Growing up in an era before on demand, before streaming, even before the internet you got used to waiting. And being a fan of giant monster movies you had to get you fix any way you could. Even if you had to watch a cartoon based on it.

 

This time around we’re taking a look at the Hanna-Barbera series Godzilla.

 

 

Premiering in 1978 it is a co-production between the legendary Hanna-Barbera Production and Toho. While only two seasons of 13 episodes were produced it lasted three years in various combinations with others Hanna-Barbera shows and on it’s own. And like you would expect it featured Godzilla fighting various monster threats.

 

But the show wasn’t just about him, there was a regular cast of main character too to watch while you waited for the big guy to show up. And they are….

 

Captain Carl Majors – The Captain of the Calico, the ship the crew travels the seas in, he’s your standard 70s era lead male character. You know strong, confident the usual. He also has a device on his belt that could summon Godzilla whenever they needed him. But that’s not there only way to contact the big guy,  I’ll get more into that later.

 

Dr. Quinn Darien – Lead, and only, female cast member and researcher. I don’t believe it’s ever been said what her field of study is, but considering the setting I’m assuming some sort of marine biologist but she did seem to know a lot. But there wasn’t any kind of “tension” shall we say that I could notice between Quinn and Carl, but that’s pretty much standard far for animated shows of this time period to begin with.

 

Brock – I don’t think his last name was ever stated, but essentially he was Quinn’s assistant. And a little extra muscle incase Captain Majors need a hand moving a boulder or something. And he was a capable pilot as well.

 

Pete – Quinn’s nephew, and your basic brainy kid., and really mature for his age. Like most HB adventure show he was rather confident and only occasionally got himself in trouble. Usually because he was trying to keep the last cast member from getting into it.

 

Godzooky – Godzilla’s nephew, or cousin depending on what source you read, and the comedy relief for the kids watching and general annoyance for the crew. He wants to be big and brave like Godzilla but a little too bumbling at this point. But he can also call Godzilla to help when needed. He also has a tendency to get involved in the last big fight between Godzilla and the monster, proving more of an annoyance to Godzilla than a help. And although Godzooky only speaks in “monster” Pete can understand him.

 

Then there’s the setting, well the only real regular setting, the Calico. Primarily a research vessel it can go into hydrofoil mode for faster travel. It also comes equipped with a helicopter, a hovercraft and a diving bell. All of that and it can carry Godzooky, hate to see the fuel cost on that thing.

 

Now you’re probably wondering why Godzilla is following these guys around, showing up whenever he’s needed. Now I don’t remember if it’s ever been said in show, and please correct me if I’m wrong, bu apparently he’s indebted to him. From my research the crew of the Calico rescued Godzooky from a dangerous situation and Godzilla was so grateful he decided to help them out whenever they needed it. Although you think after he saved their lives once the debt would be satisfied, but then there wouldn’t be a show.

 

As for Godzilla himself, well he doesn’t look like he does in the live action movies, although I’m sure that was more for the benefit of the animators. He does have the one set of dorsal fins going done his back. And he can breathe fire, but it’s actual fire not his iconic blue atomic fire breath. As an added bonus he can also shoot laser beams out of his eyes, it’s never explained exactly how he can do this. Godzooky can breathe fire too and he can fly, without turning around and curling into a ball shooting his fire breathing, if you ever seen the Smog Monster you know what I’m talking about. He has these little bat like wings attached to his arm that he flaps like… well a bat. Although with how little these wings are it’s amazing how he can get off the ground considering he’s got some, to use the vernacular, “junk in the trunk”.

 

The basic episode structure goes like this, The crew of the Calico are usually out at seas or coming into a city that has a monster either unknowingly active or just about to awaken. And this is where we usually get our first bit of comedy with Godzooky. Sometimes there’s an immediate threat to the crew or others, such as a giant title wave or a bridge that’s about to collapse, and they call in Godzilla to save the day. At this point I should add that Godzilla is seen as a hero to the world, such as the episode with the bridge collapse a person says “Here comes Godzilla, he’ll save us!”. Now this may seem weird in some ways but this is also after the time period where TOHO had portrayed Godzilla as a super hero, coming in to save the day then leave after the threat was taken care of. Any way the monster shows up and they summon Godzilla to handle it after investigating the monster threat. Now most of the live monsters are taken care of by being contained. None living monster, robots, rock monsters, creature made of mud, they’re taken care of with a little more… well they’re not coming back anytime soon.

 

Now despite being made with TOHO Godzilla is the only kaiju from that legendary film series to appear. So don’t be expecting any fights with Rodan or King Ghidorah. If you watched and Hanna-Barbera adventure cartoon from the 70s the animation is pretty good. And this show is right up there with that standard so that’s always a good thing. Stories are what you would expect from the time period as well, light on message, if any, and more action oriented. But there is a bit more scientific exploration and explanation here with the leads being researchers. And the show was decent for what it was, it was pretty much standard far and no real ground broken. But it was a bit different than the Godzilla most fans were used too. Looking back on it now there have been a couple of times I’ve wondered if Hanna-Barbera had created the show with a random dragon type of creature but he initial design looked enough like Godzilla that they took a shot to see if they could use Godzilla. But it is what it is, and with the various movie time lines I suppose we could say this is just another alternate version in the multiverse.

 

The show, while no longer on television, can still be viewed. As of right now the first season can be bought on DVD in three separate volumes. The first season can also be viewed on Hulu and Netflix. Overall I’ll give it 3 out of 5 stars.