It's almost two on the nose where each of the
Jaegers are stereotypically their nations, like
the Chinese dragon and the poor Russians like
their Ivan Drago's. They're in a Cold War era
tank. It's like, you know, if I was a Russian
today, I'd be like, we get past that image of
us, please. Hello, and welcome to Camp Kaiju
Monster Movie Podcast. We're your hosts, Vincent
Hannum. And Matt Levine. And we're talking about
all our favorite monster movies. The good, the
bad, and even the downright campy. And asking
if they stand the test of time. Traditional Kaiju,
creature features, space invaders, the supernatural,
and everything in between. All strange beasts
welcome here. Camp Kaiju is brought to you by
Zack Linder and the Zack Pack. Powered by Coldwell
Banker Realty. Whether you're looking for your
dream home, a savvy investment property, or expert
guidance in home rehab and flipping, the Zach
Pack has you covered. Check the link in the show
notes for more information. We always thought
alien life would come from the stars. But it
came from deep beneath the Pacific. The first
kaiju made land in San Francisco. The second
attack hit Manila. Then the third one hit Cabo.
Then we learned this was not going to stop. In
order to fight monsters, we created monsters
of our own. was born. Two pilots. Our minds,
our memories. Connected. The man and machine
become one. pretty cool. Pacific Rim. All right.
We are doing it. Guillermo del Toro's Pacific
Rim and. Who better to join us on this episode
but Sean Childers. Hello. Hello. Sean, welcome
back, first of all. Number three. Not that I'm
counting or anything. That's right. I forget
about Tusk. Oh, how can you forget about Tusk?
Exactly. Especially considering that today we
have to say rest in peace, Grace Smith, Kevin
Smith's mother. Oh. I was not aware, man. Yeah,
she apparently died last night after lots of
complications. So rest in peace, Grace. Yeah.
Rest in peace. Influenced a seminal filmmaker,
for sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But how are you guys
doing? Doing all right. Yeah. It's been a long
work week, and it's only Tuesday. I feel that.
Yeah, it's December. The holidays are coming
up, which is like a great time of year. It's
very festive. It's very cold and snowy. I feel
like everybody I know is like not 100 % health
wise, you know, I would say I'm like 90%. So
I'm not terrible. But as Sean said, the kaiju
crud is out there affecting a lot of people.
Indeed. Sean, is it cold and snowy where you
are? Oh, no, no, it is not. It's just miserable.
Just nothing but sun and darkness. I know that
completely goes against each other, but still,
no, it's just really, really hot here. Where
are you, Sean? I'm over in Florida. I'm technically
in central Florida, but I live in the middle
of nowhere in Florida. Wow. It actually looks
like you're recording in like the middle of a
swamp right now, like deep in the Everglades.
There's like nothing behind you. You'll never
find me. Sean's off the grid. Yeah, there'll
be some gators in the background throughout the
recording. I live on a retirement community where
they used to have a golf course and all the golf
courses were filled in. Oh, man. Oh, my gosh.
Well, Sean, you are the host of. a podcast yourself.
Would you mind telling us about that? Yes, and
if you don't mind, I'm going to intro it real
quick. My name is Sean, a .k .a. Ken Tsukedi,
and I have a podcast known as Big Mecca, but
not huge. It's where I host it with a couple
of my buddies and sometimes some special guests,
where we talk and rate and review different mecca
and mecca -related things like Transformers,
Transformers, Pacific Rim, more Transformers,
and then also upcoming Real Steel. Yeah. So I
was just on. I was guest hosting. Thank you,
Sean. On an episode, you guys were talking about
Transformers, the animated movie. Or is it the
Transformers, the movie? Yeah, Transformers,
the movie. I hate their naming convention. When
does that episode drop? Good question. I still
need to edit, but we are actually in the process
of finishing season two. That final episode of
season two comes out this week. And originally
we were going to have Transformers movie five
the last night come out. But that movie is the
best I can say is it's atrocious. So we were
recording it. We reviewed it. And unfortunately,
my computer decided that it didn't want to save
any of that. So it's just not going to go up.
So instead, we've decided to have our final episode
being the newest mecha anime that came out, Mobile
Suit Gundam G -Quox, where it's the final episode
where we talk and rate the finale. So tune in
for that. That's awesome. That's not exactly
my niche, but I love mechas when they show up
in my monster movies. So yeah, I can't wait to
listen to all that you got going on on your own
pod. Thank you. Let's just merchandise discounts.
Otherwise, you can get in touch with us, me and
Matt. You can reach us at CampKaiju at gmail
.com, CampKaijuPodcast .com, Instagram, or our
voicemail number, 612 -470 -2612. And back to
Patreon. Thank you, our wonderful Patreon supporters,
Jason, Chris, Sean Childers in the house, Peggy,
our anonymous patron, and a new... Member of
our ranks, superfan Don has made the leap to
become a Patreon supporter. Thank you, Don. Yeah,
that's awesome. Thank you, Don. Yeah, and we've
got some comments from Don later on about our
giant spider invasion episode. So stick around,
listeners, to at least the halfway point of this
episode. But then you can stop after the halfway
point. No need to finish it out. No, this entire
episode is just going to be a Tusk redo. Oh,
I'm not prepared for that. Hey, that was a popular
episode. You go back in the data. It connected
with people. I'm not surprised. All right, so
this episode here, Pacific Rim, will be dropping
in December of 2025. Folks, listeners, sign up
at Patreon at any point in time in history. But
if you do so in the next few weeks before 2026,
we will send you a tote bag, TBD on the details
of that. But it'll be a bag that you can tote
things in. And stay tuned for some additional
features in 2026, maybe a Zoom happy hour with
that. I guess you could say that's totally cool.
Nice. All right. I can put that on the bag, maybe.
I'll customize it. If people want to sign up
for Patreon, you know, it's worth it. Sean, if
you have an idea. I have ideas, but you won't
want them right now. All right. You will put
a pin in that one. It's just going to be my face
doing the walrus, you know. Unrated bonus footage.
Yes. Matt, you want to talk about what's coming
up on Camp Kaiju? Yeah, so coming up soon is
our annual holiday slash season announcement
for our next season of Camp Kaiju. This is a
good, this is always one of my favorite episodes
of the year. It's a good excuse for, you know,
not only me and Vincent, but also like all of
our guest stars throughout the year to join us
for a little holiday happy hour, maybe drink
some eggnog and talk about what's coming up on
the next season of Camp Kaiju. So check that
out for a sneak preview of all the episodes.
12 episodes, right? That we'll be talking about
in the next season of Camp Kaiju. Six from you,
six from me. That episode will be dropping at
the end of the year here in 2025. Past guest
stars, as well as our Patreon supporters. And
who do we have signed up so far for this special
action -packed episode? We have Sean Childers
in the house. He's going to be back. Sean Pryor
hopes to be there. our other favorite Sean, and
Beth Bredlaw, who featured on our Eberra Horror
of the Deep episode. So that's cool. It's like,
you know, a who's who of the past. We got some
deep cuts. You know, if you didn't catch Beth's
episode, go back and catch that one. But yeah,
it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm excited to
meet some people. And that's just it. Yeah, I
like fostering that community so we can all nerd
out together. Exactly. Yeah, that'll be great.
I'm glad we didn't criticize Eberra too much
to dissuade Beth from coming back for the holiday
episode. I think she still likes us, so that's
a win. Yeah, that's good. That's good to hear.
All right. Let's get into this big, bad mamma
jamma of a film, Pacific Rim. What are our personal
histories with this movie? Sean. Let's hear from
you first. I saw this movie on release for my
birthday when it came out. Not only that, I saw
it multiple times in theaters. I bought the Blu
-ray when it came out. I got the 4K edition.
I got the big giant box that has part of Gypsy
Danger on the front where it's like a plastic
shell. It's my lifeblood. Obviously, spoilers,
but this is my top tier movie. Sorry, but yeah,
I just love this movie. This movie's so good
on so many levels, whether it's as cheesy as
it wants to be, or whether it's super serious,
but you can tell that they're trying to not crack
a smile. It's just, I love it. Yeah, I think
you're not alone in that sentiment, that's for
sure. I also saw this movie upon release for
my birthday. When is your birthday, Sean? July
15th. Okay. Mine is July 24th. So I think I waited
a week after it came out and then I saw it back
in 2013. But after that, which was great. It
was a great birthday movie. You know, a summer
blockbuster, obviously. So much fun. After that,
though, I feel like my experience with The Pacific
Rim was totally different than yours, Sean, because
that is the only time I had seen this movie up
until yesterday again. Oh, wow. So yeah, I liked
it. I hadn't seen it in a while. Good to revisit
it. I, you know, another spoiler. I don't know
if I like it as much as Sean, but that is a,
perhaps a difficult, a difficult bar to, to hit,
you know? Yeah. I, I put the, the tears up there
pretty high. Yeah. I, maybe I'm in the middle
of you guys, but I did not see it when it came
out. I didn't even, I didn't even know. I hadn't
even heard of it. How do we remove Vincent from
this? Yeah. This is my show. Sean is the host
now. We don't need that. Trust me, you don't.
