Tippy, oh, tippy.
OK, this film was seen on MST3K. So what? I happen to be a fan of the Gamera and Godzilla movies which is one of the reasons I enjoyed watching Joel and the Bots. Gamera The Invincible was made in 1965, in black and white. While being a Japanese movie it has a lot of inserted scenes for the American, English speaking, viewers. Some of these scenes, such as the television debate between two scientists, are funny because in some ways they reflect true life.
Gamera is a fire eating, flying giant turtle from a time before oxygen was used by life. Of course he wakes up from a million (billion) year old sleep by the explosion of an atomic bomb. Dropped by the evil Russians, of course. Anti-war film, anti-atomic weapons, pro-United Nations, pro-turtles, the film can be seen as a support for or against anything. An oldie buy goodie. The first of eight installments. Only eight? How sad. I think he was just as good as Godzilla.

If you only see one space turtle movie this year...
...make sure it's the one with the brain lusting space girls! But that one is kinda intentionally comic, this is played as straight as a movie about a flying space turtle can be. Minunderstood monster is unleashed from his artic grave when a Soviet fighter is shot down and boom, we get a mushroom cloud. The studio debate between the Gamera-believing mythologist and the skeptical science writer is priceless! "He called me an ape!" "No, I called you an ignorant ape!" Reminds me of the evening talk shows on the cable news fronts...my, how far we've come that the satire still stings. The contrarian Senator brings to mind some of our finest in Washington today, head in the sand all the way. Brian Donlevy makes a convincing general. Writers (and George Lucas) take note...this is how child characters should be scripted for minimum annoyance. And Gamera himself, well, he looks like a man in a rubber turtle costume, but it works all the way to the ending. A unique ending, I might add, saving the Earth *and* leaving the door open for sequels. All in a day's work for...Nizo Takahashi! Doesn't have the same ring as Mighty Mouse *sigh*

I Am Invincible!
A flight of Soviet bombers "accidentally" flies over Alaska. U.S. interceptors shoot one of the planes down, causing a low-yield nuclear explosion. The nuclear explosion wakes a giant prehistoric turtle called Gammera by the local Inuit. Gammera attacks a model ship, flaming it with bad breath for good measure. Fortunately, the crew abandoned ship just in time. What excitement! Did I tell you that this turtle is so cool that it walks on two legs? Clever trick for a turtle.

This movie digresses for a while as Gammera is walking or flying in parts unknown. Various characters, including Brian Donlevy as General Terry Arnold and Albert Dekker as the Secretary of Defense, debate the existence of Gammera. This movie is relatively early in the monster genre because, as any self-respecting scientist of today knows, giant monsters exist and they are nearly all genetically programmed to attack Japan for reasons that scientists have yet to discover. Eventually the scientists and authorities bow to the overwhelming scientific evidence (footprints, sketches by small boys, anonymous phone calls, possibly including one from Kolchak, the Night Stalker) and recognize something must be done about this giant menace!

Gammera rescues a small boy (bless the monster's heart) before going off and frying a bunch of people in a Tokyo apartment building (this is one quirky turtle). To prepare for toasting Tokyo Gammera destroys a geothermal plant and chows down on the flames. I guess Gammera likes hot food. Somewhere around this point in the movie a scientist establishes that (drum roll) Gammera is not like other creatures!

The excitement builds as Gammera lands at a totally cool model airport and then begins to stomp around an excellent model of Tokyo. We catch a bit of a song titled "Gammera" that sounds suspiciously (to me) like the theme from the 1960s television series "Batman." It could be coincidence, or not.

Of course there has to be a plan to deal with Gammera, since all attempts to stop him have failed. Enter Plan Z! Before Plan Z we see model trains and a model laboratory and more models of other stuff, and then we see the Plan Z model. Woo hoo! This stuff is great! Of course, I have to leave the suspense of Plan Z to the viewer to discover.

After the success of "Godzilla," other Japanese studios attempted to capitalize on the monster fad. Modern audiences will find this attempt at giant monster horror more humorous than scary given today's sophisticated special effects. However, the models in the movie are excellent, and the laughs this movie generates for adults is worth a watch. Young children, on the other hand, may find this movie frightening (I know I did way back in the 60s), so just because you may not find the movie frightening, do not assume the little ones won't.

They just don't make movies like this any more. Thank goodness for that!

Gammera the Invincible
Watching this movie is a trip back to my youth. I used to watch these monster movies late at night on the local TV stations. It is sooooo corny that it is good. If a person did not grow up watching these movies they may not like them. But for those of us in the know they are just plain fun to watch. It is nice to see it on DVD.

DUMB!! But really funny in parts.
The first Gamera/Gammera movie with added American actor scenes. I was bored with the story but not the unintentional laughs. There are some real burst-out-laughing BAD dialogue and crazy scenes in this movie. My fav has to be when the Father orders his son to let go his pet turtle and the Father says,"I know it may seem cruel. It is. But it's for your own good". Thanks for the cruelty Dad! Or when they drop an H-bomb in the artic and free a jet propelled turtle from the dinosaur era, "a missing link to the leather back". Huh?? Ah yes back when turtles flew. Or when they drop an H-bomb in the artic and don't bother to tell the Eskimos anything. They just turn to the Chief and say, "Take care Chief" and they walk away. Maybe they should tell him not to go over there? Only he stops them and gives them a rare Eskimo carving dating thousands of years old depicting a giant turtle and some wavy lines. They look at the rock and babble widly at what the wavy lines mean, only they can't figure them out finally one guys says, "Lets ask the Chief" who's been standing there the whole time and he doesn't know. Sometimes we look back at old movies like this and think, "thats not bad for 1965". Until you remember that DOCTOR ZHIVAGO came out in 1965. I mean GAMERA IS BAD!! BUT in all fairness some of the miniature and monster scenes look great especially in black and white, like the attack on the nuclear power plant is very well done. It's the first ("American" version) of Gamera and therefore collectable. The nineties Gamera films are a 100 times better (although they have their problems too) and I would say forget the old Gamera movies and go with the nineties versions but this is the very first one and on Alpha Video its a very cheap way to pick it up. DVD quality is good enough.