After killing off their major cash-cow in 1996's Godzilla Vs. Destroyah, Toho studios weren't prepared to completely let the Kaiju Eiga, or Giant Monster, genre fall into the hands of rival studio Daei, and Columbia Tristar, who now owned the rights to their most famous creation, so in 1996, they also released Mosura, a loose remake of their 1960s movie of the same name.
Of course, by now Mothra, as the monster was known in the West, was now a tad better known, after appearing in a number of Godzilla movies, but had last been seen, in anything but a cameo, in 1992's Godzilla Vs. Mothra. In preparation for their 1990s slew of Godzilla pictures, the company had actually done some research, and discovered that Mothra was their most popular character with female audiences, so I suppose it almost made perfect sense that it would be her who would carry the baton for Toho monsters, even ahead of some of their cooler creations. Given that Mothra was more Fantasy than Science Fiction, this movie also allowed the makers to easily gear it more towards children, an audience the last few Godzilla pictures had not targeted.
And thus, the new Mothra, which seemed to ignore basically every other kaiju movie and start anew(in the English dub anyway, but I'll talk more on this later) was born. Released in the USA as Rebirth of Mothra at the same time as the Heisei Godzilla pictures made their debut in the wake of the Tristar debacle, my review is based on the NTSC VHS copy from this time.

In this movie, Mothra is an old and rather weak beast now living a peaceful life on it's home at Infant Island. It has had many adventures in it's time, and we also learn here that there has been many a Mothra throughout the years, and in a battle that pre-dates humanity, one of the Mothra's defeated an evil monster and sealed it in a cavern using a small metal amulet.

Anyway, when a logging company uncovers the cave, it's boss, who is having problems at home where his wife is complaining about him spending more time at work than with her and the kids, decides to take the seal and make it into a necklace for his daughter Wakaba(Maya Fujisawa).

However, when she recieves it and he goes back to work, trying to figure out what to do with this cave with odd stone markings, an evil fairie named Belvera(Aki Hano - Solitude Point), who is only a foot tall, appears on her small flying dragon and possesses Wakaba and makes her tie up her mother(Hitmoi Takahashi - Kids) and attack her older brother Taiki(Kazuki Futami). She wants to use the seal, and after seeing the cave on the TV, plots to free the evil monster, which she theorises will be under her control, to conquer the world.

However, her two good-hearted sisters Mona(Megumi Kobayashi - Mothra 3) and Lora(Sayaka Yamaguchi - Mothra 2) arrive on Fairy Mothra, which is only slightly larger than them, and have a small dogfight around the house with Belvera, who manages to defeat them and escape with the seal.

After talking to Taiki, Wakaba and their Mother, the group informs them of the dreadful monster that lives in the cave, how it's mere existance will drain the Earth's energy, killing all the trees and natural beauty. It flew accross various worlds doing this until it was imprisoned here on Earth.

Now, at this point I would like to point out that while my dub of the movie calls the evil monster DesGhidorah, I will be referring to it as Death Ghidorah, because I hear that it is the accurate translation, and DesGhidorah sounds like part of a German film title.

Anyway, the group set off to stop Belevera, but it's too late and she frees Death Ghidorah, who starts laying waste to the countryside. Mona declares that they must summon Mothra, but Lora feels she will be too weak to help them, but agrees on the grounds that it is their last hope. After performing the usual Mothra song, she flies to Hokkaido, where all of this is kicking off, and tries her best to battle Death Ghidorah, but to little avail as the monster is rapidly growing in power. However, her egg hatches prematurely, with the new 'Leo' Mothra eager to help it's mother, and in larval form it makes it's way to Hokkaido as well, with the purpose of meeting Death Ghidorah in battle. However, Mothra is too old and Leo is too young to stand a chance, so the pair have to retreat. Mothra is mortally wounded, so the baton of Queen of the monsters is passed onto her newborn, who realises that to stand any chance against the monster, she must grow into adulthood, for whic purpose she makes her way to an ancient Island and spins a cocoon against a centuries old tree, emerging even bigger and stronger than her Mother, and ready for the final showdown with Death Ghidorah for the fate of the Earth.

As you can probably tell, Rebirth of Mothra is rather silly in places. Actually quite a lot of places, however as a children's fantasy, I think it's plot is a-ok, and while the whole 'save the Earth and nature!' thing is really starting to grate my nerves, kids today weren't subjected to Captain Planet, green mullet and all, so they probably haven't had it drilled into their skulls to the point of monotony yet. I mean, the movie isn't perfect, and if you went into it expecting anything even remotely like the Godzilla movies of the time then you would be gravely disappointed. While we are constantly told about how bad and evil Death Ghidorah is, we never actually see him destroy much other than trees, and Mothra isn't like Godzilla in that she is an out-and-out heroine, with no animalistic qualities whatsoever. Little gets destroyed here, and while this is a bit of a spoiler, what does gets redone anyway, making Rebirth of Mothra no more than a feelgood fantasy movie geared squarely towards the younger audience, something the focus on two kids as the human element further backs up.

Possibly my only complaints with the plot, apart from it being a bit too juvenile and feelgood, are that it never makes it clear if this is set in the same universe as the Godzilla pictures. The old Mothra is identical to the one seen in Godzilla Vs. Mothra, and it does reference here past adventures, but no mention is made of Godzilla, or even Battra for that matter. Mothra's two fairy guardians also differ quite a bit from those found in all previous movies in that, not only do they have a big bug to fly about on, but they aren't twins and actually have names. Belvera is also a completely new addition.

