What's the deal with Google's Eiji Tsuburaya Godzilla doodle?

Tuesday’s interactive Google doodle celebrates Eiji Tsuburaya, a Japanese filmmaker who revolutionized monster movie making.

|
Screenshot
Google celebrates Japanese special effects guru Eiji Tsuburaya with an interactive Doodle on what would be his 114th birthday July 7.

Eiji Tsuburaya was a monster movie master.

Born 114 years ago on July 7, the Japanese special-effects guru spent his career bringing leviathans to life – think Ultraman, Mothra, and, of course, Godzilla. To celebrate the man’s legacy and the genre of film he helped create, Google has released an interactive Doodle on its home page that gives users a taste of what it’s like to make a movie, Tsuburaya-style.

The Doodle has 10 levels, each of which has the user assisting in one form of filmmaking or another: helping actors put on cumbrous costumes, using giant monster feet to stomp on tanks, or hooking up heroes to wires that make them appear to fly. The mini-movie at the end of the games varies depending on how successful the user is at each task.

The idea is to take users through the process of making a “tokusatsu” movie, the kind of live-action, special effects-laden film that Mr. Tsuburaya revolutionized in his lifetime, Google’s Jennifer Hom said on the company’s Asia Pacific blog.

“Tsuburaya’s legacy was much more than just the monsters he had created,” Ms. Hom, who conceptualized the Doodle tribute, said. “[H]e had pioneered this whole way of making movies that was still being used today.”

Indeed, while Tsuburaya is most remembered for his hand in conceptualizing classic movie monsters – having taken his inspiration from Hollywood’s “King Kong” – it was the techniques he pioneered that make him a film icon in both Japan and the world. His work has involved innovations in lighting, photography, and the building of models for sets.

He also set the standard for suitmation, the process of using an actor in a monster suit to portray a “daikaiju,” or giant monster.

In filming “Godzilla,” released in 1954, Tsuburaya decided to use special effects, miniatures, and costumes in place of stop-motion animation, which was the common technique of the time. The concept was a huge risk.

“Actors were stuffed into a costume that was, at its lightest, 220 pounds,” Vox’s Phil Edwards wrote. “They breathed in kerosene from the fumes of a tiny ‘Tokyo’ model burning beneath them, and actor Haruo Nakajima says he lost 20 pounds in the production because the costume was so physically strenuous.”

It was also the most expensive Japanese movie made up to that time, Mr. Edwards noted.

But the risks paid off. “Godzilla” became a hit worldwide, setting off a craze around the “kaiju,” or monster movie genre. Tsuburaya went on to create the other iconic characters that have made his career unparalleled in the Japanese film industry.

Most popular of these is probably the red and silver giant hero Ultraman, which became a pop culture phenomenon in Japan and is regarded as the inspiration for a number of subsequent films and movies featuring costumed caperers and giant robots.

“It’s fascinating to me how long-lasting the results of his work has been,” Google’s Hom said in another company blog. “It’s easy to see remnants of the tokusatsu style in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, Evangelion, and even the Power Rangers.”

Hom’s efforts to create the perfect tribute led her to Tsuburaya’s actual studios in Japan, where she and her team witnessed the production process up close. Costumes and props were made by hand in a secret studio, she said, and there was “a palpable respect for the tradition and legacy that they’re upholding through their craft.”

The resulting Doodle might fall somewhat short for those who had hoped to have a chance at crushing buildings as Godzilla or fighting evil aliens as Ultraman. But it does give a unique look into the magic behind the movies that brought those characters to life.

“While several of ideas revolved around a game format, I thought it would be more interesting and engaging to recreate the filmmaking experience from scratch,” Homs said. “What better way to get an appreciation for the creative challenges Tsuburaya the director had to face?”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to What's the deal with Google's Eiji Tsuburaya Godzilla doodle?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2015/0707/What-s-the-deal-with-Google-s-Eiji-Tsuburaya-Godzilla-doodle
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe