Giant people movies
March 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Monsters vs. Aliens spoofs a lot of 1950s monsters and alien invasion movies, but the main character Ginormica is a nod to Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
I was thinking about all the movies where someone grows to enormous size. For the purposes of this list, I’m limiting it to the 20th-century person gets radiation / zapped by an alien / eats food with a weird chemical in it / etc. genre. No Norse giants or denizens from Gulliver’s Travels need apply!
THE CYCLOPS (1957). Test pilot crashes in Mexico and grows to enormous size due to radioactivity.
THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957). Was done on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000.
ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1958). I’ve never seen it, but several people have told me that, alas, the movie does not live up to the fantastic poster.
WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST (1958, AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN sequel, although it has the actor Duncan Parkin from THE CYCLOPS rather than Glenn Langan from AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN. Was done on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000.
THE 30 FOOT BRIDE OF CANDY ROCK (1959). Lou Costello’s last movie, and the only one he made without Bud Abbott.
VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS (1965). Was done on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000.
HONEY, I BLEW UP THE KID (1992)
ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. WOMAN (1993 remake)
ATTACK OF THE 60 FOOT CENTERFOLD (1995).
Dai-Nipponjin (BIG MAN JAPAN) (2007). YouTube.
Also, I remember various VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA episodes where somebody would get Real Big and wrestle the 7-foot model of the Seaview in a swimming pool or something. And I’ve never seen that other Irwin Allen show LAND OF THE GIANTS, but, judging from the lunchboxes I remember other kids having, there must have been giants aplenty.
Can you think of other giant people movies?
Popularity: 43% [?]
Monsters vs. Aliens
March 27, 2009 | 1 Comment
In the 1950s, monster movies were all the rage. Fears of the atomic bomb, chemicals in our food, science run amok, all led to movies like Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Blob, The Fly, The Creature From The Black Lagoon, and the various Japanese giant monster imports (Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera, etc.).
Then came the alien invasion movies. The War of the Worlds. The Day The Earth Stood Still. Earth vs. The Flying Saucers. And the Topps trading cards Mars Attacks!
This 3-D animated movie asks, what if all of those movies were dropped into a blender? What if all those monsters existed in the same world, like a kid’s version of Alan Moore’s LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN? A League of Extraordinary Monsters, if you will.
Enter Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon), an ordinary young woman who has the misfortune to be hit by a radioactive meteorite right before her wedding. She quickly grows to a great height (49 feet 11 inches, so she’s NOT a fifty-foot woman!). She stomps through her wedding like Bridezilla, and soon government black helicopters are surrounding her, and they’ve got a big tranquilizing dart just for the occasion.
She wakes up in a secret Area 51-ish government base, which is effectively a prison for an oddball crew of Earth-spawned monsters: B.O.B., a good-natured, dimwitted gelatinous mass (Seth Rogen). Dr. Cockroach, a mad scientist who combined cockroach DNA into his own (Hugh Laurie). The Missing Link, a fish-ape hybrid (Will Arnett). And Insectosaurus, a 350-foot monster caught stomping Tokyo.
They’re all pretty cuddly, and surprisingly not very upset about being incarcerated in a secret government prison for decades.
The general in charge of the operation (Kiefer Sutherland) informs Susan that she will now be known as Ginormica. But, since she’ll be kept locked away, she won’t get much chance to use her new moniker.
Things change however when an alien invasion starts, led by Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson), and his alien clone army. An Attack of the Clones, if you will.
The government calls on the Earth monsters to win one for the home planet.
What follows is an epic battle in San Francisco culminating on the Golden Gate Bridge (Shades of the Ray Harryhausen movie It Came From Beneath The Sea with the giant octopus attacking the Golden Gate Bridge).
Then Susan gets abducted aboard a UFO because the head alien wants the radioactive stuff that made her big, and her new-found Earth monster pals have to try to rescue her.
Dreamworks made this, and it has the directors of Shrek 2 and Fish Tale. This is a better movie than either of those, however.
Rounding out the voice talents are Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd, and Amy Poehler.
It claims to be the first animated movie completely in 3-D (I thought Fly Me To The Moon was also claiming that title). The 3-D is good, no doubt about it.
This is a fun time; nothing here that isn’t suitable for kids, but plenty that adults can laugh at, particularly if you’re a fan of those old 1950s monster movies. And the alien invasion is more like what the movie Mars Attacks! should have been.
Popularity: 64% [?]
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