Zilla.html



This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

Godzilla film series character
Zilla
Species	Irradiated Iguana
Alias	Godzilla
Height	601-902 Meters
Weight	500 tons1
Abilities	Wind Breath (Godzilla) Speed Burrowing Atomic Flame Breath (Godzilla: The Series) Enhanced Regeneration (Godzilla: The Series) Enhanced Stamina (Godzilla: The Series) Fire Breath (Godzilla: Final Wars)
Origins	Nuclear testing in French Polynesia
First appearance	Godzilla (1998)
Voiced by	Frank Welker
Created by	Dean Devlin and Patrick Tatopoulos

Zilla (ジラ, Jira^?) is Toho Studios's official name for the title character of the 1998 TriStar Pictures film Godzilla.

Created from a French nuclear test, Zilla is a mutated lizard. Before Toho officially dubbed the creature Zilla, many fans, who did not care for the reimagining of Godzilla for the American film, developed several nicknames to differentiate its title character from the "original" Godzilla, including GINO (Godzilla in name only).

Film appearances

Godzilla

Originally an iguana egg irradiated by French nuclear tests in French Polynesia, Zilla makes its presence known years later when it attacks a Japanese fishing ship. The monster then heads to New York City, dragging three trawlers under the sea on the way, then creating havoc in the Fulton Fish Market, before rampaging through the city. Manhattan is evacuated and the military attempt to kill the monster, first luring it out with a huge pile of fish. It takes the bait, but then is scared off by small arms fire, and is chased by three AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. They fire, only to knock the top two dozen stories off the Chrysler Building. The monster escapes, but not before it is realized that it reproduces asexually, and is collecting food not only for itself, but also for its offspring. The military lures Zilla out again, into the waters of the Hudson River and seemingly kill it with a torpedo. Meanwhile, hundreds of eggs are discovered in [[Madison Square Garden. The Baby Zillas begin to look for food, but are incinerated when the building is bombarded. The adult Zilla emerges from the wreckage, and is lured to the Brooklyn Bridge where it becomes entangled in the steel suspension cables, and is an easy target for the fighters. After it is hit by twelve missiles, it screams in pain and falls to the ground, its heart beating slowly until it breathes its last breath.

All seems well until we see in the smoking ruins of the Garden, a single egg has survived and hatches revealing another baby Zilla.

Godzilla: Final Wars

Godzilla fights Zilla in Sydney, Australia.

Zilla did not appear on the silver screen again until six years later, appearing in Godzilla: Final Wars and finally taking an official place in the ranks of Toho's kaiju. It was renamed Zilla to differentiate it from the Toho Godzilla. Ryuhei Kitamura, the director of Final Wars, who is fluent in English, chose this name because he thought the American film "Took the God out of Godzilla."^{citation needed}

Under Xilian control, Zilla attacks Sydney, Australia, and later battles Godzilla there. He charges at Godzilla and jumps over his atomic breath, but is sent flying by a tail swipe from Godzilla into the Sydney Opera House, where a second blast of Godzilla's atomic breath destroys both Zilla and the famous structure making Zilla one of only three kaiju in the movie to be actually killed. The fight itself lasts 13 seconds, giving Zilla the record of the shortest battle in Final Wars, and one of the shortest defeats in any Godzilla film.

Zilla is the only monster in Final Wars realized completely through CGI instead of suitmation.

Zilla is suggested to eat two people in his initial attack on Sydney, something few other Toho kaiju have done. Though disputed, it appears as if Zilla possesses a breath weapon, as the film shows a crowd of people running until they are all blown away by a wall of fire which precedes the appearance of the monster walking into camera view. In an interview, the director of Final Wars confirmed this and stated that Zilla was emitting an acid fire from its stomach.

Godzilla: Final Wars references the 1998 Godzilla movie when Zilla is defeated. The Controller, in the Japanese version, says, "I knew that tuna-eating lizard was useless," a reference to the American creature's diet of fish in the 1998 film. In the American version, he calls Zilla a "tuna-head".

Godzilla: The Series

Zilla, as he appeared in Godzilla: The Series. Here he is depicted in the title sequence by sitting on top of the Empire State Building.

In 1998, Godzilla: The Series, a Saturday morning cartoon not to be confused with the original series from Hanna-Barbera, continued the story of Zilla's surviving offspring from the 1998 film in a role reminiscent of the Japanese films of the late Shōwa era.