No, I'm thinking about where I was in 2013. That
was a weird year for me. I was going to college,
but also kind of part time. And I just really
wasn't going to the movies a lot. I had other
things going on. But it must have been the year
after or two years later. I saw it at home. My
brother had the DVD. I immediately I fell in
love with it at the time. I've seen it a few
times since. Last night I watched it with the
audio commentary from Del Toro, which was a real
treat. And most of, I would say most of my notes
tonight, A, came from the wiki, but I recognized
that wiki from the audio commentary. So my notes,
wiki notes, they're all from Del Toro's mouth,
which, you know, that sounds weird, but... I
was going to say, did you manage to get like
a little puppet of him and you recorded or something?
This episode is dedicated to Del Toro's mouth.
Sean, you are our resident Mecca expert. I wouldn't
say that I'm an expert, but I delve into it.
Yeah, you dabble. Could you speak to the origins
and the legacy of the mecha genre? Let me try
to find my bifocals here. All right. So without
reading too much into it, basically, the mecha
genre is where you've got giant robots that look
like humanoid type. creations that generally
go against either other creatures or other giant
sized robots. And they're all usually piloted
either by one or sometimes two people. But if
you get into the super robot genre, sometimes
you get combiners that end up having three or
more. Based on the wiki, what it says here is
that the first thing that we ended up getting
was a 1940s short manga called Electric Octopus.
And then from there, we ended up moving into
an actual mecha series that was created as a
manga first by Mitsutaro Yokoyama called Tetsujin
28. We ended up seeing a bunch of different things
that come after that. But the biggest thing that
happened right after that was in 72, where author
Go Nagai, who is huge in the manga and anime
world, he ended up creating something called
Mazinger Z, which is considered the first. Super
Robot. And that is a wild show. Hell is involved.
Giant creatures are involved. Multiple pilots
that just start screaming, thinking about the
hot -bloodedness of everything. It's just so
good. This came out in the 70s, so this predates
even Dragon Ball Z doing that type of thing.
Wow. Then you get into even more Super Robot
stuff, but the biggest thing that came out was
in 1979. Yoshiyuki Tomino ended up creating Mobile
Suit Gundam, which they don't consider as super
robot. They actually consider that as like the
real robot series where it's basically taking
a bunch of different stories, usually political
based or war based, and then creating basically
just giant war stories or, you know, different.
Can't think of the word. Basically, just creating
these giant war stories that involve just these
giant robots, but they seem real enough that
you're like, oh, man. I could see this happening.
I don't want it to happen because that would
ruin everybody and everything. But it just blew
up from there. And then if we skip ahead a bunch
of years, we end up getting video games like
Armored Core. Armored Core is where you just
pilot giant mechs taking on other giant mechs.
Or, you know, in the latest one, I think you
go against something that's as big as an AT -AT
from Star Wars. And it's just insane. But probably
the biggest thing that a lot of people will either
love or hate is Neon Genesis Evangelion, which
basically blends psychological and religious
influences into the mecha genre. And you get
this giant messed up... I don't even want to
say that it's... Yeah, we'll go with it. Giant
messed up masterpiece. It's just bonkers. But
anyways, Pacific Rim, yeah. Do you have a favorite
of the mecha subgenre aside from Pacific Rim?
Yes, and it's going to sound weird considering
what I'm about to say. There is a show that I
absolutely love, and I've talked about this before
on here. It's called a dual parallel trouble
adventure. It's basically the harem genre where
it's all these women loving this one dude. but
combine it with a sci -fi theme where it splits
realities. You got one, you know, him going from
one area, one era to another going universe hopping.
And then all of a sudden there's a giant robot.
That's the cause of everything. Whoa. Wow. Only
12 episodes, but it's so good. There are so many
shows you mentioned that just sounds so insane
in the best ways. Honestly, some of the Gundam
ones are like, even though they're older, they're
really approachable because it's very mature.
It's not like something where you can sit down.
They do have these, but they don't really have
Gundam with kids in mind, even though it was
generally broadcast for like teenagers and young
adults. It's very, very adult oriented, not like
in terms of sex, but in terms of just the sheer
amount of horrific, horrific wartime violence.
It's honestly a really good watch. Would you
say that Ultraman is part of the mecha genre?
Good question. So, no, that is considered part
of the tokusatsu genre, which we will be covering
under Toku for Two, my other podcast. But there
is a sub show. or sub -series from Ultraman called
Gridman, which, if you remember from in the early
90s when Power Rangers came out, there was another
show that tried to compete with it called Superhuman
Samurai Cyber Squad. Now, I believe that was
Matthew... I forget his name. Anyways, he was
on Blossom at some point, I think. It was basically
Ultraman inside of a computer fighting Kaiju,
but then his... best friends would power him
up by jumping into the computer and forming giant
armor pieces that basically transform, turning
him into a robot. Since then, they've actually
managed to make two anime series and a movie
called SSSS Gridman and SSSS Dinozanon and Gridman
Universe, where it basically combines it all.
And they even allude to the original Gridman
show and Superhuman Samurai Cyber Squad altogether.
Wow. That's awesome. I like the Ultraman that
I've seen, which is not very much. Vincent and
I saw Shin Ultraman a couple years ago, which
I thought was fantastic. So, so good. I've always
been curious, like, what exact subgenre that
fits into. So that's very helpful. Thank you.
Absolutely. Yeah, Tokusatsu. It's weird with
Tokusatsu because the way it, because with Kaiju
and everything else involving Godzilla, you know,
you would consider that like suitmation, but
then you got Power Rangers that come in and do
the exact same thing, but on a smaller scale.
And then you've got the whole Sentai genre. Then
you've got Kamen Rider. Kamen Rider doesn't really
use Mecha, but they end up doing the whole thing
with different suits, different transformations,
as they call henshins. And then from there on,
it just balloons into so many different things.
Wow. That's amazing. Yeah. I know that was a
lot. Sorry. No, I went on a magic carpet ride
there listening to you talk about this rabbit
hole that kept getting deeper and deeper. why
do you think i have these podcasts now so i can
do it so i can watch everything you know the
monster movie umbrella is as massive as that
too and i've i've nerded out i've like done a
whole diagram like on a big piece of paper like
a spider web of of all the offshoot subgenres
of monster movies maybe that's something i'll
share on the for patrons yeah because there's
just so many so so many oh Del Toro, on his audio
commentary, he was commenting on the Japanese
relationship to technology versus the American
relationship for technology. And in his words,
he was saying Americans generally fear technology,
but the Japanese really embrace it. And that
has allowed them in their pop culture to turn
meccas into almost godlike beings and infuse
them with a mythology. I just found that pretty
interesting. The mecca genre, it's not an American
thing. Like, if we have it, it's only because
we borrow from the Japanese. Yep. Yeah. I mean,
there's a lot of different adaptations that we
have, too. Did you ever get around to watching
the Scarlett Johansson Ghost in the Shell movie?
No. I did not hear good things. I will say this,
not as a defender of all the things that people
are rightfully upset about. It's an okay movie.
It's worth a watch just once. But the whole thing
about it is technology is fully advanced to the
point where people embrace it and transcend.
And that's all I'm going to leave you with. Okay.
I like stuff like that. This summer. Our world
will come under attack. The mayor has declared
a state of emergency. By the most evil force
ever known, he has armies at his command. And
only one power on Earth can stop him. Welcome
to my nightmare. Ultimate adventure begins. Hi,
honey. I'm home. You garlic -sucking bingo brain!
We're the Power Rangers. Where's my autograph
book? Avengers. More power. Usually. It's a new
age of combat. Human beings, genetically engineered
to be the best fighters in history. Two champions.
It isn't over until someone wins. At war with
each other. I have already killed you. Two invincible
men. Let's finish it, Alexander. Here and now.
The ultimate killing machines. I'm gonna get
in this thing! And I'm gonna kick your... Ladies
and gentlemen, over the years Toonami's given
you some of the greatest cartoon shows ever made.
Now we're proud to present our newest addition,
a program about love, honor, sacrifice, revenge,
and a whole lot of destruction. Let's get things
started! Gundam fight all set, ready, go! Guillermo
del Toro, his first feature was Kronos back in
1993, I think, which was a good introduction
to kind of like his style and his thematic interests.
