Reliving my youth with collections of movies from the Fifties and Sixties has generally been a blast. However I was never really a fan of the Japanese monster genre other than Godzilla, and perhaps "Attack of the Monsters" plays a big part of the reason. For this one, you'll have to leave all common sense at the door. It will also help to try and view it with the mind of a nine year old, since that seems to have been the intended audience.

That good old boy Gamera is the monster hero in this one, the retro rocket flying turtle that blasts through space with those flame jets out his leg holes. There's an upright version of Rodan named Gyaos with an oddly shaped flat head and wings seemingly fashioned from aluminum foil. But my favorite has to be that goofy Guiron, whose appearance is anything but menacing. Seeing him for the first time reminded me of the candy gram shark on those early "Saturday Night Live" bits. For sheer lunacy, there's nothing better than Gamera's defeat of Guiron as he lands nose down in the dirt.

Most of the action takes place on 'Terra', a planet directly opposite the Earth on the other side of the sun. Terra's inhabitants have been reduced to a pair of space babes who for some reason aren't even listed in the film credits. One of their names sounded very similar to Barbarella, while the other came across as something like Ploda. At some point when I can compose myself, I might try going back to confirm those names, but it's not a high priority right now.

The human heroes are Japanese boy Akio and his American friend Tom. Unfortunately, Akio's sister Tomoko was left behind as the boys commandeered the alien space ship, knowing just which buttons to push and how to maneuver their way to Terra. Of course Gamera helped them out owing to his reputation for helping children in distress.

Somehow, "Attack of the Monsters" conjures up a much larger mental picture of havoc and destruction than actually presented here, with the film's feature creatures going at it one on one instead of en masse. Don't let that worry you though, in it's own way it's a fun film that attempts to, but never does answer the question, "What were they thinking?"

Two boys who are apparently prone to various kinds of mischief find a spaceship in the woods and climb aboard only to find that the ship has autopilot and is programmed to return to the hostile planet of its origin. The film starts off with an astronomy lesson and the hostile planet turns out to be a hidden planet on the other side of the sun. Awaiting them there are two caped and antennaed young female cannibals and an enormous slow moving knife-headed creature named Guiron. Old favorite Gaos - or something that looks like him - makes a cameo but is defeated so quickly by Guiron that you will hardly notice him. Gamera to the rescue! Back home, the younger sister of one of the boys tries to convince her somewhat dour mother of what has happened, but she is told to stop making up stories and go study.

Indeed, this story is the sort of wandering, somewhat silly, and entirely fantastic thing that kids do make up. But that's exactly why it works. It's a kid film. It doesn't require expensive and fancy special effects, just a fun story, kids doing amazing things, and giant monsters.

I enjoyed this as a kid and enjoyed it again as an adult. The acting is passable for what it is - the younger sister is actually very convincing and sympathetic and the two boys do OK. The adults are presented entirely from a kid perspective (as was done in The Peanuts) - and are stereotypic and often over-dramatic). The cinematography is pretty good - again, for its purpose (this is not an art film nor even an adult action film). And the dubbing in the version I saw (Sandy Frank's name did not appear anywhere) was actually very good.

Fun little film - recommended!

A trio of children (2 boys and a girl), intrigued by news reports of mysterious sound waves sent to Earth from outer space, star gazing spot a flying saucer! They later find it in a wooded area. The two boys decide to investigate while the girl being more wary decides to wait outside. After entering the spaceship however, the two boys suddenly find themselves being whisked off into space. Along the way they spot and greet Gamera who tries to prevent the ship from leaving our galaxy but even he cannot keep up with its incredible speed. After the ship lands, the two boys find themselves on a strange new planet and suddenly spot another version of Gaos in battle with the planet's guardian, a knife-headed monster with a mean streak named Guiron. Gamera all this time has still been on the trail of the boys' spaceship. Meanwhile aliens are watching all of this with possible evil intentions?

This was tremendous fun. The little kid in me loved every minute of it. Sure the child stars are a bit annoying at times (but more so I suspect to adult ears than to a child's) and the effects aren't always up to par but man do the monster battles ever deliver the goods in this one. They are knock-down drag-out affairs especially those featuring Gamera and Guiron and surprisingly graphic in terms of their brutality yet the film never loses sight of making clear just who is evil and who is good. Like the best pro wrestling of yesteryear, it manages to make the hero Gamera incredibly sympathetic while the villain Guiron comes across as little more than a nasty-tempered brute and a bully who needs to be taught a lesson in manners.