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Mothra

Play trailer Poster for Mothra Released Jul 28, 1962 1h 41m Sci-Fi Play Trailer Watchlist
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80% Tomatometer 15 Reviews 64% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
A flying monster terrorizes Japan after a nightclub owner kidnaps two tiny princesses from their island paradise.
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Mothra

Critics Reviews

View All (15) Critics Reviews
Anton Bitel Little White Lies So Mothra is very much a family film, introducing a lighter vibe that would eventually settle on Toho Studio's monster universe. Nov 16, 2020 Full Review Kim Newman Sight & Sound More like a paper dragon in a parade, Mothra is simply lovely. In none of its forms does it even try to look 'real', which sets it against a whole tradition of Western special effects. Jul 30, 2018 Full Review Nell Minow Movie Mom Rated: 2/5 Dec 18, 2002 Full Review Tom Beasley VultureHound One of the maddest monster movies ever committed to the big screen, helped by some wacky special effects and the sheer ambition of Honda's vision. Rated: 3/5 Nov 23, 2020 Full Review Rob Aldam Backseat Mafia Honda found his vision largely constrained by a meagre budget but still managed to produce a colourful and inventive monster movie. Nov 16, 2020 Full Review Tim Brayton Antagony & Ecstasy For all its daftness, this is kind of a terrific film on its own terms. Rated: 7/10 Nov 9, 2013 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (101) audience reviews
Tim S First a Moth kaiju film, Honda creates overawe art within the the two classic characters “Shobijin”. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 07/16/24 Full Review josh d Another very solid non-Godzilla Kaiju film. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 06/09/24 Full Review Mewtweum Z Mothra is where it starts going in a more lighthearted direction for the Showa era Toho films. This movie is a really fun movie, with pretty funny characters as intended. Goofy plot as well which I like to an extent. The problem with this movie though is I feel like it's trying to be funny and cute and serious as the same time but it's not clear what they want you to take seriously or to laugh at. Mothra is a more cute Kaiju compared to the others but promotion for this movie seem like they're making it out to be scary. Even in the movie, they are trying to get you to believe it's scary even though the tone of the movie is not that and it's just really confusing to me. Anyways, the movie is good and fun! Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 12/02/23 Full Review Jithin K A beautiful and deadly guardian angel. No wonder, Mothra is only second to Gojira among the kaiju. Following the anti-nuclear war elements, now also including how capitalism breeds cruelty to the world. So much so that, with the Mosra song by The Peanuts to go along with, all the destruction felt more welcome, also because they wanted it to be a bit more family-friendly and omitted the more violent results, unlike the previous movies. It did feel a bit lazy at times, with many shots so blatantly not having the makeup or special effects needed like in shooting scenes but plenty of other scenes were beautifully done. The Mothra design and life cycle itself is very different from the other kaiju. Probably why it's a she, unlike the others. I'm very curious about how the crossover with the other monsters will end up looking. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/19/23 Full Review Michael V Entertaining film, good story, very colorful...kids will love it, I made VHS copies for nieces about 30 years ago and they agreed. Honda is a terrific film maker. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/28/23 Full Review J L Ahead of its time? Definitely, Toho kicks ass compared to Hollywood's efforts at epic films as demonstrated by Honda and Tsuburaya masterpiece here. I didn't love the American dub that much but the original... I loved every minute of it, highly recommend it! Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 08/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Mothra

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis A flying monster terrorizes Japan after a nightclub owner kidnaps two tiny princesses from their island paradise.
Director
Ishirô Honda
Producer
Tomoyuki Tanaka
Screenwriter
Takehiko Fukunaga, Yoshie Hotta, Shin'ichirô Nakamura, Shin'ichi Sekizawa
Distributor
RCA/Columbia, Columbia Pictures, GoodTimes Home Video [us]
Production Co
Toho Company Ltd.
Genre
Sci-Fi
Original Language
Japanese
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 28, 1962, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Jul 1, 2014
Runtime
1h 41m
Sound Mix
Mono
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
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