It's sort of a Frankenstein -Dracula hybrid with
like some themes about, you know, like gothic
horror is in there, like strange contraptions,
you know, the undead. life beyond death, things
like that. He was kind of like one of the trio
of Mexican filmmakers who rose to prominence
in the 1990s, along with Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro
Gonzalez Inarritu. So Del Toro, very much a horror
director. We've talked about Mimic on the podcast
before. Maybe not his best movie, but certainly
a very interesting movie, I would say. You know,
he's very versatile. He has continued to make
movies in both Mexico and Spain, I believe. The
Devil's Backbone was made in Spain. I think Pan's
Labyrinth was kind of an international co -production
with both Spain and Mexico. He's made a lot of
movies in Hollywood, too. Frankenstein being
the most recent example of that. He made Pinocchio
for Netflix a couple years ago as well. Nightmare
Alley. Nightmare Alley, yeah, one of my favorites.
I really liked the Nightmare Alley remake a lot.
Crimson Peak is another one. You know, Blade
II, that was kind of like one of his first big
Hollywood movies. The Hellboy movies, he directed
those as well. So definitely a good example of
a Hollywood director who also makes movies outside
of Hollywood and is able to inject a lot of personality,
a lot of artistry and imagination into, you know,
like Pacific Rim, even big budget mainstream
Hollywood movies. And, you know, I think... From
my own personal perspective, I think you see
like the fanboy love for like the genres and
the like previous influences that he's paying
homage to. But, you know, there's depth to it.
There's like always an attempt to kind of like
add to it and make it his own. So really a unique
kind of eclectic director. The only film of his
I haven't seen other than Frankenstein, shame.
But maybe by the time this releases, I'll have
seen it. Is Hellboy 2, The Golden Army. Other
than that, I have seen all of his movies. Generally
a big fan because what you say, I love his...
He not only honors the genres he's working in,
but he does really try to make them his own too.
Related to that, del Toro wanted in Pacific Rim,
he wanted to honor the kaiju and mecha genres
of his youth. He states he grew up watching tokusatsu
and Godzilla movies in the 1960s in Mexico. And
he said, quote, He wanted to be conscious of
the heritage, but not a pastiche or an homage
or greatest hits of everything. I didn't want
to be postmodern or referential or just belong
to a genre. I really wanted to create something
new, something madly in love with those things.
I tried to bring epic beauty to it and drama
and operatic grandeur. So, yeah, just speaking
to that individuality in his films. You know,
he's like a humanist director. He seems to like
people. He cares about his characters. The Shape
of Water is another big movie that I forgot to
mention, but I think that's one of the best examples
of that, where it's kind of an homage to Creature
from the Black Lagoon, but very much a romantic
movie with a lot of compassion for the characters.
And I think... You know, I might have some criticisms
about this, but I think we see that in Pacific
Rim as well, where, you know, the characters
have tragic backstories. They have things that
they're trying to overcome. And it's kind of
a pacifist, humanistic movie, even though it's
about mechas fighting kaijus, you know? Yeah,
absolutely. Which makes it the second one all
the more sad, even though I still enjoy it. The
second one is a sharp turn from what this movie
is. Ooh, I've only seen it once. I don't quite
remember it as well. Perhaps, you know, well...
I see what you're hinting at. I won't review
Pacific Rim Uprising. As decent as it is, I think
it's only decent. I've never seen it, so I'll
have to add that to the list. Now would be a
good time to do so. It's basically Pacific Rim
The Next Generation. Just take all the kids from
Degrassi and put them in Giant Mecha. That sounds
kind of terrible, to be honest, but I'll still
give it a try. What about the ever lovable Atlantic
Rim? That's from the Asylum. It's a pretty bad
movie. Kind of intrigued to watch that also.
Yeah, I saw that years ago. MST3K did an episode
on it with their revamped series. It might be
the best way for me to watch it then. Honestly.
Years ago, Guillermo del Toro was touring an
exhibition of his private collection of monster
movie memorabilia and props from his films. And
at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, this thing
had a residency for like six months. And I went
to that. The only movie I had seen up to that
point of his was Pacific Rib. And I felt like
such a dweeb because that's not his like most
well -known movie. I hadn't even seen Pan's Labyrinth.
And my friend was like, Vince, what? Pacific
Rib's the only Del Toro film you've seen? Still
haven't either. What? Pan's Labyrinth? I haven't
watched it. You haven't seen Pan's Labyrinth?
I own it on DVD and I have not watched it yet.
It's part of the ever -increasing backlog. You
should change that immediately. I mean, when
you're stuck watching the Transformers original
animated movie three times in a week. No, I get
it. Trust me, I get it. Same cinematographer
as Pacific Rib. Guillermo Navarro also shot...
Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone, Kronos, and
Hellboy. And Navarro won the Oscar for Best Cinematography
for Pan's Labyrinth. I feel like the phrase dark
fairy tale is like epitomized by Pan's Labyrinth.
Like that phrase was meant to define that movie.
You know what I mean? Yeah, it's pretty dark.
Yeah, very, very good. The screenplay of Pacific
Rim is... co -written by del toro and travis
beachum the story is by travis beachum the biggest
other credit i saw to his name was clash of the
titans from 2010 very much in the same vein as
pacific rim in terms of epic mythological monsters
but ultimately very different was that the one
with liam neeson where he goes release the kraken
yes okay so maybe beachum has a knack for epic
one -liners release the kraken Today we are canceling
the apocalypse. Let's talk about the select cast.
First off, this is my introduction to Rinko Kikuchi.
She did the role fantastically. I loved every
moment that she was on screen where you could
actually see everything that they were trying
to have a Raleigh nitpick with her. Where she's
constantly judging him and everything about her
personality. And then the way that she was able
to display all that. Wonderful. But one thing
that you may not know is that she was actually
in a movie called Kumiko. I think it's Kumiko
the Wanderer or Kumiko the Hunter. Everyone knows
the movie Fargo, right? Yeah. So this movie is
about a woman who went searching for the missing
money of Fargo. And it's apparently based on
a true story. where she actually went looking
for it, and so it's basically kind of like a
biopic about that. But yeah, I saw that, and
it was fantastic. What was it called? I think
it's Kumiko the Treasure Hunter. I've seen that
as well. It is very, very good. I like that movie
a lot, too. Yes. Cool. And you can't find it
digitally. Hmm. You actually have to rent it
or buy it physically now. I didn't know that.
I always kind of... I like that when that happens.
It can be inconvenient if you're just trying
to find it on streaming. But as somebody who
likes physical media, I kind of appreciate it
when that happens. Oh, yeah. I had to get mine
through Amazon as soon as I saw that it was at
least one copy available. So it was worth it.
Cool. So Idris Elba plays Marshall Stacker Pentecost.
He's kind of the no -nonsense head of the operation
who is leading the charge to, you know... Sorry,
lead the Jaeger fight against the Kaijus. So
highly respected military leader who has dedicated
his life to defending humanity from the Kaiju.
I could have just read that off the Google Doc.
That would have been a lot easier. Sorry about
that. But yeah, Idris Elba, huge fan. I think
I first saw him in The Wire, as a lot of other,
at least American audiences did. He played Stringer
Bell, a very kind of intense, sort of frightening,
but also complex and in some ways admirable character
in that show. He's been in a lot of movies and
TV shows. Some of the films that he's been in
include 28 Weeks Later, American Gangster. He's
one of the voices in Zootopia 2, so you can hear
him out in theaters right now. He's in some other
TV shows as well, like Luther. He had a memorable
sort of guest starring role on The Office in
addition to that. But yeah, again, like I always
know him as Stringer Bell, and it's still kind
of weird to me to see him in like fun roles.
Pacific Rim is kind of a fun role, but he's still
like a no -nonsense sort of tough guy character
in some ways. Still very, very different than
his role on The Wire. And he always, you know,
just like a sense of gravity, a sense of sort
of like weight and complexity to the characters
he plays. I don't know if that's true of Zootopia
2 as well, but I think you could say that of
Marshall in Pacific Rim. So let me ask you this.
Considering how old The Wire is, in this day
and age, would you recommend The Wire to somebody
who is not aware of it? Yes, that's my favorite
TV show of all time. It's the most complex TV
show I think that's ever been made. I think it's,
you know, it's about the city of Baltimore and
like practically every social structure in that
city, the police, the drug trade, healthcare,
education, news. It's, yeah, like that is my
favorite show. It's brilliant. And, you know,
Idris Elba is only one of like a huge ensemble
cast of characters, but I would say maybe the
most memorable character on that show, which
is saying a lot. Nice. See, now it's my time
to hang my head in shame. I've never seen The
Wire. Me neither. So it's all right. Wow. Amazing.
I love it. I'll watch some mecha movies and TV
shows. And I hope that you guys watch The Wire
as well. That's my recommendation. Deal. I'm
busy watching 80s Twilight Zone right now. So
it's going to have to be a pass for now. That's
fair. Yeah. Love that too. Yeah. I'll talk about
Charlie Hunnam, not Hannum. But it is strange
seeing his last name and being like, oh, that's
so close to mine. I'm still the most famous Hannum.