The series revolves around the only surviving offspring of the first Zilla seen in the climax of the 1998 film. After the original monster was killed, Niko "Nick" Tatapolous the NRC scientist who first studied Zilla convinces the military to conduct a search for any eggs that may have survived. Nick offers his assistance, and ends up falling into a small cavern containing amniotic fluid and one large egg. The egg immediately hatches, though the infant does not attack, and escapes by burrowing to safety.

Nick's wish to capture and study the infant is met with opposition by the military who wish to destroy it. With the help of Dr. Mendel Craven, Elsie Chapman, and Randy Hernandez, Nick sets a trap for the infant. Unfortunately, the trap was designed for something the size of a human; the hatching had gone through a rapid growth spurt and is now 35 feet tall. He quickly destroys the trap and snatches up Nick. Before he can kill Nick, however, the "Zilla" detects the scent of his own kind on Nick and releases him. Nick realizes that the infant had imprinted on him, believing him to be his parent.

Over the next few weeks, HEAT studies Zilla. They realize that he is sterile. Unfortunately, Monique Dupre, a French secret agent assigned to monitor HEAT's activities, tip off the military, who immediately attack and apparently kill Zilla. HEAT have no time to mourn, as they have to go to Jamaica to investigate reports of people being attacked. They get ring side seats as giant squids attack the HEAT Seeker, but Zilla, who had survived, grown fully to 180 feet tall, and followed HEAT, quickly deals with the squids.

Not long after, HEAT discovers that another creature was responsible for the attacks, a giant, mutant, tar-eating crustacean called Crustaceous Rex (or "C-Rex"). After an intense fight, Zilla manages to collapse a cliff on top of C-Rex, apparently killing it (since it returned in the three-parter "Monster Wars," it seems the mutant was only buried and managed to escape). Major Hicks, an army commander and recurring character in the series, is persuaded by Nick that having "at least one mutation" on the side of humanity is a good thing, and orders his men to stand down and let Zilla remain free.

Powers and abilities

Zilla/Cyber-Zilla & Final Wars Zilla

For the 1998 Centropolis film, the attempt was made to interpret Godzilla more realistically than had ever been done before - to see him as an animal, and not as something else entirely. Built like a theropod dinosaur with his body held horizontally on long legs, Zilla has a rectangular box-shaped head with a thick lower jaw - a "proud chin" - and long powerful arms similar to those of a spinosaurid. The characteristic maple leaf dorsal fins of the Toho Godzilla are instead rows of large curved dorsal spikes that begin at the back of the head and continue down the length of the body and whip-like tail, growing larger on the back with the two largest fins on the shoulders.

Originally, Zilla was not to have any sort of breath weapon in the 1998 film, but an angry fan petition forced Emmerich and Devlin to include one in their screenplay. Since Zilla is such a large animal, whenever he roars, a blast of powerful wind blasts out of his mouth. This breath weapon has many fan-created names, but in the script and the DVD audio commentary it's called POWER BREATH. Twice in the film it gives off the illusion that Zilla is breathing fire. The first time, he uses his Power Breath near two burning vehicles and the second time he roars near two vehicles that crash into each other, causing an explosion. In Final Wars, Zilla uses what appears to be a form of fire breath; its director states that it is a form of burning acid from Zilla's stomach.

Zilla lacks the Toho Godzilla's strength, fast regenerative abilities and near-impenetrable hide, as proved by his death in the original film, but he is faster and more agile, being capable of running at 480 kilometers per hour¹, outrunning several helicopters in one instance. In Final Wars Zilla, Toho's version of the creature, showed the ability to make fast enormous leaps, demonstrated when he jumped over Godzilla's atomic breath to attack. Zilla is also not as aggressive or combative and only acts aggressively when severely provoked and will usually flee and most of the damage caused by it is purely unintentional, as opposed to the Toho Godzilla who is a vicious and savage fighter and more than willing to destroy anything in his path and would aggressively pursue and fight anything until he has killed and/or destroyed it.

Cyber Zilla

In the animated series, aliens called the Tachyons find the original Zilla and resurrect him as Cyber-Zilla. As Cyber-Zilla, it possesses numerous new weapons, such as a sonic emitter, eight dorsal fin missile launchers, and Atomic Flame Breath like his son, but with a blue color. Metal parts replaced most of Cyber-Zilla's body including a cybernetic right arm and a strange metal "helmet" for the cyborg's head. Cyber-Zilla's roar was also changed to a more metallic sound. When he becomes a cyborg his skin changes from gray to brown and his back plates change from blue to gray. The color change is most likely indicating decay, since he became a cyborg a couple years after he had originally died.