Perhaps most perplexing of all is Death Ghidorah, a Three-headed, winged, electricity(as well as fire) breathing monster from the stars hell-bent on destroying the Earth. Ironically, this resembles the old Showa Ghidrah in story than it does King Ghidorah, which brings up a double point. If this is, indeed, set in the same universe as the Heisei Godzilla movies, then why does nobody reference the likeness? and does it actually have anything to do with the it's Golden likeness in any way?
Funny thing is, I actually think Death Ghidorah is probably the coolest interpretation of Ghidorah seen so far. It actually features four limbs, is quadrupedal, black and it's necks and heads are spiky and armoured looking. I think they should scrap the Golden boy and go for him in any future appearances.

The new Mothra is more colourful and features some dodgy-looking large antennae, but on the whole she looks a bit tougher than her old maw, and all in all is better realised, if a bit too colourful maybe.
She also brings with her a slew of new abilities, from her larvae being able to shoot a laser from it's chin(!?) to being able to transform into a flock of fairy-sized 'laser-moths' to attack the enemy, Leo would probably have been a more realistic foe for Godzilla. While she still carries the goofy stigma of being just a big, super-powered moth that looks more like a butterfly, for this amusing fantasy tale, she is fine.

When it comes to the juvenile nature of the movie, I can't bring my self to not enjoy it simply because it was aimed at kids, but the fact that they seem to be it's exclusive audience does bring the movie down a bit I feel. The whole 'kids as heroes' element got overdone in the 60s and 70s by Godzilla and Gamera, and while this doesn't exaclty fail in bringing the element back to the genre, in fact the two kids rarely annoyed me, it does dredge up some horrible memories. Being a film geared at kids does actually bring some advantages to the table though, everything in the movie is brightly coloured, at times making this feel like an anime come to life. This helps with the atmosphere of the film brilliantly, but they wouldn't have been able to get away with it in any of their other Kaiju movies.

The effects used to realise the monsters is very mixed. While the actual monsters, be they puppets(the Mothras) or Suitmation/Puppetry combined(Death Ghidorah) look good, and they even nailed Mothra's wing movements. Belvera's little dragon thing also looks pretty good.
Sadly the monsters laser beam effects are still being performed via the superimposing effect used years ago, and the matte work is quite bad, and fairy mothra looks like a bad 70s toy of Mothra.
In fairness to the movie, it wasn't afforded anywhere near the budget of the Godzilla movies, which explains why a lot of the effects aren't brilliant, and partially why there are no cities to get smashed, but it is rather easily to get caught up in the entire silly fantasy to the point that effects don't matter that much, and you could also see the city-smashing absence being due to trying to make this a less-violent outing for the kids. Granted the scene where Death Ghidorah bites larval Mothra sees blood streaming out of it, it seems to bleed Fanta, so it's not exactly disturbing.

Acting is pretty hard to judge through the rather lacklustre dubbing job, but most of the players seem to be pulling things off in a decent fashion, although sometimes it looks like Sayaka Yamaguchi is over-doing things, this may be the fact that the dubbing isn't matching her performance, and besides, she is gorgeous, so I'll let her away with it. Come to think of it, can you imagine a situation where you fell in love with a foot-high girl? could it work? I mean, I know she isn't really 1-foot tall in real life, but that did cross my mind at one point during this. Could she legally get a job and stuff, live a normal life? I suppose she wouldn't really have to, donating the amount of monthly wage you earn towards an apple would keep someone of her size fed for a about that amount of time. Anyway, I've no idea where this is going.

Music in the movie is actually pretty good. As well as the sort of Japanese folk-pop moments the fairies occasionally burst into, which aren't really my thing, but their 'remix' of the Mothra theme(basically the song sang in every Mothra movie, only with a funky drum-beat behind it) was pretty cool. The actual score may not be on par with the one afforded to Godzilla or Mothra in their debut pictures, but it captures the fantastic nature of the film well, and helps add to the fun feeling of the proceedings.
Scandalously, the Hugh Cornwell song Mothra still hasn't been used in a Mothra movie. Granted it may not have fit in here, but I still think the fact stinks. If Toho is willing to let Sum 41 put a song on a Godzilla movie, this deserves a place in a Mothra film.

While Rebirth of Mothra may not be brilliant, but I have to say that it's a fun movie, especially if you have kids. While the dubbing isn't all that great(a lot of the actors don't seem interested) and it may not have the best effects out there, the movie does have an endearing charm brought to it by it's exclusively fantasy nature and real feelgood atmosphere that not many movies can succeed in capturing. While it doesn't really have much in terms of draw for adults, it does have a couple of entertaining monster battles, and fans of the Kaiju eiga will lap it up, providing they go into it with the correct mindset. It's completely child friendly, and was an entertaining change of tone from the recent Godzilla pictures. Silly as I know it is, I'm giving it 4/5. What can I say, I really enjoyed it, I'm a kid at heart.

Year: 1996
Titles: Mosura
Mothra
Rebirth of Mothra


Related Reviews
Movies
Mothra
Godzilla Vs. Mothra(1964)
Games
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee for XBox
Godzilla: Save The Earth for XBox
Godzilla: Domination for Gameboy Advance

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4