways...

Video-Like I said before, this is an HD transfer of a 44-year-old film, and so the video quality is superb. I actually have a better idea of what's going on than when I first saw the earlier release. The colors are very vibrant this time around (such as the blue flames jutting out of Gamera when he flies and Barugon's purple blood.) Add to that the fact that I watch it on my HD flatscreen TV (even if you don't have one like me, the quality will still be very good.) and the video here is far ahead of the first DVD release. Score:9.5/10

Audio-Like the video, the sound here is much better than the first release, sounding more like a cleaned up audio track and less like a low quality one. I can hear what the people are saying, even if I can't undrstand them. Thankfully, the dialogue is accompanied by permanent English subtitles. Score:9/10

Extras-Other than a few galleries and an audio commentary track by August Ragone and Jason Varney, there's not much in this area. As I don't really care for the galleries, I'll just talk about the commentary here. It's very informative if you want to more about what went on behind the scenes and some of the actors' careers (and I certainly did).The two go off track at time but it doesn't really bother me. My only peeve (abeit a very minor one) about the commentary being that they list the years of same films more than once. I personally believe once is enough. Here a few of my favorite parts from the track:

Like we said before-we warned you that fuse grenades were a bad omen!

But don't worry, he'll get his just desserts later-or does he just become dessert? You decide.

Oh no, August, you didn't just throw out a spoiler did you?

Uhh, I don't know. I'm not tellin'. You'll have to watch the rest of the movie!

It's the monster city defroster!

It turns on all your electricity!

Operators are standing by.

Thank you, thank you, you've been a great audience. We'll be here all week.

Score:8/10

Overall-This is an exellent DVD of Gamera vs. Barugon. I only wish that there were a little more extras on the disc, but the audio commentrary is enough to satisfy me. Overall Score:8/10.

I would highly recommend this film to any fan of Gamera or monster movies in general. On the other hand, avoid ones like Super Monster Gamera (1980) and All Monsters Attack (1969) like the plague.

Soo...any thoughts/comments?

-Zehvor Brenmac