Gotcha, Charlie. He plays Raleigh Beckett, a
former Jaeger pilot who's called back into action
after his brother is killed in battle. This is
early on in the film, so it's very much a survivor's
guilt story of redemption for Raleigh. He's kind
of the new guy on the squad. Well, he's the old
guy, but... What he's getting into is a few years
have progressed. So he's got something to prove
to the others. Del Toro talked a lot about approaching
Pacific Rim as a sports drama. And throughout,
he makes the comparison of like Raleigh, he's
the new guy on the team. He has to prove himself.
The team has to come together. Oh, there's like
that locker room fight that always happens. They
lose their first game only to come back and win
the championship ultimately. And I totally buy
it. So I find that an interesting take from del
Toro. And that's what I mean. Like his mind just
thinks about these things in a different way.
And like, how can I put my own spin on it? I'll
think of it as a boxing movie or a baseball movie
or something. That's honestly a really perfect
analogy. Oh, my God. Yeah, right. So that's Charlie
Hunnam. We have Charlie Day. He plays a supporting
character. He plays Dr. Newton Newt Geisler,
an eccentric and brilliant scientist obsessed
with studying the kaiju. And we have Ron Perlman,
a longtime collaborator with Del Toro. Even back
in Kronos, Ron Perlman has a part. And he plays
a character called Hannibal Chow. who is a black
market, a black marketeer who makes a living
dealing. I do organs. Yeah. A pretty fun character
over the top. All the supporting characters are
pretty over the top. Wouldn't you say? Absolutely.
Yeah. They, they all lean in one direction and
they, they go hard with it. Totally. And like,
I think especially the Charlie Day and the Ron
Perlman characters, as well as Newt's like partner
in crime, played by Bert Gorman, I think is the
name Bern Gorman. Is that right? Bern Gorman.
Yeah. Those three, especially some of the other
supporting characters are, in my opinion, are
kind of like stock, you know, soldier tough guy
type things. But those three definitely lend
a lot of like pizzazz to the movie. Not that
it needs any more of it, but you know. So it's
funny that you bring up Bern Gorman. If anybody's
a fan of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There
was an episode where Charlie basically does his
own flowers for Algernon type thing. And Bernd
Gorman is the scientist that they bring because
of the fact that they had the relation from this
particular movie. That's awesome. I read that
Guillermo del Toro also had like a very small
cameo in some It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
stuff. I feel like it was like spinoff though.
Does that sound familiar? Are you guys It's Always
Sunny fans? That's interesting. I need to look
that up. I don't know. Del Toro did. an FX show
called The Strain. Maybe FX Fox was just trying
to do like a little cross promotion. I don't
know. That's pure conjecture on my part. That
could be. I'm going to try to find this because
I thought it was really interesting, but please
feel free to go on without me. Yeah, no worries.
I'll talk about a little bit more of the casting.
Del Toro really wanted to play with archetypes
in this movie. He wanted to, again, honor the
original media that he was watching as a kid
and that we all love. So if you watch an old
Godzilla movie or a 50s American sci -fi movie,
you're going to have the Charlie Hunnam character,
you're going to have the Pentecost character,
the young woman trying to prove herself as an
independent woman. And so, and like the kooky
scientist characters. Del Toro said, you know,
he doesn't want to put Charlie Day in just like
a lab coat and goggles. He wants to have him
have tattoos and Buddy Holly glasses. So like
you get the idea that this is the stock character
of kooky scientist, but clearly with a spin on
it. So that was the DNA throughout a lot of the
casting choices. Yeah, it's a really, I mean,
I could listen to those oral talk all day. It
was really great. And also like mind numbing
sometimes because he is so. particular about
every single choice everything in this movie
was a choice every color every lighting aspect
so to hear him wax wax on about his own movie
it's it was like you need a break after that
because he gets he goes deep this is why i need
matt to watch the second one because it's completely
different right i bet yeah Yeah, without Del
Toro, like, in the director's chair, I feel like
this movie, too, would be completely different,
you know? Oh, absolutely. In the second movie,
this isn't spoiling anything, but as you mentioned
how in the first movie, Del Toro makes everything
a specific choice. In this one, they kind of
just go throw something at the wall and see if
it sticks. And there's a scene where it's supposedly
a montage -type deal. But then after going through
all the different things that they need to do,
they just focus on two characters just standing
there and talking. You can't hear what they're
saying. And there's nothing really going on in
the background. It's just basically almost like
a static image. And they're playing the Pacific
Rim theme. And they hold that shot for like 20
seconds. And then until the beat ends, they just
keep it. It's like, why? Just, I like that movie,
but come on. Get on with it. Wow, I read an interview
with del Toro where he said that like he doesn't
really Like there's like a second unit and like
a third unit and maybe like, you know, B -roll
footage and stuff like that. But he's there for
all of that. Like he doesn't let anybody else
like direct anything without his input or like
his awareness, which I just think speaks to what
you said. And I read that he had, you know, he
worked 17 or 18 hours a day, like seven days
a week for like most of the shooting schedule
of the film. So, you know, yeah, that all just
backs up what you said. Like he is the vision
of the film and has a hand in all of it. He did
kind of outsource the beginning of Pacific Rim.
There's a prologue with a lot of found footage,
newscasts and whatnot, just setting the scene
of this invasion from the ocean and the kaiju
coming up. And Del Toro, again on the commentary,
he did have a friend of his direct those found
footage moments because he admitted... He kind
of gave himself a backhanded compliment. He said,
I can do a lot of things, but I can't do found
footage. Or he might have said, I'm really good
at a lot of things, but not found footage. And
I was like, yeah, man, feel yourself. But pass
it off, too. He does recognize, you know, I'm
not good at that. That's cool. And I like those
moments. I really like the prologue. It establishes
a world. It's starting to lay some foundational
rules for this world. Like what we're dealing
with, what culture, what the culture within the
world is, is how they're approaching the monsters.
By the way, I did confirm that Guillermo del
Toro plays Pappy McPoyle on two episodes. Oh
my God. All right. I remember that exact one.
There was a moment where he's in a courtroom
and he lets the bird loose. Yeah. Oh my gosh.
I think I must have seen those episodes, but
I didn't recognize him at the time. So I'm going
to have to go back and check those out. Yeah,
it's pretty cool. I'm glad that you brought the
name up because I'm like, oh, it's killing me
not remembering. Just the name itself conjures
a very specific image. Well, let's talk a little
bit about the production backstory of this here
film. I did try to streamline a lot of this.
Obviously, with newer films, there's just so
much out there you could read into it. But in
2006, this movie started when the screenwriter
Travis Beecham, apparently he was walking down
the beach in Santa Monica, and he looked out
in the ocean and he envisioned a giant robot
and a monster fighting each other in the fog.
And he then thought of the idea of that, okay,
maybe these giant robots are piloted by two crew
members, but then what if one of them died? So
that's how he started to kick around a story
about loss and survivor's guilt. He wrote a 25
-page spec script, sold it to Universal, and
that's when del Toro comes on board. Kind of,
kind of, sort of. This was in 2010. Four years
has gone by. Del Toro's planning to direct At
the Mountains of Madness, an H .P. Lovecraft
story that various directors, I think even John
Carpenter has tried to make this movie. Clearly
nobody's made it yet. Are you guys familiar with
the story At the Mountains of Madness? No. Vaguely.
It's about explorers, adventurers in the South
Pole, and they... go into a cave, and they come
upon the ruins of an ancient civilization, and
there are monsters lurking within. So it's right
up Del Toro's alley. But he had this project
fall through, ultimately. He wouldn't compromise
on a budget and R rating. So then he signed on
to direct Pacific Rim, because before this, he
was just agreeing to produce and co -write Pacific
Rim. But Mountains of Madness fell through, and
he's like, all right, I'll do Giant Kaiju instead.
I can take over here just for the next couple
bullet points. So then Del Toro and Beecham spent
a year on the screenplay, fleshing out ideas
like what would a kaiju birth look like, kaiju
perspective from a little child, a very memorable
flashback in the movie. The story, which Beecham
initially conceived as one of loss, moving on,
survivor's guilt, those themes kind of deepened
throughout their collaboration. Del Toro wanted
the film to be operatic and romantic, embracing
certain character archetypes. So, filming took
place from November 2011 to April 2012 in Toronto
at Pinewood Studios. It was shot in 103 days.
A lot of different directors are sort of given
thanks at the end of the film. James Cameron,
I know, is one of them, as well as some of del
Toro's influences, like Ishiro Honda, Ray Harryhausen,
I believe, as well. David Cronenberg also is
thanked in the end credits. He helped out with
lending a lot of the crew for the film and putting
the crew together, since he's a Toronto native.
that's awesome i didn't even realize that no
neither did i i was like whoa this is like all
-star lineup of director influences yeah then
i was thinking about james cameron i was like
man he he is also a master of his own craft with
monster movies and and things too like i don't
know and big mecca just any kind of robot yeah
yeah maybe maybe a little one here and there
Terminator, Alita, that sort of thing. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, so good company. So Del Toro wanted to
honor the kaiju and mecha genres while creating
an original standalone film. He states he wanted
to be conscious of the heritage, but not a pastiche
or an homage or... greatest hits of everything.
