| “ | "I knew that tuna-eating lizard was useless!" | „ |
| ~ -X after this monster is defeated by the original Godzilla in less that twenty seconds (Final Wars) |
Godzilla (ゴジラ Gojira) is the titular main antagonist of the 1998 film Godzilla.
It is the first incarnation of Godzilla to appear in an American-made film, the TriStar Godzilla is very different from previous incarnations of the character, being a mutated iguana rather than a prehistoric creature. His appearance is more reminiscent of modern reconstructions of theropod dinosaurs, and he lacks some of Godzilla's most well-known traits, such as atomic breath and immunity to conventional weaponry. Instead, this Godzilla relies on his speed and animalistic cunning to evade attackers and ambush them rather than fight them head-on.
Its vocal effects are performed by Frank Welker and was suit acted by Kurt Carley in a few scenes of the original film.
What Makes It a Scrappy?[]
- The monster was hated by fans for bearing little to no resemblance to Toho's Godzilla. For starters, his design got many negative comments out of not even trying to look like the original character and looking more like a gigantic iguana. Back in 1997 when the design was leaked, Dean Devlin had to lie they were fake designs out of the poor word of mouth the movie was getting because of it.
- He's considerably weaker than any of the other Godzilla incarnations, lacking his iconic atomic breath and having very poor durability, enough to drop dead after the military deals enough damage.
- He's defeated by 12 missiles being thrown in his way; compare this with the original where they had to create a newer weapon to be able to destroy him and in most Japanese movies, they can only slow him down rather than fully stop him. One veteran Godzilla suit actor even commented that Americans refused to accept a monster that can't be defeated by their arms.
- His origin is also completely changed to a giant mutated iguana originating from a nuclear test in French Polynesia (referencing an issue that is seen as irrelevant nowadays) instead of being a species of dinosaurs awakened by the American hydrogen bomb test which tied directly with the themes of the original movie. In this movie, the origin has no purpose to the character.
- Godzilla also acted less like the invincible force of destruction he usually is and more like a frightened animal who's simply looking for food while hiding from the military and therefore acted nothing like the original character which makes one wonder why they didn't just create a different monster already.
- The changes were made because the creators wanted to create a more realistic Godzilla but as some fans pointed out the fact that Godzilla is something beyond this world is precisely a major part of the character, so some fans feel they're missing the point.
- A lot of his roars are clearly elephant sounds which makes it harder to take him seriously.
- A lot of fans had a hard time feeling sorry for him mourning for his babies considering he's constantly running away for his life instead of looking after them and the music is too exaggeratedly sad to be taken seriously.
- His CGI is also very inconsistent, his lighting is always off, he changes size depending the scene and at one point he steps on a civilian who somehow make it out fine.
Take That, Scrappy[]
- His son in Godzilla: The Series did much better and he was even revived as Cyber-Godzilla which was better received.
- Apparently, the only reason the Millenium era happened was because Toho got so pissed off with the monster that they decided to bring him back to show Americans how it was done.
- He has the shortest fight in his appearance in Final Wars, in this case however, this was purposely made by the creators since they wanted to make fun of the American Godzilla by showing he was no threat to the Real Godzilla.
- The existence of the Millenium era can count as one, as the original plan was to end the Japanese series with Godzilla vs Destoroyah in 1995 and let the American reboot take the reins of the franchise for a while but the poor reception of the movie lead to Toho deciding to continue the franchise to show everyone how to properly handle Godzilla.
- His design served as inspiration for Orga, the main villain of Godzilla 2000, the very first movie since the infamous reboot who is of course defeated by Godzilla.
- In Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Attack! someone makes mention of a monster having attacked New York in 1998 who was confused with Godzilla by the Americans.
- In the same movie, the characters commonly mention that Godzilla can't be defeated by conventional weaponry referencing this monster being easily defeated by missiles.
- The monster appeared in Godzilla: Final Wars as one of the monsters controlled by the Xillens and is the first monster to face the original Godzilla who effortlessly defeats him in less than 20 seconds, being the shortest fight of the whole movie.
- The monster is also rendered with intentionally bad CGI to mock the poor CGI of the original movie (it is also the only monster in the movie who's in CGI).
- X, who was controlling him even shouts "I knew that tuna-eating lizard was useless!" after his defeat (or, in the English dub, "I knew that tuna-head wasn't up to much!").
- Since 2004, the monster was retconned into Toho as Zilla, taking the God out of Godzilla and highlighting how poor of a monster it is in comparison to the real thing.
- This intro for the 2008 Academy Awards Show has cameos of many CGI creatures including the American Godzilla only to be kicked in the face by the 2005's King Kong.[1]
- While in Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, Zilla does give more of a fight, he quickly realizes he doesn't stand a chance against Godzilla and books it the first chance it gets.
Trivia[]
- While still unpopular, his species was saved of being a Scrappy by Godzilla: The Series, where one of Godzilla's sons is shown to be a closer adaptation of the real King of the Monsters and having his Atomic Breath back.
- Toho retconned in his own continuity the monster as a completely different kaiju called Zilla in the comics and that version got better reception but for legal reasons is technically not the Roland Emmerich' Godzilla but a different monster with the same design.
- Before being retconned into Zilla, fans often called him GINO (Godzilla In Name Only), a term coined by film critic Richard Pusateri.
- The three Godzilla suit actors have said in different interviews that they hate this incarnation.
- He is one of 3 variations of Godzilla to be a Scrappy, alongside Godzooky and Minilla.
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 Scrappies
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Zilla | Minilla | Giant Condor | Ichiro Miki | Rokuro Ibuki | Godzooky | Audrey Timmons | Haruo Sakaki | Mechagodzilla | King Ghidorah | ||
 Scrappies
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Animated Films Live-Action Films Other Animated Television Slippin' Jimmy Other Live-Action Television | ||