Tohope And Change - All Monsters Attack!

There was a time when I rather hated All Monsters Attack or as I knew it Godzilla's Revenge. It's the small story of a boy who is an outsider, who has a few friends, but who mostly is on his own as his parents work shifts which cause the youngster to be in the care of a good-hearted neighbor (played ironcally I've learned by the same actor who was the nefarious and deadly Doctor Who in King Kong Escapes). This "lactch-key kid" lives in a city which is filled with traffic and pollution, not a place where one would ideally wish to raise a child. But he's a kid with a vivid imagination and he often goes in his head to Monster Island and where he finds a friend, Godzilla's son Minilla.

There's a delightful Alice in Wonderland quality to the whole flick, one which was lost on me as a younger viewer, but which I find fetching in these times. The youngster fends off bullies, and finds himself in the clutches of some rather inept thieves. In fact some of the movie is a lot like Home Alone, but long before that McCauley Culkin vehicle hit the screen. At the end we find a boy who has learned some valuable lessons but not a boy who lives an ideal life yet. It's a charming movie with a muted ending and rather smart for a mere monster movie.

More to come.

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