I don't want it to be postmodern, referential,
or just belong to a genre. I really wanted to
create something new, something madly in love
with those things, and he does. He really does.
I tried to bring epic beauty to it and drama
and operatic grandeur, kind of like what you
mentioned earlier. He also drew inspiration from
a number of media, like paintings such as Francisco
Goya's The Colossus, Hokusai's The Great Wave
of Kanagawa, and early sci -fi series like The
Thunderbirds, you know, the 1964 puppet show.
He also delineates between more animalistic kaiju
designs, reptiles, bugs, you know, giant gorilla,
and more outlandish kaiju designs. The kaiju
in Pacific Rim, especially the early ones, were
designed in the Nakajima style, meaning they
look like traditional man -in -suit kaiju, which
that makes a lot of sense, especially Knifehead.
Oh my goodness, Knifehead. Del Toro praises the
animation work in the film, which is blended
with practical effects and constructed sets.
He chose animation over mocap. Yeah, he openly
credits the suit actor Haruo Nakajima, who played
Godzilla and so many other famous kaiju in the
Showa era. And he says that he calls it, quote,
the Nakajima style to design these creatures
as if it were. someone inside and that same aesthetic
it works because honestly you would definitely
think it kind of makes me feel like the way i
felt watching shin godzilla a little bit thinking
that there was actually somebody there yeah and
i that is just a detail to me guys that if anyone
if you're not a fan of like showa era kaiju movies
you may not even know who nakajima is You wouldn't
and you wouldn't. So like you wouldn't bring
that prior knowledge into your decision making.
It's only because he's a fan. He's like, oh,
yeah, let's make it look like Haruo Nakajima.
I just I just I just love that. I don't know
what else to say. There's also a fight where.
one of the Jaegers is like fighting a Kaiju.
And I wish I remembered the names of the Kaiju
and the Jaeger, but I don't, but like, I feel
like the Jaeger is like pulling the mouth apart
and then like rip something out of the Kaiju
and they like cut away maybe because that would
be a little bit too violent for this movie. But
to me, that is just always going to go back to
King Kong and, you know, King Kong, like breaking
the dinosaur's jaw. I feel like maybe that was
an homage to that moment as well, but there's
everything. I mean, even the, when the jaeger
and ohachi the the swiss army knife of a kaiju
who flies oh okay yeah yeah yeah they go up into
space and the jaeger pulls the sword i mean we
have seen that in the mighty morphin power rangers
movie and robot jocks to just name two others
on this podcast we've covered good point yeah
That is a solid motif. It's such a cool moment
in this movie. I love it. So cool. Yeah. A hallmark
of the genre. Yeah. All that to say, I mean,
this movie was then released in July of 2013.
You guys were there at the premiere in Mexico
City, right? I wish. Sir, I've barely been outside
of Florida. It was released in the US later that
month. So -so box office in the United States.
Much more of its gross came from the world box
office. Forbes even said, quote, the rare English
language film in history to cross 400 million
while barely crossing 100 million domestic. So
kind of like a unusual dynamic there. Critical
praise was largely positive, but some pretty
scathing reviews. Well, you can look them up.
They were just like really long, too. Like some
critics just went out. Went on a diatribe. Mostly
about the Cuban drama, the casting of the film.
To me, and I can link to these reviews too, to
me it seems like these reviewers just like, they
don't get it. You know what I mean? I'll try
to be a little more specific. They don't understand
the inner workings of a genre movie. Like this.
We just identified this motif of going into space
with a sword. And we know when it's done well,
Pacific Rim. And when it's not done well, Robot
Jax. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What a callback. How dare
you. But like a mainstream quote -unquote critic
isn't going to necessarily have that same knowledge.
You know what I mean? Right. I do. And also.
I will save this for the good, the bad, and the
campy at the end, but perhaps some of those scathing
reviews might have one or two points. I'm sorry
to say it. I'll elaborate more on that later
in the episode. Sorry. It's a throwdown. All
right, so I just need your address. Yeah, I was
going to say, like, Sean, don't jump through
the screen and, like, strangle me right now.
I'm too lazy. That won't happen. That's good.
No, Matt, you're good. I'll draw another comp.
with like Shape of Water, which, you know, I'm
not going to get into like the details of reviewing
that movie. But when it came out, you know, you
heard a lot of people talk about, oh, that's
like the movie about having sex with a fish man.
And it's like, well, it's more than that. It's
a serious movie. So that's what I mean. Like
people may be writing it off because, oh, it's
just a dumb monster movie. Like you said, they
don't understand genre types. Yeah. But other
flaws, yes, I will even admit to that. Maybe.
I don't know, Matt. I don't know. You got to
convince me. Yeah, no, that's fair. But it's
a very valid point. It's a genre movie. Genre
elements and critics probably should do a better
job. Some critics of paying attention to that,
you know, some legacy for this film. There's
a there's a thing called the Mako Mori test,
like the Bechdel test. I actually wasn't familiar
with that. But if you look it up, it's a thing.
A set of criteria used to evaluate a film's portrayal
of women, named after the character Meiko Mori
in Pacific Rim, and the subsequent sequel, which
we've talked about, and a Netflix anime, Pacific
Rim The Black, which ran for a couple seasons.
So there's some legacy for this film. I think
fans want there to be more. So just to add into
that real quick, there is more. There are multiple
comics. They actually, a couple years ago, Kickstarter
ended up making this giant anthology graphic
novel series that I have as a giant box set,
which I will probably show you at the end. But
it's huge. And it's basically all different stories
that you would see throughout the Pacific Rim
universe. And then they just finished greenlighting
a second thing where it's basically the un...
Well, not unwritten at this point, but the unfilmed
script that was supposed to be Pacific Rim 3.
So cool. I'm excited. Cool. Yeah. And of course,
Pacific Rim is under Legendary Pictures, Warner
Brothers, same as the MonsterVerse movies of
Godzilla. So in theory, a crossover could happen.
Like that would just be a dream come true. Unfortunately,
I just I don't think Pacific Rim had that kind
of box office to to warrant that kind of venture.
But man. Godzilla versus these mechs? It'd be
perfect. It's happened before. With, like, you
know, Mechagodzilla and things like that. Oh,
that reminds me. So, Matt, you brought up Ultraman.
There is a Godzilla character that's like Ultraman
that is considered a mech. Hmm. I see Vincent
nodding, so he knows exactly who it is. I didn't
know it was considered a mech. Maybe we're not
thinking of the same monster. Oh, wait. So he's
considered a mech in one of their anime shows.
I don't know if he's actually considered a mech
in the movies. Oh, okay. But you know who it
is. What's that? Sorry. Oh, I was going to say,
I know Vincent knows who I'm talking about. Well,
I don't know. Who is it? Oh, God. Why'd you put
me on the spot here? I shouldn't have said anything.
You're our resident mecha expert. Yeah, but I'm
not the Godzilla guy. But I'm not the Ultraman
guy. Well, there's GRS. No. GRS, who is... They
stuck a big frill on a Godzilla costume and called
it a day, which is hilarious. I'm going to remember
it in a little bit. Just go on. I'm sorry. Okay.
The only one I can think of is Mechagodzilla,
but I feel like that does not really count very
much. Not for what we're talking about. Jet Jaguar.
Oh. Yeah. Love Jet Jaguar. Ultraman knockoff.
Yep. Yeah. Do I know Jet Jaguar? What Godzilla
movies was he in? Godzilla vs. Megalon. Hmm.
Which we haven't talked about, but maybe you've
seen it on your own. I don't think I have. All
right. Add that to the list. Maybe it'll be on
the holiday preview episode. Whoa. Don't tease
me with a good time. That movie is a good time.
It's a blast. Cool. We'll check it out. Okay.
Well, perfect time for our sponsor break. Camp
Kaiju is brought to you by Zach Linder and the
Zach Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker Realty.
Whether you're looking for your dream home, a
savvy investment property, or expert guidance
in home rehab and flipping, the Zach Pack has
you covered. Check the link in the show notes
for more information. Guys, Media's mailbox is
busting these days. I've got two comments for
us. Ooh. One from Superfan Don, now on Patreon,
about the giant spider invasion. Superfan Don
says, this was quite an interesting film, but
I knew I was going to have fun. A few seconds
after the opening credits, there he is, Alan
Hale himself. And the first words out of his
mouth are, hi little buddy, how can you not love
that? When they mentioned the Neutron Initiator,
all I could think of was reverse the polarity
in the neutron flow from Doctor Who. But a lot
of people wouldn't get that reference. I admit,
Don, I am one of them. Don goes on to say, definitely
an enjoyable movie. I'm curious what the updated
anniversary version will be like. I hope one
or both of you guys are able to see it and tell
us about it. I hope so as well. Thank you, Don.
