Varan did nothing wrong

Charlie and Rabbit reflect on Toho's first non-Godzilla kaiju film. With working class protagonists, an environmental message, and huge pteranadon destroying cities with their supersonic speed, can it get any better than Rodan?

Is Q a god? A monster? A cop-chucking conspiracy theorist high on adrenocrome? Charlie and Rabbit don’t know, but they trudge on anyway, discussing power, corruption, toxic masculinity, post-apocalyptic interpretations of 20th century architecture, and gory rooftop killings as they cover this quirky and surreal '80s horror flick.

Charlie and Rabbit discuss the rushed sequel to Godzilla, in which many boots are licked.

Charlie and Rabbit finally talk about the king of the monsters in this kaiju sized episode. They have a lot of fun in this episode, as always, but be prepared for more heaviness than usual as they dive into the film's political context, including the Lucky Dragon Incident, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the firebombing of Tokyo.

Oh yeah, and they did some extra research this time, so here are some of the sources that informed the discussion:

A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series by David Kalat

Godzilla FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the King of the Monsters by Brian Solomon

Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men: The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda by Peter H. Brothers

“The History of Godzilla (1954)” by Big Action Bill on Youtube

From the Criterion Blu-ray of Godzilla (1954): David Kalat's audio commentary for Godzilla (1954) and The Unluckiest Dragon by Greg Pflugfelder

Charlie and Rabbit spend an hour and twenty minutes spitting in the faces of the bastard cops, bastard FBI agents, and bastard military bros who spend the public's hard earned money on flamethrowers and helicopters just to fight a bunch of slow, oversized, radioactive ants.

This darkly comedic found footage monster film packs a lot of themes between its absurd antics. Join Charlie and Rabbit as they discuss movie's perspectives on environmentalism, government cover-ups, and of course, TROOOOOOLLLS!!!!

Charlie and Rabbit tackle the main inspiration for Godzilla, while asking the difficult questions: What's a fathom, and why are there so many? Who ate the unfrozen, 1,000 year-old mastadon meat? And what's scarier in 1950s America--a disease-spreading, people-eating Rhedosaurus on a rampage, or the mental health system?

Charlie and Rabbit return to Skull Island to discuss Kong's failson, but they get detoured by melancholy monkey music and a righteous proletariat uprising. 

Who died and made Kong king? Why do the cops have enough funding for machine gun-mounted airplanes? And was it really beauty who killed the beast, or was it, like, capitalism?