Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki explains the creature design process for the titular monster in his film. Released last year to critical acclaim, Godzilla Minus One serves as an entirely separate take on the eponymous kaiju from Legendary’s Monsterverse. The film takes place in post-war Japan, following the emergence of Godzilla after the devastation wrought by atomic weapons. Godzilla’s design has been widely praised, and the movie has earned a Best Visual Effects nomination at the 2024 Oscars.
In a recent interview with Los Angeles Times, Yamazaki breaks down Godzilla’s design in Godzilla Minus One, explaining how the creature was brought to life. Yamazaki actually did the initial drawings and sculpture models on the monster himself before the design was refined by artist Kosuke Taguchi. Check out Yamazaki’s full comment below regarding the various aspects of Godzilla’s design:
“We wanted to make Godzilla very, very cool for this film. The head is on the smaller side, the legs are very thick. When the feet are stomping on the ground, you can almost see the toes being raised, like a wild animal’s. And we wanted impact for the audience, so there’s an intense level of getting up close, personal and detailed, that you can’t really do with a man in a suit.
“In terms of polygon counts, we’re talking millions that went into creating Godzilla this time. In terms of the skin texture, there was a dinosaur origin, but when it’s wounded, a regeneration happens and there’s a different texture, like you would see on any wound. We wanted a mix, brought in new layers that would make the look very unique.
“We wanted to go back to the original reason for Godzilla’s existence. The creature is a metaphor for nuclear weapons, so we mimicked the way a weapon would work inside of his body. Each element would come together and create an implosion, and that’s when the blue rays would come out.”
Godzilla Minus One’s Creature Design Explained
How & Why It Differs From Legendary’s Monterverse Godzilla
There’s a notable difference between the look of Godzilla in Godzilla Minus One and the creature featured in Legendary’s Monsterverse franchise. One key reason for the difference is how each one functions in their respective stories. In the Monsterverse, Godzilla starts off as a threat, but he soon becomes one of humanity’s greatest hopes in the fight against other monsters. Godzilla becomes a hero in the Monsterverse, and thus his appearance isn’t one that is really meant to instill terror in viewers – he has to be a creature that viewers root for.
This isn’t the case in Godzilla Minus One. The version of the monster in Yamazaki’s film, in addition to looking cool, is also a force of pure destruction. His appearance alone causes fear and chaos among the Japanese people, and his actions certainly reinforce this appearance. In Yamazaki’s film, Godzilla kills civilians without a second thought and is very clearly the villain of the story, and his design reflects this. The Godzilla Minus One box office performance, critical reception, and Oscar nomination suggests this approach has been an effective one.
The film’s handling of Godzilla’s atomic breath is another important factor in his design. As Yamazaki explains, the creature’s roots date back to 1954, and the first Toho film was very much a response to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaka, and the nuclear fear that these events instilled. Godzilla’s atomic breath in Godzilla Minus One mirrors a nuclear bomb going off in some ways, thus staying true to the origins of the character.
Godzilla Minus One
Godzilla Minus One is the first Godzilla film released by Toho since 2016’s Shin Godzilla. Minus One is a reimagining of the original 1954 Godzilla and takes the franchise back to its roots by exploring the harsh life of post-war Japan. The story follows Koichi Shikishima, a failed kamikaze pilot, who struggles with survivor guilt as a giant monster attacks the city.
- Director
- Takashi Yamazaki
- Release Date
- December 1, 2023
- Studio(s)
- Toho Studios , Robot
- Distributor(s)
- Toho Studios
- Writers
- Takashi Yamazaki
- Cast
- Ryûnosuke Kamiki , Minami Hamabe , Yûki Yamada , Munetaka Aoki , Hidetaka Yoshioka , Sakura Andō , Kuranosuke Sasaki
- Runtime
- 125 Minutes
- Franchise(s)
- Godzilla