Good to see your comments. Yeah, Giant Spider
Invasion, a very fun movie. And I, too, cannot
wait to see what the new footage looks like that
Bill Robain shot for it. Agreed. You can check
it out. So bad it's good. And then Kaiju Nick,
we have another fan of the show. He writes in
in response to Phantom of the Opera. This was
via our website, CampKaijuPodcast .com. And Kaiju
Nick says, Well done, Camp Kaiju, on your Phantom
of the Opera centennial celebration. Don't forget
this year is also the 100th anniversary of The
Lost World. I think this is the first feature
-length film with Willis O 'Brien's stop -motion
effects. There are earlier examples, but they're
all short films. Kaiju Nick, thank you for bringing
that to our attention. Yeah, 1925, Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle's The Lost World is adapted for the
screen. It's Willis O 'Brien who went on to do
King Kong and influenced the entire genre. That
leads to Pacific Rim. But The Lost World is also
celebrating 100 years. I think that movie holds
up. It's in the public domain, obviously. Go
check it out for yourself. But it is a great
time with dinosaurs. And the final action piece
of that movie is dinosaurs are brought back to
New York City, break their chains, and run amok.
So it's great. Are you sure you're not talking
about Jurassic Park The Lost World? That sounds
almost similar. You know, I think you might be
right. I think that is also featuring its 100th
anniversary. Special effects are amazing for
1925 in that movie. I don't know how Spielberg
did it. Time travelers, yo. Yeah. All right.
Peter Lorre, he's been on a wild ride, guys.
He has been, well, he's in a room next to me.
He's been talking. I think to a raven. A raven.
Some kind of bird is calling to him. And he is
reciting the poem, The Raven. There's some weird
things happening. I try not to ask. I let him
do his thing. Wait, wait, wait. Is the raven
calling the raven to him? To be determined. I
need to hear this. I'm clear. Maybe it's not
Peter who's going mad, but Vincent. Don't put
that on me. He's going Stark Raven mad. Oh, I
like that. What? What is this? This madness you
speak of? Did Peter Laurie ever exist or was
it always me? I can't tell anymore. So many plot
twists in this episode. Are you the you that's
really you? Well, well. Well, well, well. Peter
Lorre is going to talk about a 1944 picture called
Crazy Nights. And our Letterboxd synopsis reads,
three crack -brained clowns trapped in a haunted
house with a runaway gorilla. Oh, my God. Also
known as Ghost Crazy, three goofballs run up
against ghosts and a giant gorilla in a haunted
house with Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges.
Oh, does it only have Shemp or are the other
Three Stooges in it as well? I think it's just
Shemp. Weird. Okay. The good one. That's the
weirdest thing, Matt, you took from that synopsis?
Not the crack brain clowns. Good point. I'm so
used to these weird old kaiju movie, or not kaiju,
but just monster movie synopses. It's like, yeah,
that sounds about right. That's not surprising
to me. Sean Power, what's going on here? That's
where I'm at with monster movies these days.
You can only handle so much weird until it becomes
normal. Yeah, exactly. That's also going on a
tote bag. I love it. Welcome to the Poverty Row
Studios on the other side of Hollywood. Yes,
where the stars were dimmer and the red carpets
detrived with blood. Together we will watch the
best of the worst. Movies known for their limited
budgets, outlandish concepts, and questionable
performances. But with enough haunted houses,
ape men, devil bats, and zombies to keep you
up at night. This is the Poverty Row Picture
Show. And I dare you to sleep through these nightmares.
It has been quite a doozy here, though I am dead.
It appears I cannot entirely shuffle off the
mortal coils that remind me of my humanity. Well,
what would I do without my raven friend? He is
my lovely lady friend. Oh, well, let me just
apologize that I have not watched Ghost Crazy,
otherwise known as Crazy Nights, with Shemp Howard,
one of three of the Three Stooges. Well, looks
like I will be saving this one for the new year.
Ring -a -ding, baby. In my time, I have yet to
finish the raven. My friends, something might
happen at the end of this. You just wait and
see. This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable
expressing to the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned
into my bosom's core. This and more I sat divining,
with my head at ease reclining on the cushion's
velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o 'er,
but whose velvet -violet lining with the lamplight
gloating o 'er, she shall press, ah, nevermore.
Then he thought the air grew dancer, perfumed
from an unseen censer swung by seraphim whose
footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor. Wretch,
I cried, thy god hath lent thee, by the angels
he hath sent thee, respite, respite, respite,
and repent from thy memories of Lenore. Quaff,
oh quaff, this kind, repent, and forget this
lost Lenore. Quote the raven, nevermore. Prophet,
said I, thing of evil, prophet still, if bird
or devil. Whether tempter set, or whether tempest
tossed thee here ashore, Desolate yet all undaunted
on this desert land, Enchanted on this home by
horror haunting, Tell me truly, I implore, is
there, is there balm in Gilead? Tell me, tell
me, I implore, woke the raven. Prophet said I,
thing of evil, prophet still, if bird or devil,
by that heaven that bends above us, by that God
we both adore, tell this soul with sorrow laden,
if within the distant Eden it shall clasp a sainted
maiden whom the angels name Lenore, clasp a rare
and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.
Quote the raven nevermore. Be that word our sign
of parting, bird or fiend, I shrieked, obstarting.
Get thee back into the tempest and the night's
plutonian shore. Leave no black plume as a token
of that thy soul hath spoken. Leave my loneliness
unbroken. Quit the bust above my door. Take thy
beak from out my heart and take thy form from
off my door. Quote the raven. Never more. And
the raven, never flitting, still is sitting,
still is sitting on the pallet bust of pallets
just above my chamber door. And her eyes have
all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming.
And the lamplight door, her streaming, throws
her shadow on the floor. And my soul from out
that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall
be lifted. Nevermore. Oh my golly gee whalers,
friends. Look at this blinding light. Oh, something's
happening in the radiance of the beaming light
of the raven she is transforming into a long
-haired beauty. Oh my goodness, it is Lenore.
Lenore, how long it has been. Oh, it was you
with the raven the whole time. Oh, my goodness.
Come here. Let me embrace you. Oh, let me kiss
your sweet lips. Yes, it is your Peter Lorre.
Yes, never mind my rotted corpse. I am still
the strong Svelte. My handsome actor you have
always known. Oh, yes, Lenore. Well, what shall
we do now? Yes, I agree. We should... We should
take a vacation from this podcast. We should
go somewhere warm. But listeners, I will return
in the new year, in 2026, the Poverty Row Picture
Show, in Shemp Howard. We will return. True terror
is the soft, cold caress of... Your hands are
so cold. A woman whose desires transcend reality.
The mysterious powers of black magic. These you
will explore. Now, what is it you need? You got
some bright blood over back in the house? The
raven will take you careening through the darkest
of dangers into the ominous mystery of a master
magician's evil castle. Afraid, my dear? I offer
you a choice. The secret of your hand manipulations
or this against this. Well, don't... Just stand
there. Do something. Let's break down Pacific
Rim, the good, the bad, and the campy. Let's
start with the good. You know, I'll just like
very briefly say that I love the amount of visual
imagination and detail that Guillermo del Toro
and his crew put into seemingly every... shot
or scene of this movie one of my favorite examples
is in the middle of a kaiju versus jaeger fight
we're like in the middle of a building that's
being totally demolished and the camera you know
pans over to the newton balls like the little
metal balls that keep on going back and forth
that's a good touch i i just want to leave it
there i feel like sean you should lay this is
your you're in the spotlight this is your time
to shine How dare you, sir? I expected more.
There are other things I like about it, but I
feel like, yeah, you could say it better. So
if we're going to go with individual breakdowns
here real quick, mech designs being number one,
every single mech has its own unique personality
to it. You've got Gypsy Danger, where it's just
giant blue Hulk with a giant middle piece that's
just a giant thruster, or a nuclear reactor,
so to speak. You've got the Chinese brother trio
where they actually have the three arms and they
try to do the three arm technique. You've got
the Russian duo. I think they're called Chernobyl.
