As in so many other Japanese giant monster movies, Japan has its own
giant monster in this one: Daigoro, something of a cross of a hippo and a
dinosaur. However, Daigoro is the most harmless giant monster of them all,
and the only real issue with him is that he just fails to learn how to use
the (giant) toilet built for him properly (really). However, due to budget
cuts, his food rations are cut down and he is to be injected with a serum
that's supposed to make him shrink a bit. Then a giant monster from outer
space, Goliath, attacks though, and the earth's only defense is Daigoro.
It's just, Daigoro is such a pacifist that he doesn't know the first thing
about fighting. Heck, he hasn't even mastered the talent of breathing
fire. So the handful of people who believe in him, including his
zookeeper, an eccentric and mostly successless inventor, and the
obligatory bunch of children, train him in any way possible, and in the
finale, Daigoro gives Goliath a good clobbering, after which Goliath is
tied to a rocketship and sent back to space (really). And in the end,
Daigoro has even mastered the talent of using his toilet (really). Basically,
this (intended) joke of a monstermovie was made to celebrate the tenth
anniversary of legendary monsterhouse Tsuburaya
Productions with something light-hearted and self-ironic - and for
the first 15 minutes or so, it works rather great as the film's jokes are
spot-on and lack respect. However, after that, the film's humour already
begins to run a bit stale, the parody aspect is more and more replaced by
mediocre slapstick and humour targeted at the kiddie-crowd, while the
actual story of the movie at no time seems to properly kick in. At least
the miniature effects and monster battles are rather cool though, even if
Daigoro looks just too cute to be taken seriously.
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