Zilla (the series)

Zilla's only surviving son who appears briefly at the end of the 1998 American Godzilla and the star of Godzilla: The Series, differs from his parent in many ways. He is the same size as his parent and is extremely fast and maneuverable. He also possesses many of the Toho Godzilla's notable abilities, including a fast healing factor, a much tougher hide, and the ability to fire a concentrated blast of radiation from his mouth, which is green in color and resembles a flamethrower. His dorsal fins, neck frills glow blue and his eyes flash yellow (in some episodes red) just before he uses it. Unlike his parent, who was asexual, this Zilla is sterile.

Baby Zillas

The Baby Zillas are the offspring of Zilla. The first Zilla asexually laid over two-hundred eggs in Madison Square Garden. When they hatched, they fed on fish that their parent had left for them. When they ran out of fish to eat, they began hunting for other sources of food. They also began eating humans who smelled like fish. All the Baby Zillas were killed by a missile strike to the Garden, except for one. He appeared briefly at the end of the 1998 film and later starred in Godzilla: The Series. The Baby Zillas were fast and agile, like their parent, and Tatopolous said that they were all asexual and were "born pregnant".

Reproduction

Zilla reproduces through asexual reproduction; a trait which is not uncommon in some reptiles. In the 1998 film, Nick Tatopolous states all the Zillas were "born pregnant". However, the last baby Zilla, which appeared briefly at the end of the 1998 film and would later star in Godzilla: The Series as an adult, is sterile (possibly due to a birth defect). In one episode he falls in love with a mutant komodo dragon named Komodithrax. She has the ability to fertilize her own eggs, thus laying a giant egg all by herself. Zilla and Komodithrax begin to raise a family, Zilla being the egg's surrogate father.

In Final Wars, Zilla (Toho's version) never laid eggs or had any sort of urge to reproduce, his motivation for attacking Sydney, Australia being alien mind controlled rather than searching for a nest site; so it's unknown if he reproduces the same way as his American counterpart.

Other appearances

Zilla made an appearance in a 2006 Doritos commercial, in which he picks up a truck of Doritos and shakes chips into his mouth. In another Doritos commercial, he devours a spicy variant of Doritos, roars in pain, and dives into the Hudson River. Both were meant to parody the bait scene in the 1998 movie. At the time of the release of the 1998 movie, he made several commercials for Taco Bell, crossing paths with the Taco Bell chihuahua.

He also made an appearance in Armageddon alongside other Godzilla toys during the opening sequence in New York, when a little dog attacked the Godzilla toys on sale. This was a friendly jab at the other big special effects movie of that summer, the Roland Emmerich American version of Godzilla, which was released a month and a half earlier.

In the Robot Chicken episode "That Hurts Me", the segment "Godzilla Remade Again" featured Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich remaking Godzilla once more; the segment goes on to show a scene of Baby Zillas attacking, only to begin inexplicably roller skating and dancing in a rink. When the studio head bemoans the fact that he trusted Devlin and Emmerich to make a decent Godzilla film, for the second time, and that they instead have produced an unmarketable pile of crap, for the second time, Devlin and Emmerich give each other a high-five.

Zilla's roar is uttered by a garden snake in the very beginning of the Camp Lazlo episode "Snake Eyes". The roar is also audible in the trailer for Spider-Man 3, when the Sandman (Marvel Comics) dives down from the sand truck.

Video games

"Godzilla-USA" (Zilla) was a playable character in Godzilla Generations for the Sega Dreamcast. Unlocked after finishing the game with "Godzilla 1954", he is the fastest of the playable characters. His roar restores less health than the other Godzillas, but he is a bit tougher to compensate. His breath weapon is a powerful blast of air; while the shortest-ranged, it has the longest duration, able to take down the Super X in one blast and the Super X-II and Super X-III with two blasts if timed right. His special attack is a fast run that crushes and smashes everything he runs over and into. He doesn't take damage while charging and it lasts a fair amount of time.

"Godzilla '98" (Zilla) also appeared in Godzilla Trading Battle for the PlayStation.

For Gameboy Color, the game Godzilla: The Series, and its sequel Godzilla: The Series - Monster Wars featured Zilla.

References

External links

• ^[1] Godzilla vs. Zilla
• Zilla on Godzilla Wiki (godzilla.wikia.com)
• The Making of Godzilla
• Toho Kingdom