You could see that they were basically just to
be a giant tank and they were supposed to be
the frontline defense. Striker Eureka, who if
anybody's ever played the Metal Gear Solid franchise,
Striker Eureka was also designed by the Metal
Gear designer. yoji shinkawa and you can see
the way how his art translates from the game
to that just the mech designs all around fantastic
the kaiju again every single one is so different
from each other until you get to the end where
the final three kind of blend together for me
but up until that point every single one they're
all unique they're all different and you can
tell the level of aggression in each and every
single one it's just so good And then lastly,
Idris Elba. That's it. Yeah. What an actor. All
he has to do is walk into the frame and you're
like, I'm paying attention. I want to see what
this guy does. He just has that natural movie
star charisma. So grounded. So much power. Don't
ever touch me. Yeah, that was so good. I loved
Agreed with the Yeagers. I'll add the Gypsy Danger
or like in the beginning, Del Toro's shooting
a lot of things and the costuming is all designed
like a World War II aesthetic. Bomber jackets,
the hangers are kind of modeled after manufacturing
plants from that era. Well, even Gypsy Danger
is like evoking those fighter planes from the
time period. I love this movie. Yeah, Matt, it's
so technically savvy. And it helped that I had
del Toro in my ear telling me what to look for.
But there's so much depth in his shots, which
adds this layer of realness. Initially, he did
not film this movie with 3D technology. He did
convert it to 3D later. But you still get that
sense that he said 3D wouldn't really enhance
my movie because everything is already layered.
He got things in the foreground. He got things
in the background. Every inch of the screen is
filled with detail, which is just so beautiful.
And another technical aspect I really love now
that I pay attention to it is his use of lighting.
So, for example, in one of the Jaeger kaiju fights,
which all mostly happen at night, which can be
a problem to some with your monster movies because
you can't really see what's happening. I think
he uses nighttime shots effectively. And creatively,
because there's a scene, I forget who's fighting
who, but the monsters and the Jaeger are lit
by the helicopters whirring above. So it's the
beams of the helicopters. It's just like creative
ways to light a scene like that. It's funny that
you bring up the nighttime shot because, yeah,
most of the fights in this are nighttime. And
then when you watch movies like Transformers
where they do their nighttime shots. And those
generally wait, is it nighttime? Yeah. Nighttime
tends to look better in those movies. It's usually
the daytime shots where they just look like CGI
blobs. It's really, really messy watching daytime
shots. And then if you end up watching the second
movie, somehow they managed to actually get it
to work. So I don't know what to say about that.
Yeah. Well, maybe it doesn't matter what you
do, as long as you do it well. And if you don't
do it well, well, it doesn't matter. Hill will.
Yeah, yeah. One thing that I would add to the
good category for me, if I can add one more thing
real quick, is just... The movie was shot digitally,
I think, with epic red cameras. I forget exactly
what kind of cameras they use, but it looks phenomenal.
The colors are just so bright and saturated and
beautiful, especially in the Hong Kong scenes.
I know Del Toro said something about how he just
wanted insanely saturated colors in those scenes.
And I think the digital photography, cinematography,
really creates that sort of vibrant aesthetic.
I tend to be kind of a hater with digital cinematography.
Like, you know, shoot on film, 35 millimeter
always looks so beautiful. I tend to be a little
stubborn about that. But this movie proves me
wrong in that way. And it's kind of, you know,
it goes back to what you just said, Vincent.
Like, it doesn't really matter exactly what you
do as long as you do it well. And they use the
technology, both del Toro and the cinematographer
Navarro, to create this really distinct aesthetic.
And yeah, it's just a really unique look. So
definitely in the good category for me in this
movie. Yeah. And I didn't realize how much of
this movie is actually practical. Like the sets,
they're on real sets. And for example, the flashback
to Meiko Mori and she's the little girl. Obviously,
the kaiju is computer rendered. But on the ground,
there are puddles of water that shake and vibrate
with each footfall. That's all practical. So
it's giving the actor something to act off of.
And that doesn't really happen these days. It
would just all be digitally rendered. Marvel.
Yeah, right? But that commitment to, maybe it's
like Jurassic Park, right? We're combining the
tools, and I think that's the best way to use
computer graphics, honestly. Totally. Yeah, that's
cool. I've said a lot of good things already
throughout this episode, so I'll keep it at that.
All right. But bad things, Matt, this is gonna
be your time to shine. Oh, man. Once again, I'm
very worried about offending Sean. Let me just
say I like this movie. There's a lot to love
about this movie. So take what I say with a grain
of salt. But, you know, I do think the nighttime
and like a lot of like rain, you know, like a
moving camera. I do think it's kind of hard to
like really get a good look at how distinct.
the Kaijus and the Jaegers really are. And I
do think like the design is creative, but you
never really get a good look at them. And like,
I would be hard pressed to like tell one Kaiju
apart from another in this movie, but for that
reason. And so, yeah, that's, that's part of
it for me. I think maybe more, a more significant
hindrance for me. or frustration is like the
thinness of the characters' backstories. And
like, I'm kind of contradicting myself because
I said before that Del Toro is a humanist director
who loves his characters, and I think that's
true. But I think the characters in this movie
can be defined in like one word, you know, like
grief, trauma, redemption, underdog. Like, that's
the level of depth to these characters. Sometimes
it kind of seems like a screenwriting seminar
in movie form where it's like, at this exact
moment, there needs to be a moment of doubt.
But then at this exact moment, they're going
to come in and save the day at the last moment.
And, you know, it's formula. I get that. And
it's a genre movie. It goes back to what we were
talking about before. I actually read an interview
with Del Toro where... he was talking about how
he cut an hour of content from the movie. Like
he removed a lot of the character dynamics and
backstories to focus more on like the kaiju stuff,
the genre stuff. And he even had a quote where
he's like, this isn't Ibsen. Like we're not supposed
to be like, you know, dwelling in like these
deep complex characters. And I do get that. But
for me, it's like, they don't even really register
as human beings. They're kind of like cogs in
a machine until we get to the kaiju versus Jaeger
fights. and I really do want more of that human
subtext. It's a fun movie, but I feel like there
could be more depth to it. It's a trade -off.
If you add more of that character depth, maybe
you do get a little bit less of just that pure
kaiju genre fun. But, yeah, the characters don't
do it for me. I think a lot of the dialogue is,
you know, very basic, and that's kind of putting
it kindly, in my opinion. So, yeah, the human
element could be more in this movie. That's fair.
Totally. Completely disagree, but that's fair.
And I know, yeah, I feel the need to apologize.
I'm sorry. You don't need to apologize, but I
will hunt you down. Come on. We have this conversation,
though, and it's valid with every kaiju movie.
And that's not to undercut, Matt, what you're
saying. It's a legitimate criticism of almost
every movie we've watched. A lot of them, yeah.
A lot of kaiju -based movies. Like, oh, give
me less humans. And there is a stretch, I think,
We don't have a lot of giant monster battles.
I think there's a good stretch of this movie
that is human drama. Does it drag? I'll leave
that for other people to debate. What's that
other hour missing from this movie? What's the
director's cut, the original? I would be into
that. I would be into knowing, having these characters
fleshed out more. Yeah. Well, Vincent, you got
to read the comics in order to find out. But
I can't read. I watch movies. That explains so
much. How did I not know this? I guess the only
bad for me, because, you know, I can't really
say anything bad on my end. The only bad for
me is that, again, there aren't that many kaiju.
mecha fights as vincent said i wish there were
more i'm glad that we do get to see more during
those like news casts and you actually get to
see like little snippets of the battles here
and there but obviously i want more i want more
of that spectacle but to counter something that
matt said at least these human characters despite
them being live action anime archetypes They're
still better than the human characters in any
Transformer movie combined. Yeah, I definitely
agree with that, yeah. Last thing I'll say, though,
well, like a criticism of mine that actually
kept coming up was, I feel like, and this is
the very thin line I think del Toro is writing
in making such a pastiche, really. he's not calling
it pastiche but it is to a certain extent okay
if you're gonna fill your cast with these strong
jawed like blonde machismo characters they also
kind of blend together like the acting is fine
but it's the casting where Charlie Hunnam and
his Australian counterparts they just look like
carbon copies of each other they're just these
blonde strong men and i'm like i would like to
see a little more diversity with them because
they just they just blend together not to say
this movie is not diverse there is a lot of diversity
in the movie and behind the camera too obviously
but there was still an aspect where i was like
there's a lot of not just yeah there's just a
lot of men who look the same in this movie They
solved that with the second movie. I'm just saying.
They do. They do. Yeah. Yeah. I do think the
Mako character is kind of like inconsistent for
me. I like her a lot and I like the actress Rinko
Kikuchi, right? Is that her name? Yes. I, yeah.
I, and I really liked the scene where like she
and Charlie Hunnam like battle in that like training
sequence. I love that moment. But then, you know,
when they're in the Jaeger, she doesn't really
do anything. Like it's always Charlie Hunnam.
It's like, all right, just like, here's what
you do with the drift, you know, like here, do
this, like get ready with this elbow rocket,
do this. And she's kind of just along for the
ride. So I, I like her character, but I wish
she did more in the Jaeger. Cause she's kind
of, I don't really buy that. She's this like
great natural fight. her because it's yeah in
those moments i'm not really buying it but she
announced the sword yeah that's true that is
her one yeah that's a cool moment you got me
you got me on that you talk about some fun moments
and then wrap it up with our our final takes
on the film there's a lot of camp there's so
much camp yeah yeah yeah by the end especially
like he ramps it up top three are the tanker
scene. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's just so bonkers.
Obviously the sword, you know, calling it out.
Yes. And then, Hey, let's check to see if it
still has a pulse. Yeah. So good. So can't be
so good. It's great when they go inside the.
baby kaiju or no it's the real kaiju and then
the baby is birthed from this sack like that
yeah yeah but then the like mid credits like
you know surprise appearance from ron perlman
like that's a very campy moment that's that's
a lot of fun oh shoot i keep thinking i keep
i keep losing my place oh i just it's just it's
almost too on the nose where i think it is campy
Where each of the Jaegers are stereotypically
their nations, like the Chinese dragon and the
poor Russians like their Ivan Drago's. They're
in a Cold War era tank. It's like, you know,
if I was a Russian today, I'd be like, we get
past that image of us, please. So I think and
I don't know if he actually talks about that
in the. in the commentary, but I think he may
have borrowed that from an anime called G Gundam,
which is basically their Dragon Ball Z version
of Gundam, where it's basically different nations
fighting for control over resources. And... Robot
Jax? Basically. And the weird part is that every
single one is built to represent their nation
in a specific way, and it can be... incredibly
offensive I can see how that would the Mexican
one has a sombrero so yeah and I think Sweden
is a giant windmill Gundam so oh my gosh yeah
you might want to look that one up yeah that's
what I'm talking about so at least del Toro like
had a little as much taste as he could he wasn't
gonna go sombrero level Mexican that he is though
I don't know All right. Yeah. Funny stuff. I
feel like some of the campiest moments are like
the lines that Sean said before, like we're canceling
the apocalypse, you know, like, you know, the
world is ending. Where do you want to be? Here
or in a Jaeger? Like that stuff. All that stuff
is the height of camp in a very entertaining
way. Yeah. Ooh. Ooh. Okay. So then quick question.
Who do you think has the better speech? Stacker
Pentecost or the president? From Independence
Day. I think the better speech is Independence
Day because it's longer. It has more of a journey.
Pentecost speech is actually quite short, I feel
like. But Idris Elba delivers it just so impactfully
more than Bill Pullman delivers his. I like that
he meanders at the beginning where he's not entirely
sure what he wants to say because he ends up
repeating himself before he ends up actually
diving into it. Yeah. True. I would give the
nod to Independence Day. Sorry. Okay. Sean's
going to hate me by the end of this episode.
No, that can't happen. Not yet. Thank you. It's
only a matter of time. All right, so as usual
on Camp Kaiju, we have four ratings. Our highest
rating is it's a timeless classic. It definitely
stands the test of time. Number two, there may
be some antiquated moments, but overall it's
great. It stands the test of time. Number three,
it may be historically significant or just fun,
but it does not stand the test of time. And our
lowest rating, it is not worth revisiting. It
definitely does not stand the test of time. I
think this movie... is a classic of the genre.
I think it does stand the test of time. It's
relatively recent, but I think it redefines what's
possible with this genre in terms of visual effects,
storytelling, and breathing new life into it.
I think more people should see it, honestly.
I mean, fans outside of the genre, if you're
listening, good for you. Go watch this movie
because I think it does stand the test of time
and offers a lot of great humor. However cardboard
the characters may be, at the end of the day,
I think the monster fights are awesome. Nice.
I feel like maybe I should go next just so we
can end the episode on an extremely positive
note. And because, Sean, you're the guest star,
and I feel like you should have the last word.
Does that sound all right? I was going to try
to see if I could go next just so I could try
to win you over, but no, it's all right. Whoa.
Well, I don't know if that's going to happen.
I'm sorry, Sean. If anybody could do it, I think
you could. But I don't know. Yeah, I'm sorry.
For me, it does not stand the test of time. It
is fun. This movie is fun. I think in some ways
maybe it is historically significant because
the special effects are very impressive. Again,
visually, it's a very just immersive, imaginative
movie. I would like to see more of the Kaijus
and the Jaegers. I would like the human characters
to have more depth. I would like there to be
a little bit more originality in the story, which
to me is all kind of like surface level plot
mechanics. So yeah, I'm, you know, trying to
play devil's advocate maybe here a little bit.
But for me, this movie does not stand the test
of time. It is very fun and people should see
it. So I agree with you there. I appreciate your
candor. Sorry. I think we all know where I stand
with this one, but I'm going to lead in a little
bit. I don't find this movie offensive in any
way whatsoever. Granted, there are some stereotypes,
but it's not a movie where you can put it on
and somebody be, wow, this is trash. Why am I
watching this? Because everything just disgusts
me. No, I don't see that happening. I think it
could be a little slow, you know, to some people
because I did try watching it with one person
and they didn't like it because they thought
it was going to be incredibly serious rather
than having its goofy moments. But as we've learned
and have discussed, there are people who don't
like specific genre types or don't understand
it. That being said, it still holds up as one
of those movies where despite it being cookie
cutter in terms of plot and character, I think
it still manages to get everything across really
well. I think visually it is outstanding. Again,
Max, Kaiju, everything about it's just phenomenal.
So that being said, I'm going to give it the
lowest rating. No, I'm kidding. It is a timeless
classic. Definitely stands the test of time.
Yeah, I love it. Yeah, and everything we've said
from all three of us is accurate. Yeah, I would
love to hear more people's thoughts on this movie,
but let us. And yeah, thanks. Can I make a recommendation
for people? Yeah. So there is the voicemail number
that you guys have here. I would like it if somebody
would call in either as Raleigh Beckett or a
stacker Pentecost and leave a voicemail using
your best impression of either Idris Elba or
Raleigh Beckett. There you go. Great idea. Don't
let Sean down. I was a little worried for a second
you were going to give my personal number and
tell people to tell me why I'm wrong. I'm glad
you didn't do that. No, no, no. I have a little
bit of professionalism. Don, tell the people
more about Big Mecca But Not Huge Again and where
they can find you and follow your podcast. Yes,
so you can find us both on Spotify, YouTube,
and I think also on Apple Podcasts. It's called
Big Mecca, but not huge. You will see a giant
picture of a factory holding this giant. It just
looks like a giant piece. I can't really describe
it because that would be NSFW. But it's, yeah,
Mecca. But anyways. You can find it on YouTube,
Spotify, Apple Podcasts. Right now, season two
is just about to finish. We're working on season
three. Vincent's going to be on there as a guest.
We also have other Sean, Sean Pryor. We also
call him other Sean on there. He shows up too.
So yeah, it's a fun time. And also check out
Toku for two. Yeah, definitely. Sean, this was
a blast. Thanks for coming on, bud. We'll see
you next week for the holiday party, and we'll
share with you what we got lined up for 2026.
Awesome. I can't wait. Yeah. Thank you, Sean.
It's always a pleasure. I will make up my middling
review of Pacific Rim to you someday, I promise.
I'm going to wear a T -shirt the next time I
show up, and it's going to say Matt was wrong.
I love it. I feel like I should get one of those
shirts. Because that's usually accurate. I am
wrong. A lot of times. No. I can't say that because
it's some of the things I do agree with, but
not on this one. Yeah, totally. It's the beauty
of subjective opinions, you know? Thank you,
Sean. We'll let you get out of here. Me and Matt
will talk about you behind your back when you
leave. That's cool. I already stink. It's fine.
Thanks for hanging out with us, friends. Please
rate and review the show and follow us on Patreon
.com slash Camp Kaiju for additional videos,
reviews, merchandise, and more. Other ways to
get in touch, email at CampKaiju at gmail .com.
Our website, CampKaijuPodcast .com. on Instagram,
or our voicemail number is 612 -470 -2612. Camp
Kaiju is recorded in Minneapolis, St. Paul, with
Menia's mailbox music by Ben Cook -Felts. Thanks,
friends, and until next time, stay campy. Camp
Kaiju is brought to you by Zach Linder and the
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insights. In less than an hour, aircraft from
here will join others from around the world.
And you will be launching the largest aerial
battle in the history of mankind. Mankind, that
word should have new meaning for all of us today.
We can't be consumed by our petty differences
anymore. We will be united in our common interest.
Perhaps it's fate that today is the 4th of July,
and you will once again be fighting for our freedom.
Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution.
But from annihilation, we're fighting for our
right to live, to exist. And should we win the
day, the 4th of July will no longer be known
as an American holiday, but as the day when the
world declared in one voice, we will not go quietly
into the night. We will not vanish without a
fight. We're going to live on. We're going to
survive. Today, we celebrate our Independence
Day. Everyone, listen up. Today, At the edge
of our hope. At the end of our time. We have
chosen not only to believe in ourselves, but
in each other. Today there's not a man nor woman
in here that shall stand alone. Not today. Today
we face the monsters that are at our door and
bring the fight to them. Today we are canceling
the apocalypse!